Space In The News: March 2014

Monday, March 31, 2014

Satellite Shows High Productivity from U.S. Corn Belt


LATEST NEWS

Satellite Shows High Productivity from U.S. Corn Belt
Data from satellite sensors show that during the Northern Hemisphere's growing season, the Midwest region of the United States boasts more photosynthetic activity than any other spot on Earth, according to NASA and university scientists. › Read full story

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ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

Astronauts' hearts become more spherical in space

Posted: 29 Mar 2014 02:51 PM PDT

New findings from a study of 12 astronauts show the heart becomes more spherical when exposed to long periods of microgravity in space, a change that could lead to cardiac problems, according to research. With implications for an eventual manned mission to Mars, the findings represent an important step toward understanding how a spaceflight of 18 months or more could affect astronauts' heart health.

Friday, March 28, 2014

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

Hubble sees Mars-bound comet sprout multiple jets

Posted: 27 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT

A new image of a comet at 353 million miles from Earth shows two jets of dust coming off the comet's nucleus in opposite directions.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Students Invited to Enter NASA Essay Contest


JPL EDUCATION - CONTEST

Students Invited to Enter NASA Essay Contest
Students in grades 5 through 12 are invited to participate in NASA's Spring 2014 Cassini Scientist for a Day Essay Contest. The contest asks students to choose one of three scientific observations taken by the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn and explain in a short essay (less than 500 words) why that observation will yield the best findings. This year's targets are Saturn's F Ring; Saturn's largest moon, Titan; and Saturn itself. The contest is open to all students in the United States in grades 5 through 12. The essays will be divided into three groups for scoring: grades 5-6, 7-8 and 9-12. All submissions must be students' original work. Participants may enter as individuals or as part of a team of up to four students. The deadline for entries is April 17, 2014. For more information, visit http://go.nasa.gov/1k1sDGj If you have questions about this contest, please email scientistforaday@jpl.nasa.gov

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ScienceDaily: Galaxies News

The search for seeds of black holes

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 02:03 PM PDT

How do you grow a supermassive black hole that is a million to a billion times the mass of our sun? Astronomers do not know the answer, but a new study using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has turned up what might be the cosmic seeds from which a black hole will sprout. The results are helping scientists piece together the evolution of supermassive black holes -- powerful objects that dominate the hearts of all galaxies.

Closest milemarker supernova in generation observed

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 11:31 AM PDT

Researchers have intently studied the closest type Ia supernova discovered in a generation. The proximity to Earth could yield better understanding of this particular type of supernova that astronomers use to gauge distances in the universe and learn about its expansion history. Type Ia supernovae may begin as a carbon/oxygen white dwarf star that feeds off a neighboring normal star. Once the white dwarf star accretes enough material to reach a mass that's 1.4 times the size of our sun compressed into a ball about the size of Earth, it becomes unstable and explodes into a supernova in a process that still isn't fully understood.

ScienceDaily: Dark Matter News

Dark energy hides behind phantom fields

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 08:45 AM PDT

Quintessence and phantom fields, two hypotheses formulated using data from satellites are among the many theories that try to explain the nature of dark energy. Now researchers suggest that both possibilities are only a mirage in the observations and it is the quantum vacuum which could be behind this energy that moves our universe. Cosmologists believe that some three quarters of the universe are made up of a mysterious dark energy which would explain its accelerated expansion. The truth is that they do not know what it could be, therefore they put forward possible solutions.

ScienceDaily: Extrasolar Planets News

Solar system has a new most-distant member

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 12:37 PM PDT

The Solar System has a new most-distant member, bringing its outer frontier into focus. New work reports the discovery of a distant dwarf planet, called 2012 VP113, which was found beyond the known edge of the Solar System. This is likely one of thousands of distant objects that are thought to form the so-called inner Oort cloud. The work indicates the potential presence of an enormous planet, not yet seen, but possibly influencing the orbit of inner Oort cloud objects.

Contaminated white dwarfs: Scientists solve riddle of celestial archaeology

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 06:22 AM PDT

A decades old space mystery has been solved by an international team of astronomers. The team put forward a new theory for how collapsed stars become polluted -- that points to the ominous fate that awaits planet Earth. Scientists investigated hot, young, white dwarfs -- the super-dense remains of Sun-like stars that ran out of fuel and collapsed to about the size of the Earth.

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

The search for seeds of black holes
Solar system has a new most-distant member
First ring system around asteroid: Chariklo found to have two rings
Contaminated white dwarfs: Scientists solve riddle of celestial archaeology
Closest milemarker supernova in generation observed
Lick's new Automated Planet Finder: First robotic telescope for planet hunters
Plugging the hole in Hawking's black hole theory

The search for seeds of black holes

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 02:03 PM PDT

Solar system has a new most-distant member

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 12:37 PM PDT

First ring system around asteroid: Chariklo found to have two rings

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 11:18 AM PDT

Astronomers have made the surprise discovery that the remote asteroid Chariklo is surrounded by two dense and narrow rings. This is the smallest object by far found to have rings and only the fifth body in the Solar System — after the much larger planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune — to have this feature. The origin of these rings remains a mystery, but they may be the result of a collision that created a disc of debris.

Contaminated white dwarfs: Scientists solve riddle of celestial archaeology

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 06:22 AM PDT

Closest milemarker supernova in generation observed

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 11:31 AM PDT

Lick's new Automated Planet Finder: First robotic telescope for planet hunters

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 09:15 AM PDT

Lick Observatory's newest telescope, the Automated Planet Finder, has been operating robotically night after night on Mt. Hamilton since January, searching nearby stars for Earth-sized planets. Its technical performance has been outstanding, making it not only the first robotic planet-finding facility but also one of the most sensitive.

Plugging the hole in Hawking's black hole theory

Posted: 24 Mar 2014 11:54 AM PDT

Recently physicists have been poking holes again in Stephen Hawking's black hole theory -- including Hawking himself. Now another professor has jumped into the fray. He believes he has solved the decades-old information paradox debate in a groundbreaking new study.

ScienceDaily: Stars News

Contaminated white dwarfs: Scientists solve riddle of celestial archaeology

Posted: 26 Mar 2014 06:22 AM PDT

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Search for Seeds of Black Holes


LATEST NEWS

The Search for Seeds of Black Holes
How does one grow supermassive black holes? A new study using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) has turned up what might be their seeds. › Read full story

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ScienceDaily: Black Holes News

Simple, like a neutron star: How neutron stars are like (and unlike) black holes

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 06:44 AM PDT

For astrophysicists neutron stars are extremely complex astronomical objects. Research has demonstrated that in certain respects these stars can instead be described very simply and that they show similarities with black holes.

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

Mars-mimicking chamber explores habitability of other planets
Simple, like a neutron star: How neutron stars are like (and unlike) black holes
Exploding stars prove Newton's law of gravity unchanged over cosmic time

Mars-mimicking chamber explores habitability of other planets

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 08:29 AM PDT

A research team in Spain has the enviable job of testing out new electromechanical gear for potential use in future missions to the Red Planet. They do it within their Mars environmental simulation chamber, which is specially designed to mimic conditions on the fourth planet from the sun -- right down to its infamous Martian dust.

Simple, like a neutron star: How neutron stars are like (and unlike) black holes

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 06:44 AM PDT

Exploding stars prove Newton's law of gravity unchanged over cosmic time

Posted: 24 Mar 2014 08:02 PM PDT

Australian astronomers have combined all observations of supernovae ever made to determine that the strength of gravity has remained unchanged over the last nine billion years. Newton's gravitational constant, known as G, describes the attractive force between two objects, together with the separation between them and their masses. It has been previously suggested that G could have been slowly changing over the 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang. But researchers have now analyzed the light given off by 580 supernova explosions in the nearby and far Universe and have shown that the strength of gravity has not changed.

ScienceDaily: Extrasolar Planets News

Don't forget F-type stars in search for life

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 10:35 AM PDT

F-type stars, more massive and hotter than our sun, warrant more consideration as spots to look for habitable planets, according to a newly published study that also examined potential damage to DNA from UV radiation.

Lick's new Automated Planet Finder: First robotic telescope for planet hunters

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 09:15 AM PDT

ScienceDaily: Dark Matter News

Closest Milemarker Supernova in Generation observed

Posted: 25 Mar 2014 11:31 AM PDT

ScienceDaily: Cosmic Rays News

Plugging the hole in Hawking's black hole theory

Posted: 24 Mar 2014 11:54 AM PDT

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

NASA Hosts Deep Space Network Social Media Event


LATEST NEWS

NASA Hosts Deep Space Network Social Media Event
About 50 people from 11 U.S. states will attend a two-day NASA Social, to be held April 1 at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and April 2 at NASA's Deep Space Network complex in Goldstone, Calif. › Read full story

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Monday, March 24, 2014

Reminder: NASA/JPL Educator Workshop This Saturday

This is a feature of the NASA/JPL Education Office March 24, 2014

Our Solar System and the Periodic Table of Elements

Date: Saturday, March 29, 2014, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Target audience: Formal and informal educators for grades 3 through 8

Location: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Von Karman Auditorium, Pasadena, Calif.

Overview: Do your students struggle with the Periodic Table of Elements? This California-standards-based workshop will help you get students engaged and excited about the Periodic Table by using our solar system as a basis for understanding. Take a trip with NASA missions, beginning at the center of our solar system and reaching to the outer boundaries, and discover lessons about the elements that are relevant and fun!

Please call the NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center at 818-393-5917 to reserve your spot. For more information and directions, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=115

For a list of more upcoming educator workshops from NASA/JPL Education, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=387

- end -

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Sunday, March 23, 2014

ScienceDaily: Stars News

NASA's Spitzer Telescope brings 360-degree view of galaxy to our fingertips

Posted: 22 Mar 2014 06:45 AM PDT

Touring the Milky Way now is as easy as clicking a button with NASA's new zoomable, 360-degree mosaic. The star-studded panorama of our galaxy is constructed from more than 2 million infrared snapshots taken over the past 10 years by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

ScienceDaily: Galaxies News

NASA's Spitzer Telescope brings 360-degree view of galaxy to our fingertips

Posted: 22 Mar 2014 06:45 AM PDT

ScienceDaily: Astronomy News

Space sunflower may help snap pictures of planets
NASA's Spitzer Telescope brings 360-degree view of galaxy to our fingertips
NASA orbiter finds new gully channel on Mars

Space sunflower may help snap pictures of planets

Posted: 22 Mar 2014 06:49 AM PDT

A spacecraft that looks like a giant sunflower might one day be used to acquire images of Earth-like rocky planets around nearby stars. The prototype deployable structure, called a starshade, is being developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

NASA's Spitzer Telescope brings 360-degree view of galaxy to our fingertips

Posted: 22 Mar 2014 06:45 AM PDT

NASA orbiter finds new gully channel on Mars

Posted: 22 Mar 2014 06:44 AM PDT

A comparison of images taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in November 2010 and May 2013 reveal the formation of a new gully channel on a crater-wall slope in the southern highlands of Mars.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

ScienceDaily: Cosmic Rays News

Now even more likely that there are particles smaller than Higgs out there

Posted: 21 Mar 2014 06:53 AM PDT

Nobody has seen them yet; particles that are smaller than the Higgs particle. However theories predict their existence, and now the most important of these theories have been critically tested. The result: The existence of the yet unseen particles is now more likely than ever.