Hello, astro-nuts!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and that you got to see Jupiter and the Moon close in on each other; it was quite a neat thing to see. Tonight they will be even closer so be sure to check it out if you have clear skies. I have plenty of visual aids today; Cassini captured some great footage of my favorite Saturnian moon, Enceladus, and the Atlantis crew are in the middle of their second spacewalk!

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As the sky gets darker tonight, be sure to look towards the south-southwest. Jupiter and the Moon will be just a few degrees apart from each other. The two will be visible as the sun sets, before the sky gets completely dark, so it might make for an interesting time lapse video! The Moon is approaching first quarter and will look like a fat crescent, pairing up with bright Jupiter between Aquarius and Capricornus.

Solar observers should have an interesting couple of days; not only is there a new sunspot (1033), but Earth is currently in a solar wind stream, which has been triggering auroras across the high latitudes. These beautiful "northern lights" may even be visible at darker locations in the mid-latitudes. Spaceweather.com predicts a 10% chance for auroras over the next 48 hours. Check out the spaceweather.com aurora gallery.

The Cassini spacecraft made another pass by Saturn's moon, Enceladus on the 21st. The raw images Cassini captured are just amazing and will be used to piece together a map of the the southern area of the Saturn-facing hemisphere of the moon. A thermal map of the "tiger stripe" features will also be created using the image data. These features are actually deep fissures in the southern polar region of Enceladus that actually eject jets of water vapor and other types of particles hundreds of miles from the surface. This area of Enceladus will be heading into winter soon and will essentially disappear for several years, so it was important for Cassini teams to get as much information about the features before that occurred. One specific fissure known as Baghdad Sulcus, was of particular interest. During the November 21st flyby, Cassini passed within about 1,000 miles of the surface of Enceladus and is now heading in the direction of the moon Rhea.

Astronews!

The space shuttle Atlantis launched last Monday and headed for the International Space Station. The shuttle docked at the station Wednesday, and the first spacewalk took place Thursday. During the first spacewalk, astronauts installed a spare S-band antenna assembly on the International Space Station as well as connections for gripping payloads and equipment. During second spacewalk of the mission which took place Saturday, astronauts installed a communications antenna package and wireless video relay, moved a measurement probe, and deployed two external payload attachment fixtures. While this second spacewalk was going on, astronaut Randy Bresnik anxiously awaited word about his wife, who was about to give birth to a baby girl. Astronaut-in-training Abigail Bresnik was born Saturday night at 11:04pm :). Meanwhile, the third and final spacewalk of the STS-129 mission began at 8:24am EST this morning; astronauts Robert Satcher and new daddy Randy Bresnik headed out to install an oxygen tank on the International Space Station's Quest airlock module, and set up a materials science space exposure experiment. As of right now the pair is ahead of schedule and may be able to perform some "get ahead tasks". This morning's spacewalk was the 230th conducted by U.S. astronauts, and the 136th space station assembly-related spacewalk. Atlantis will detach from the space station later this week, with astronaut Nicole Stott in tow; Stott had been aboard the ISS the past couple of months and will represent the last crew member to be part of a rotation from the space station to the shuttle.

Galaxy Centaurus A is one of numerous "canniballistic galaxies" that was caught devouring its latest victim, a smaller spiral galaxy that has become misshapen because of its encounter with the Centaurus A. Previously, such activity was difficult to detect and observe because of the thick dust lanes in the bigger galaxy; however, ESO's New Technology Telescope has provided astronomers with the desired view of the "feeding", and that of thousands of star clusters within Centaurus A. Observations had previously been provided by the ESA Infrared Space Observatory, which had shown a feature more than 16,000 light-years across; likely a small barred spiral galaxy. Centaurus A lies about 11 million light-years from Earth and is by far one of the most studied southern hemisphere objects. Herschel cataloged the object as a dusty nebula but was not aware that the "nebula cloud" was caused by the dust lanes at the center of the galaxy and the remnants of the merger of two galaxies that occurred between 200 and 700 million years ago. The smaller galaxy's remains, rich in different types of gases, may have helped trigger star birth within Centaurus A. Centaurus A not only has a strong radio signal, but also a supermassive black hole at its center which is about 200 million times the mass of our Sun and 50 times as massive as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The size of the black hole continuously gets "fed" by material constantly becoming trapped within it and therefore keeps the galaxy quite active.

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com Astronomy Center

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Hello, astro-nuts!

I had absolutely no luck seeing any Leonids Tuesday morning because it was really cloudy here in central Pennsylvania. Did anyone in the eastern U.S. see any? It would seem that the big peak in Asia was clouded out for many places, too. Nepal, much of India and the Philippines had to deal with clouds, reports from observers included numbers between 50-75 over a few hours, while parts of Thailand had clear skies and more positive reports from observers. Not to worry, the Geminids are coming up in December, and, weather pending, should be a pretty good show. Anyway, its Wednesday so a new astronomy video has been posted at the Astronomy Center, and I have updates on some new Cassini findings around Saturn and a retrograde exoplanet.

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In the western U.S. the Leonid meteor shower seems to have been a good show. So good in fact that one of the meteors lit up the sky as bright as day when it exploded high in the atmosphere. This bolide explosion was so great that it had shelf items in homes shaking and prompted hundreds of calls to local police and news stations near Salt Lake City, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada Wednesday morning. The peak of the meteor shower in North America was Tuesday morning, but a few post-peak stragglers Wednesday morning couldn't be ruled out. AccuWeather.com has some footage of the bolide explosion here.

NASA has rescheduled the launch of the WISE spacecraft for no earlier than 9:09am EST December 9th. When I wrote about the launch last week I gave a date of December 7th. The WISE mission involves the craft going into an orbit around the Earth's poles and will scan the entire sky one and a half times over a nine month period. The infrared instruments aboard WISE will be on the lookout for dark asteroids, brown dwarf stars, and bright galaxies.

How would you like to be a Martian explorer and help NASA create better maps of the Red Planet? Check out the "Be A Martian" project website to find out how to participate!

Atlantis docked with the International Space Station at 11:51am eastern time Wednesday morning. The traditional hatch opening/welcome ceremony took place at 1:48pm eastern time. For those of you who use Twitter, you can follow the astronauts throughout the mission.

Astronews!

Extrasolar planet HAT-p-7b was discovered in 2008 and has recently been found to have a highly tilted orbit. The Subaru Telescope's High Dispersion Spectrograph (HDS) was used to observe the HAT-P-7 planetary system roughly 1,000 light-years away. The discovery has provided important information for understanding how orbits of extraplanetary systems develop and change over time. It has become clear with the discovery of more than 400 extrasolar planets that the orbits of planets in our solar system differ greatly from those of the extrasolar planets. Several of the "hot Jupiters" that have been discovered make complete orbits around their stars in only a few days, and these orbits are highly eccentric. It was long believed that all planetary systems formed in the same way and would thus have normal orbits and axial tilts; we know of course this is not true. Planetary migration models suggest that a good number of migratory planets have orbits tilted beyond 90 degrees to the star's spin axis (retrograde). Eviidence of such an odd orbit can be found by studying the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect in which an oddity in a star's radial velocity exists. The star appears to be receding if a planet hides an approaching part of the star. Measuring this effect helps gather estimates of an angle between the stellar spin axis and the planet's orbital axis. While a team of astronomers was studying this effect within the TrES-1 planetary system, the first evidence of retrograde orbit was found within the HAT-P-7b system. Further observations are of course needed to find out more about this interesting system. As it turns out, the location of the HAT-P-7b system is within the view of the Kepler mission and is currently being observed. You can check out some of the results here (Thanks to Edna DeVore for the update!)

Right around the time of Saturn's equinox, Cassini captured some incredible images of huge clouds of ice particles above the ring system; specifically, the B ring area. During the equinox, the sun shines directly over the planet's equator and hits the rings at an "edge-on" angle. The angle gives these huge ice clouds called "spokes" (some are 6,000 miles wide) an eerie appearance. The spokes acquire electric charges which cause them to rise above the plane of the rings; it was noted that before and after the equinox, there were major lightning events that could have created extreme electrostatic charges. The spokes seemed to acquire more charge while the rings are most dimly lit, such as during equinox. The Cassini spacecraft captured one especially pretty image which not only shows the B-ring spokes, but also Saturn's moon, Janus.

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com Astronomy Center

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Hello, astro-nuts!

The week should be a good one for anyone interested in astronomy. Atlantis launches today, and the Leonids peak tonight! This coming weekend is NASA weekend at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum, too. I'll be talking about all of this, and give you some updates on the Dawn and Rosetta missions.

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Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are the planets to see this week. Venus and Saturn are early risers, while Jupiter is visible just as it gets dark. You can catch Mars, too between Gemini and Leo, after midnight. Mars will be more noteworthy in December and January as it nears opposition. Tuesday morning of course the Leonid meteor shower peaks for North America; be on the look out for a few dozen meteors per hour. If you're in a dark enough location this shouldn't be a problem, you may even see more than that. Asia is the place to be for this year's shower, however. The morning of the 18th, local time, the shower could be more like a downpour as hundreds of meteors per hour are predicted. In either case, the Moon won't be a problem so you won't have to worry about that. As the name suggests the radiant for the shower will be Leo the Lion, near which you'll find Mars, so it should make for an interesting show. Enjoy! Send in those pictures!

If you'll be around New York City (western Manhattan) this weekend and want to take in some history, head to the Intrepid Air and Space Museum. This weekend, November 20-22, is NASA weekend and will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 12 mission. Interactive displays and exhibits will be available for viewing, as will all kinds of videos and demonstrations. There is even a scheduled appearance by astronaut Michael Massimino, who was aboard the last Atlantis mission in May. Other guests include NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for public outreach Alan Ludwig and founder/chairman of the Conrad Foundation Nancy Conrad. More info about the weekend can be found at the museum's website.

Astronews!

The countdown continues for STS-129, and I am reminiscing about my trip to Kennedy this past May; if you have never watched a live launch I encourage you to see one if you can. It is a breathtaking experience, and there are only going to be five launches left after today! Atlantis and her crew are in the final preparation stages for launch at 2:28pm eastern time today! Just shortly after noon today the six-man crew had been secured in their seats aboard Atlantis and final checks and pressurization were being performed. According to the spaceflight meteorology group there is only a 30% chance of weather affecting launch, and this may come in the form of a low cloud ceiling. However the weather overall seems to be cooperating and it looks like a nice day for launch. Solid Rocket Booster recovery teams may have some choppy waters to deal with, however since a storm system just moved out to sea. A delay is not anticipated for today, but if one does occur, wind and weather conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday are a concern. Once launched, Atlantis and her crew will head to the International Space Station, bringing around fifteen tons of supplies with them. These supplies include spare parts and repair tools, as well as an exterior platform on which to store the repair equipment. These will be installed during the three planned spacewalks of the mission. Also aboard Atlantis will be a few educational experiments for the International Space Station involving butterfly larvae and microbes. STS-129 will also mark the last ISS crew member rotation. Astronaut Nicole Stott, who has been living and working aboard the ISS for a few months, will head home with the Atlantis crew when they undock on November 25th. The crew is set to come home the day after Thanksgiving. GO ATLANTIS!

ESA's comet chaser Rosetta recently flew by Earth to get a gravitational nudge as it headed out for its 2014 rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (say that three times fast! :) ). This past swingby was the fourth planetary pass and third and final pass by Earth. Rosetta has now flown nearly 28 million miles with many, many, many more to go in its journey. Rosetta's instruments have been functioning since earlier this month; the craft even participated in the hunt for water on the Moon. This first round of images and data will be downloaded soon. Rosetta is scheduled to rendezvous with asteroid 21 Lutetia in July 2010 so it will be interesting to see what kind of information the craft will gather about it. Rosetta will then go into hibernation as it heads towards its final target, waking up in spring 2014 to give us our first looks at 67P/Churyumov-Garasimenko. Meanwhile, NASA's Dawn spacecraft had been to the lower boundary (farthest distance Mars gets from the sun) of our solar system's asteroid belt but has since returned and will remain above this "boundary" for the rest of its mission. It will become the first man-made object to be a "permanent resident" of the asteroid belt and to orbit two planetary bodies in the same mission. Dawn's main mission is to monitor dwarf planet Ceres and asteroid Vesta; Vesta is its first stop in just about 619 days.

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com Astronomy Center

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Hello, astro-nuts!

There's quite a bit of interesting news in the space community today! Data from the LCROSS impact mission has confirmed the presence of water molecules near the lunar south pole, and NASA is making attempts to free the trapped Martian Rover, Spirit.

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Just a friendly reminder about the Leonid Meteor shower that will peak the morning of the 17th, head back to Thursday's blog for more information. Check back as we head into December for information about the Geminid Meteor shower, that one will be even better!

The countdown for STS-129 begins today at 1pm eastern time. Launch is scheduled for 2:28pm eastern time this coming Monday, November 16th. The Atlantis crew will be delivering instruments and supplies to the International Space Station, but will also be carrying some precious cargo. The larvae of Monarch and Painted Lady butterflies will be accompanying the crew into space as part of an experiment to compare how the butterflies-to-be might develop in a weightless environment compared to how they develop on Earth. The larvae will be transferred to the ISS two days after launch, and about five days after that the cocoons will be formed, with butterflies expected to emerge about ten days later. While the larvae develop, images will be taken every 15 minutes and sent back to Earth for comparison with the Earth-based group. Anyone have any thoughts as to what kinds of differences we might see in "space butterflies" versus "Earth butterflies"?

Solar observers should get their Coronados ready! Over the next couple of days, big sunspot 1029 will again become visible to us here on Earth. The sunspot first emerged a few weeks ago and has been one of the largest and longest lasting sunspots of the year. Images from SOHO were used in creating this neat movie of the sun's movement; you can see the activity of sunspot 1029 starting to emerge.

As many of you know, there have been numerous shuttle launches scrubbed over the history of the space shuttle program; specifically, 45 out of the 116 noted scrubs were caused by weather. NASA has very strict rules when it comes to weather and shuttle launches, especially if lightning is involved. Right now, NASA uses the Cloud to Ground Lightning Surveillance System (CGLSS) and the National Lightning Detection Network, as well as the Lightning Detection and Ranging Network (LDAR II). However, a new lightning antenna is being tested to see if it can measure the level of individual flashes and their return strokes. This measurement could make calling "go-no go" a bit easier and save the program some money. Every scrub costs millions of dollars, after overtime for workers, the cost of emptying and re-filling the external tank, and other factors. The data collected by this antenna could potentially determine whether or not launch vehicles would actually need to be tested if lightning strikes the pad or nearby areas. An antenna like this could potentially provide more accurate readings prior to launch; the idea is to more accurately determine where charges are within a cloud and measure how big those charges are when the lightning strikes.

Astronews!

Back in October, NASA and many people around the world watched as the LCROSS spacecraft and the Centaur upper stage rocket slammed into the Moon. At first, it didn't really seem like much actually happened. However, while we may not have seen much of a show, data was being collected and for the last month has been analyzed to see what had lay beneath the lunar soil for millions or perhaps billions of years. NASA announced that after giving a preliminary look at the data, LCROSS had in fact detected water as it passed through the initial impact plume of the Centaur upper stage. This plume had been found to be composed of vapor and fine dust in its first layer, and in the next layer was heavier material that had not seen sunlight for...well, a really, really long time. The water signature was confirmed after the team took a known near-infrared signature and compared it to that collected by the LCROSS near-infrared spectrometer. Additional confirmation came after the discovery of a hydroxl signature; hydroxyl is produced when water molecules are broken by sunlight. The LCROSS ultraviolet visible spectrometer detected hydroxyl signatures just after impact that are similar to a water vapor cloud in sunlight. There is still much more work to be done. More analysis of the data is required in order to determine what else is in the soil and to try to obtain information about how the materials may have changed over time, or how they were affected by lack of sunlight and sudden exposure to it after the impact.

Since April 23rd, the Martian Rover Spirit has been stuck in the sand at a site dubbed "Troy". The rover team has been trying to come up with an extraction plan since then, but to no avail. This coming Monday, however, NASA is going to try some new commands to try to get Spirit free. At the moment, data are showing the rover on the edge of a 26-foot wide crater that has been filled in over time and topped off with a type of crusty soil. As Spirit moved over that harder crust, it broke through and got stuck in the softer, slippery sand underneath. The trick is trying to get Spirit either through this soil or finding an area free of that soil type.
The extraction won't be easy, or quick. Success is also not guaranteed. The first commands will tell Spirit to rotate its five working wheels about six times. This attempt will be assessed before more commands are sent for another attempt. Testing here on Earth has been difficult too because we cannot exactly replicate what is on Mars at that particular site. One plan is to steer the wheels straight and trying to drive; at the same time the wheels may need to be steered right to prevent downhill slipping. The rover needs to be moved past a rock right under its center of gravity. Even if this is successful, Spirit still has a broken front wheel that could pose further problems. NASA has set up a website dedicated to updates on the "Free Spirit" project.

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com Astronomy Center

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Hello, astro-nuts!

I can't believe we're almost halfway through November already! Yesterday was Veteran's Day and I hope you remembered to thank any veterans you know (or even those you may not know) for their service. Yesterday was also Wednesday so there is a new astronomy video that talks a bit about the upcoming Leonid Meteor Shower. I'll have some more information about that today. I'll also be talking about the upcoming shuttle mission, and the launch of WISE.

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STS-129 is now scheduled for launch on Monday, November 16th at 2:28pm Eastern time. The space shuttle Atlantis and her six crew members will be heading to the International Space Station to deliver gyroscopes, Express Logistics modules and additional equipment. Repair tools and hardware will be stored on platforms that will be installed on the station's truss for use after the shuttle fleet is retired in 2010. This work will be done over three planned spacewalks. STS-129 will also mark the last time the shuttle will be used to transport a station crew member back to Earth. Nicole Stott, who first arrived at the station a few months ago, will be hitching a ride home with the Atlantis crew. Atlantis was last launched back in May for the final Hubble repair mission, for which I had the pleasure of visiting Kennedy Space Center :). Including this mission, there are now six remaining before the fleet retires.

As you may know, 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy. In celebration of that, Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra were used to create a gorgeous image of the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Hubble provided the visible light view (yellowareas), Spitzer infrared (red), and Chandra X-ray (blue and violet).

National Geographic Channel fans won't want to miss the lineup all next week. Expedition Week features seven nights of specials and documentaries about various topics that take you from the Amazon Rainforest to Mars and even the depths of the ocean. Check out the Expedition Week website for the schedule on these not-to-miss specials. Astro-nuts, you'll want to tune in Thursday the 19th for Mars: Making the New Earth, which discusses turning the currently uninhabitable Red Planet into a place where people can call home.

Astronews!

The Leonid sky show is coming up soon, but before that, don't forget that the Taurids have reached their peak and can still be seen tonight,November 12th. There won't be very many, but what will be seen are mostly fireballs, so if you have clear skies, don't miss it! Look in the general direction of Taurus the Bull. Meanwhile, the morning of the 17th, the Leonid Meteor Shower reaches its peak. No need to worry about the Moon this year, it will be new on the 16th and will not interfere with your viewing. In the Americas, you could expect as many as 25-30 meteors per hour, perhaps more if you are in a dark location and can see some of the dimmer meteors. Asia is the place to be for this one, however, as more than 200 meteors per hour could be expected! This may remind some of the "meteor storms" from 1999-2002 when the Leonids were much more impressive in this part of the world. This was thought to happen every 33 years or so as comet Tempel-Tuttle moves through the inner solar system and leaves a trail of debris in Earth's path. However, we get the Leonids every year because of the leftovers.
This year, Earth passes through a more dense stream of particles from the comet which will result in an increased number of meteors. Asia will happen to pass through the best part, however. Over North America at around 4am Eastern time on the 17th will be the best time to view the shower. In Asia, that time will come close to dawn on the 18th local time (about 4pm eastern time) when Earth passes through a PAIR of old streams from the comet left in 1466 and 1533AD. This is when hundreds of meteors could be possible in that area. However, it might be worth checking out the skies of North America late on the 17th/early on the 18th to see if any leftover debris brings us more treats. By coincidence, Mars will be close to the Leonid radiant this year, so it may appear that meteors are shooting out of Mars (but they are not, so please do not panic!). It will certainly make for some great pictures, so grab your cameras! As always, be sure to post them to the AccuWeather.com Gallery!

Back in 2006, NASA engineers began developing ideas for an infrared telescopes that would give them a new view of the brightest galaxies and close star-like objects. Three years later, the vision has been made into a reality; enter the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The nearly completed telescope arrived at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California back in August of this year and is expected to be launched on December 7th aboard an Alliance Delta 2 Rocket. The telescope will be sent into orbit around Earth and, much like the Spitzer and Herschel Missions, will be giving us a view of objects at the infrared wavelengths. The difference is, WISE will be scanning the ENTIRE sky; the purpose is to try to catch a glimpse of things we have not or cannot see. Some of the most important targets will be finding asteroids and near-Earth objects. Given the past few close and missed asteroid calls, WISE is already proving to be a "wise" decision (I had to...sorry). WISE will also be used to find elusive brown dwarf stars, the coolest and smallest of the stars. Optimistic scientists wonder if the mission will uncover one closer than Proxima Centauri 4 light-years away. WISE also has the ability to find areas of star formation, planetary disks, and bright, distant galaxies. Surveying the entire sky will also produce numerous images of objects or areas of the sky that may be viewed by other observatories at a later time. Prior to launch, WISE and its science instruments are being chilled in order to prevent the telescope from picking up its own infrared heat. A cryostat surrounding the telescope and its instruments is filled with frozen hydrogen. This will evaporate over a ten-month period, giving WISE the chance to scan the entire sky 1.5 times. Liquid helium will be pumped in to mix with the hydrogen, chilling it until it freezes. A temperature of -447 degrees Fahrenheit will be reached at the coldest point of the process. (This is only slightly above Absolute Zero...)

Keep your eyes to the sky and enjoy the view!
~Lisa C.
AccuWeather.com Astronomy Center

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