Dec 10 2012

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 12-425 NASA ASTROBIOLOGY INSTITUTE SHOWS HOW WIDE BINARY STARS FORM

WASHINGTON -- Using computer simulations, scientists from the NASA Astrobiology Institute team at the University of Hawaii are shedding light on a question that has challenged astronomers for years: What causes wide binary stars? Binary stars are pairs of stars that orbit each other. Wide binary stars are separated by as much as one light-year in their orbits, farther apart than some stellar nurseries are wide. Astronomers have known about such distant pairs for a long time but have not understood how they form. Researchers simulated the complex motions of newborn triple stars still embedded in their nascent cloud cores. They studied the motions 180,000 times and concluded the widest binary systems began as three stars, not just two. This research appears in a paper to be published in the Dec. 13 issue of the journal Nature and was released last week online. Most stars are born in small, compact systems with two or more stars at the center of a cloud core. When more than two stars share a small space, they gravitationally pull on each other in a chaotic dance. The least massive star often is kicked to the outskirts of the cloud core while the remaining stars grow larger and closer by feeding on the dense gas at the center of the cloud core. If the force of the kick is not forecful enough, the runt star will not escape, but instead begin a very wide orbit of the other two, creating a wide binary. However, sometimes astronomers find only two stars in a wide binary. This means either the star system formed differently or something happened to one of the original binary pair. "What may have happened is that the stars in the close binary merged into a single larger star," said the paper's lead author, Bo Reipurth of the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "This can happen if there is enough gas in the cloud core to provide resistance to their motion. As the two stars in the close binary move around each other surrounded by gas, they lose energy and spiral toward each other. Sometimes there is so much gas in the core that the two close stars spiral all the way in and collide with each other in a spectacular merging explosion." The wide binary nearest to Earth is Alpha Centauri. The star itself is a close binary. Alpha Centauri has a small companion, Proxima Centauri, which orbits at a distance of about one-quarter of a light-year, or 15,000 times the distance between Earth and the sun. All three stars were born close together several billion years ago, before a powerful dynamic kick sent Proxima out into its wide path, where it has been orbiting ever since. NASA's Kepler mission already has proven that more than one planet can form and persist in the stressful realm of a binary star, a testament to the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy. NASA supported the University of Hawaii work through a cooperative agreement with NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and the NASA Astrobiology Institute, which is a partnership between NASA, 15 U.S. teams, and 10 international consortia. The research on wide binary stars included the University of Turku in Finland.

RELEASE: 12-426 NASA OFFERS OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS TO TALK TO ASTRONAUTS IN SPACE IN 2013

HOUSTON -- NASA is offering opportunities for schools and educational groups to speak with astronauts aboard the International Space Station to learn about living and working in space. Crew members will be available for question and answer sessions in 2013. NASA offers two options for students to interact with astronauts -- in-flight education downlinks and Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) opportunities. Proposals for both downlinks and ARISS are being accepted now for opportunities next year. Downlinks are 20-minute multimedia events where participants see and hear crew members live from space, but the crew has only audio connectivity. The downlinks are broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed on the agency's website. ARISS events are 10-minute sessions during which participants speak with the crew through amateur radio. Because of the nature of human spaceflight operations, organizations must demonstrate the flexibility to accommodate changes in dates and times. U.S. educational organizations such as museums, science centers, local school districts, national and regional education organizations, and local, state and federal government agencies are eligible to participate. NASA provides these opportunities through the Teaching from Space and ARISS projects at no cost to the host organization and will work with the host institution to plan the events. Proposals for in-flight education downlinks are due Jan. 18. Proposals for ARISS are due Jan. 28.

RELEASE: 12-429 NASA AWARDS CONTRACTS IN NEXT STEP TOWARD SAFELY LAUNCHING AMERICAN ASTRONAUTS FROM U.S. SOIL

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- NASA announced Monday the next step in its plan to launch American astronauts from U.S. soil, selecting three companies to conduct activities under contracts that will enable future certification of commercial spacecraft as safe to carry humans to the International Space Station. Advances made by these American companies during the first contract phase known as the certification products contracts (CPC) will begin the process of ensuring integrated crew transportation systems will meet agency safety requirements and standards to launch American astronauts to the International Space Station from the United States, ending the agency's reliance on Russia for these transportation services. The second phase of certification will result in a separately competed contract. CPC contractors are: -- The Boeing Company, Houston, $9,993,000 -- Sierra Nevada Corporation Space System, Louisville, Colo., $10,000,000 -- Space Exploration technologies Corp., Hawthorne, Calif., $9,589,525 "These contracts represent important progress in restoring human spaceflight capabilities to the United States," said Phil McAlister, director of the Commercial Spaceflight Development Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "NASA and its industry partners are committed to the goal of safely and cost-effectively launching astronauts from home within the next five years." During the Phase 1 CPC contracts, from Jan. 22, 2013 through May 30, 2014, the companies will work with NASA's Commercial Crew Program (CCP) to discuss and develop products to implement the agency's flight safety and performance requirements. This includes implementation across all aspects of the space system, including the spacecraft, launch vehicle, and ground and mission operations. Under the contract, a certification plan will be developed to achieve safe, crewed missions to the space station. This includes data that will result in developing engineering standards, tests and analyses of the crew transportation systems design. "I congratulate the three companies for their selection," said Ed Mango, CCP manager at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. "This is the program's first major, fixed-price contract. The effort will bring space system designs within NASA's safety and performance expectations for future flights to the International Space Station." The second phase of the certification contract, expected to begin in mid-2014, will involve a full and open competition. It will include the final development, testing and verifications necessary to allow crewed demonstration flights to the space station. NASA is facilitating the development of U.S. commercial crew space transportation capabilities with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from low-Earth orbit for potential future government and commercial customers. While NASA works with U.S. industry partners to develop these capabilities, the agency also is developing the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System (SLS), a crew capsule and heavy-lift rocket to provide an entirely new capability for human exploration. Designed to be flexible for launching spacecraft for crew and cargo missions, SLS and Orion will expand human presence beyond low-Earth orbit and enable new missions of exploration in the solar system.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M/12-236 NASA'S HUBBLE TO REVEAL NEW FINDINGS ABOUT THE EARLY UNIVERSE

WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EST Wednesday, Dec. 12, to discuss the latest findings from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Astronomers will report on recent observations of a previously unseen population of primitive galaxies that formed more than 13 billion years ago. The teleconference panelists are: -- Richard Ellis, astrophysicist, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. -- Abraham Loeb, chair, Astronomy Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-237 NASA TV COVERAGE SET FOR NEXT SOYUZ SPACE STATION CREW LAUNCH

HOUSTON -- NASA Television will provide live coverage of next week's launch and docking of the next crew members who will fly to the International Space Station. Tom Marshburn of NASA, Roman Romanenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency are scheduled to launch to the space station in their Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft at 6:12 a.m. CST (6:12 p.m. Baikonur time) Wednesday, Dec. 19, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. NASA TV launch coverage will begin at 5 a.m. and include video of that day's activities leading to the crew boarding its spacecraft. The trio will dock the Soyuz spacecraft to the station's Rassvet module at 8:10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 21. NASA TV coverage of docking begins at 7:30 a.m. About three hours later, hatches will open between the Soyuz and the station. Marshburn, Romanenko and Hadfield will be greeted by Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford of NASA and flight engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin of Roscosmos, who have been living and working on the orbiting laboratory since late October. NASA TV's hatch opening coverage begins at 10:15 a.m. Marshburn, Romanenko and Hadfield will remain aboard the station until May 2013. Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin will return to Earth March 15, leaving Hadfield as the first Canadian commander of the space station. The full schedule of the Soyuz prelaunch, launch and docking coverage includes (all times Central): Friday, Dec. 14 1 p.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 crew activities in Baikonur, Kazakhstan Monday, Dec. 17 11 a.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 spacecraft encapsulation, rocket mating and rollout in Baikonur, Kazakhstan Tuesday, Dec. 18 11 a.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 Russian State Commission meeting and final pre-launch crew news conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan Wednesday, Dec. 19 5 a.m. -- Expedition 34/35 launch coverage (launch at 6:12 a.m.; includes video of the crew's pre-launch activities at 5:15 a.m.) 9 a.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 pre-launch, launch and post-launch interviews Friday Dec. 21 7:30 a.m. -- Expedition 34/35 docking coverage (docking at 8:10 a.m.) followed by the post-docking news conference from Mission Control in Korolev, Russia 10:15 a.m. -- Expedition 34/35 hatch opening and welcoming ceremony (hatch opening at 10:45 a.m.) 1 p.m. -- Video file of Expedition 34/35 docking, hatch opening and welcoming

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-238 NASA TO HOST DEC.13 TELECONFERENCE ON TWIN PROBES MISSION ENDING MOON IMPACT

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 10:30 a.m. PST (1:30 p.m. EST) Thursday, Dec. 13, to provide an overview of events leading up to twin spacecraft being commanded to impact the moon's surface on Dec. 17 at approximately 2:28 p.m. NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, whose two washing machine-sized probes were named Ebb and Flow by elementary school students in Bozeman, Montana, via a nationwide contest, have successfully completed their prime missions and have only days to go on their extended mission science collection. As planned, the duo is running low on fuel. They have been orbiting the moon since New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, respectively, giving scientists unprecedented detail about the moon's internal structure and composition.