Really Rocket Science

That’s not a very compelling title for a fascinating post. Unless your one of the many astronomers who worked on this new discovery by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory…

Astronomers have found an extraordinary galaxy cluster, one of the largest objects in the universe, that is breaking several important cosmic records. Observations of the Phoenix cluster with NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the National Science Foundation’s South Pole Telescope, and eight other world-class observatories may force astronomers to rethink how these colossal structures and the galaxies that inhabit them evolve.

Stars are forming in the Phoenix cluster at the highest rate ever observed for the middle of a galaxy cluster. The object also is the most powerful producer of X-rays of any known cluster and among the most massive. The data also suggest the rate of hot gas cooling in the central regions of the cluster is the largest ever observed.

The Phoenix cluster is located about 5.7 billion light years from Earth. It is named not only for the constellation in which it is located, but also for its remarkable properties.

“While galaxies at the center of most clusters may have been dormant for billions of years, the central galaxy in this cluster seems to have come back to life with a new burst of star formation,” said Michael McDonald, a Hubble Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the lead author of a paper appearing in the Aug. 16 issue of the journal Nature. “The mythology of the Phoenix, a bird rising from the dead, is a great way to describe this revived object.”

Like other galaxy clusters, Phoenix contains a vast reservoir of hot gas, which itself holds more normal matter — not dark matter — than all of the galaxies in the cluster combined. This reservoir can be detected only with X-ray telescopes such as Chandra. The prevailing wisdom once had been that this hot gas should cool over time and sink to the galaxy at the center of the cluster, forming huge numbers of stars. However, most galaxy clusters have formed very few stars during the last few billion years. Astronomers think the supermassive black hole in the central galaxy of a cluster pumps energy into the system, preventing cooling of gas from causing a burst of star formation.

Lots of fakes out on YouTube. The above video is for real, hopefully, and deserves a look.

And you can always trust our friends at NASA. Take, for example, today’s APOD…

Perseid Meteors and the Milky Way 
Image Credit & Copyright: Jens Hackmann

Explanation: Where will the next Perseid meteor appear? Sky enthusiasts who trekked outside for the Perseid meteor shower that peaked over the past few days typically had this question on their mind. Six meteors from this past weekend are visible in the above stacked image composite, including one bright fireball streaking along the band of the background Milky Way Galaxy. All Perseid meteors appear to come from the shower radiantin the constellation of Perseus. Early reports about this year’s Perseids indicate that as many as 100 meteors per hour were visible from some dark locations during the peak. The above digital mosaic was taken nearWeikersheim, Germany.

Growing Gallery: Perseid meteor shower image

Over 300 meteors captured in this one…

Roskosmos launches investigation into latest Proton rocket failure, establishing an inter-agency commission for the investigation.
[Satellite Today – 08/10/2012]

UK offers aid to Syrian opposition including satellite phones, medical supplies, and body armor.
[Washington Post – 08/10/2012]

Cobham wins contract to supply electronic systems to Boeing’s Wideband Global SATCOM satellite programme.
[ShareCast – 08/10/2012]

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says ” . . . we can not stand this any longer” of the continuing failures of Proton launches causing loss of prestige and money for Russia’s space program.
[msnbc – 08/09/2012]

Most recent failure of Proton rocket will delay launch of Dish Network’s EchoStar XVI satellite.
[FierceCable – 08/09/2012]

NASA signs agreement to use services of the Space Data Association, established by commercial satellite operators to improve safety and efficiency of space operations.
[SatNews – 08/09/2012]

Spinning Enhance Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) instrument aboard the MSG-3 satellite captures its first image of Earth.
[SatNews – 08/09/2012]

Northrup Grumman joins the Hosted Payloads Alliance, joining aide variety of companies that support increasing role for defense and commercial contractors in helping government agencies find timely and cost effective ways of acquiring space assets and services.
[SatNews – 08/09/2012]

Gilat Satellite Networks announces that Argentina’s Servicio Satelital S.A. has selected Gilat’s SkyEdge II Hub and broadband satellite platform to upgrade its existing network and provide support to hundreds of new sites.
[SatNews – 08/09/2012]

Maxwell Technology’s SkyeMax product offering affordable satellite internet access to South Africa’s farming and rural communities.
[SatNews – 08/09/2012]

Failure of the launch of Telkom 3 and Russian Express MD2 may indirectly affect launch of Ukraine’s Lybid satellite.
[Sinoptik – 08/08/2012]

Two telecommunication satellites lost in failure of Proton-M rocket booster – Telkom 3 of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, and Russian Express MD2.
[redOrbit – 08/08/2012]

Intelsat sponsors Global VSAT Forum two-day training program for VSAT installers at Pacific Endeavor workshop at Changi Naval Base in Singapore.
[SatNews – 08/08/2012]

NASA selects three companies – Boeing, SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corp – to develop space taxis to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.
[R&D Magazine – 08/07/2012]

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions announces its SAT Corporation subsidiary has significantly increased its Interference Detection and Geolocation service coverage with two new sites in Maryland and Hawaii, and now covers 1,127 beams from 269 commercial satellites, almost 90 percent of the world’s FSS constellation.
[SatNews – 08/07/2012]

Sirius profit soars on $3 billion income-tax benefit.
[Market Watch – 08/07/2012]

AsiaSat announces signing of Dubai Media Incorporated to broadcast two free-to-air satellite channels throughout the Asia-Pacific region on AsiaSat 5.
[SatNews – 08/07/2012]

Gilat Satellite Networks showcases lightweight compact satellite communication solution for unmanned aerial vehicles.
[4-traders – 08/07/2012]

Ball Aerospace demonstrates military X0-band MMLCA mobile satellite communications system using phased array antenna.
[Satellite Today – 08/07/2012]

Bulgaria to launch domestic satellite for the first time in more than 20 years.
[Satellite Today – 08/07/2012]

NASA’s most advanced robotic explorer Curiosity steers itself through thin atmosphere and  lands successfully on Mars – NASA releases low-res video of descent.
[R&D Magazine – 08/06/2012]
[R&D Magazine – 08/07/2012]

Russia and UK discuss number of space projects, and Russian President Vladimir Putin says “We plan to launch several British satellites” while summing up his short visit to London.
[SatNews – 08/06/2012]

Siemens CMT releases first Carrier ID Detection System (for combatting satellite interference) by successfully completing the upgrade installation of the latest SIECAMS version.
[SatNews – 08/06/2012]

Thuraya IP now offers streaming speed of 512 Kbps, double the previous speed.
[telecompaper – 08/06/2012]

The 2012 DStv Eutelsat Star Awards want African students to answer the question “How can satellite technology help expand Africa’s horizons into the future?”
[SatNews – 08/06/2012]

As we head into another peak sun cycle over the next two years, scientists are again pointing to a heightened risk that a whopping solar storm could knock out power grids, satellites, and communications.
[Insurance Journal – 08/06/2012]

Space Systems/Loral happy with launch of Intelsat 20 by Arianespace, as satellite deploys solar arrays on schedule and fires main thruster to complete travel to geostationary orbit.
[SatNews – 08/06/2012]

SkyVision Global Networks acquires Afinis Communication SA, a subsidiary of Cable & Wireless Communications and leading provider of connectivity solutions in francophone Africa.
[Telecom Tiger – 08/06/2012]

DigitalGlobe satellite earth observation photo shows scene of Olympic Village, London, before arrival of the masses.
[SatNews – 08/06/2012]

SES announces multi-year capacity deal with Eurovision, increasing capacity to 54 MHz and using SES teleport and NSS-806 satellite to broadcast London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to audiences in Latin America.
[SatNews – 08/06/2012]

Hylas 2, recently launched by Avanti, to offer high speed data across MEA and caucasus.
[ITP.net – 08/06/2012]

India to launch three satellites in September and two more by the end of this year. [SatNews – 08/06/2012]

Israeli legal organization states ‘telecommunications giant admits it violated Iran sanctions’ as it interprets letter from Inmarsat senior vice president explaining the company’s provision of satellite communications to Iranian oil tankers.
[Israel Hayom – 08/05/2012]

WBMSAT satellite communications consulting services

Here’s a time-lapse video of three new antennas being installed at the Sunset Beach East Station in Hawaii. They’re likely tracking antennas, as the O3b spacecraft will be LEOs.

Dig the “happy antenna dance” at the end.

Excellent piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer on the Higgs boson discovery. Here’s the lead…

It took a very large village to find the Higgs boson — one with 10,000 scientists and engineers who came from 600 institutions in more than 100 countries. In the variety of languages one hears at the European Organization for Nuclear Research near Geneva, better known as CERN, it resembles the Olympic Village. But its common language is physics, not sports, and CERN differs from the other village in another important way: It aims to advance science through international cooperation; matters of national pride are left at the door.

Meanwhile, out at UC Berkley, it was standing room only in the Chan Shun Auditorium to hear physicists explain WTF all this excitement is about. Full video…

The Wikipedia entry says it best…

Proof of the Higgs field (by confirming its boson), and evidence of its properties, are seen as likely to greatly affect human understanding of the universe, validate the final unconfirmed part of the Standard Model as essentially correct, indicate which of several current particle physics theories are more likely correct, and open up “new” physics beyond current theories. On 4 July 2012, the CMS and the ATLAS experimental teams at the LHC independently announced that they each confirmed the formal discovery of a previously unknown boson of mass between 125–127 GeV/c2, whose behaviour so far was “consistent with” a Higgs boson, while adding a cautious note that further data and analysis were needed before positively identifying the new particle as being a Higgs boson of some type.

Yes, it’s something to get excited about, but cool your electrons as we await confirmation.

This Kickstarter project has a ways to go, so give up a few bills for the guy…

Here’s how it all started…

It’s scheduled to go up via SpaceX Falcon 9 in 2013.

So the next big thing in amplifiers probably won’t find their way into the trunk of your tuned Plymouth, but they may be able to help scientists — serious scientists — develop new quantum computers.

Byeong Ho Eom, Peter K. Day, Henry G. LeDuc & Jonas Zmuidzinas at CalTech have developed a parametric amplifier that will allow measurements heretofore unattainable. That awesome.

Here’s the abstract:

An ideal amplifier has very low noise, operates over a broad frequency range, and has large dynamic range. Unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain all of these characteristics simultaneously. For example, modern transistor amplifiers offer multi-octave bandwidths and excellent dynamic range, but their noise remains far above the limit set by the uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. Parametric amplifiers can reach the quantum-mechanical limit, but generally are narrow band and have very limited dynamic range. Here we describe a parametric amplifier that overcomes these limitations through the use of a travelling-wave geometry and the nonlinear kinetic inductance of a superconducting transmission line. We measure gain extending over 2 GHz on either side of an 11.56 GHz pump tone and place an upper limit on the added noise of 3.4 photons at 9.4 GHz. The dynamic range is very large, and the concept can be applied from gigahertz frequencies to ~ 1 THz.

Some they can now use this instrument to find signals between the radio and infrared spectra, and then there’s so much more. I especially like this part of the press release:

Because the instrument is so sensitive and introduces minimal noise, it can also be used to explore the quantum world. For example, Keith Schwab, a professor of applied physics at Caltech, is planning to use the amplifier to measure the behavior of tiny mechanical devices that operate at the boundary between classical physics and the strange world of quantum mechanics. The amplifier could also be used in the development quantum computers—which are still beyond our technological reach but should be able to solve some of science’s hardest problems much more quickly than any regular computer.

In advanced science, there’s always something to look forward to!

Thanks, NASA.

The Christian Science Monitor provides a realistic guide on the Transit of Venus, a truly once-in-a-lifetime event…

Today’s historic Venus transit is a marathon event lasting nearly seven hours, but skywatchers who don’t have that kind of time can break it down into a handful of key milestones.

NASA’s planetary scientist Lori Glaze discusses the transit of Venus. Venus treks across the sun’s face from Earth’s perspective today (June 5; June 6 in much of the Eastern Hemisphere), marking the last such Venus transit until 2117. Few people alive today will be around to see the next transit, which makes the rare celestial sight a premier event in the astronomical and skywatching communities.

The Venus-sun show will begin around 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) and end at roughly 12:50 a.m. EDT (0450 GMT) Wednesday, with the exact timing varying by a few minutes from point to point around the globe.

There’s plenty of activity surrounding this event, so get out there!

Interesting development involving quantum entanglement and teleportation, via Richard Adhikari at TechNewsWorld…

Scientists in China have transmitted quantum bits, or qubits, over a record distance of 97 km, or roughly 60 miles.

This is more than six times the distance of the previous record of 16 km, set by another team of Chinese researchers in May of 2010, as reported in Nature.com.

The results represent a step toward the establishment of a global quantum network, and the methods used in the experiment could be utilized for satellite-based quantum communications, the scientists said.

“This is just a transmission method, so it could have wide utility, though I expect the cost will initially make it best for huge data streams,” Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told TechNewsWorld.

This technology “could end up changing much of the world” because it’s both potentially higher bandwidth and lower latency, approaching zero, and these factors “could drive massive computer centralization on a world scale and force a massive shakeout of security , networking and computer companies,” Enderle continued. “Something like this could turn us into a SaaS (Software as a Service) world.”

This will change the satcom business in a big, big way. It’s right there in the abstract:

With the help of quantum entanglement, quantum communication can be achieved between arbitrarily distant places without passing through intermediate locations by quantum teleportation. In the laboratory, quantum teleportation has been demonstrated over short distance by photonic and atomic qubits. Using fiber links, quantum teleportation has been achieved over kilometer distances. Long distance quantum teleportation is of particular interest and has been one of the holy grails of practical quantum communication. Most recently, quantum teleportation over 16 km free-space link was demonstrated. However, a major restriction in this experiment is that the unknown quantum state cannot directly come from outside. Here, based on an ultra-bright multi-photon entanglement source, we demonstrate quantum teleportation, closely following the original scheme, for any unknown state created outside, between two optical free-space links separated by 97 km. Over a 35-53 dB high-loss quantum channel, an average fidelity of 80.4(9) % is achieved for six distinct initial states. Besides being of fundamental interest, our result represents an important step towards a global quantum network. Moreover, the high-frequency and high-accuracy acquiring, pointing and tracking (APT) technique developed in our experiment can be directly utilized for future satellite-based quantum communication.

Download the report (PDF) for yourself and read on.