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Venice News Updates

News of Venice, CA and Marina del Rey CA

NASA Retires Kepler Space Telescope, Passes Planet-Hunting Torch

Posted by :reta On : October 31, 2018
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Category: Bob Eklund Column

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By Bob Eklund

Looking Up Column

After nine years in deep space collecting data that indicate our sky to be filled with billions of hidden planets — more planets even than stars — NASA’s Kepler space telescope (https://www.nasa.gov/kepler) has run out of fuel needed for further science operations.

NASA has decided to retire the spacecraft within its current, safe orbit, away from Earth. Kepler leaves a legacy of more than 2,600 planet discoveries from outside our solar system, many of which could be promising places for life.

Kepler has opened our eyes to the diversity of planets that exist in our galaxy. The most recent analysis of Kepler’s discoveries concludes that 20 to 50 percent of the stars visible in the night sky are likely to have small, possibly rocky, planets similar in size to Earth, and located within the habitable zone of their parent stars. That means they’re located at distances from their parent stars where liquid water — a vital ingredient to life as we know it — might pool on the planet surface.

The most common size of planet Kepler found doesn’t exist in our solar system — a world between the size of Earth and Neptune — and we have much to learn about these planets. Kepler also found nature often produces jam-packed planetary systems, in some cases with so many planets orbiting close to their parent stars that our own inner solar system looks sparse by comparison.

NASA Asks: Will We Know Life When We See It?

Posted by :reta On : June 27, 2018
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Category: Bob Eklund Column, Uncategorized

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(Photo courtesy of NASA.)

(Photo courtesy of NASA.)

Note: Bob Eklund gets his info from press releases.

Bob Eklund and Looking Up Column

Bob Eklund and Looking Up Column

 

 

In the last decade, we have discovered thousands of planets outside our solar system and have learned that rocky, temperate worlds are numerous in our galaxy. The next step will involve asking even bigger questions. Could some of these planets host life? And if so, will we be able to recognize life elsewhere if we see it?

A group of leading researchers in astronomy, biology and geology has come together under NASA’s Nexus for Exoplanet System Science, or NExSS, to take stock of our knowledge in the search for life on distant planets and to lay the groundwork for moving the related sciences forward.

“We’re moving from theorizing about life elsewhere in our galaxy to a robust science that will eventually give us the answer we seek to that profound question: Are we alone?” said Martin Still, an exoplanet scientist at NASA Headquarters, Washington.

In a set of five review papers published last week in the scientific journal Astrobiology, NExSS scientists took an inventory of the most promising signs of life, called biosignatures. The paper authors include four scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. They considered how to interpret the presence of biosignatures, should we detect them on distant worlds.

The assessment comes as a new generation of space and ground-based telescopes are in development. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will characterize the atmospheres of some of the first small, rocky planets. There are plans for other observatories—such as the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Extremely Large Telescope, both in Chile—to carry sophisticated instruments capable of detecting the first biosignatures on faraway worlds.

NASA’s First Deep-Space CubeSats Say: “Polo!”

Posted by :reta On : May 12, 2018
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Category: Bob Eklund Column

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Note:  Based on press release from NASA/JPL

Bob Eklund Looking Up Column

Bob Eklund
Looking Up Column

NASA has received radio signals indicating that the first-ever CubeSats headed to deep space are alive and well. Engineers will now be performing a series of checks before both CubeSats enter their cruise to deep space.

Mars Cube One, or MarCO, is a pair of briefcase-sized spacecraft that launched May 5 along with NASA’s InSight Mars lander from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California. InSight is a scientific mission that will probe the Red Planet’s deep interior for the first time. The name stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport.

The twin MarCO CubeSats are on their own separate mission: rather than collecting science, they will follow the InSight lander on its cruise to Mars, testing out miniature spacecraft technology along the way.

Both were programmed to unfold their solar panels soon after launch, followed by several opportunities to radio back their health.

“Both MarCO-A and B say ‘Polo!’ It’s a sign that the little sats are alive and well,” said Andy Klesh, chief engineer for the MarCO mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which built the twin spacecraft.

A couple of weeks will be spent assessing how the MarCO CubeSats are performing. If they survive the radiation of space and function as planned, they’ll fly over the Red Planet during InSight’s entry, descent and landing in November.

NASA to Broadcast Eclipse Across US from Ground, Aircraft, Spacecraft

Posted by :reta On : August 16, 2017
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Category: Bob Eklund Column

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Bob Eklund1.5

Bob Eklund of Looking Up Column

 

All of North America will be treated to an eclipse of the Sun Monday, 21 August, and NASA Television will carry it live from coast to coast from unique vantage points on the ground and from aircraft and spacecraft, including the International Space Station. Coverage will be featured during the live four-hour broadcast Eclipse Across America: Through the Eyes of NASA.

Programming begins at 9 am (noon EDT) with a preview show hosted from Charleston, South Carolina. The main show begins at 10 am and will cover the path of totality the eclipse will take across the United States, from Oregon to South Carolina.

The program will feature views from NASA research aircraft, high-altitude balloons, satellites and specially-modified telescopes. It also will include live reports from Charleston, as well as from Salem, Oregon; Idaho Falls, Idaho; Beatrice, Nebraska; Jefferson City, Missouri; Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Illinois; Hopkinsville, Kentucky; and Clarksville, Tennessee.

Catch NASA’s live coverage using any of the following:

NASA App
* NASA App for iOS, http://itunes.apple.com/app/nasa-app/id334325516?mt=8
* NASA App for Android, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=gov.nasa
* NASA App for Amazon Fire and Fire TV, http://amzn.com/B00ZVR87LQ
* The NASA App also is available to Apple TV users.

Social Media
* Facebook Live, https://www.facebook.com/nasa
* Twitter/Periscope, https://www.pscp.tv/nasa
* Twitch TV, https://twitch.tv/nasa
* UStream, http://www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv
* YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwMDvPCGeE0

More details and a broadcast timeline:
https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

In addition to the NASA TV broadcast, live video streams from locations across the country will be available at:
https://www.nasa.gov/eclipselive

To view and download NASA eclipse images:
5th Annual Hidden Figures Street Naming Anniversary (NHQ202409190035)

Eklund Gives Cheap Way to See Eclipse; NASA to Provide Live Coverage

Posted by :reta On : August 9, 2017
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Category: Uncategorized

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solar
(Map from LA Times.)

 

Not until, perhaps, another 90 plus years will United States citizens have the opportunity to see a total eclipse as will happen Monday, 21 August. The eclipse will traverse the 48 states.

If you cannot see the eclipse the way Bob Eklund suggests, tune into https://www.nasa.gov/eclipselive.

Bob Eklund, who writes the “Looking Up” column for Update gave the perfect recipe for anyone to see the eclipse.

Here’s a really wild idea on how to see the eclipse, with no advance planning, no hotel bill, and assurance of clear skies:

(1) Wait till the night before the eclipse and then find out which city on the eclipse path has the greatest certainty of clear skies the next day.

(2) Buy a ticket and take a late-night flight to that city.

(3) When you get there in the early-morning hours, take a cat-nap in an airport chair, then step outside the airport at eclipse time.

(4) Have a good brunch and fly back home.

Cheap, time-saving, and unforgettable memories.

Watching a Volatile Stellar Relationship

Posted by :reta On : June 16, 2017
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Category: Bob Eklund Column, Looking Up Column

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raqr_w11
 (Photo courtesy of Chandra X-Ray Center.)

Note: This is a press release from Chandra X-Ray Center and NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center.

Bob Eklund Looking Up Column

Bob Eklund
Looking Up Column

 

In biology, “symbiosis” refers to two organisms that live close to and interact with one another. Astronomers have long studied a class of stars—called symbiotic stars—that co-exist in a similar way. Using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, astronomers are gaining a better understanding of how volatile this close stellar relationship can be.

R Aquarii (R Aqr, for short) is one of the best known of the symbiotic stars. Located at a distance of about 710 light-years from Earth, its changes in brightness were first noticed with the naked eye almost a thousand years ago. Since then, astronomers have studied this object and determined that R Aqr is not one star, but two: a small, dense white dwarf and a cool red, giant star.

The red giant star has its own interesting properties. In billions of years, our Sun will turn into a red giant once it exhausts the hydrogen nuclear fuel in its core and begins to expand and cool. Most red giants are placid and calm, but some pulsate with periods between 80 and 1,000 days like the star Mira and undergo large changes in brightness. This subset of red giants is called “Mira variables.”

The red giant in R Aqr is a Mira variable and undergoes steady changes in brightness by a factor of 250 as it pulsates, unlike its white dwarf companion that does not pulsate. There are other striking differences between the two stars. The white dwarf is about ten thousand times brighter than the red giant. The white dwarf has a surface temperature o.

Seven Habitable-Zone Planets Found around Single Star

Posted by :reta On : February 26, 2017
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Category: Bob Eklund Column

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This artist’s concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets’ diameters, masses and distances from the host star. Credit: NASA-JPL/Caltech

 

Bob Eklund Looking Up Column

Bob Eklund
Looking Up Column

Note:  This is from a NASA press release.

 

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.

The discovery sets a new record for greatest number of habitable-zone planets found around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven planets could have liquid water — key to life as we know it — under the right atmospheric conditions.

“This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Answering the question ‘are we alone’ is a top science priority and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal.”

At about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth, the system of planets is relatively close to us, in the constellation Aquarius.

Using Spitzer data, the team precisely measured the sizes of the seven planets and developed first estimates of the masses of six of them, allowing their density to be estimated.

In contrast to our sun, the TRAPPIST-1 star-classified as an ultra-cool dwarf-is so cool that liquid water could survive on planets orbiting very close to it, closer than is possible on planets in our solar system.

NASA Missions Harvest a Passel of ‘Pumpkin’ Stars

Posted by :reta On : November 3, 2016
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Category: Bob Eklund Column

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Bob Eklund Looking Up Column

Bob Eklund
Looking Up Column

Note: This is a press release from NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Astronomers using observations from NASA’s Kepler and Swift missions have discovered a batch of rapidly spinning stars that produce X-rays at more than 100 times the peak levels ever seen from the Sun. The stars, which spin so fast they’ve been squashed into pumpkin-like shapes, are thought to be the result of close binary systems where two Sun-like stars merge.

“These 18 stars rotate in just a few days on average, while the Sun takes nearly a month,” said Steve Howell, a senior research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and leader of the team. “The rapid rotation amplifies the same kind of activity we see on the Sun, such as sunspots and solar flares, and essentially sends it into overdrive.”

The most extreme member of the group, a K-type orange giant dubbed KSw 71, is more than 10 times larger than the Sun, rotates in just 5.5 days, and produces X-ray emission 4,000 times greater than the Sun does at solar maximum.

Hubble Telescope Spots Possible Water Plumes Erupting on Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Posted by :reta On : October 2, 2016
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Category: Bob Eklund Column

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Bob Eklund Looking Up

Bob Eklund
Looking Up

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have imaged what may be water vapor plumes erupting off the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. This finding bolsters other Hubble observations suggesting the icy moon erupts with high-altitude water vapor plumes.

The observation increases the possibility that missions to Europa may be able to sample Europa’s ocean without having to drill through miles of ice.

“Europa’s ocean is considered to be one of the most promising places that could potentially harbor life in the solar system,” said Geoff Yoder, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. “These plumes, if they do indeed exist, may provide another way to sample Europa’s subsurface.”

water

The plumes are estimated to rise about 125 miles before, presumably, raining material back down onto Europa’s surface. Europa has a huge global ocean containing twice as much water as Earth’s oceans, but it is protected by a layer of extremely cold and hard ice of unknown thickness.

The team, led by William Sparks of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, observed these finger-like projections while viewing Europa’s edge as it passed in front of Jupiter.

Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster

Posted by :reta On : September 4, 2016
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Category: Bob Eklund Column

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pleiades-in-pj copy
This image shows the Pleiades cluster of stars as seen through the eyes of WISE, or NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Bob Eklund Looking Up

Bob Eklund
Looking Up


Like cosmic ballet dancers, the stars of the Pleiades cluster are spinning. But these celestial dancers are all twirling at different speeds. Astronomers have long wondered what determines the rotation rates of these stars.

By watching these stellar dancers, NASA’s Kepler space telescope has helped amass the most complete catalog of rotation periods for stars in a cluster. This information can help astronomers gain insight into where and how planets form around these stars, and how such stars evolve.

The Pleiades is one of the closest and most easily seen star clusters, residing just 445 light-years away from Earth, on average. At about 125 million years old, these stars—known individually as Pleiads—have reached stellar “young adulthood.

During the Kepler observations of the Pleiades, a clear pattern emerged: More massive stars rotate slowly, while less massive stars rotate rapidly.

FUN FACT. The Japanese word for Pleiades is “Subaru.” Sound familiar? That six-star emblem on all Subaru cars is none other than a stylized version of the Pleiades cluster, as seen with the naked eye, binoculars, or a low-power telescope.