Space.com : Huygens Data Paint Turbulent Picture of Titan

By Dave Mosher Staff Writer posted: 26 September 2007 06:32 am ET

The Huygens probe landed on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005, but it never encountered chilly seas of liquid methane as mission scientists had hoped--it landed in a mud field.

In spite of the disappointment, scientists have recreated a turbulent picture of Titan's atmosphere using data from sensors intended to measure oceanic properties. In addition to showing Huygens probably plunged through turbulent methane ice clouds, the research may aid in the design of balloon probes for future Titan missions.

"We knew Huygens had a bumpy ride down to Titan's surface. Now we can separate out twenty minutes of air turbulence--probably due to a cloud layer--from other effects such as cross winds or air buffeting," said Mark Leese, a Huygens project manager at The Open University in the U.K.

Turbulent Titan

The Huygens probe jettisoned off of the Cassini probe on Dec. 25, 2004 and reached Titan's surface in Jan. 14, 2005, deploying a parachute after entry into the moon's planet-like atmosphere to begin a 2.5-hour descent.

Huygens engineers did not intend to precisely measure the minor, chaotic changes in air known as turbulence, but Lorenz and his team gleaned such data by looking at information from two of the probe's sensors. One of the two, a "liquid density sensor," was designed to measure the properties of Titan's purported methane seas if the probe had floated on one.

"Although never designed with atmospheric measurements in mind, this device works as a weakly damped accelerometer," write the study's authors in an upcoming issue of the journal Planetary and Space Science. Accelerometers measure changes in speed at extremely minute scales. NASA, for example, uses one on NASA's space shuttle leading wing edges to detect vibrations caused by micrometeoroid impacts, among other phenomena.

Lead author Ralph Lorenz, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. Lorenz and his colleagues partnered the density sensor's data with that from a pendulum-like "tilt sensor" to create a play-by-play picture of Huygens' atmospheric dive.

"Such information may offer insights into the meteorological processes prevalent on Titan, a world believed to share many characteristics with the Earth," Lorenz said.

The researchers found that Huygens may have plunged into icy methane cloud layer--which scientists have proposed to create a chilly methane "rain" --about 12 to 19 miles (20 to 30 kilometers) above the moon's surface.

Balloon boon?

Although the turbulence findings may not give airline passengers on Earth relief from the nauseating buffets of wind, the information could be used to help design balloon-like probes.

"Future Titan exploration might use lighter-than-air vehicles, which would have to compensate for wind gusts in order to keep above targets of interest for sampling," the study's authors said.

Scientists imagine such balloons would be outfitted not only with cameras to detail out the moon's surface, but also spectrometers that could map mineral deposits on Titan. NASA, however, has neither approved nor scheduled such a mission.

Lorenz and his colleagues hope to use more Huygens data, including that from radio emissions, to create a more detailed reconstruction of Huygens' descent as well as Titan's nitrogen-thick atmosphere.

Space.com : Space Station Astronauts Prepare for Crew Swap

By Tariq Malik Staff Writer posted: 25 September 2007 7:46 p.m. ET

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are preparing their orbital laboratory for a crew swap that will begin with the arrival of three new spaceflyers next month.

ISS Expedition 15 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and flight engineer Oleg Kotov, both Russian cosmonauts, are eagerly awaiting the planned Oct. 12 arrival of their Expedition 16 relief crew, though their U.S. crewmate Clayton Anderson will stay aboard for the initial days of the new mission, NASA managers said Tuesday.

"It's hard to believe that it has already been 170 days in its execution," NASA's lead Expedition 15 flight director Bob Dempsey said of the mission during a briefing at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.

Yurchikhin and Kotov will hand control of the space station over to Expedition 16 commander Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko, who are slated to launch toward the ISS with Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor -- Malaysia's first astronaut -- on Oct. 10 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Expedition 15 astronauts are completing a six-month mission that began in mid-April. Since then, they have staged three spacewalks and hosted two visiting NASA space shuttle crews to continue assembly of the half-built ISS. Yurchikhin and Kotov are due to return to Earth with Shukor on Oct. 21 while Anderson takes up his post as an Expedition 16 flight engineer.

Yurchihkhin and his Expedition 15 crewmates are also expected to clear a docking port for the incoming Expedition 16 astronauts on Thursday, when they will move their Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft to a berth on the aft end of the space station's Zvezda service module.

The Russian-built Progress 25 cargo ship that previously occupied the Zvezda docking port was discarded last week.

Earlier today, Russian flight controllers in Moscow were expected to order the disposable space freighter to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere after a week of propulsion system tests. Russian flight controllers are also expected to retract a pair of older solar arrays on the station's Zarya control module later this week to clear space for future ISS radiators, NASA said.

Busy ISS work ahead

Whitson, the space station's first female commander, is NASA's first astronaut to serve a second tour aboard the ISS. She last flew to the station in 2002 as an Expedition 5 flight engineer and NASA's first ISS science officer.

"Her previous experience is going to be very valuable to us as we take on this very challenging increment," said Holly Ridings, NASA's lead Expedition 16 flight director, in mission briefing. Malenchenko, who commanded the ISS in 2003 during Expedition 7, also brings vital experience to the upcoming flight, she added.

Ridings said Whitson and her Expedition 16 crewmates will have no shortages of challenges during their six-month mission.

On Oct. 23, just two days after the Shukor and the Expedition 15 crew depart the ISS, NASA plans to launch the space shuttle Discovery's STS-120 astronauts on a 14-day construction mission to the ISS. That shuttle mission will deliver a vital connecting node to the ISS, relocate an older solar array truss and ferry NASA astronaut Daniel Tani to replace Anderson as part of the Expedition 16 crew.

More tricky space station construction work and up to two more shuttle missions - each of which will ferry a replacement Expedition 16 crewmember to the ISS - are planned during the long-duration flight. The launch of unmanned Russian cargo ships and Europe's first Automated Transfer Vehicle - a robotic resupply ship dubbed Jules Verne - are also scheduled while Whitson and Malenchenko are aboard the station.

"It's a challenging sequence, but we're going to get there," Ridings said.

Space.com : Meteorite' Crash Breeds Mass Hysteria

' By Andrea Thompson Staff Writer posted: 26 September 2007 10:09 am ET

On what started as a normal Saturday night one week ago, residents of a small, remote Peruvian town saw a bright light streak across the sky, heard a resounding bang and suddenly found themselves at the center of a media frenzy.

Initial suspicions of an airplane crash quickly spiraled into widespread reports that a meteorite had plummeted to Earth and left a smoking, boiling crater whose supposedly noxious fumes were reported to have sickened curious locals who went to peer at the hole.

Despite doubts expressed by geologists that the crater was actually caused by a meteorite and firm explanations that a meteorite would not even emit fumes and that the "sickness" was likely a case of mass hysteria, numerous onlookers far and wide were fascinated by the idea that this event could be some real-life "Andromeda Strain" (the 1969 novel by Michael Crichton), where a mysterious rock falling to Earth from outerspace made anyone who went near it ill.

So what is it about things falling from the sky that fills us with such fear that we can make ourselves sick with panic?

Mass hysteria

Media reports of the number of locals afflicted by a "mysterious disease"—with symptoms such as nausea, headaches and sore throats—after visiting the crater figured in every news article about the Aug. 15 event, with some reporting that as many as 600 people had fallen ill.

But doctors who visited the site told the Associated Press they found no evidence that the crater had actually sickened such a large number of people.

If noxious fumes did emanate from the crater, they were most likely the result of a hydrothermal explosion that could have actually formed the crater, or were released from the ground when the meteorite struck, if in fact one did, according to many geologists.

Arsenic is found in the subsoil in that area of Peru and often contaminates the drinking water there, according to Peruvian geologists quoted on Sept. 21 by National Geographic News. Arsenic fumes released from the crater could have sickened locals who went to look, said one geologist who examined the site.

Some health officials suggest that the symptoms described by the locals, the large number of people reporting symptoms, and the apparently rapid spread have all the hallmarks of a case of mass hysteria.

"Those who say they are affected are the product of a collective psychosis," Jorge Lopez Tejada, health department chief in Puno, the nearest city, told the Los Angeles Times.

This psychosis could have begun as a result of fear of the meteorite and the mysterious "disease" on the part of the residents and spread as official and media reports seemed to confirm it and give it credence.

"The Peruvian event seems to be a rare case where we may be witnessing collective anxiety that is approaching near hysteria," said Benny Peiser, a social anthropologist at John Moores University in England. "The major[ity] of the affected Peruvian town hinted that some of the mass anxiety is due to fear of imminent impacts and psychological stress which is not surprising given the premature speculation and media hype."

Fear of outer space

Fear of a meteorite impact is nothing new—humans have long looked to the heavens with a wary eye.

"The fear of cosmic disaster, in particular cometary impacts, has existed in all cultures for millennia," Peiser told SPACE.com

But the space age revealed just how many dangers, including comets, meteors, asteroids, and cosmic rays, await us in the final frontier.

"Only since the late 20th century, humankind has become aware of the risk posed by asteroids and comets," Peiser said. "Unfortunately, this risk has been wildly exaggerated by popular culture."

Our curiosity and fear of impact events has increased their coverage by the world media, Peiser says, which in turn has increased the number of meteorite impact reports, even when the evidence doesn't point that way.

"In recent years, there have been numerous cases where alleged meteorite falls were linked to mysterious explosions on the ground—only to be proven wrong," Peiser said. "One of the main reasons for the significant increase of such claims is almost certainly due to the growing media interest in the cosmic impact risk. It is part of human nature— and extremely tempting for the news media—to hype any event that initially looks mysterious."

While this fear is normal and understandable, it's been blown out of proportion so that the public thinks that impact risks are higher than they are, Peiser argues.

"Most people are simply not aware that we are making enormous progress in finding and identifying the population of Near Earth Objects and that the impact risk is thus diminishing year by year," Peiser said.

And when meteorites have struck, they have never carried any hint of some mysterious space disease.

"I don't know of any known record of a meteorite landing that emitted odors so noxious that people got sick from it," said geologist Larry Grossman of the University of Chicago.

So much for the Andromeda Strain.

ESA : Foton-M3 experiments return to Earth

The Foton-M3 spacecraft spent 12 days in orbit

26 September 2007
The reentry capsule for the Foton-M3 spacecraft, which has been in low-Earth orbit for the last 12 days, successfully landed this morning in an uninhabited area 150 km south of the town of Kustanay in Kazakhstan, close to the Russian border, at 09:58 CEST, 13:58 local time.

The unmanned Foton spacecraft, which was launched on 14 September from Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, carried a payload of 43 European experiments in a range of scientific disciplines – including fluid physics, biology, crystal growth, radiation exposure and exobiology.

The mission was intensively monitored throughout by 65 engineers and scientists located at ground stations at Esrange, in Kiruna, Sweden, and at the Russian flight control centre, TsUP, in Moscow, Russia. Thanks to a close cooperation with the Canadian Space Agency, ground stations in St. Hubert and Saskatoon were also used to receive data from the spacecraft.

	The Foton capsule carried a payload of 43 experiments

“I am extremely pleased with the success of the Foton-M3 mission,” says Josef Winter, Head of ESA’s Payload and Microgravity Platform Division. “All operations during the mission were flawless. The hard work and dedication of all involved has contributed to make this mission a success. I would like to congratulate our Russian counterparts and thank them for their outstanding cooperation.”

Helicopters were immediately at the landing site to start recovery operations, including the retrieval of experiment hardware. The European experiments will now be returned to the labs at ESA’s research and technology centre, ESTEC, in Noordwijk, the Netherlands, tomorrow evening. After further inspection at ESTEC the experiments will be returned to the scientific institutions where the data will be analysed over the coming months.

Foton-M3 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome on 14 September

Only in-depth analysis will reveal the full extent of the scientific return of the mission, although data received during the flight already shows promising results - the Italian and US team responsible for the GRADFLEX (GRADient-Driven Fluctuation EXperiment) experiment received preliminary confirmation of a 10-year-old fluid science theory.

A further highlight of the mission was yesterday’s deployment of a small reentry capsule from the outside of the Foton spacecraft. The Second Young Engineers’ Satellite (YES2) experiment saw the release of the beachball-sized Fotino capsule from the end of a tether to demonstrate the smart possibility of returning small payloads to Earth.

"I am extremely satisfied that we could fly a very high number of experiments during the Foton-M3 mission and that they all worked out well. Some of them will even be further elaborated onboard the International Space Station," says Martin Zell, ESA's Head of Research Operations for the Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration.

NASA : Register Today for Upcoming JPL/NSTA Web Seminars

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is collaborating with the National Science Teachers Association to develop a series of free Web seminars for 5-12 science educators on the topic of Mars Exploration.

The Web seminars are 90-minute, live professional development sessions that use online learning technologies to allow participants to interact with nationally acclaimed experts, scientists, engineers and education specialists from NASA. The Web seminars are conveniently scheduled so that educators from all U.S. time zones may participate, and no travel is required. Each web seminar is a unique, stand-alone program. Archives of the Web seminars and the presenters' PowerPoint presentations will be available online.

Upcoming JPL/NSTA Web seminars are listed below. Online registration for each is now open. All web seminars are scheduled from 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Oct. 4, 2007 -- JPL/NSTA Web Seminar: Using Earth to Explore Mars

Join Dr. Michael Meyer, Senior Scientist at NASA Headquarters, and Brian Grigsby from the Arizona State University Mars Education Program as they compare and contrast Earth and Mars. The seminar will highlight ways to familiarize students with planetary processes and landforms by integrating non-Earth examples. A Mars mission update will also be included.

http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/JPL2/webseminar2.aspx

Oct. 16, 2007 -- JPL/NSTA Web Seminar: How Science REALLY Gets Done

Join Dr. Philip Christensen, Regents Professor in Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration, as he shows teachers how scientists approach complex problems and ways to engage students' curiosity to help them think like scientists.

http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/JPL2/webseminar3.aspx

Nov. 29, 2007 -- JPL/NSTA Web Seminar: Robotic Engineering: Big Toys, Big Fun

Join Kobie Boykins, one of the engineers responsible for building the enduring Mars Exploration Rovers, for a look "behind the scenes" of what it was like to build the twin Mars rovers that are still exploring the surface of Mars.

http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/JPL2/webseminar4.aspx

Dec. 6, 2007 -- JPL/NSTA Web Seminar: Are We Alone?

Join Dr. Jack Farmer as he talks about astrobiology, extreme environments, some of the extreme places life has been found and the applications of these subjects to Mars exploration.

http://learningcenter.nsta.org/products/symposia_seminars/JPL2/webseminar5.aspx

Space.com : Asteroid Mission to Probe Secrets of Planet Formation

By Dave Mosher Staff Writer posted: 25 September 2007 07:00 am ET

The asteroid belt's largest bodies have drifted virtually alone since their creation about 4.5 billion years ago, but each will soon receive a visit from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

Mission scientists hope to use Dawn's observations of the dwarf planet Ceres and asteroid Vesta to investigate the solar system's structure and evolution, as well as shed new light on secrets of planet formation.

"We truly are going back in time, back to the dawn of the solar system," said David Lindstrom, NASA's Dawn program scientist at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters, during a July mission briefing.

Dawn is set to rocket into space from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday at 7:20 a.m. EDT (1120 GMT) aboard a Delta 2 booster. The launch will send the 2,685-pound (1,218-kilogram) Dawn spacecraft on an eight-year journey to the asteroid-rich zone between Mars and Jupiter.

Its launch was scheduled for Wednesday, but bad weather prevented crews from fueling the second stage of the probe's Delta 2 rocket on Sunday, prompting the 24-hour delay. Delays launching Dawn's $449 million mission earlier this summer were expected to add about $25 million to the probe's total cost, mission managers have said.

Sibling satellites

Together, Ceres and Vesta make up more than a third of the asteroid belt's mass. During Dawn's total 3-billion-mile (4.9-billion-kilometer) trip, it will make an orbital pit stop at each of the two rocky bodies before the mission ends in July 2015.

The spacecraft's first visit is set for August 2011, when it will park itself around Vesta--an oblong asteroid 330 miles (530 kilometers) in diameter that hides an iron core beneath its rocky surface. The spacecraft will gradually scan the dry rock's exterior during a 10-month visit, helping scientists to investigate how planets like Mars might have looked early in their formation.

"It's sort of like an archaeological trip where we're going to the ruins of an ancient civilization," said Chris Russell, Dawn's principal investigator at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Once Dawn has fully scoped out the arid asteroid, it will put its lightweight ion drive in full gear to reach the Ceres, a Texas-sized dwarf planet roughly 585 miles (942 kilometers) in diameter, by February 2015.

Based on observations made by the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers think Ceres may harbor not only a thin atmosphere, but also a thick layer of water ice beneath its surface. If true, Ceres may boast nearly six times as much fresh water than is found on Earth.

"If we discover evidence of a subsurface ocean, than certainly it would be a high priority to go back and explore in more detail," said Mark Sykes, a Dawn co-investigator at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.

In addition to providing for life on Earth, astronomers think such sources of water could have played integral roles in planet formation.

To study the asteroid belt's two biggest satellites, Dawn will use three different instruments: a large optical camera, a mapping spectrometer and a neutron and gamma-ray detector (GRaND).

The optical camera will create detailed maps of each body down to 230 feet (70 meters) per pixel for Vesta and 410 feet (125 meters) per pixel for Ceres. Working in less detail, Dawn's mapping spectrometer will scan each object's surface for patches of minerals.

The GRaND instrument will use celestial radiation to deduce the basic elements present in both Ceres and Vesta. If the instrument can peer deep enough below Ceres' surface, signs of frozen or liquid water may be detected.

Highs and lows

NASA first approved the Dawn mission in 2001, but the program has since suffered cancellations, postponements and several launch delays. Attempts to launch the probe in July went without success due to bad weather, rocket booster glitches and difficulties arranging tracking aircraft and ships to monitor the planned liftoff.

Technical and financial woes prompted NASA to order the mission to stand in October 2005 and ultimately scrap the flight in March 2006. But a reevaluation of the Dawn mission's difficulties by the space agency led to its reinstatement a few weeks after its cancellation.

In spite of recent accidental damage to the spacecraft's solar panel array and several delays this year, mission managers are confident Dawn will successfully begin its journey on Thursday. Should mission managers delay the probe's launch again, they will have until late October to send Dawn spaceward; otherwise, the first launch opportunity to visit both Ceres and Vesta won't open again until about 2022.

Universe Today : What's Up this Week: September 24 - September 30, 2007

Written by Tammy Plotner

Monday, September 24 - In 1970, the first unmanned, automated return of lunar material to the Earth occurred on this day when the Soviet's Luna 16 returned with three ounces of the Moon. Its landing site was eastern Mare Fecunditatis. Look just west of the bright patch of Langrenus.

Tonight our primary lunar study is crater Kepler. Look for it as a bright point, slightly lunar north of center near the terminator. Its home is the Oceanus Procellarum - a sprawling dark mare composed primarily of dark minerals of low reflectivity (albedo) such as iron and magnesium. Bright, young Kepler will display a wonderfully developed ray system. The crater rim is very bright, consisting mostly of a pale rock called anorthosite. The "lines" extending from Kepler are fragments that were splashed out and flung across the lunar surface when the impact occurred. The region is also home to features known as "domes" - seen between the crater and the Carpathian Mountains. So unique is Kepler's geological formation that it became the first crater mapped by U.S. Geological Survey in 1962.

Tuesday, September 25 - Tonight Uranus will be a little less than two degrees south of the Moon, but we're going to have a look at a lunar feature that goes beyond simply incredible - it's downright weird. Start your journey by identifying Kepler and head due west across Oceanus Procellarum until you encounter the bright ring of crater Reiner. Spanning 30 kilometers, this crater isn't anything in particular - just shallow-looking walls with a little hummock in the center. But, look further west and a little more north for an anomaly - Reiner Gamma.

Well, it's bright. It's slightly eye-shaped. But what exactly is it? Possessing no real elevation or depth above the lunar surface, Reiner Gamma could very well be an extremely young feature caused by a comet. Only three other such features exist - two on the lunar far side and one on Mercury. They are high albedo surface deposits with magnetic properties. Unlike a lunar ray of material ejected from below the surface, Reiner Gamma can be spotted during the daylight hours - when ray systems disappear. And, unlike other lunar formations, it never casts a shadow.

Reiner Gamma also causes a magnetic deviation on a barren world that has no magnetic field. This has many proposed origins, such as solar storms, volcanic gaseous activity, or even seismic waves. But, one of the best explanations for its presence is a cometary strike. It is believed that a split-nucleus comet, or cometary fragments, once impacted the area and the swirl of gases from the high velocity debris may have somehow changed the regolith. On the other hand, ejecta from an impact could have formed around a magnetic "hot spot," much like a magnet attracts iron filings.

No matter which theory is correct, the simple act of viewing Reiner Gamma and realizing that it is different from all other features on the Moon's earthward facing side makes this journey worth the time!

Wednesday, September 26 - This is the Universal date the Moon will become Full and it will be the closest to the Autumnal Equinox. Because its orbit is more nearly parallel to the eastern horizon, it will rise at dusk for the next several nights in a row. On the average, the Moon rises about 50 minutes later each night, but at this time of year it's around 20 minutes later for mid-northern latitudes and even less farther north. Because of this added light, the name "Harvest Moon" came about because it allowed farmers more time to work in the fields.

Often times we perceive the Harvest Moon as being more orange than at any other time of the year. The reason is not only scientific enough - but true. Coloration is caused by the scattering of the light by particles in our atmosphere. When the Moon is low, like now, we get more of that scattering effect and it truly does appear more orange. The very act of harvesting itself produces more dust and often times that coloration will last the whole night through. And we all know the size is only an "illusion"…

So, instead of cursing the Moon for hiding the deep sky gems tonight, enjoy it for what it is…a wonderful natural phenomenon that doesn't even require a telescope!

And if you'd like to visit another object that only requires eyes, then look no further than Eta Aquilae one fist-width due south of Altair…
Discovered by Pigot in 1784, this Cepheid-class variable has a precision rate of change of over a magnitude in a period of 7.17644 days. During this time it will reach of maximum of magnitude 3.7 and decline slowly over 5 days to a minimum of 4.5… Yet it only takes two days to brighten again! This period of expansion and contraction makes Eta very unique. To help gauge these changes, compare Eta to Beta on Altair's same southeast side. When Eta is at maximum, they will be about equal in brightness.

Thursday, September 27 - Tonight we'll begin with an easy double star and make our way towards a more difficult one. Beautiful, bright and colorful, Beta Cygni is an excellent example of an easily split double star. As the second brightest star in the constellation of Cygnus, Albireo lies roughly in the center of the "Summer Triangle" making it a relatively simple target for even urban telescopes.

Albireo's primary (or brightest) star is around magnitude 4 and has a striking orangish color. Its secondary (or B) star is slightly fainter at a bit less than magnitude 5, and often appears to most as blue, almost violet. The pair's wide separation of 34" makes Beta Cygni an easy split for all telescopes at modest power, and even for larger binoculars. At approximately 410 light-years away, this colorful pair shows a visual separation of about 4400 AU, or around 660 billion kilometers. As Burnham noted, "It is worth contemplating, in any case, the fact that at least 55 solar systems could be lined up, edge-to-edge, across the space that separates the components of this famous double!"

Now let's have a look at Delta. Located around 270 light-years away, Delta is known to be a more difficult binary star. Its duplicity was discovered by F. Struve in 1830, and it is a very tough test for smaller optics. Located no more than 220 AU away from the magnitude 3 parent star, the companion orbits anywhere from 300 to 540 years and is often rated as dim as 8th magnitude. If skies aren't steady enough to split it tonight, try again! Both Beta and Delta are on many challenge lists.

Friday, September 28 - Tonight we'll have a look at the central star of the "Northern Cross" - Gamma Cygni. Also known as Sadr, this beautiful main sequence star lies at the northern edge of the "Great Rift." Surrounded by a field of nebulosity known as IC 1310, second magnitude Gamma is very slowly approaching us, but still maintains an average distance of about 750 light-years. It is here in the rich, starry fields that the great dust cloud begins its stretch toward southern Centaurus - dividing the Milky Way into two streams. The dark region extending north of Gamma towards Deneb is often referred to as the "Northern Coalsack," but its true designation is Lynds 906.

If you take a very close look at Sadr, you will find it has a well-separated 10th magnitude companion star, which is probably not related - yet in 1876, S. W. Burnham found that it itself is a very close double. Just to its north is NGC 6910, a roughly 6th magnitude open cluster which displays a nice concentration in a small telescope. To the west is Collinder 419, another bright gathering that is nicely concentrated. South is Dolidze 43, a widely spaced group with two brighter stars on its southern perimeter. East is Dolidze 10, which is far richer in stars of various magnitudes and contains at least three binary systems.

Whether you use binoculars or telescopes, chances are you won't see much nebulosity in this region - but the sheer population of stars and objects in this area makes a visit with Sadr worthy of your time!

Saturday, September 29 - Tonight let's head about a fingerwidth south of Gamma Cygni to have a look at an open cluster well suited for all optics - M29.

Discovered in 1764 by Charles Messier, this type D cluster has an overall brightness of about magnitude 7, but isn't exactly rich in stars. Hanging out anywhere from 6000 to 7200 light-years away, one would assume this to be a very rich cluster and it may very well have hundreds of stars - but their light is blocked by a dust cloud a thousand times more dense than average.

Approaching us at around 28 kilometers per second, this loose grouping could be as old as 10 million years and appears much like a miniature of the constellation of Ursa Major at low powers. Even though it isn't the most spectacular in star-rich Cygnus, it is another Messier object to add to your list!

Sunday, September 30 - Today in 1880, Henry Draper must have been up very early indeed when he took the first photo of the Great Orion Nebula (M42). Although you might not wish to set up equipment before dawn, you can still use a pair of binoculars to view this awesome nebula! You'll find Orion high in the southeast for the Northern Hemisphere, and M42 in the center of the "sword" that hangs below its bright "belt" of three stars.

Tonight before the Moon rises and we leave Cygnus for the year, try your luck with IC 5070, also known as the "Pelican Nebula." You'll find it just about a degree southeast of Deneb and surrounding the binary star 56 Cygni.

Located around 2000 light-years away, the Pelican is an extension of the elusive North American Nebula, NGC 7000. Given its great expanse and faintness, catching the Pelican does require clean skies, but it can be spotted best with large binoculars. As part of this huge star forming region, look for the obscuring dark dust cloud Lynds 935 to help you distinguish the nebula's edges. Although it is every bit as close as the Orion Nebula, this star hatchery isn't quite as easy!

Universe Today : TV Review: Race to Mars

Written by Mark Mortimer

The red planet is so close we can almost taste it. Probes, landers and robots extend our reach into its exotic terrain. To tease us even more, Discovery Channel is running the show 'Race to Mars'. In it, people take the first footfall onto the Martian surface.

Succinctly blending space opera with the trials of experienced at the Devon Island analogue, the producers of this television show demonstrate the beauty, challenges and rewards of sending people to explore the Martian surface. A spacecraft tumbling through space catapults the audience into inter-planetary transit. The craft gliding soundlessly through its orbit above the Martian surface readies us for the crescendo of landing. Determination and destiny guide the occupants as would only happen for the thoroughly committed.

Within this vessel, six people from many nations represent an harmonious humanity of Earth in 2029. Three preceding craft brought infrastructure and support to the fourth planet of our solar system. Thus, for this show, all is in place for a simple and easy voyage and arrival. Yet, as to be expected with the real event, and this documentary, stuff happens. Machinery fails, tempers flare, and a whole new climate plays upon the senses of the new arrivals. The voyage, as incredible as it is on its own, is just part of the show's offerings.

But, this show is listed as a documentary. Hence, as no ones visited Mars, at least yet there is room for conjecture. Nevertheless, it's obvious much homework's been done. A false gravity, self aware computer system and transmission time delays make the sets and events seem immediate and real. We, the audience, watch over the explorers' shoulders as footfalls strike the surface, romance sparks and harm strikes. With this being a television show, such additions are necessary but they add rather than detract from the believability.

And this ring of truth is what makes this show so watchable. We expect and need drama. We appreciate the science and engineering challenges. We believe in the undertaking. Mars is an appropriate destination and we can strive for it. The show 'Race to Mars' is one more contribution to helping point the way. Next week's conclusion won't come soon enough and the ending of this show will come all too soon.

The show is currently broadcast on the Discovery Channel in Canada, but it will likely make its way into other markets soon enough.

Visit the Race to Mars site.

Universe Today : NASA Dreams Up Exotic Earth-Sized Planets

Written by Fraser Cain

Science fiction writers have been imagining other worlds for years, and now they're going to get a little scientific help, thanks to NASA. The agency recently modeled a range of roughly Earth-sized planets, from the familiar to the exotic. Instead of thinking just about planets with Earthlike characteristics, they imagined every possible kind of planet that might exist around other worlds. This should keep the writers busy.

We're not talking about familiar looking planets, with strange surface features and aliens with pointed ears here, we're talking about the very extremes of planetary formation: pure water ice, carbon, iron, silicate, carbon monoxide, and silicon carbide, and others which could be mixtures of these various compounds.

The team eventually came up with 14 different types of solid planets that might exist. "We have learned that extrasolar giant planets often differ tremendously from the worlds in our solar system, so we let our imaginations run wild and tried to cover all the bases with our models of smaller planets," said NASA's Marc Kuchner. "We can make educated guesses about where these different kinds of planets might be found. For example, carbon planets and carbon-monoxide planets might favor evolved stars such as white dwarfs and pulsars, or they might form in carbon-rich disks like the one around the star Beta Pictoris. But ultimately, we need observations to give us the answers."

They calculated how gravity should compress planets of varying composition. For example, a pure water planet would be about the same size as the Earth, while an iron planet would be a third our size.

The researchers are hoping their calculations will help future planet hunters identify new discoveries. When powerful planet finders, such as ESA's Corot mission start making discoveries, astronomers will be working hard to categorize what they're looking at, based only on the mass and size. Even more powerful observatories, such as the James Webb Space Telescope will let astronomers actually measure the chemical constituents of a planet, and help reveal if we're looking at a sphere of carbon or water ice.

Their paper will appear in the October 20th issue of the Astrophysical journal.

Original Source: NASA News Release

Universe Today : Searching for Objects Even Stranger Than Black Holes

Written by Fraser Cain

Black holes are already plenty bizarre. Imagine all the mass of several suns compressed down into an object of potentially infinitely small size. But what if you could find an object that's even stranger: a theoretical "naked singularity"; a black hole spinning so quickly that it lacks an event horizon. A point in space where the density is infinite, yet still visible from the outside.

Here's the current thinking on black holes. They're formed when a large star collapses in on itself, lacking the outward pressure to counteract the inward pull of gravity. Once the object reaches a certain size its pull becomes so great that nothing, not even light can escape. The black hole surrounds itself in a shroud of darkness called the event horizon. Any object or radiation that passes through this event horizon is inevitably sucked down into the black hole. And that's why they're thought to be black.

But what if that's not always correct? What if there are circumstances where black holes might not be black at all? It would take some serious spinning, however.

All the black holes discovered so far are thought to be spinning, sometimes more than 1,000 times a second. But in theory, if you could get a black hole spinning ludicrously fast, so that the angular momentum of its spin overcomes the gravitational pull of its mass, it should be able to shed its event horizon. A black hole with 10 times the mass of our Sun would need to be spinning a few thousand times a second.

And here's the cool part. According to researchers from Duke University and Cambridge, an object spinning like this should be detectable by its gravitational lensing. This is where a massive object, like a black hole, acts like a natural lens to focus the light from a more distant object. If the researchers are right, astronomers should be able to see a telltale signature on the lensed light using existing instruments (or those coming soon).

Their research was published in the September 24th issue of the research journal Physical Review D.

Original Source: Duke University News Release