Apr 29 2013

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 13-091 - HERSCHEL COMPLETES ITS 'COOL' JOURNEY IN SPACE --WASHINGTON -- The Herschel observatory, a European space telescope for which NASA helped build instruments and process data, has stopped making observations after running out of liquid coolant as expected. The European Space Agency (ESA) mission, launched almost four years ago, revealed the universe's "coolest" secrets by observing the frigid side of planet, star and galaxy formation. Herschel gave us the opportunity to peer into the dark and cold regions of the universe that are invisible to other telescopes, said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. "This successful mission demonstrates how NASA and ESA can work together to tackle unsolved mysteries in astronomy." Confirmation the helium is exhausted came at the beginning of the spacecraft's daily communication session Monday with its ground station in Western Australia. A clear rise in temperatures was measured in all of Herschel's instruments. Herschel launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana in May 2009. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., built components for two of Herschel's three science instruments. NASA also supports the U.S. astronomical community through the agency's Herschel Science Center, located at the California Institute of Technology's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center in Pasadena. Herschel's detectors were designed to pick up the glow from celestial objects with infrared wavelengths as long as 625 micrometers, which is 1,000 times longer than what we can see with our eyes. Because heat interferes with these devices, they were chilled to temperatures as low as 2 kelvins (minus 271 degrees Celsius) using liquid helium. The detectors also were kept cold by the spacecraft's orbit, which is around a stable point called the second Lagrange point about 1.5 million kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. This location gave Herschel a better view of the universe. Herschel has improved our understanding of how new stars and planets form, but has also raised many new questions, said Paul Goldsmith, NASA Herschel project scientist at JPL. "Astronomers will be following up on Herschel's discoveries with ground-based and future space-based observatories for years to come." The mission will not be making any more observations, but discoveries will continue. Astronomers still are looking over the data, much of which already is public and available through NASA's Herschel Science Center. The final batch of data will be public in about six months. Our goal is to help the U.S. community exploit the nuggets of gold that lie in that data archive, said Phil Appleton, project scientist at the science center. Highlights of the mission include: -- Discovering long, filamentary structures in space, dotted with dense star-making knots of material. -- Detecting definitively, for the first time, oxygen molecules in space, in addition to other never-before-seen molecules. By mapping the molecules in different regions, researchers are learning more about the life cycles of stars and planets and the origins of life. -- Discovering high-speed outflows around central black holes in active galaxies, which may be clearing out surrounding regions and suppressing future star formation. -- Opening new views on extremely distant galaxies that could be seen only with Herschel, and providing new information about their high rates of star formation. -- Following the trail of water molecules from distant galaxies to the clouds of gas between stars to planet-forming solar systems. -- Examining a comet in our own solar system and finding evidence comets could have brought a substantial fraction of water to Earth. -- Together with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, discovering a large asteroid belt around the bright star Vega. Other findings from the mission include the discovery of some of the youngest stars ever seen in the nearby Orion "cradle," and a peculiar planet-forming disk of material surrounding the star TW Hydra, indicating planet formation may happen over longer periods of time than expected. Herschel also has shown stars interact with their environment in many surprising ways, including leaving trails as they move through clouds of gas and dust.

RELEASE: 13-121 - NASA PROBE GETS CLOSE-UP VIEWS OF LARGE HURRICANE ON SATURN --WASHINGTON -- NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's north pole. In high-resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane's eye is about 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are traveling 330 miles per hour (150 meters per second). The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided weather pattern known as the hexagon. We did a double take when we saw this vortex because it looks so much like a hurricane on Earth, said Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini imaging team member at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "But there it is at Saturn, on a much larger scale, and it is somehow getting by on the small amounts of water vapor in Saturn's hydrogen atmosphere." Scientists will be studying the hurricane to gain insight into hurricanes on Earth, which feed off warm ocean water. Although there is no body of water close to these clouds high in Saturn's atmosphere, learning how these Saturnian storms use water vapor could tell scientists more about how terrestrial hurricanes are generated and sustained. Both a terrestrial hurricane and Saturn's north polar vortex have a central eye with no clouds or very low clouds. Other similar features include high clouds forming an eye wall, other high clouds spiraling around the eye, and a counter-clockwise spin in the northern hemisphere. A major difference between the hurricanes is that the one on Saturn is much bigger than its counterparts on Earth and spins surprisingly fast. At Saturn, the wind in the eye wall blows more than four times faster than hurricane force winds on Earth. Unlike terrestrial hurricanes, which tend to move, the Saturnian hurricane is locked onto the planet's north pole. On Earth, hurricanes tend to drift northward because of the forces acting on the fast swirls of wind as the planet rotates. The one on Saturn does not drift and is already as far north as it can be. The polar hurricane has nowhere else to go, and that's likely why it's stuck at the pole, said Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at Hampton University in Hampton, Va. Scientists believe the massive storm has been churning for years. When Cassini arrived in the Saturn system in 2004, Saturn's north pole was dark because the planet was in the middle of its north polar winter. During that time, Cassini's composite infrared spectrometer and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer detected a great vortex, but a visible-light view had to wait for the passing of the equinox in August 2009. Only then did sunlight begin flooding Saturn's northern hemisphere. The view required a change in the angle of Cassini's orbits around Saturn so the spacecraft could see the poles. Such a stunning and mesmerizing view of the hurricane-like storm at the north pole is only possible because Cassini is on a sportier course, with orbits tilted to loop the spacecraft above and below Saturn's equatorial plane, said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "You cannot see the polar regions very well from an equatorial orbit. Observing the planet from different vantage points reveals more about the cloud layers that cover the entirety of the planet." Cassini changes its orbital inclination for such an observing campaign only once every few years. Because the spacecraft uses flybys of Saturn's moon Titan to change the angle of its orbit, the inclined trajectories require attentive oversight from navigators. The path requires careful planning years in advance and sticking very precisely to the planned itinerary to ensure enough propellant is available for the spacecraft to reach future planned orbits and encounters. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team consists of scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo.

RELEASE: 13-124 - NASA, NSBRI SELECT 23 PROPOSALS TO SUPPORT CREW HEALTH ON MISSIONS --WASHINGTON -- NASA's Human Research Program (HRP) and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) of Houston will fund 23 proposals to help investigate questions about astronaut health and performance on future deep space exploration missions. The selected proposals are from 18 institutions in 14 states and will receive about $17 million during a one- to three-year period. HRP and NSBRI research provides knowledge and technologies to improve human health and performance during space exploration and develops possible countermeasures for problems experienced during space travel. The organizations' goals are to help astronauts complete their challenging missions successfully and preserve astronauts' health throughout their lives. The 23 projects were selected from 100 proposals received in response to the research announcement "Research and Technology Development to Support Crew Health and Performance in Space Exploration Missions." Scientific and technical experts from academia and government reviewed the proposals. NASA will manage 14 of the projects. NSBRI will manage nine. HRP quantifies crew health and performance risks during spaceflight and develops strategies that mission planners and system developers can use to monitor and mitigate the risks. These studies often lead to advancements in understanding and treating illnesses in patients on Earth. NSBRI is a NASA-funded consortium of institutions studying health risks related to long-duration spaceflight. The institute's science, technology and education projects take place at more than 60 institutions across the United States.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M13-066 - TEXAS STUDENTS TO SPEAK LIVE WITH SPACE STATION NASA ASTRONAUT --HOUSTON -- NASA Expedition 35 astronaut and flight engineer Chris Cassidy aboard the International Space Station will conduct a live air-to-ground talk with students of Fredricksburg High School in Texas at 12:40 p.m. EDT (11:40 a.m. CDT) Thursday, May 2. The event will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency's website. During the 20-minute event, students will be able to ask Cassidy questions about life, work and research aboard the orbiting laboratory. He began his stay on the station in March. NASA activities have been incorporated into classes at the school in preparation for the conversation. Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station provides them with an authentic, live experience of space exploration, space study, and the scientific components of space travel and possibilities of life in space.