Hubble: time to say goodbye?

A couple of weeks ago, the famous Hubble Space Telescope developed an equipment malfunction that prevented it from returning data to earth. Although the equipment had been operating contiuously since 1990, and in spite of the fact that there is already a spare part on board, some have been calling for the venerable spacecraft to be put out to pasture. As you might expect, much of the argument comes down to money.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990, at a cost of about $1.6 billon. Since that time another $8.4 billion has been invested. To service the telescope this year will cost another $900 million dollars. A new infrared telescope due to be launched in 2013 is estimated to cost $4.5 billion, so the Hubble repairs are a lot cheaper than a new optical telescope would be. In addition, it would extend the Hubble's life expectancy anohter six or seven years.

I have seen several accounts of who made the decision, but recently a "Top Ten" of Hubble images has been available. You can see all ten at the link below, but I've copied a couple of my favorites below.

http://www.cosmiclighthouse.com/jun08/articles/hubble_top10

In 1995, after just five years in operation, NASA also announced the "Top Ten" discoveries made by Hubble:

1*Offered the first conclusive evidence for the existence of immense black holes, millions or billions of times the mass of Earth's Sun. 2* Showed that the universe might be much younger than had been previously thought. This was accomplished by calculating the universe's expansion rate based on an accurate Hubble distance measurement to a remote galaxy. 3* Gave the first direct visual evidence that the universe is evolving as predicted in Big Bang cosmology, by resolving the shapes of the farthest galaxies ever seen. 4* Discovered that quasars, very distant and remarkably bright objects, are even more mysterious than commonly thought because many do not dwell in the cores of galaxies, but are isolated in space. 5* Suggested that dark matter in the universe is more exotic than previously thought, by finding that nature doesn't make enough of the extremely small Red Dwarf stars that were once a leading candidate for the universe's "missing mass." 6* Supported the Big Bang theory by refining estimates of the amount of deuterium in space, an element created in the initial cosmic fireball that gave birth to the universe. 7* Solved the mystery of intergalactic clouds of hydrogen by showing that they are really gigantic halos of galaxies. 8* Implied that planets, and presumably life, might be abundant in the universe by discovering disks of dust that might be embryonic planetary systems around young stars. 9* Provided important details and surprising findings of the spectacular collisions of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter last year. 10* Revealed dynamic weather changes on nearly all the planets with a clarity once attainable only with spacecraft flybys. Scientists found that most planets' atmospheres are much more active than previously believed, and the ability of Hubble to 'revisit' the planets allows frequent monitoring similar to Earth weather satellites. http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/1995/95-56.txt

http://www.space.com/news/080930-hubble-worth-saving.html

MESSENGER shows details of Mercury!

More of Mercury is now known than ever before. Monday the MESSENGER spacecraft came within 27,000 km of Mercury- that's 17,000 miles- one fifteenth the distance between the earth and the moon. Very close. It certainly does look a lot like the moon. Go to the link below, and follow the hyperlink to "MESSENGER photo gallery" to see some great high resolution pictures.

http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/07oct_firstresults.htm

"Unbelievably large" telescopes proposed for the Moon

It might sound like cutting edge science, but this idea was first proposed by Sir Isaac Newton hundreds of years ago! The idea is that instead of a solid mirror, a mirror be made of a rotating bowl of liquid- the surface will naturally form a curved parabolic shape needed to focus incoming light. The only disadvantage is that the telescope can only point in one direction- straight up!



It turns out that this design is not so novel, though- The University of British Columbia has a six meter rotating liquid mirror in their Zenith telescope- making it the third largest optical telescope in North America. Six meters is about 18 feet, well over 200 inches- our school telescope has an eight inch mirror!
Furthermore, there is another telescope that only points up- the massive 1000 foot ( 12,000 inch!) Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, the largest single dish telescope of any kind on the entire planet- the largest in the universe as far as we know! That telescope has technology to allow it to be pointed a little bit- otherwise the rotation of the Earth determines where it is pointed.

Of course, if a lunar telescope were placed near one of the moon's poles, it would get a changing view every 18 years or so. The moon, like the earth, wobbles ("precession"). The moon's wobble is completed about every 19 years. Further, of the telescope were located inside a grater, it could stay in the cool dark all the time; solar panels could be placed on illuminated mountain peaks nearby to produce the electricity needed to run it.

So how big is "unbelievably large"? Well, the first proposed would be a 20 meter ( 60 foot) telescope, much larger than any optical telescope on Earth, but others proposed are up to 100 meters across- larger than the length of a football field!




http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/09oct_liquidmirror.htm?list65645

It's Snowing on Mars!

It is wintertime at the Phoenix Mars lander site. And there is snow to prove it!  The Phoenix has a laser device to study the atmosphere- and it detected snow falling about 4 km (2.5 miles) above the study area. It appears to be evaporating before it hits the ground.  "Nothing like this view has ever been seen on Mars," said Jim Whiteway, of York University, Toronto, lead scientist for the Canadian-supplied Meteorological Station on Phoenix. "We'll be looking for signs that the snow may even reach the ground." 

Five months ago when the lander began its three month mission, the sun never set at that latitude. Now, however, the sun is setting for four hours at a time, and the solar panels are producing less and less energy. The mission is expected to run out of energy before the end of the year.  Before that happens, though, the team hopes to activate a microphone, allowing us to hear what Mars sounds like. Watch- and listen to- this space!

Information from JPL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?

Happy 50th Birthday NASA!

NASA is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  It was officially created on October 1st, 1958.  Before that, it was the armed forces (army and navy) that had responsibility for the rocketry and space sciences.  

The first successful launch of an American satellite was the January 1958 Explorer I spacecraft, about three months after the Soviet Union launch the very first successful orbital satellite, Sputnik I, and about two months after the Soviets put the first living thing into orbit around the earth, a dog named Laika.  She was a stray Siberian husky, around three years old. She was strapped in, and had access to food and water, and many probes attached to monitor her vital signs. However, there was no attempt made to return the dog safely to Earth. She died in space when her air supply was exhausted. The spacecraft later fell into the atmosphere and burned.  There is a monument to Laika and other fallen cosmonauts in Russia.

It's pretty incredible that it was only about ten years later that the first humans escaped the Earth's gravity and travelled to the moon in Apollo 8, launched by the United States in 1968.  From 1969 to 1972, the United States landed twelve humans on the moon and returned them safely. Since then, we have relied on robotic missions to explore space beyond a low earth orbit. 

Examples of some of these unmanned probes include the Voyagers, launched in the 1970's and just now approaching the edges of our solar system; the robotic explorers of Mars, Opportunity and Spirit, and the recent Phoenix probe; The Hubble Space Telescope; and many many more.  

NASA is currently collaborating with fifteen other countries on the International Space Station.

Chinese Astronauts in Orbit

China is one of only three nations on Earth to send people into space.  Space being, more precisely, in orbit about 350 kilometers (about 200 miles) above the surface of the earth. On September 25 China sent its third manned mission into orbit, with the goal of this mission being a space walk.  China's manned space program has been in existence for 16 years. Previous missions were launched in 2003 and 2005. The next missions are designed to support the Chinese effort to build a space station in orbit around the earth.  Future plans include landing Chinese astronauts on the Moon by 2017 with the expressed purpose of looking into the possibility of exploiting the Moon's Tritium, or Hydrogen-3 as an energy source back on earth...

Although I refer to the Chinese space travelers as "astronauts", they are often referred to in English as "taikonauts" much as Russians are referred to as "cosmonauts". "Taikong" is the Chinese word for space. In China, however, the astronauts are referred to as "yuhangyuans", which translates as "space navigators".  The picture above is artwork from http://www.spacetoday.org/China/ChinaTaikonauts.html 

The LHC is getting lots of press!

The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) got a lot of media attention last week, with Google even modifying their logo to look like the collider.  Apparently it has also generated some music on youtube.  While this video is amusing, it also is quite informative.  The unusual voice at the beginning and end are meant to simulate the voice of Dr. Steven Hawking.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM