Hubble Captures Water-Rich Asteroid Eaten by Dead Star

The NASA Hubble Telescope was able to capture a cosmic event where a dead star has eaten an asteroid proven rich with water.

The dead star, called the GD 61, is 150 light years away from our planet but it provides an interesting insight to how things work in the cosmic system. According to the team of astronomers from the University of Cambridge, University of Warwick (U.K.) and University of Kiel (Germany), the dead star could explain how Earth has acquired masses of water on its surface. It may also give an idea of the future plight of the sun, Earth’s own bright star.

The research team found signs that show potential water abundance in the asteroid. They were also able to detect chemical elements such as magnesium, oxygen, silicon, and iron that are normally present in rock minerals. However, the most interesting element they found is oxygen.

The Hubble Telescope and Hawaiian Keck observatories found very high inflow of oxygen in the dead star. This could only be explained by the large asteroid carrying abundant water.

The researchers were able to see that the star has already burnt and spent its nuclear fuel leaving its surface glow weaker than before. Its gravity however is still forceful with the surrounding rocks crumbled and its fragments pulled into its surface.

It is possible that the GD 61 also had similar rocky planets like Earth before it died. "The reason that we can say that is that the planet-formation process starts with things as small as dust grains. They grow into things as big as pebbles and boulders and then as large as asteroids. Once you get to things as big as asteroids, planets are essentially inevitable - it's a runaway process; you simply cannot stop it," said lead researcher Dr Jay Farihi to BBC.

"So, we know there were rocky planets [in GD 61] because we can see the rocky building blocks; and we know there was the potential to deliver water to their surfaces because we've seen at least one very water-rich and large asteroid."

The dead star has 26 percent water while Earth only has 0.02 percent, both of which potentially came from fallen asteroids and comets.

The dead star’s water composition is comparable to Ceres, a huge asteroid found in the Solar System. It will soon be the subject of NASA’s space investigation in 2014.

Source:http://www.hngn.com

Asteroid Pours Water on Dead Sun. Yes, That’s Happening

Stars are so bright and planets so dim by comparison that astronomers can’t study alien worlds directly. They’ve learned plenty through indirect observations, though—that one so-called exoplanet is half-shrouded in clouds; that another may be a water world; that yet another is probably a lovely azure blue, albeit hellishly hot and windy, with rainstorms of molten glass.

But a new report in Science may be the most impressive yet: by looking at the light of a burned-out star, astronomers working in the United Kingdom and Germany have found evidence of a water-rich asteroid that was destroyed by the star a million years ago, or even less—the merest blink of an eye in cosmic terms. “It’s the same sort of object,” says lead author Jay Farihi, “that might have brought water to Earth when our solar system was forming.”

No solar system is forming in this case: the star in question, known as GD 61, about 170 light-years from Earth, died about 200 million years ago. First it swelled into a bloated behemoth known as a red giant, then it shrank into a glowing ember—a white dwarf. The same thing will happen to the Sun in five billion years or so, and when it does, Mercury and Venus will be toast—literally. “Most theorists believe the Earth will survive, though,” says Farihi, although it will become uninhabitably hot. And nobody doubts that Mars, Jupiter and the outer planets will remain intact.

(MORE: Supervolcanoes! Mars Had ‘em and So Could We)

The same goes for the asteroid belt, and with a giant planet like Jupiter in the neighborhood, asteroids will occasionally be flung inward to be swallowed by what used to our Sun. That’s just what Farihi and his colleagues think must have happened with GD 61. They’ve got a couple of lines of evidence. The first: infrared observations show that the white dwarf is surrounded by a disk of material, presumably created when some sort of solid body ventured too close and was torn to shreds by the dead star’s still-powerful gravity.

Second, there’s a surprising abundance of oxygen in the white dwarf’s outer layers. The oxygen could have come from plain old rocks: it’s present in the silicates that make up most of Earth’s bulk, for example. But there’s too much oxygen for that explanation to be the whole story. It could have come from carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide, but, says Farihi, “we don’t see any carbon,” effectively ruling out that idea.

(MORE: Space Race 2013: Who’s Up, Who’s Down, Who’s Going Nowhere)

The most plausible explanation, they decided, was a pulverized asteroid whose remnants are raining down from the disk of orbiting debris onto the white dwarf’s surface and “polluting its atmosphere,” as Farihi puts it. By the scientists’ calculations, the asteroid was about the size of Vesta, the second-largest asteroid in our own solar system, measuring 326 mi. (525 km) across. Many asteroids are relatively dry, but some are surprisingly water-rich, including Vesta’s big sister, Ceres. The pulverized asteroid falling onto GD 61 belongs in the latter category, with about a quarter of its mass thought to come in the form of water.

Figuring out the composition of an asteroid 170 light-years from Earth is no mean feat—especially when the asteroid no longer exists in any recognizable form. But what’s more exciting to Farihi is that this shows that the same sort of object that may have delivered life-sustaining water to Earth may be common in other solar systems. “One of the burning questions,” he says, “is ‘how often does this happen?’” There’s one obvious way to find out, but, he says, “we’ll definitely be expanding our search.”

Read more: http://science.time.com/2013/10/10/asteroid-pours-water-on-dead-sun-yes-thats-happening/#ixzz2hMPBfDU5

Arecibo Telescope Captures Images Of Asteroid With Moon From Puerto Rico

Looking above from a valley in Puerto Rico, the largest single-dish telescope in the world captured detailed images of an asteroid that passed earth last week.

Arecibo Observatory captured radar images of the 1.9 mile-wide asteroid 1998 QE2 while it sped past Earth at a minimum distance of 3.6 million miles on May 31. The images were released Friday and also showed that the asteroid actually has a moon.

According to the Universities Space Research Association, the discovery of the 2,500 foot long moon means astronomers can calculate the asteroid’s mass by measuring how quickly the moon orbits it.

"Being able to determine its mass from the moon helps us understand better the asteroid's material," said Dr. Ellen Howell, a USRA research astronomer at Arecibo Observatory who took images.

The telescope continues to take photos of the asteroid as it passes earth this week.

"Asteroid QE2 has no chance of hitting earth," said USRA's Dr. Michael Nolan, head of the asteroid radar group at Arecibo Observatory.

The Arecibo Observatory is unique because it has the ability to capture features of asteroids when optical telescopes on the ground would see these rocks as simple points of light, according to USRA. 

"We transmit powerful radio waves at passing asteroids," said Nolan. "Arecibo is a thousand times more powerful than your microwave oven."

The powerful observatory is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2013/06/19/arecibo-telescope-captures-asteroid-images-from-puerto-rico/#ixzz2WhI1bQON

NASA presents an astonishing billion-pixel tour of Mars

It's a guided tour -- from about 150 million miles away.

A stunning panoramic image from the Curiosity rover offers an incredibly detailed look at the dusty, lonely landscape of the red planet. And thanks to NASA's computer science geniuses, you can take a guided tour of the rocky landscape from your couch. 

Here's how to get the most of it. 

First click in the Photosynth player and drag the image left or right for a 360-degree look at your desolate surroundings (remember to keep your eyes open for the Martian rat). Then click the double rectangle in the bottom center of the image to take the panoramic image full-screen for the full mind-blowing experience.

Now click the links at the right side of the screen for some highlights of the spots Curiosity has already investigated, as well as the sites yet to be visited.

Start your trip at Mount Sharp, a 3-mile high rocky peak that the rover will eventually trek its way to. Zoom in on the L-shaped series of laser blasts that the rover zapped into the landscape, or the tracks left by the rover itself on its lonely tour.

Check out Yellowknife Bay, the area Curiosity first drilled into, or Rocknest, where the rover took its first scoops of Martian soil. 

The image, the first NASA-produced shot to cross the one-billion pixel mark, combines nearly 900 exposures taken of the windblown patch of dirt called Rocknest by cameras onboard Curiosity and shows details of the landscape along the rover’s route to Mount Sharp on the horizon.

“It gives a sense of place and really shows off the cameras’ capabilities,” said Bob Deen of the Multi-Mission Image Processing Laboratory at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. “You can see the context and also zoom in to see very fine details.”

The images were taken on several different Mars days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012. Raw single-frame images received from Curiosity are promptly posted on a public website:mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/raw/

Nasa to lease Cape Canaveral shuttle launch pad

Nasa is looking for commercial operators to lease a historic launch pad in Florida used for the first Moon missions and by the shuttles.

Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center has been unused since the Atlantis orbiter retired in 2011.

At least two privately owned space exploration companies are expected to bid for the contract.

The facility is one of two launch pads built in the 1960s as part of the Apollo Moon programme.

It has supported more than 90 launches since November 1967.

But after the end of Nasa's space shuttle programme two years ago, Complex 39A and many other facilities became redundant.

The US space agency said some 150 facilities at the Florida spaceport had been demolished or transferred to commercial operators, Reuters news agency reports.

"We remain committed to right-sizing our portfolio by reducing the number of facilities that are underused, duplicative or not required to support the Space Launch System and Orion," the space centre's director, Bob Cabana, said in a statement.

The Space Launch System and Orion is Nasa's next-generation deep space mission, designed to carry astronauts to destinations past the International Space Station (ISS).

"Launch Complex 39A is not required to support our asteroid retrieval mission or our eventual missions to Mars," Mr Cabana said.

"It's in the agency's and our nation's best interest in meeting our commitment and direction to enable commercial space operations and allow the aerospace industry to operate and maintain the pad and related facilities."

Nasa aims to lease the facility for five years or longer by October.

Privately owned Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is reportedly among the companies that have expressed interest in the contract. The company already leases a launch pad at the nearby US Air Force Station.

It is developing crewed spacecraft in an attempt to launch Nasa astronauts to the orbiting ISS.

Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk

NASA details plan to capture passing asteroid and drag it into Moon’s orbit Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nasa-details-plan-capture-asteroid-article-1.1354132#ixzz2UFvYCraY

The $100 million program will help us get to Mars, says the agency. But not all space scientists agree.

AP/NICK UT

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, right, talks with electric propulsion engineer John Brophy during a visit to Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

While no one has yet figured out how to catch a shooting star, NASA has set its sights on lassoing an asteroid so as to one day save the Earth from destruction.

Charles Bolden, the director of the U.S. space agency, visited the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. on Thursday and commented on NASA’s ambitious plan to intercept, redirect and explore an asteroid.

“This is the first chance humanity has to demonstrate with an asteroid of this size that we can move its orbit,” Bolden told the Los Angeles Times. “It will be tens of years before we can say we can protect the Earth from an impact. It won't happen in my lifetime as administrator, but this is the first step.”

RELATED: NASA’S KEPLER TELESCOPE MALFUNCTIONS AGAIN, THREATENING SPACE MISSION

While saving the world from a potential asteroid collision is, in itself, a worthy goal, Bolden said that another motivation behind the mission will be to further develop the technology to one day send humans to Mars.

“My ultimate goal as a human being is to get us to Mars,” Bolden told the Times.

President Obama included the asteroid capture mission as part of his 2014 NASA budget request, and allocated $100 million to do so by the year 2025. Still, finding the right asteroid may prove elusive.

RELATED: ASTRONAUTS AT INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION STAGE EMERGENCY SPACEWALK

NASA will need a space rock that is between 20 and 30 feet, and is traveling no faster than 1.5 miles per second if it hopes to successfully envelop it in what looks like a giant corrugated plunger.

Instead of venturing out deep into the solar system to find the perfect asteroid, NASA now plans to wait for a suitable candidate to wander close to Earth. Once bagged, the agency will drag the captured asteroid into the moon’s orbit, where astronauts will attempt to land on the rock’s surface and conduct experiments.

“When astronauts don their spacesuits and venture out for a spacewalk on the surface of an asteroid, how they move and take samples of it will be based on years of knowledge built by NASA scientists and engineers who have assembled and operated the International Space Station, evaluated exploration mission concepts, sent scientific spacecraft to characterize near-Earth objects and performed ground-based analog missions,” NASA says on its website.

Still, some scientists wonder whether spending $100 million on the asteroid mission makes sense if the ultimate goal is to land on Mars.

“To me, the connection between the asteroid retrieval mission, which involves proximity operations with a rock that would fit comfortably in this hearing room, I see no obvious connection between that and any of the technologies and capabilities required for Martian exploration,” Steve Squyers, a planetary scientist at Cornell University, told the House Subcommittee on Space 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/nasa-details-plan-capture-asteroid-article-1.1354132#ixzz2UFveG898