Jun 9 2011
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M11-117 THREE MEMBERS OF NASA'S FINAL SPACE SHUTTLE CREW AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS
HOUSTON --Three NASA astronauts who will fly aboard the last space shuttle mission in July are available for live satellite interviews next week. STS-135 mission Commander Chris Ferguson is available from 3 - 4:50 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, June 15. Pilot Doug Hurley is available from 10 - 11:50 a.m. and Mission Specialist Rex Walheim from 1 - 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14. Shuttle Atlantis is targeted for launch July 8 with Ferguson, Hurley, Walheim, and Mission Specialist Sandra Magnus to deliver supplies and spare equipment to the International Space Station. This will be Ferguson's third shuttle flight and his second as commander. He is a native of Philadelphia and earned a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Drexel University in 1984 and a Master of Science in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1991. A colonel in the Marine Corps, Hurley will make his second trip to space. In July 2009, he completed his first spaceflight as pilot on STS-127. Born in Endicott, N.Y., Hurley considers Apalachin, N.Y., his hometown. He earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Tulane University. STS-135 will be Walheim's third trip to space. He previously served as a mission specialist and spacewalker on STS-110 in April 2002 and STS-122 in 2008. Born in Redwood City, Calif., Walheim considers San Carlos, Calif., his hometown. He is a retired Air Force colonel and received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1984, and a master's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Houston in 1989.
RELEASE: 11-174 NASA PROBES SUGGEST MAGNETIC BUBBLES RESIDE AT SOLAR SYSTEM EDGE
WASHINGTON -- Observations from NASA's Voyager spacecraft, humanity's farthest deep space sentinels, suggest the edge of our solar system may not be smooth, but filled with a turbulent sea of magnetic bubbles. While using a new computer model to analyze Voyager data, scientists found the sun's distant magnetic field is made up of bubbles approximately 100 million miles wide. The bubbles are created when magnetic field lines reorganize. The new model suggests the field lines are broken up into self-contained structures disconnected from the solar magnetic field. The findings are described in the June 9 edition of the Astrophysical Journal. Like Earth, our sun has a magnetic field with a north pole and a south pole. The field lines are stretched outward by the solar wind or a stream of charged particles emanating from the star that interacts with material expelled from others in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy. The Voyager spacecraft, more than nine billion miles away from Earth, are traveling in a boundary region. In that area, the solar wind and magnetic field are affected by material expelled from other stars in our corner of the Milky Way galaxy. "The sun's magnetic field extends all the way to the edge of the solar system," said astronomer Merav Opher of Boston University. "Because the sun spins, its magnetic field becomes twisted and wrinkled, a bit like a ballerina's skirt. Far, far away from the sun, where the Voyagers are, the folds of the skirt bunch up." Understanding the structure of the sun's magnetic field will allow scientists to explain how galactic cosmic rays enter our solar system and help define how the star interacts with the rest of the galaxy. So far, much of the evidence for the existence of the bubbles originates from an instrument aboard the spacecraft that measures energetic particles. Investigators are studying more information and hoping to find signatures of the bubbles in the Voyager magnetic field data. "We are still trying to wrap our minds around the implications of the findings," said University of Maryland physicist Jim Drake, one of Opher's colleagues. Launched in 1977, the Voyager twin spacecraft have been on a 33-year journey. They are en route to reach the edge of interstellar space. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., built the spacecraft and continues to operate them. The Voyager missions are a part of the Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
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