LOFAR discovers largest carbon atoms outside our Milky Way

The starburst galaxy M82, the size of the carbon atoms and the observed spectral line. 

Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

An international team of astronomers under the guidance of graduate student Leah Morabito of Leiden Observatory has for the first time discovered the largest carbon atoms outside our Milky Way with the LOFAR radio telescope.

In the future astronomers will be able to measure how cold and dense the gas around these atoms is that influences star formation and the evolution of a galaxy. The results are published in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters on October 28th.

"Carbon atoms are about half a million times smaller than the average thickness of a human hair, but they can be a billion times larger in the cold and sparse gas. The outermost electron is then orbiting the nucleus at a much larger distance," explains first author Morabito.

The outermost electron can be captured by an atom that is missing an electron. A spectral line will then be visible in the light spectrum. All spectral lines form the chemical fingerprint of an atom such as carbon.

Astronomers predicted in the 70's that the carbon spectral line would be detectable outside our galaxy. This first observation took 40 years to be made.

The line is hard to detect because it is too faint when the gas that is surrounding the atoms is too warm or too dense.

The cold, sparse gas is present in starburst galaxies, galaxies in which stars form at a high rate. For this reason the carbon spectral line is easier to detect in galaxies of this type.

Most radio telescopes observe at frequencies at which the carbon line can not be detected. Other telescopes are not sensitive enough to detect the spectral lines of the carbon atoms at low frequencies.

The LOFAR radio telescope, that stretches from the northeast of the Netherlands across Europe, is perfect for these kind of observations because of its frequency range and sensitivity.

Co-author Raymond Oonk from Leiden Observatory en ASTRON: "LOFAR is an unique telescope. This telescope opens up a new window on the universe."

The carbon atoms are present in the heart of the starburst galaxy M82, where 10 times more stars are being born in the same period as in our Milky Way.

The cold and sparse gas in this area impacts star formation, and the evolution of M82. "Since the co-discovery of the hydrogen 21-cm line by Dutch, American and Australian astronomers, we have been looking for a way to determine additional properties of the cold gas such as its temperature and density. It is fantastic that we now have found a way thanks to this carbon line.

We can now collect more and better observations, and compare them to predictions from theoretical models," says co-author Huub Röttgering (Leiden Observatory).

More information: "Discovery of Carbon Radio Recombination Lines in M82," Leah K. Morabito et al., Astrophysical Journal Letters, 28 October 2014 DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/795/2/L33 . http://arxiv.org/abs/1410.1544

India Seeking Outside Collaboration on High-throughput Satellite

“We are looking for international cooperation in this area,” ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said. 

Credit: Photo courtesy of Indian government

The Indian government wants a high-throughput satellite generating at least 100 gigabits-per-second in orbit within five years and is seeking international partners in its development, ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said.

If pursued, the project would mark a rare opportunity for foreign suppliers to crack India’s mainly closed satellite telecommunications market, which in any case has shown signs of opening in the past year.

“We are looking for international cooperation in this area,” ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said in an address to the 65th International Astronautical Congress in Toronto (IAC 2014).

ISRO, with collaboration from domestic companies, builds its own satellites and operates them for its own account, and then acts as India’s telecommunications regulator with respect to pricing and market access by non-Indian satellite fleet operators.

International collaboration on Satellite Communications Systems is a normal part of the Space Industry and provides the most cost effective solution for countries.

Rapid technological advancements and the provision of advanced communications would be readily supported and used to great advantage by India's technologically astute corporations.

For India, the question will be whether to adopt a satellite broadband model such as in the United States, where Hughes Network Systems and ViaSat Inc. own their own satellites, build consumer broadband terminals and sell the service; or to purchase competing technologies.

Maryland-based Hughes Communications, owned by EchoStar Corp., Colorado, has long targeted India as a market ripe for consumer broadband.

The Hughes Comms' SPACEWAY 3 satellite, built by Boeing Satellite Systems International, Inc., was successfully launched on August 14, 2007 by Arianespace and is in its permanent geosynchronous orbital slot of 95° West longitude. 

Credit: Hughes Comms

Hughes has recently purchased Ka-band capacity on a satellite being built for fleet operator Eutelsat of Paris for a consumer broadband project in Brazil.

Evidence of water ice clouds found outside solar system

Credit: A. Fujii

A team of scientists led by Carnegie's Jacqueline Faherty has discovered the first evidence of water ice clouds on an object outside of our own Solar System.

Water ice clouds exist on our own gas giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, but have not been seen outside of the planets orbiting our Sun until now.

Their findings are published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

At the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, Faherty, along with a team including Carnegie's Andrew Monson, used the FourStar near infrared camera to detect the coldest brown dwarf ever characterised.

Their findings are the result of 151 images taken over three nights and combined.

The object, named WISE J085510.83-071442.5, or W0855, was first seen by NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Explorer mission and published earlier this year. But it was not known if it could be detected by Earth-based facilities.

"This was a battle at the telescope to get the detection," said Faherty.

Chris Tinney, an Astronomer at the Australian Centre for Astrobiology, UNSW Australia and co-author on the result stated: "This is a great result. This object is so faint and it's exciting to be the first people to detect it with a telescope on the ground."

Brown dwarfs aren't quite very small stars, but they aren't quite giant planets either.

They are too small to sustain the hydrogen fusion process that fuels stars.

Their temperatures can range from nearly as hot as a star to as cool as a planet, and their masses also range between star-like and giant planet-like.

They are of particular interest to scientists because they offer clues to star-formation processes. They also overlap with the temperatures of planets, but are much easier to study since they are commonly found in isolation.


A team of scientists led by Carnegie's Jacqueline Faherty has discovered the first evidence of water ice clouds on an object outside of our own Solar System. 

Water ice clouds exist on our own gas giant planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, but have not been seen outside of the planets orbiting our Sun until now.

Their findings are published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 

Credit: Produced and directed by Brian Patrick Abbott. Written by Jacqueline K. Faherty

W0855 is the fourth-closest system to our own Sun, practically a next-door neighbour in astronomical distances.

A comparison of the team's near-infrared images of W0855 with models for predicting the atmospheric content of brown dwarfs showed evidence of frozen clouds of sulphide and water.

"Ice clouds are predicted to be very important in the atmospheres of planets beyond our Solar System, but they've never been observed outside of it before now," Faherty said.

Russian cosmonauts have found sea plankton on outside of ISS

The International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-132 crew member on board the Space Shuttle Atlantis after the station and shuttle began their post-undocking relative separation. 

Credit: NASA/Crew of STS-132

The Russian news agency ITAR-TASS is claiming that Russian officials have confirmed that Russian cosmonauts have found sea plankton on the outside of the International Space Station.

The news agency reports that the cosmonauts have also found traces of other organisms on the outside of the station as well.

To date, no other news group has been able to confirm the report and thus far it appears no other agency, including NASA has been able to confirm the claims made by the Russians.

Finding sea plankton on the outside of the ISS would be remarkable, as the outside of the station is of course exposed to space, a hostile environment, to say the least.

NASA officials reported that they were aware that Russian cosmonauts were conducting experiments on the exterior of the space station (primarily on windows known as illuminators), but were unaware of what they entailed.

They note that cosmonauts have conducted such experiments as recently as this past week. The same officials report that they have not heard the results of any findings regarding the experiments from the Russian scientists directly, and thus, cannot comment on what the Russians are claiming.

One scientist with NASA, Lynn Rothschild, suggested that if the claims turn out to be true, the plankton likely made its way to the ISS aboard a space station module.

Reports of the sea plankton findings have come, ITAR-TASS reports, from Vladimir Solovyev, chief of the Russian ISS orbital mission, he's also reporting that the type of plankton found is not native to the parts of Russia where spacecraft are launched, he theorizes that air currents could have pushed the plankton to the station (plankton is known to make its way into the atmosphere).

The findings, he continues, confirm that organisms can live on the outer surface of the space station, something Russian scientists have apparently been studying for over a year, though he didn't actually come right out and say that the specimens found were still alive.

He also reports that the outside of the space station is covered with material from spacecraft engines that is emitted as they come and go. Of concern are the illuminators, which now need to be polished.

Mars Curiosity Rover: Travels outside landing ellipse

Nasa Curiosity Rover treks across Martian dunes and drives outside landing ellipse here, in this photo mosaic view captured on Sol 672, June 27, 2014. 

Distant eroded rim of Gale Crater seen in background. Navcam camera raw images stitched and colorized. 

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /Marco Di Lorenzo /Ken Kremer

NASA's intrepid robot Curiosity is roving rapidly across the sandy ripples of the Red Planet in her quest to reach mysterious Mount Sharp and just drove outside her landing ellipse!

The six wheeled rover marked a major milestone on Sol 672, June 27, 2014, by driving beyond her targeted landing ellipse for the first time since touchdown nearly two years ago on August 5, 2012.

"On yestersol's drive [June 27], I left my landing ellipse, the 20×25 km area I targeted for landing," Curiosity tweeted across interplanetary space.

See our new Sol 672 photo mosaic above showing Curiosity's glorious view marking this major achievement just days ago.

Since switching paths to smoother, sandier terrain with less sharp edged rocks, Curiosity continues rolling across the floor of her Gale Crater landing site.

"After traversing 82 meters the rover stopped because it determined that it was slipping too much," wrote mission scientist Ken Herkenhoff in an update.

"Coincidentally, the rover stopped right on the landing ellipse, a major mission milestone!"

"The vehicle was designed to be able to traverse far enough to drive out of the region defined by the uncertainty in the landing location, and has now achieved that laudable goal."

Curiosity treks to Mount Sharp in this photo mosaic view captured on Sol 669, June 24, 2014. 

Navcam camera raw images stitched and coloured. 

Credit: NASA /JPL-Caltech /Marco Di Lorenzo /Ken Kremer

The SUV sized rover automatically stopped when it encountered soft sand and sensed that it wasn't making enough progress. It's been programmed with this built in safety check to avoid being trapped in a quagmire.

Earlier last week, Curiosity celebrated another milestone anniversary on June 24 (Sol 669), 1 Martian Year on Mars!

A Martian year is equivalent to 687 Earth days, or nearly two Earth years.

Curiosity crosses landing ellipse on Sol 672. 

Credit: NASA/JPL

During Year 1 on Mars, Earth's emissary has already accomplished her primary objective of discovering a habitable zone on the Red Planet that contains the minerals necessary to support microbial life in the ancient past.

So there's no stopping Curiosity on her way to Mount Sharp, which dominates the center of Gale Crater and reaches 3.4 miles (5.5 km) into the Martian sky, taller than Mount Rainier.

Curiosity rover panorama of Mount Sharp captured on June 6, 2014 (Sol 651) during traverse inside Gale Crater. 

Note rover wheel tracks at left. She will eventually ascend the mountain at the ‘Murray Buttes’ at right later this year. 

Assembled from Mastcam colour camera raw images and stitched by Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer. 

Credit: NASA /JPL /MSSS /Marco Di Lorenzo /Ken Kremer

Driving, Driving, Driving, that's Curiosity's number one priority as she traverses across the surface of Gale Crater towards towering Mount Sharp on an expedition in search of the chemical ingredients of life that could support Martian microbes if they ever existed.

Curiosity still has about another 2.4 miles (3.9 kilometers) to go to reach the entry way at a gap in the dunes at the foothills of Mount Sharp sometime later this year.

To date, Curiosity's odometer totals over 5.1 miles (8.4 kilometers) since landing inside Gale Crater on Mars in August 2012. She has taken over 162,000 images.

Russian Cosmonauts Taking 7-Hour Spacewalk Outside Station

Two Russian cosmonauts are tackling a seven-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station today (Dec. 27) to install commercial high-resolution cameras and other new experiments on the orbiting lab's hull. You can watch the spacewalk live here in the window above.

Kotov

Today's spacewalk began at about 8 a.m. EST (1300 GMT) and is being performed by Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy.

The two spacewalkers will install two high-fidelity cameras on the Earth-facing side of the station's Russian-built Zvezda service module for the commercial Earth imagery company Urthecast (pronounced Earthcast), which seeks to offer live HD webcasts of Earth from space via an online service.

Today's spacewalk is unrelated to two earlier spacewalks by American astronauts to replace a coolant pump on the space station.

Ryazanskiy

Kotov and Ryazanskiy will also install hardware for a new earthquake-monitoring experiment, called Seismoprognoz, and remove and older experiment that tracked the seismic effects of high-energy particles in the near-Earth environment, NASA officials said.

That older experiment, called Vsplesk, will be tossed into space in a direction that won't endanger the space station so it can burn up in Earth's atmosphere.

The spacewalkers will also dispose of a frame to an old material exposure experiment and retrieve a case of samples from a materials space exposure experiment during their work outside the International Space Station.

Do Auroras Exist Outside our Solar System?

University of Leicester planetary scientists have found new evidence suggesting auroras -- similar to Earth's Aurora Borealis -- occur on bodies outside our solar system. 

Auroras occur on several planets within our solar system, and the brightest -- on Jupiter -- are 100 times brighter than those on Earth. 

However, no auroras have yet been observed beyond Neptune.

A new study led by University of Leicester lecturer Dr. Jonathan Nichols has shown that processes strikingly similar to those which power Jupiter's auroras could be responsible for radio emissions detected from a number of objects outside our solar system.

In addition, the radio emissions are powerful enough to be detectable across interstellar distances -- meaning that auroras could provide an effective way of observing new objects outside our solar system.

Auroras occur when charged particles in an object's magnetosphere collide with atoms in its upper atmosphere, causing them to glow.

However, before hitting the atmosphere, these particles also emit radio waves into space.

The study, "Origin of Electron Cyclotron Maser Induced Radio Emissions at Ultracool Dwarfs: Magnetosphere-Ionosphere Coupling Currents," which recently appeared in the Astrophysical Journal, shows that this phenomenon is not limited to our solar system.

It shows that the radio emissions from a number of ultracool dwarfs may be caused in a very similar, but significantly more powerful, way to Jupiter's auroras.

Dr. Nichols, a Lecturer and Research Fellow in the University of Leicester's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: "We have recently shown that beefed-up versions of the auroral processes on Jupiter are able to account for the radio emissions observed from certain "ultracool dwarfs" -- bodies which comprise the very lowest mass stars -- and "brown dwarfs" -- 'failed stars' which lie in-between planets and stars in terms of mass.

"These results strongly suggest that auroras do occur on bodies outside our solar system, and the auroral radio emissions are powerful enough -- one hundred thousand times brighter than Jupiter's -- to be detectable across interstellar distances."

The paper, which also involved researchers at the Center for Space Physics, Boston University, USA, could have major implications for the detection of planets and objects outside our solar system which could not be discovered with other methods.

Underwater Ordnance Watch: The search for discarded chemical agents outside Pearl Harbor

What Margo Edwards calls “My Scientific Detective Story” begins with flashbacks.

World War II is over. Mustard agent (a liquid used to produce mustard gas) has been stockpiled for decades from Europe to Asia.

Disposal options: bury, burn or dump the containers at sea.

Years later, Baltic Sea fishermen find unusual nodules in their nets. The polymerised balls contain liquid that burns the skin of people who come in contact with it.

The United States signs a 1975 treaty banning ocean disposal of chemical weapons. One year later, scientists conducting a biological survey for the Department of Defense south of Pearl Harbour find a dozen leaky cylinders; people handling them suffer mustard burns. A follow-up survey observes conventional munitions, but no additional mustard containers.

Further information at University of Hawaii website