NASA Spitzer telescope celebrates ten years in space

A montage of images taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope over the years. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Ten years after a Delta II rocket launched NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, lighting up the night sky over Cape Canaveral, Fla., the fourth of the agency's four Great Observatories continues to illuminate the dark side of the cosmos with its infrared eyes.

The telescope studied comets and asteroids, counted stars, scrutinized planets and galaxies, and discovered soccer-ball-shaped carbon spheres in space called buckyballs.

Moving into its second decade of scientific scouting from an Earth-trailing orbit, Spitzer continues to explore the cosmos near and far.

One additional task is helping NASA observe potential candidates for a developing mission to capture, redirect and explore a near-Earth asteroid.

"President Obama's goal of visiting an asteroid by 2025 combines NASA's diverse talents in a unified endeavor," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington.

"Using Spitzer to help us characterize asteroids and potential targets for an asteroid mission advances both science and exploration."

Spitzer's infrared vision lets it see the far, cold and dusty side of the universe.

Close to home, the telescope has studied the comet dubbed Tempel 1, which was hit by NASA's Deep Impact mission in 2005.

Spitzer showed the composition of Tempel 1 resembled that of solar systems beyond our own. Spitzer also surprised the world by discovering the largest of Saturn's many rings.

The enormous ring, a wispy band of ice and dust particles, is very faint in visible light, but Spitzer's infrared detectors were able to pick up the glow from its heat.

Astronaut Sees 'UFO' Near Space Station - Video

When any kind of unidentified flying object floats by the International Space Station, you can bet astronauts are going to notice. That's just what happened this week, and one space traveler caught it all on video.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy was quick on the draw when he captured a video of the 'unidentified object' near the space station. He spotted the object floating near the space station on Monday (Aug. 19).

"Was it a UFO? Not really," NASA officials wrote in a video description. "Russian ground controllers identified it as an antenna cover from the Zvezda service module."

The object was an antenna cover from one of the low-gain WAL antennas on the space station used to help guide the European Space Agency's unmanned Automated Transfer Vehicle cargo ships during rendezvous and docking operations, NASA officials said.

An unidentified object floats near the International Space Station on August 19, 2013. 

Russian ground controllers later identified it as an antenna cover from the Zvezda service module.

Credit: NASA TV

NASA spokesman Josh Byerly told reporters that the wayward antenna cover, which is now space junk, poses no impact threat to the space station.

During a spacewalk outside the station today (Aug. 22), two Russian cosmonauts are inspecting six WAL antennas on the Zvezda module to check the positions of their covers.

The cosmonauts reported some of the covers to be loose and were expected to tighten them at a later date.

'Sail rover' could explore hellish Venus

A landing concept for a possible Venus windsurfing rover from the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts office. Credit: NASA

A windsailing rover could use the high speeds and hot temperatures of Venus to a robotic explorer's advantage, according to an idea funded by NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program.

The rover would not only be able to move around Venus, but would also have electronics inside able to withstand the temperatures of 450 degrees Celsius (840 degrees Fahrenheit).

The rover, which is nicknamed Zephyr, would spend most of its time on Venus doing analysis on the ground.

Whenever the science team wants to move some distance, however, it would deploy a sail that could bring it across the surface. One vision sees it sailing for about 15 minutes a day for about a month.

"A sail rover would be extraordinary for Venus. The sail has only two moving parts-just to set the sail and set the steering position-and that doesn't require a lot of power. There's no power required to actually drive," stated Geoffrey Landis, who is with NASA's Glenn Research Center.

"The fundamental elements of a rover for Venus are not beyond the bounds of physics," Landis added. "We could survive the furnace of Venus if we can come up with an innovative concept for a rover that can move on extremely low power levels."

Landis has had many ideas for exploring Venus, including using a solar powered airplane and colonizing the planet using floating cities.

You can read more details about the windsurfing rover here. If this gets to the mission phase, this would represent the first time that any robot landed on Venus since the Soviet Venera landers; the last attempt was in the 1980s.

A fluffy disk around a baby star

Artist’s rendition of the "fluffy" layer associated with the protoplanetary disk of RY Tau, including jets coming from the star. 

Although typical young stars like RY Tau are often associated with jets, they are not visible in the HiCIAO observations at this time. 

Credit: NAOJ

An international team of astronomers that are members of the Strategic Exploration of Exoplanets and Disks with Subaru Telescope (SEEDS) Project has used Subaru Telescope's High Contrast Instrument for the Subaru Next Generation Adaptive Optics (HiCIAO) to observe a disk around the young star RY Tau (Tauri).

The team's analysis of the disk shows that a "fluffy" layer above it is responsible for the scattered light observed in the infrared image.

Detailed comparisons with computer simulations of scattered light from the disk reveal that this layer appears to be a remnant of material from an earlier phase of stellar and disk development, when dust and gas were falling onto the disk.

Since 2009, the five-year SEEDS Project has focused on direct imaging of exoplanets, i.e., planets orbiting stars outside of our Solar System, and disks around a targeted total of 500 stars.

Planet formation, an exciting and active area for astronomical research, has long fascinated many scientists.

Disks of dust and gas that rotate around young stars are of particular interest, because astronomers think that these are the sites where planets form—in these so-called "protoplanetary disks."

Since young stars and disks are born in molecular clouds, giant clouds of dust and gas, the role of dust becomes an important feature of understanding planet formation; it relates not only to the formation of rocky, Earth-like planets and the cores of giant Jupiter-like planets but also to that of moons, planetary rings, comets, and asteroids.

As a part of the SEEDS Project, the current team of researchers used HiCIAO mounted on the Subaru Telescope to observe a possible planet-forming disk around the young star RY Tau.

This star is about 460 light years away from Earth in the constellation Taurus and is around half a million years old.

The disk has a radius of about 70 AU (10 billion kilometers), which is a few times larger than the orbit of Neptune in our own Solar System.

More information: Takami, M. et al, 2013, High-Contrast Near-Infrared Imaging Polarimetry of the Protoplanetary Disk around RY Tau, Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 772, paper 145.

ISS EVA: Russian Cosmonauts Wave Russia's Flag in Orbit, Tackle Faulty Gear

A cosmonaut unfurls a Russian flag outside the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Aug. 22, 2013, to mark Russian Flag Day.

Credit: NASA TV

A misaligned piece of gear on the International Space Station caused headaches in orbit for two spacewalking cosmonauts today (Aug. 22), but they ultimately triumphed and even managed to celebrate Russia's Flag Day with orbital style.

Veteran cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin proudly waved a Russian flag while soaring 260 miles (418 kilometers) above Earth to celebrate Russia's Flag Day holiday, which just happened to coincide with their nearly six-hour spacewalk.

"Congratulations to everyone on this day of the Russian flag," Yurchikhin said as he waved the flag in space. "Please remember to value and respect it, and we will respect ourselves."

Yurchikhin and fellow cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin let loose three "hoorahs" as they posed for TV and still cameras. They joked that some viewers wouldn't believe they were in space as the flag floated around them.

"It's a wonderful day," Yurchikhin quipped. "Some people might think that this is actually a performance. That this is staged somewhere down there … this is in space, as real as it comes."

The light-hearted moment capped a long day in orbit for Yurchikhin and Misurkin, who began their spacewalk at 7:36 a.m. EDT (1136 GMT).

They spent five hours and 58 minutes working outside on what was their second spacewalk in six days. The cosmonauts spent more than seven hours outside the station on Aug. 16, setting a new record for the longest Russian spacewalk.

ESA NASA Hubble Images: Changes in a black-hole-powered jet of hot gas

This sequence of images, taken over a 13-year span by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveals changes in a black-hole-powered jet of hot gas in the giant elliptical galaxy M87. 

The observations show that the river of plasma, traveling at nearly the speed of light, may follow the spiral structure of the black hole's magnetic field, which astronomers think is coiled like a helix. 

The magnetic field is believed to arise from a spinning accretion disk of material around a black hole. 

Although the magnetic field cannot be seen, its presence is inferred by the confinement of the jet along a narrow cone emanating from the black hole. 

The visible portion of the jet extends 5,000 light-years. M87 resides at the center of the neighboring Virgo cluster of roughly 2,000 galaxies, located 50 million light-years away. 

The images are part of a time-lapse movie that reveals changes in the jet over more than a 13-year period. 

They were taken by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2006 and Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in 1995, 1998, 2001, and 2007. 

Credit: NASA, ESA, E. Meyer, W. Sparks, J. Biretta, J. Anderson, S.T. Sohn, and R. van der Marel (STScI), C. Norman (Johns Hopkins University), and M. Nakamura (Academia Sinica)

Russian ISS EVA: Spacewalkers stumped by faulty equipment

A pair of Russian cosmonauts on a spacewalk Thursday ran into equipment trouble while trying to swap an old laser experiment for a new telescope mount at the International Space Station and had to give up.

They were making their second spacewalk in under a week.

Ultimately, Russian Mission Control told Fyodor Yurchikhin and Aleksandr Misurkin to give up and bring the telescope platform back inside.

"We have different objectives. We cannot spend a lot of time here," one of the cosmonauts said.

The spacewalkers' remaining chore: inspecting six antennas attached to Russia's main space station compartment.

On Monday, an antenna cover came off and floated away. Russian space officials want to know which antenna lost its protective shield.

The spacewalkers also were checking the remaining covers to make sure they're secure. At least two were loose, one by a lot.

Unable to get enough leverage to properly use a screw driver, the cosmonauts could not tighten one of the covers.

Aleksandr Misurkin

The U.S. space agency said the flyaway cover posed no risk to the space station.

NASA, meanwhile, has suspended all U.S. spacewalks while the investigation into last month's near-drowning continues.

An Italian astronaut's helmet filled with water during a spacewalk on July 16. He barely made it back inside. The water is believed to have originated from the suit's cooling system.

Early in Thursday's spacewalk, Russian Mission Control jokingly blared a few seconds of pop music into the cosmonauts' headsets.

"You want to keep the music on the loop?" Mission Control asked. "Well, if it's possible, yes," one of the spacewalkers replied.

"Are you already that tired of me that you want to listen to music instead of my voice?" Mission Control teased.

The reply from orbit: "Please, we never get tired of you."

The swiveling platform was to hold an optical telescope that will be launched in November and installed by spacewalking cosmonauts.

This was the 173rd spacewalk at the space station, coming up on the 15th anniversary of the launch of its first part.

The four other space station residents—two Americans, one Italian and another Russian—watched the spacewalk from inside.

As for the defective spacesuit of Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, NASA said it will return part or all of the outfit early next year on a commercial SpaceX capsule.