The benefit of hindsight February 26, 2009
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Left: The image of the HR8799 planetary system from data taken with the Keck telescope. Right: the 1998 Hubble data (credit: NRC) (a) original Hubble image, (b) with "traditional" speckle subtraction method, (c-d) 2 images reprocessed showing the planet above the noise (credit: Lafrenière et al., 2009).
An interesting paper turned up on astro-ph last week. Remember HR8799, the star with a whole family of exoplanets imaged directly last year? A Canadian-American team of scientists went back through the archive and re-analysed data taken with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1998. And lo and behold, using new analysis techniques they managed to tease the outermost of HR8799’s planets out of the noise. Very cool. After all, 1998 was only three years after the first ever detection of an exoplanet! Obtaining a direct image of one really was just a glint in our starry eyes back then.
A sad but cautionary tale February 24, 2009
Posted by sarah in: science . Add a commentNASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory, an Earth-observation satellite designed to measure in detail the levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and study sinks and sources of the gas, crashed into the Antarctic following a failed launch attempt this morning. This is a blow to NASA and climate scientists worldwide, who were looking forward to the data from OCO to help understand how natural and human processes affect climate change processes. NASA blogged the launch live, and the minimal text I’m sure belies the anxiety the scientists and engineers must have been feeling. The cause of the crash was the failure of the payload protective cover to separate from the satellite. The satellite couldn’t reach its orbit and fell back down to Earth.
OCO’s loss is a stark reminder that launching stuff into space is still a pretty risky undertaking, With several high-profile astronomy launches coming up in the next 2 months (Kepler, Herschel and Planck), astronomers will be anxious for the safety of our own spacecraft. Fingers crossed!
Faber wins 2009 Bower Prize February 20, 2009
Posted by sarah in: science . 1 comment so farSandra Faber, astronomy professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, was announced on Wednesday as the winner of the 2009 Bower Award and Prize for Achievements in Science. The prize is presented to her by the Franklin Institute, whose awards programme is one of the oldest and richest in the US. The science prize itself dates back to 1990, and after Sir Martin Rees Sandy Faber is the second astronomer to win the prize.
Texas fireball remnants recovered? February 19, 2009
Posted by sarah in: science . Add a commentABC News reports that two astronomers from the University of North Texas have found what they think are the remnants of the giant fireball that streaked across the sky over the state last Sunday. While the flaming object initially sparked fears of space debris from the recent collision of two satellites crashing to Earth, it soon became clear that this fireball was moving too fast to be anything other than a meteor, albeit a chunky one causing many rattled windows. Apparently the small remnants have been taken to a lab for further study.
The Waco Tribune-Herald has the far more entertaining human angle, with some pictures too. It seems like Sunday’s meteorite sparked a statewide rock-hunt by an amusing medley of meteorite bounty hunters – there’s Karl the Texan Frankfurter, Michael ”the Russians beat us to it” Farmer from Arizona, the unidentified clever Russian who got there first and his American sidekick, decidedly suspect for residing in Mexico. Farmer reckons the state will soon be overrun with meteorite hunters all looking for a piece of the pie. “These objects are worth money,” he told a reporter.
Coincidentally, I’ll be spending the next month in Austin, Texas, and who knows, I might just go hunt for some meteorites. It looks like fun.
If you want some actual information, Daniel has it here.
Image credit: Rod Aydelotte
Hubble to become satellite roadkill? February 18, 2009
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The long-awaited final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope may be under threat because of the large amounts of space debris from last week’s high-speed satellite collision posing a threat to the Shuttle and its astronauts, Nature reported on its news website yesterday. The collision of a US Iridium and a defunct Russian military communication satellite in a low (800 km) Earth orbit blasted thousands of pieces of satellite shrapnel out into space, all of which is now orbiting the Earth in one of the busiest satellite lanes in a slowly expanding cloud. Each shard is moving fast enough to cause substantial, if not catastrophic, damage to any spacecraft it collides with. Cancellation of the mission would amount to a death sentence for Hubble, which is in dire need of repairs and upgrades for continued operation.
