Feb 10 2010
From The Space Library
RELEASE: 10-175
NASA'S HUBBLE SHOWS HYPERFAST STAR WAS BOOTED FROM MILKY WAY
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected a hypervelocity star, a rare phenomenon moving three times faster than our sun. The star may have been created in a cosmic misstep. A hundred million years ago, a triple-star system was traveling through the bustling center of our Milky Way galaxy when it wandered too close to the galaxy's giant black hole. The black hole captured one of the stars and hurled the other two out of the Milky Way. The two outbound stars merged to form a super-hot blue star traveling at incredible speeds. This story may seem like science fiction, but Hubble astronomers say it is the most likely scenario for the creation of a so-called hypervelocity star, known as HE 0437-5439. It is one of the fastest ever detected with a speed of 1.6 million mph. Hubble observations confirm that the stellar speedster hails from the Milky Way's core, settling some confusion about the star's original home. Most of the roughly 16 known hypervelocity stars, all discovered since 2005, are thought to be exiles from the heart of our galaxy. But this Hubble result is the first direct observation linking such a star to an origin in the center of the galaxy. "Using Hubble, we can for the first time trace back to where the star came from by measuring the star's direction of motion on the sky, said astronomer Warren Brown of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. Our measurements point directly to the Milky Way center. Brown, a member of the Hubble team that observed the star, is the lead author on a paper about the finding published online July 20 in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Brown said, These exiled stars are rare in the Milky Way's population of 100 billion stars. For every 100 million stars in the galaxy, there lurks one hypervelocity star. The stellar outcast already is cruising in the Milky Way's distant outskirts about 200,000 light-years from the galaxy's center. Using Hubble to measure the runaway star's direction and determine the Milky Way's core as its starting point, Brown and Gnedin's team calculated how fast the star had to have been ejected to reach its current location. "Studying these stars could provide more clues about the nature of some of the universe's unseen mass, and it could help astronomers better understand how galaxies form, said team leader Oleg Gnedin of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The star's age is another mystery. Based on the speed and position of HE 0437-5439, the star would have to be 100 million years old to have journeyed from the Milky Way's core. Yet its mass -- nine times that of our sun-- and blue color mean that it should have burned out after only 20 million years -- far shorter than the transit time it took to get to its current location. Astronomers have proposed two possibilities to solve the age problem. The star either dipped into the Fountain of Youth by becoming a blue straggler, or it was flung out of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy. In 2008 a team of astronomers thought they had solved the mystery. They found a match between the exiled star's chemical makeup and the characteristics of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud. The rogue star's position also is close to the neighboring galaxy, only 65,000 light-years away. The new Hubble result, however, settles the debate over the star's birthplace and places it in the Milky Way. The most likely explanation for the star's blue color and extreme speed is that it was part of a triple-star system that was involved in a gravitational billiards game with the galaxy's monster black hole. This concept for imparting an escape velocity on stars was first proposed in 1988. The theory predicted the Milky Way's black hole should eject a star about once every 100,000 years. The triple-star system contained a pair of closely orbiting stars and a third outer member also gravitationally tied to the group. The black hole pulled the outer star away from the tight binary system. The doomed star's momentum was transferred to the stellar twosome, boosting the duo to escape velocity from the galaxy. As the pair rocketed away, they went on with normal stellar evolution. The more massive companion evolved more quickly, puffing up to become a red giant. It enveloped its partner, and the two stars spiraled together, merging into one superstar, the blue straggler that Hubble observed. A blue straggler is a relatively young, massive star produced by the merger of two lighter-weight stars. Astronomers used the sharp vision of Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys to make two separate observations of the wayward star 3.5 years apart. Team member Jay Anderson of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore developed a technique to measure the star's position relative to each of 11 distant background galaxies. These background galaxies form a reference frame in which Anderson compared the star's position in 2006 and 2009 to calculate how far it had moved. "Hubble excels with this type of measurement, Anderson said. This observation would be challenging to do from the ground. The team is trying to determine the homes of four other unbound stars, all located on the fringes of the Milky Way. "We are targeting massive B stars, like HE 0437-5439, said Brown, who has discovered 14 of the 16 known hypervelocity stars. These stars shouldn't live long enough to live in the distant outskirts of the Milky Way, so we shouldn't expect to find them there. But the quantity of stars in the outer region is much less than in the core, so we have a better chance of finding these unusual objects. For graphics and more information about HE 0437-5439, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble and http://hubblesite.org/news/2010/19
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MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-084
NASA KICKS OFF STUDENT SUMMER OF INNOVATION PROGRAM JUNE 10
WASHINGTON -- NASA officially kicks off its Summer of Innovation initiative at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., on Thursday, June 10. Through the program, NASA will engage thousands of middle school students and teachers in stimulating math and science-based education programs. NASA's goal is to increase the number of future scientists, mathematicians, and engineers, with an emphasis on broadening participation of low-income and minority students. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, JPL Director Charles Elachi and astronaut Leland Melvin will share their personal space exploration experiences with middle school students during a live NASA Television program starting at 1 p.m. EDT. News media interested in attending this event or scheduling an interview with NASA officials should contact Veronica McGregor by 3 p.m. Wednesday, June 9 at 818-354-9452 or email veronica.c.mcgregor@nasa.gov. The Summer of Innovation program uses the excitement of NASA missions to keep students interested in science and math during the summer slide, a measurable loss of learning skills that occurs during the school break. Approximately 250 middle school students and teachers have been invited to the June 10th event at JPL. They will have the opportunity to speak directly with NASA astronauts, engineers and scientists and will participate in eight interactive and educational activities, such as launching paper rockets and building comets from Styrofoam and ribbon. They also will see NASA robotics in action and meet the next Mars rover, Curiosity. The rover is being assembled at JPL and is scheduled to launch in 2011. The students invited to JPL are from these schools: Better Educated Students for Tomorrow After School Enrichment Program, Los Angeles Micro-Enterprise Charter Academy, Long Beach, Calif. Washington Middle School, Pasadena, Calif. Foshay Learning Center, Los Angeles To view the event and for NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv Live video streaming of the Summer of Innovation kickoff also will be available on the Web between 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. EDT at: http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl
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RELEASE: 10-328
NASA PARTNERS WITH COLORADO IN TECHNOLOGY ACCELERATION INITIATIVE
DENVER -- NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver and Colorado Governor Bill Ritter Jr., participated Monday in a Space Act Agreement signing ceremony at the Colorado State Capitol Building in Denver to promote the commercialization of technology developed for the space program. NASA's agreement with the Colorado Association for Manufacturing and Technology (CAMT) created a Technology Acceleration Program and Regional Innovation Cluster for Aerospace and Clean Energy. A manufacturing park focused on rapid new product development and production will be developed to assist growing Colorado businesses. "This park will use Colorado's existing competitive strengths to boost economic growth while creating new jobs and products for aerospace and energy industries, Garver said. NASA is pleased to collaborate on new technology developments like the one being created through the Colorado Technology Acceleration Program and Regional Innovation Cluster. Under the agreement, small and mid-sized businesses will have direct access to a NASA innovation ambassador, an agency expert who can identify NASA and partner technologies ready for commercialization. The ambassador will conduct forums to drive partnerships among NASA and Colorado businesses and help identify businesses that can benefit from commercialization technical assistance. "The new agreement with NASA is a perfect fit for Colorado because it will enhance our leading aerospace industry and growing high-tech business and research sectors, Ritter said. Most importantly, this will bring high-tech jobs to our state. Colorado is a hub for innovation and continues to attract the best and the brightest workers. Congratulations to CAMT and NASA for making this historic agreement. The Technology Acceleration Program will allow companies to work with NASA and expedite product development from an average of five years to as little as 18 months. New products will get to market more quickly, and new high tech jobs will be created. "Aerospace and energy are the fastest growing industries in Colorado, sharing the same supply base and similar workforce needs, said Elaine Thorndike, chief executive officer of CAMT. Through regional innovation clusters, public and private sectors can work together to increase business opportunities, technical assistance programs and market penetration for aerospace and clean energy manufacturing strength. The NASA-CAMT partnership will provide technical assistance and identify gaps in commercialization and scouting services to help companies looking for space-developed technologies and services. It will help companies bridge the gap between prototype design, manufacturing and commercialization, while identifying commercial applications for NASA technologies. Innovation is necessary to expand the U.S. economy and ensure competitiveness in a global economy. Many new, innovative technologies are developed by small and mid-sized businesses that do not have a robust, in-house product development capability and lack commercialization resources. Through the agreement, NASA joins the state of Colorado, the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory and CAMT in a pathfinder collaboration to promote innovation and global competitiveness in the new energy economy. CAMT is a statewide manufacturing assistance center dedicated to increasing the competitiveness of Colorado manufacturers. The association is the state affiliate of the national Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a program of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
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