Really Rocket Science

Fantastic collection of the Hubble Space Telescope’s “Top 100 Images” on the ESA site. All beautiful, with some more interesting that others. For example, the “engraved hourglass nebula” or MyCn18…

This is an image of MyCn18, a young planetary nebula located about 8,000 light-years away, taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).

This Hubble image reveals the true shape of MyCn18 to be an hourglass with an intricate pattern of ‘etchings’ in its walls. This picture has been composed from three separate images taken in the light of ionized nitrogen (represented by red), hydrogen (green), and doubly-ionized oxygen (blue).

The results are of great interest because they shed new light on the poorly understood ejection of stellar matter which accompanies the slow death of Sun-like stars. In previous ground-based images, MyCn18 appears to be a pair of large outer rings with a smaller central one, but the fine details cannot be seen.

Credit: Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger (JPL), the WFPC2 science team, and NASA/ESA

Worlds: The Kepler Planet Candidates from Alex Parker on Vimeo.

All 2,299 Kepler’s candidate planets in one video, via Alex Parker…

This animation shows the 2299 high-quality (multiple transits), non-circumbinary transiting planet candidates found by NASA’s Kepler mission so far. These candidates were detected around 1770 unique stars, but are animated in orbit around a single star. They are drawn to scale with accurate radii (in r / r* ), orbital periods, and orbital distances (in d / r*). They range in size from 1/3 to 84 times the radius of Earth. Colors represent an estimate of equilibrium temperature, ranging from 4,586 C at the hottest to -110 C at the coldest – red indicates warmest, and blue / indigo indicates coldest candidates.

Watching in full screen + HD is recommended, so you can see even the smallest planets!

The animation is rendered with a time-step of 30 minutes, equal to the long-cadence time sample of the Kepler observatory. Three white rings illustrate the average orbital distances of Mercury, Venus, and Earth on the same scale.

When the system is animated edge-on, it is clear that there is no time during which the sample of stars the Kepler spacecraft is observing does not contain a planet transiting a star. In fact, on average there are dozens of transits occurring amongst the Kepler sample at any given instant.

The Kepler observatory has detected a multitude of planet candidates orbiting distant stars. The current list contains 2321 planet candidates, though some of these have already been flagged as likely false-positives or contamination from binary stars. This animation does not contain circumbinary planets or planet candidates where only a single transit has been observed, which is why “only” 2299 are shown.

I have illustrated the planet candidates as if they orbit a single star. Using a transit lightcurve, a planet’s distance from a star and its radius are both measured in terms of the host stars’ radius, and those relationships are preserved here. This means that for two planets of equal size, if one orbits a larger star it will be drawn smaller here. Similarly, because the orbital distances scale with the host stars’ sizes, some planets orbit faster than others at a given distance from the star in the animation (when in reality, planets on circular orbits around a given star always orbit at the same speed at a given distance). These faster-moving planets are orbiting denser stars.

A fraction of these candidates will likely be ruled out as false positives as time goes on, while the remainder stand to be confirmed as real planets by follow-up analysis. For example, the large orange object in a very close-in orbit was shown to be a background eclipsing binary blend by arxiv.org/abs/1207.2481

At the beginning of the animation, the grid of rectangles that briefly appears represents the focal plane array of CCD detectors onboard Kepler.

Dan Peterson of Racine, Wisconsin, captured this meteor smacking Jupiter.

Nice video rendering. We know it’s really not that pretty.

Yeah, and no music in space…

This video shows Hubble observations of Arp 116, a pair of galaxies in the constellation of Virgo. It is made up of M60, a large elliptical galaxy, and a smaller, bluer spiral galaxy, NGC 4647. It has long been unclear whether the two galaxies are actually interacting, or whether they simply appear close together from our distant vantage point. However, detailed studies of Hubble pictures suggest that the pair are beginning to experience tidal forces.

Credit: NASA, ESA. Music: R. Vreeland

Via ESA. Makes a pretty picture (more…)

Mars Panorama – Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 2 in New Mexico

Very cool.

Hope more Mars images become available by our friends at Big Bang Prints soon.

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.

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

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!

This Saturday, 28 April 2012, is National Astronomy Day. Get out there and look up!

Depending on where you are, you’ll need to get away from all the “light pollution” that interferes with stargazing. Try the Dark Sky Finder for guidance. And if you want to dig deeper, take a look at the work being done by our paisanos over at Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia dell’Inquinamento Luminoso (Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute).

Need a telescope? Check out the promotion Celestron is doing with Astronomy magazine…

Astronomy magazine and Celestron are coming to a location near you! Here’s where you can go to win a Celestron telescope and Astronomy magazine prizes…check back regularly for updates (unless otherwise noted, events will be held April 28):

Location: Prestonsburg, Kentucky
Venue: East Kentucky Science Center & Planetarium
Website: bigsandy.kctcs.edu

Location: Schenectady, New York
Venue: Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium
Website: schenectadymuseum.org

Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Venue: Fernbank Science Center
Website: fernbank.edu

Location: Boulder, Colorado
Venue: Sommers-Bausch Observatory & Fiske Planetarium
Event date: May 20, 2012
Website: cosmos.colorado.edu and fiske.colorado.edu

Location: Cartersville, Georgia
Venue: Tellus Northwest Georgia Science Museum 
Website: www.tellusmuseum.org

Location: Chicago, Illinois
Venue: The Adler Planetarium
Website: www.adlerplanetarium.org/

Location: Dayton, Ohio
Venue: Boonshoft Museum of Discovery
Website: www.boonshoftmuseum.org

Location: Milford, Michigan
Venue: Kensington Metropark
Website: www.metroparks.com

Location: El Paso, Texas
Venue: Gene Roddenberry Planetarium
Website: www.episd.org

Location: Flagstaff, Arizona
Venue: Lowell Observatory
Website: www.lowell.edu

Location: Hilo, Hawaii
Venue: AstroDay at Prince Kuhlo Plaza
Event Date: May 5, 2012
Website: www.astroday.net

Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Venue: Science City at Union Station
Event Date: May 4, 2012
Website: www.sciencecity.com

Location: Lincoln, Nebraska
Venue: Mueller Planetarium at University of Nebraska State Museum
Website: www.spacelaser.com

Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Venue: Sudekum Planetarium at the Adventure Science Center
Event date: June 2, 2012
Website: www.sudekumplanetarium.com

Location: Oakland, California
Venue: Chabot Space & Science Center
Website: www.chabotspace.org/

Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Venue: Arizona Science Center
Event Date: May 5, 2012
Website: azscience.org

Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Venue: Carnegie Science Center
Event date: March 31, 2012
Website: www.carnegiesciencecenter.org

Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Venue: St. Louis Science Center
Website: www.slsc.org

Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Venue: Gheens Science Hall and Rauch Planetarium
Event Date: June 6, 2012
Website: www.louisville.com/planetarium

Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Venue: Franklin Institute Science Museum
Website: www.fi.edu

Location: Seattle, Washington
Venue: Pacific Science Center
Website: www.pacificsciencecenter.org

Location: Waukesha, Wisconsin
Venue: Retzer Nature Center
Website: www.waukeshacounty.gov/defaultwc.aspx?id=39577

Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Venue: Clark Planetarium
Website: www.clarkplanetarium.org

Location: Portland, Oregon
Venue: Kendall Planetarium
Website: www.omsi.edu/planetarium

NASA awards $3 million contract to Space System/Loral to begin process of hosting a space laser communications relay demonstration terminal payload aboard a commercial satellite.
[SatNews – 04/20/2012]

ISRO plans to launch its biggest spacecraft ever, the 5,000-kg GSAT-11, by 2014.
[The Hindu Businessline – 04/20/2012]

New nanosat designed by European Satellite Agency promises new opportunities to test ground-breaking satellite software on an actual mission in space.
[Product Design & Development – 04/20/2012]

Upon receipt of an overdue payment of $56.25 million from LightSquared, Inmarsat agrees to suspend further payments until 2014, giving LightSquared some breathing room.
[Reuters – 04/20/2012]

Next-generation DVB-S2 satellite service offered out of Perth, Australia by SpeedCast in partnership with SatComms Australia, finds its first major customer in Saxon Energy Services.
[SatNews – 04/20/2012]

SES-4, launched on February 15th, the 50th and largest satellite in the fleet, is now fully operational and ready for service at orbital location of 338 degrees East.
[SatNews – 04/19/2012]

Second Advanced Extremely High Frequency communication satellite ready for launch May 3, poised to give war fighters a 10 fold increase in capacity after years of delay in the program and a glitch that almost scuttled the first AEHF satellite.
[National Defense Magazine – 04/19/2012]

Europe’s latest second-generation meteorological spacecraft, MSG-3, arrives in French Guiana to be readied for June 19 dual-payload launch on Ariane 5.
[SatNews – 04/19/2012]

The second satellite of the United Arab Emirates’ space communications program, Y1B, is ready to be launched on a Proton launcher from Baikonur in Kazakhstan on April 23.
[Defense Professionals – 04/19/2012]
Satellite Today Webcast April 23

Space Systems/Loral completes construction of Intelsat 19 ahead of schedule, and the satellite is now at the Sea Launch home port in Long Beach.
[Market Watch – 04/19/2012]

Asia Broadcast Satellite seeks $215 million loan from Export-Import Bank of the U.S. for construction of new satellites.
[Bloomberg – 04/19/2012]

Honeywell agrees to work with satellite communications company Inmarsat on providing in-flight internet connection for airline passengers.
[CBS News – 04/19/2012]

SES and Encompass Media sign capacity deal making NASA TV channels available to satellite TV providers and cable outlets throughout the U.S.
[SatNews – 04/19/2012]

Report from U.S. State and Defense Departments states that China is stealing U.S. military and civilian space technology in effort to disrupt U.S. access to intelligence, navigation and communication satellites.
[Business Week – 04/18/2012]

U.S. Defense and State Departments jointly recommend that Congress ease export controls on satellites that have become less militarily sensitive to allow American companies to better compete in the world market.
[NextGov – 04/18/2012]

FCC sets deadlines for comments on plan for flexible use of 2 GHz satellite band, moving closer to proposal that could allow Dish to launch its LTE network.
[Wireless Week – 04/18/2012]

Telesat’s Nimiq 6 satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral, arrives at Baikonur Space Center in Kazakhstan, where it will be launched on a Proton Breeze M vehicle.
[Market Watch – 04/18/2012]

Australia’s NBN process of moving ahead with satellite construction and launch plans ahead of actual approval of the satellite slots meets with ITU requirements since the application for the slots is underway.
[PC Advisor – 04/18/2012]

Communications on four Eutelsat satellites will be used to cover the French Presidential elections.
[Market Watch – 04/18/2012]

Raytheon successfully downloads and delivers Defense Weather Satellite data via Antarctica with 50% reduction in latency.
[Market Watch – 04/18/2012]

Hughes announces the addition of Ka-band mobile satellite equipment and other communications products to its GSA schedule 70 contract.
[Market Watch – 04/18/2012]

RRSAT and THAICOM extend contract for global distribution of Vietnam Television.
[Market Watch – 04/18/2012]

Unfurlable mesh antenna reflectors aboard DoD’s recently launched MUOS satellite are successfully tested in space.
[Market Watch – 04/17/2012]

University of Navarre’s doctorate thesis describes satellite antenna array designed as a cone such that “radiation is uniformly incident on all parts of the Earth, thus avoiding some zones receiving more energy than others”.
[Basque Research – 04/17/2012]

ITT Exelis, Britain’s BAE Systems and L-3 Communications Holdings have created a joint venture to bid for a huge contract to manage and maintain the U.S. Air Force’s satellite launch and test ranges.
[Reuters – 04/17/2012]

Kratos Integral Systems International selected by Boeing to provide turnkey ground segment solution to support entire constellation of Boeing 702 and Orbital STAR2 satellites for MEXSAT.
[Market Watch – 04/17/2012]

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions subsidiary RT Logic releases CyberC4(TM), a family of cyber security products designed specifically for the satellite industry.
[Market Watch – 04/17/2012]

Military takes control of fourth WGS satellite following completion of on-orbit tests by Boeing.
[UPI – 04/16/2012]

European Space Agency struggles to restore contact with its massive 10 year old satellite Envisat, after it lost touch with Earth.
[Space – 04/16/2012]

Intelsat and PCCW Global of Hong Kong agree to interconnect their MPLS networks to expand the IntelsatONE terrestrial network.
[Market Watch – 04/16/2012]

Undisputed evidence showing ICO waived its claim for breach of a satellite contract by Boeing leads to three-judge appellate court’s reversal of a 2008 jury award to ICO against Boeing for over $600 million.
[Gulf News – 04/15/2012]

Sailors who have grown up used to instant access to friends and family by broadband and the Internet are finding themselves and their families stressed out when they go to sea and have these lines of communications restricted or severed.
[Navy Times – 04/15/2012]

Some scientists believe that a solar storm on April 5, 2010, observed by NASA satellites TWINS and IBIX, was responsible for the loss of control of Galaxy 15, which drifted out of control for almost a year before operators regained control and returned it to its assigned orbit.
[NASA – article]

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