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Mars Base

Alien Super-Earth Light Seen for 1st Time | Exoplanet Search | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/light-detected-55-cancrie.html

scibyte45 exoplanet Spitzer

shared by Mars Base on 09 May 12 - No Cached
  • Light from an alien "super-Earth" twice the size of our own Earth has been detected by a NASA space telescope for the first time
  • spotted light from the alien planet 55 Cancri e, which orbits a star 41 light-years from Earth
  • A year on the extrasolar planet lasts just 18 hours
  • ...27 more annotations...
  • 55 Cancri e was first discovered in 2004 and is not a habitable world
  • The world is about twice the width of Earth and is super-dense, with about eight times the mass of Earth.
  • until now, scientists have never managed to detect the infrared light from the super-Earth world.
  • pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope
  • Spitzer first detected infrared light from an alien planet in 2005
  • that world was "hot Jupiter," a gas giant planet much larger than 55 Cancri e that orbited extremely close to its parent star
  • other telescopes have performed similar feats
  • Spitzer's view of the 55 Cancri e is the first time the light from a rocky super-Earth type planet has been seen
  • Since the discovery of 55 Cancri e, astronomers have pinned down increasingly strange features about the planet
  • already knew it was part of an alien solar system containing five exoplanets centered on the star 55 Cancri in the constellation Cancer
  • But 55 Cancri e stood out because it is ultra-dense and orbits extremely close to its parent star
  • 26 times closer than the distance between Mercury and our own sun
  • observations revealed that the star-facing side of 55 Cancri e
  • temperatures reaching up to 3,140 degrees Fahrenheit (1,726 degrees Celsius).
  • likely a dark world that lacks the substantial atmosphere needed to warm its nighttime side
  • the planet is oozing
  • Past observations of the planet by the Spitzer Space Telescope have suggested that one-fifth of 55 Cancri e is made up of lighter elements, including water
  • the extreme temperatures and pressures on 55 Cancri e would create what scientists call a "supercritical fluid" state
  • Supercritical fluids can be imagined as a gas in a liquid state, which can occur under extreme pressures and temperatures
  • On Earth, water can become a supercritical fluid inside some steam engines.
  • This graphic illuminates the process by which astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have for the first time detected the light from a super-Earth planet, the alien world of 55 Cancri e 41 light-years from Earth.
  • planet is likely a rocky world covered with water in a supercritical fluid state and topped off with a steam blanket
  • could be very similar to Neptune, if you pulled Neptune in toward our sun and watched its atmosphere boil away
  • detailed in the Astrophysical Journal
  • Spitzer Space Telescope launched in 2003
  • telescope engineers modified several settings on the observatory to optimize its alien planet vision
  • conceived of Spitzer more than 40 years ago
Mars Base

Light From a 'SuperEarth' Detected for the First Time - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...th-detected-for-the-first-time

scibyte46 Spitzer exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 09 May 12 - No Cached
  • 55 Cancri
  • one of the first known stars to host an extrasolar planet
  • discovered via radial velocity measurements in 2004
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • astronomers were able to determine its mass and radius
  • Spitzer became the first telescope to detect light from a planet beyond our solar system, when it saw the infrared light of a “hot Jupiter
  • NASA’s Hubble and Kepler space telescopes
  • using the same method
  • In this method, a telescope gazes at a star as a planet circles behind it. When the planet disappears from view, the light from the star system dips ever so slightly, but enough that astronomers can determine how much light came from the planet itself
  • information reveals the temperature of a planet, and, in some cases, its atmospheric components
  • other current planet-hunting methods obtain indirect measurements of a planet by observing its effects on the star.
  • about 8.57 Earth masses
  • radius is 1.63 times that of Earth
  • density is 10.9 ± 3.1 g cm-3 (the average density of Earth is 5.515 g cm-3),
  • Cancri e is tidally locked, so one side always faces the star
  • James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2018, likely will be able to learn even more about the planet’s composition
  • might be able to use a similar infrared method to Spitzer to search other potentially habitable planets for signs of molecules possibly related to life.
Mars Base

NASA to Reveal Vesta Discoveries by Dawn Asteroid Probe | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/discoveries-nasa-thursday.html

scibyte46 Asteroid Vesta dawn

shared by Mars Base on 09 May 12 - No Cached
  • NASA will showcase the latest discoveries from an asteroid probe orbiting the huge space rock Vesta on Thursday (May 10) in a press conference for reporters and the general public.
  • will present a new analysis of Vesta based on the latest observations from NASA's Dawn spacecraft
  • Dawn spacecraft launched in 2007 on a mission to visit two huge space rocks in the asteroid belt that orbits the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Dawn arrived in orbit around Vesta in July 2011
  • Vesta is the brightest asteroid in the solar system and second most massive object in the asteroid belt
  • Last month, NASA extended Dawn's stay at Vesta by an extra 40 days to give the spacecraft more time to study the asteroid
  • spacecraft has revealed that many new details about Vesta
  • it is rich in iron and magnesium
  • experiences chilly temperatures that range from minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 degrees Celsius) in the sunlight, to minus150 degrees F (minus 100 degrees C) in shadowed areas.
  • Scientists think Vesta is a 4.5 billion-year-old relic left over from the formation of the solar system
  • In August the probe will move on to the Texas-size Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt and a space rock so large it is considered a dwarf planet.
  • expected to arrive at Ceres in February 2015
Mars Base

Painted ancient Maya numbers reflect calendar reaching well beyond 2012 (w/ Video) - 0 views

phys.org/...-05-ancient-maya-calendar.html

SciByte MayanCalender

shared by Mars Base on 11 May 12 - No Cached
  • The mural represents the first Maya art to be found on the walls of a house
  • tiny glyphs all over the wall, bars and dots representing columns of numbers
  • the kind of thing that only appears in one place — the Dresden Codex, which the Maya wrote many centuries later
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • supported by a series of grants from the National Geographic Society, Saturno and his team launched an organized exploration and excavation of the house, working urgently to beat the region’s rainy seasons, which threatened to erase what time had so far preserved.
  • Maya glyphs near his face call him “Younger Brother Obsidian,” a curious title seldom seen in Maya text. Based on other Maya sites, Saturno theorizes he could be the son or younger brother of the king and possibly the artist-scribe who lived in the house. “The portrait of the king implies a relationship between whoever lived in this space and the royal family,” Saturno said.
Mars Base

Robonaut: Home - 0 views

robonaut.jsc.nasa.gov/default.asp

scibyte34 robonaut

shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • A Robonaut is a dexterous humanoid robot
  • challenge is to build machines that can help humans work and explore in space
  • Working side by side with humans, or going where the risks are too great for people
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • expand our ability for construction and discovery
  • capability we call dexterous manipulation
  • currently four Robonauts
  • others currently in development
  • The value of a humanoid over othe
  • designs is the ability to use the same workspace and tools - not only does this improve efficiency in the types of tools, but also removes the need for specialized robotic connectors
  • Robonaut 2 or R2, launched to the International Space Station on space shuttle Discovery as part of the STS-133 mission
  • first dexterous humanoid robot in space
  • deployed on a fixed pedestal inside the ISS
  • Next steps include a leg for climbing through the corridors of the Space Station, upgrades for R2 to go outside into the vacuum of space, and then future lower bodies like legs and wheels to propel the R2 across Lunar and Martian terrain
Mars Base

NASA - Robonaut 2 - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...robonaut.html

scibyte34 robonaut

shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Robonaut 2 completed its initial checkouts on board the International Space Station Wednesday, February 15, 2012
  • history with the first human/robotic handshake to be performed in space
  • message sent down in sign language. “Hello World,” the robot signed in American sign language
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • launched to the International Space Station almost a year ago
Mars Base

Robot Space 'Gas Attendant' Could Salvage Old Satellites by 2015 | Satellite Refueling ... - 0 views

www.space.com/ation-satellite-refueling.html

scibyte34 satellite

shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • middle of the decade
  • possible to salvage satellites that run out of fuel or suffer minor malfunctions in orbit
  • Canada-based aerospace firm
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • designing a spacecraft that will serve as an orbiting gas station and mechanic.
  • will be able to top off satellites' fuel tanks
  • perform minor repairs as needed
  • first servicing satellite could be ready to go by 2015 or 2016
  • Currently, most satellites last only as long as their stores of onboard propellant allow
  • When a spacecraft runs out of fuel, it essentially turns into a very expensive piece of space junk, adding to the massive cloud of debris already clogging Earth orbit.
  • servicing spacecraft would be controlled from the ground
  • could operate with varying degrees of autonomy
  • when the SIS spacecraft itself runs low on fuel, a separately launched "tanker" would replenish its supply of propellant, allowing the vehicle to continue servicing satellites far into the future.
  • MDA thought it found that customer last year.
  • However, the two companies announced last month that the deal is off
  • I guess we were not able to meet those datelines for the original plan, due to various factors
  • isn't the only business or organization working to develop satellite-servicing technology
  • Aerospace firm Vivisat, for example, is designing a spacecraft called the Mission Extension Vehicle, which would dock to satellites and provide propulsion and attitude control.
  • The U.S. military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has started a program called Phoenix, which seeks to recycle still-functioning pieces of defunct satellites and incorporate them into new space systems for low cost.
  • 16 February 2012
Mars Base

DARPA Seeks Ideas to Recycle Space Junk Into New Satellites | Space Junk & Orbital Debr... - 0 views

www.space.com/ycling-phoenix-satellites.html

scibyte34 satellites debris

shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • : 20 October 2011
  • United States Department of Defense is looking for ways to repurpose space junk
  • started a program called Phoenix, which seeks to recycle still-functioning pieces of defunct satellites and incorporate them into new space systems on the cheap
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • snag still-working antennas from the many retired and dead satellites in geosynchronous orbit — about 22,000 miles (35,406 kilometers) above Earth — and attach them to smaller "satlets," or nanosatellites, launched from Earth.
  • tender vehicle would cruise over to a satlet, pluck it out of its housing and ferry it to the appropriate defunct satellite. The tender would then switch the antenna over from the retired satellite to the satlet, creating a "new," and relatively cheap, satellite using previously useless space junk.
  • Satellites in GEO are not designed to be disassembled or repaired, so it's not a matter of simply removing some nuts and bolts
  • requires new remote imaging and robotics technology and special tools to grip, cut, and modify complex systems
Mars Base

Solar Tornadoes Dance Across Sun's Surface in NASA Video | Sun Tornado & Solar Flares |... - 0 views

www.space.com/-tornadoes-nasa-video-sdo.html

FebMedia

shared by Mars Base on 18 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • The tornado-like eruptions of super-hot plasma were spotted by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is constantly recording high-definition videos of the sun.
  • shows swirling fountains of plasma creeping across the surface of the sun during a 30-hour period between Feb. 7 and 8.
  • unlike tornadoes on Earth, which are wind-driven phenomena, the sun's plasma tornadoes are shaped by the powerful magnetic field of our star.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • active region rotating into view provides a bright backdrop to the gyrating streams of plasma
  • particles are being pulled this way and that by competing magnetic forces
  • tracking along strands of magnetic field lines
  • cooler plasma material appears as darker spots on a bright background
  • SDO spacecraft recorded the video in the extreme ultraviolet range of the light spectrum, giving the movie an eerie yellow hue.
  • released
  • SDO video
  • mark the second anniversary
  • on a five-year mission to record high-definition videos of the sun to help astronomers better understand how changes in the sun's solar weather cycle can affect life on Earth.
  • launched on Feb. 11, 2010
Mars Base

S.Korean, Russian scientists bid to clone mammoth - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-scientists-clone-mammoth.html

scibyte38 mammoth

shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Russian and South Korean scientists have signed a deal on joint research intended to recreate a woolly mammoth, an animal which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.
  • The deal was signed by Vasily Vasiliev, vice rector of North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic
  • controversial cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk of South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, on Tuesday.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Hwang was a national hero until some of his research into creating human stem cells was found in 2006 to have been faked
  • Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, in 2005, has been verified by experts
  • Sooam said it would launch research this year if the Russian university can ship the remains. The Beijing Genomics Institute will also take part in the project
  • South Korean foundation said it would transfer technology to the Russian university
  • first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells
  • scientists in trying to find well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene
  • replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's somatic cells,
  • embryos with mammoth DNA could be produced and planted into elephant wombs for delivery
  • Sooam will use an Indian elephant for its somatic cell nucleus transfer
  • South Korean experts have previously cloned animals including a cow, a cat, dogs, a pig and a wolf
Mars Base

Einstein Goes Online with Archive | Albert Einstein & History of Science | Physics | Sp... - 1 views

www.space.com/t-einstein-online-archive.html

scibyte39 einstein

shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • anyone with Internet access can peek into one of the most celebrated minds in science
  • Albert Einstein's complete archive is gradually becoming available through the Einstein Archives Online
  • March 19), the online archive debuted with roughly 2,000 documents
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • archival database
  • more than 80,000 documen
  • peak at Einstein's high school certification
  • finishing high school at 16 in 1896
  • Einstein was an excellent student
  • he left because he couldn't handle the strict discipline and authority.
  • one of only three existing manuscripts containing the famous E=mc^2 equation written in Einstein's handwriting
  • archive contains a postcard to his mother
  • originally launched in 2003. Almost a decade later, a $500,000 grant from the Polonsky Foundation of London funded digitization of the 80,000 documents
Mars Base

Europe OKs Funding for Mars Mission with Russia | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/mars-mars-mission-funding.html

scibyte39 mars

shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • European Space Agency (ESA
  • agreed to continue funding a Mars telecommunications orbiter and atmospheric gas analyzer mission for launch in 2016
  • Russian Proton rocket donated by the Russian space agency
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • ExoMars is a two-mission project that is considered as a single program at ESA
  • council decision removes an immediate problem for ExoMars, it does not solve the longer-term funding issue that has dogged the project for years
  • ESA wants to have a high-resolution imager on their 2016 mission, but the hitch is they need a commitment from NASA
  • ESA official said that with ExoMars now taking on more scientific instruments, many provided by Russia
Mars Base

Apollo 11′s Rocket Engines Found on the Bottom of the Ocean - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...und-on-the-bottom-of-the-ocean

scibyte40 Apollo

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos has located the Apollo 11 F-1 rocket engines and plans to recover them
  • using state-of-the-art deep sea sonar, the team has found the Apollo 11 engines lying 14,000 feet below the surface
  • making plans to attempt to raise one or more of them from the ocean floor
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • don’t know yet what condition these engines might be in
  • they hit the ocean at high velocity and have been in salt water for more than 40 years
  • The Saturn V used five F-1 engines in the first stage
  • F-1 is still the most powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine ever developed
  • producing one and a half million pounds of thrust, burning 6,000 pounds of rocket grade kerosene and liquid oxygen every second
  • On July 16, 1969, Apollo 11 was launched and the five F-1s burned for just a few minutes, and then plunged back to Earth into the Atlantic Ocean.
  • the engines remain the property of NASA
  • hopes that the space agency would allow the recovered engines to be displayed at the Smithsonian or another museum
  • no public funding will be used to attempt to raise and recover the engines, as it’s being undertaken by him privately
Mars Base

Planet-Hunting Kepler Mission Extended Through 2016 | Alien Planets | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/lanet-kepler-mission-2016.html

scibyte41 Kepler exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 05 Apr 12 - No Cached
  • Kepler mission, which has discovered more than 2,300 potential alien planets to date,
  • slated to run out this November
  • launched in March 2009 on
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • finding 61 confirmed alien planets to date
  • members have estimated that the vast majority of these candidates — 80 percent or more — will likely end up being the real deal.
  • artist's conception illustrates Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star. CREDIT: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech
  • Seeing more transits will also increase the signal-to-noise ratio for closer-in planets, allowing more of them to be detected, researchers have said
Mars Base

Space Shuttle Trainer Lifts Off for Seattle on NASA Aircraft | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/asa-super-guppy-takes-off.html

scibyte53 shuttle

shared by Mars Base on 27 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • wide-bodied turboprop aircraft previously used to deliver the room-size modules of the International Space Station to their Florida launch site.
  • Full Fuselage Trainer (FFT), a life-size space shuttle mockup that was used by every person who flew on the shuttle while training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston
  • the FFT is being delivered in segmentsto The Museum of Flight in Seattle for its public display.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • 28-foot (8.5 meters) long compartment — comprising the shuttle's iconic nose with its dual level flight- and mid-decks
  • Shuttlefest
Mars Base

Chasing Atlantis: An Upcoming Film about the Shuttle's Legacy - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...film-about-the-shuttles-legacy

scibyte60 shuttle

shared by Mars Base on 22 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Five Canadians made the trek to Florida to watch the final shuttle launch last year. They are wrapping up filming and interviews — which included astronauts and sci-fi stars — to discuss the legacy of the program.
  • How did you get down there?
  • drove the entire journey from Toronto to the Titusville/Cocoa Beach area
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • stopped at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum to shoot prototype shuttle Enterprise before it was moved to New York City
  • we had written the Chasing Atlantis Twitter account and site URL on our cars
  • A NASA software engineer, Ryan Horan, saw our car with Paul shooting out the window as we passed by the sign for the Kennedy Space Center. He was interested in our project and sent us a tweet.
  • arranged
  • to join one of the first tours following the reopening of the Vehicle Assembly Building to the public.
  • The building is monstrously huge. It will generate its own weather system inside, sometimes producing micro-rain clouds.
  • The film was completely self-funded
  • posting an Indie-Go-Go or Kickstarter profile up in hopes of helping to cover the post-production costs
Mars Base

Private Manned Mars Mission Gets First Sponsors | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/mars-one-mission-sponsors.html

scibyte61 GrabBag PrivateSpaceTravel mars

shared by Mars Base on 01 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • A Dutch company that aims to land humans on Mars in 2023 as the vanguard of a permanent Red Planet colony has received its first funding from sponsors
  • Mars One plans to fund most of its ambitious activities via a global reality-TV media event
  • follow the mission from the selection of astronauts through their first years on the Red Planet
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Receipt
  • Initial sponsors include Byte Internet (a Dutch Internet/Webhosting provider); Dutch lawfirm VBC Notarissen; Dutch consulting company MeetIn; New-Energy.tv (an independent Dutch web station that focuses on energy and climate); and Dejan SEO (an Australia-based search engine optimization firm). [
  • Mars One aims to launch a series of robotic missions between 2016 and 2020 that will build a habitable outpost on the Red Planet. The first four astronauts will set foot on Mars in 2023, and more will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return these pioneers to Earth.
  • Mars One estimates that it will cost about $6 billion to put the first four humans on the Red Planet
  • hopes the "Big Brother"-style reality show will pay most of these costs
  • televised action is slated to begin in 2013, when Mars One begins the process of selecting its 40-person astronaut corps
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