back News direct retour direct News News Archives (2005)

for each month news sorted by inverted order of date; links may or may not work

note: les nouvelles, en 2005, commencent d'être accompagnées d'une traduction française; cela commence au 14/07/2005; pour chaque mois, les nouvelles par ordre inverse de date; les liens peuvent ou non fonctionner

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12/27/2005 More Rings at Uranus. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has spotted two faint outer rings and two new moons around Uranus. The outermost ring (referenced to as "R 2003/U1") is twice the diameter and the planet's previously known rings, as scientists consider both rings like a kind of additional ring system to Uranus. As the already known moon Portia is orbiting where the first of the two new rings was found, a new moon, named "Cupid" has been found between the orbits of Rosalind and Belinda. The second, newly found moon, named "Mab", with a diameter of 12 miles, is sharing its orbit with the second, farthest ring. The second, inner to the first, ring is referenced to as "R 2003/U2". Miranda is orbiting beyond the outermost ring. This discovery seems to point to that Uranus and its surroundings are a dynamical system. The rings in the Uranus system are thought to be dust spiraling away from the planet, hence rings have to be replenished regularly. That's probably done due to some inner moons being impacted by meteoroids continually. "Mab", the second found moon, for example, is thought to be the main provider for the newly found ring R 2003/U1. The Hubble Space Telescope, at last, has seen how the orbits of Uranus' inner moons changed significantly during just a decade. Such facts along with the recent discoveries of the Cassini mission at Saturn (especially about how Enceladus is replenishing the E ring) are showing that the ring systems around the gas giants of our solar system, are dynamical systems ( French translation: De nouveaux anneaux à Uranus. 27 décembre. Le Hubble télescope a découvert deux nouveaux anneaux et deux nouveaux satellites autour d'Uranus. L'anneau le plus extérieur (désigné "R 2003/U1") a un diamètre de deux fois le système d'anneaux que l'on connaissait jusque là. Les deux anneaux sont à ce point distincts du système intérieur que les astronomes les considèrent comme un système additionnel. La lune Portia orbite là où a été trouvé le premier des deux anneaux. Un nouveau satellite, baptisé "Cupidon" a été découvert entre l'orbite de Rosalinde et celle de Belinda. La deuxième lune, "Mab", d'un diamètre de 19 km (12 miles) partage, elle, son orbite avec le plus extérieur des anneaux. Le second anneau (intérieur au premier) a été désigné "R 2003/U2". Miranda orbite au-delà du deuxième anneau. Ces découvertes semblent être un indice que le système d'Uranus est dynamique: les anneaux sont composés de poussière qui s'éloigne, en spiralant, de la planète. Il faut donc que de nouvelles sources de poussière existent. Des impacts continus de météorites sur les lunes intérieures d'Uranus sont sans doute l'une des explications. On pense aussi que "Mab", le deuxième satellite nouvellement découvert, est la source principale de l'anneau "R 2003/U1". Hubble, enfin, a observé que les orbites des satellites intérieurs d'Uranus ont changé, de façon significative, sur l'espace d'une seule décennie. Ces faits, si on les combine avec les découvertes récentes de la mission Cassini dans le système de Saturne, semblent montrer que les systèmes d'anneaux qui existent autour des quatre géantes gazeuses du système solaire, sont des systèmes en évolution)

12/22/2005 NASA Is Going Podcast! NASA has opened NASAcast, its Portal podcast, on the Internet. Users will be able to pick there the digital audio and video files of their choice for watch or listening on their personal computers or iPod or similar portable digital devices. With a (free) subscription, the podcast systems delivers new information directly to the user. A podcast software, like "itunes" or "ipodder" automatically download any new content you subscribed to. Podcasting gives users the freedom to listen to or watch news and other programs anywhere, anytime. NASA's portal provide audio and video features from the NASA web site, NASATV's This Week at NASA, and more. Additional NASA podcasts, such as Science@NASA are also provided. see more at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/ ( French translation: La NASA passe au podcast. 22 décembre. La NASA a ouvert son portail podcast, "NASAcast". Les utilisateurs pourront y choisir les fichiers audio et vidéo qu'ils désirent écouter sur leur PC ou leur iPod (ou tout autre lecteur digital portable). Avec un système (gratuit) d'abonnement, le système podcast, par le biais de programmes comme "itunes" ou "ipodder", apporte l'information directement à l'utilisateur. Les nouvelles de la NASA quand vous le voulez, où vous le voulez! Les fichiers viennent du site principal de la NASA, de "NASATV's This Week" et d'autres sources NASA. "Science@NASA" est également accessible. pour plus de détails: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcasting/)

12/21/2005 Life Precursors Rarer Than Thought in Earthly Conditions? The Spitzer Space Telescope, this NASA infrared space asset which is studying the Universe in the infrared wavelengths, brought another item to the idea that life building blocks are most usual everywhere in the Universe. The space telescope found that large amounts of acetylene and hydrogen cyanide were lying in the protoplanetary disk of a young star, at a distance of the star where rocky planets, like our Earth, may appear. Acetylene and hydrogen cyanide contain carbon. Linked up together in the presence of water, both gases form 1 of the 20 amino acids which are precursors to the proteins, on one hand, and 1 of the 4 chemical bases to DNA, on the other hand. This goes well in the direction that life's precursors are found everywhere in the Universe. The discovery, on the other hand, which pinpointed the location of the gases at an Earth's distance from their star through their hot temperature -pointing to that distance- is also showing that such precursors might be much rarer than thought in these "terrestrial" conditions: the Spitzer telescope unambiguously found the gases in 1 only of 100 stars of the same age it studied. Acetylene and hydrogen cyanide are found, in our solar system, in the atmospheres of the gas giants, in the atmosphere of Titan (the largest satellite of Titan), and at the surface of comets ( French translation: Les bases de la vie plus rares que prévu dans les conditions terrestres? 21 décembre. Le Spitzer Space Telescope, ce télescope spatial de la NASA qui étudie l'Univers dans l'infrarouge, a encore ajouté à l'idée que les bases de la vie sont chose commune. Le télescope spatial a trouvé de grandes quantités d'acétylène et de cyanure d'hydrogène à la distance d'une étoile jeune où peuvent se former des planètes rocheuses du type de la Terre. L'acétylène et de cyanure d'hydrogène contiennent du carbone. Liés entre eux en présence d'eau, les deux gaz donnent naissance, d'une part, à l'un des 20 acides aminés précurseurs des protéines, et, d'autre part, à une des 4 bases chimiques de l'ADN. Cette découverte -qui a été permise par la chaleur importante des gaz, laquelle indique donc qu'ils sont proches de l'étoile, va dans la direction que les éléments de base de la vie sont choses communes dans l'Univers. Le fait, cependant, que la découverte n'ait été faite que pour 1 de 100 étoiles de mêmes âge et conditions &ecute;tudiées, va également dans le sens que ces éléments semblent plus rare dans les conditions où peuvent apparaître des planètes semblables à la Terre. Beaucoup de précurseurs de la vie d'une part, peu dans les conditions de la Terre d'autre part, serait-ce là une base de recherche? L'acétylène et de cyanure d'hydrogène, dans notre système solaire, se trouvent dans l'atmosphère des géantes gazeuses, dans l'atmosphè de Titan -le plus grand satellite de Saturne, actuellement l'objet d'une mission de la NASA, et à la surface des comètes)

11/23/2005 Work Well Underway About the CEV. The Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, have started building a full-sized mockup of the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), this next-generation crew craft which will replace the Shuttle by 2010 and serve to bring back man to the Moon and then go to Mars. The mockup will serve to experiment with physical relationships between the crew and equipement (which will have been first 3-D computer-modelled). This seems part of a new philosophy at NASA which dictates that brain needs the input of reality to get a true sense of things ( French translation: Les travaux du prochain vaisseau spatial de la NASA avancent
23 novembre. Une maquette grandeur nature du "Crew Exploration Vehicle" (CEV), le futur vaisseau spatial de la NASA, a été construite au Johnson Space Center, à Houston, l'un des centres de l'agence spatiale américaine. Le CEV remplacera la navette spatiale vers 2010 et il servira ensuite pour le retour de l'homme sur la Lune et, enfin, pour les vols habités à destination de la planète Mars. La maquette va servir à étudier les relations physiques entre les équipages et la capsule -qui aura d'abord été travaillé en 3D sur ordinateur. Une telle conception (ordinateurs, réalité) semble faire partie d'une nouvelle philosophie de la NASA qui semble s'orienter vers l'idée que le cerveau humain a besoin du réel pour mieux appréhender les concepts)

11/2/2005 What About the Late Discovery of Two More Moons at Pluto? Two candidate moons -provisionally designated S/2005 P1 and S/2005 P2, have been found by Hubble at Pluto. The farthest planet in our solar system had already been found with one moon, Charon, in 1978. Both Pluto's moons were observed last May 2005 as Hubble will make follow-up observations next February to confirm that the objects actually are satellites. P1 and P2 so far are orbiting 27,000 miles (44,000 km) away from their planet, with estimated diameters 40-125 miles (64-200 km), meaning they are about one tenth of Charon's size, as their orbit is barely more distant. Pluto's new moons are about the size either the inner, ring, moons of Jupiter and Saturn, or the lesser satellites of Uranus or Neptune ( French translation: Deux nouvelles lunes à Pluton. 2 novembre. Deux satellites nouveaux ont été découverts à la planète Pluton par le télescope spatial Hubble en mai dernier. Charon, la lune connue de Pluton, n'avait été découverte qu'en 1978. Les deux nouvelles lunes ont été provisoirement nommées S/2005 P1 et S/2005 P2. Des observations supplémentaires seront menées en février prochain pour confirmer que les objets sont bien des satellites de Pluton. P1 et P2 orbitent à 44,000 km (27,000 miles) de Pluton et ont un diamètre estimé de 64-200 km (40-125 miles). Les nouvelles lunes ont donc un diamètre le dixième de celui de Charon et leur orbite est à peine au-delà du satellite connu. Les nouveaux satellites de Pluton sont de l'ordre des lunes des anneaux de Jupiter ou de Saturne ou des satellites mineurs d'Uranus ou de Neptune)

10/19/2005 Advanced Life at Earth Later Than Thought! A study by scientists of the M.I.T. and the Harvard University about fossilized remains of photosynthetic pigments in 1.6 billion year-old Australian rocks is showing that the oceans of the Earth might have been, until recently, hostile to advanced, oxygen-breathing forms of life. The seas might have been toxic to forms of life other than cellular organisms adapted to the toxic elements during seven-eighths of Earth's 4.5 billion-year history -that is 600 million years ago- as oxygen and oxygen-adapted life is certainly a recent event. The rocks which were sampled are showing that the oceans at that time were highly packed with sulfides down to a depth of 20 to 40 yards (20-40 meters). This might mark a distinction within the Archean and Proterozoic eras (3.9-2.5 billion years ago and 2.5 billion-540 million years ago respectively) which are said to see the development of oxygen-based life, one one hand, and, further, of first advanced forms of life, from the eukaryotes -unicellular organisms with a nucleus to algae and multicellular marine organisms. The end of the Proterozoic might well be the real beginning of advanced life, leading to a drastic revision of our knowledge of the history of life on Earth! more about geological eras at Earth! ( French translation: Les océans de la Terre ont été longtemps hostiles à la vie. 19 octobre. Une étude menée par le M.I.T. et la Harvard University sur des restes fossiles de pigments de photosynthèse dans des roches australiennes vieilles de 1,6 milliard d'année montre que les océans, sur Terre, pourraient bien avoir été hostiles jusqu'il y a peu -en termes géologiques- à toute forme de vie avancée utilisant l'oxygène. Les mers auraient ainsi été hostiles à toute forme de vie autre que celles adaptées à des éléments toxiques. Et cela aurait duré pendant les 7/8èmes de l'histoire géologique de la Terre, soit jusqu'il y a 600 millions d'années. Les roches étudiées montrent que les océans, il y a 1,6 milliards d'années, étaient densément porteurs de sulfides jusqu'à une profondeur de 20-40 mètres (20-40 yards). Ce constat pourrait amener à une révision drastique de l'idé que l'on a de quand la vie avancée se développe sur Terre. Ce serait donc à à la fin du Protozoïque que tout commencerait réellement sur Terre! plus (en anglais seulement) sur l'histoire géologique de la Terre)

10/19/2005 Stars Really Form At our Galaxy's Center. A recent study by NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope is confirming that massive stars have formed in a disk surrounding the supermassive black hole which lies at the center of our Galaxy. As gas clouds which allow stars to form should have been ripped apart by tidal forces from the black hole, it appears that the gravity of the latter is in fact offset by the gravity of the dense disk of gas surrounding the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, allowing the stars formation process. When such stars eventually go supernovae, they release heavy elements. This explains the large amounts of such elements observed in the disks around galactic supermassive black holes. This late study bodes well with another one, which was related in this section, about M31, our neighbour-galaxy where young, blue stars have been found circling the central black hole ( French translation: Il y a réellement formation d'étoiles près du centre de la Galaxie. 19 octobre. Une étude récente réalisée par le télescope de la NASA dans les rayons X, Chandra, confirme que des étoiles massives se sont formées dans un disque qui entoure le trou noir supermassif qui se trouve au centre de la Galaxie. Alors que les nuages de gaz, qui permettent le processus de formation auraient dû être dispersés par les marées gravitationnelles du trou noiir, la gravité de celui-ci est en fait contre-balancée par la gravité du disque dense de gaz qui entoure le centre de notre galaxie. La formation d'étoiles est ainsi possible et, lorsque ces étoiles terminent leur vie comme supernovas, elles répandent des éléments lourds. C'est ce qui explique les quantités importantes de ces éléments dans les disques des trous noirs galactiques. Cette étude correspond bien avec celle, récente aussi, qui a montré l'existence d'étoiles jeunes, bleues, qui orbitent autour du trou noir central de la galaxie d'Andromède, notre voisine dans l'Amas local)

10/17/2005 The Second Chinese Flight Successfully Landed. Mission's Over! The re-entry module of the Chinese Shenzhou-6 spacecraft successfully de-orbited and touched down in Inner Mongolia Oct. 17 at 4:32 a.m., Beijing Time, putting an end to the Chinese second manned space flight. The mission had launched on last Wednesday, October 12th at 9 a.m. local time, from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China (Gansu Province), manned by a two-man crew. The two "taikonauts" -the Chinese term used for "astronauts" performed a 5-day mission during which they entered the orbital capsule from the return capsule of their Shenzhou-6 craft to conduct experiments. The Shenzhou is a craft based on the Russian Soyuz. This second Chinese manned spaceflight was part of the Chinese plan to boldly become a space power. Next steps will be spacewalks, docking-undocking maneuvers, and the construction of a permanent space station. The first Chinese space flight had occurred two years ago, with a sole astronaut performing a short flight ( French translation: Le second vol habité chinois a atterri avec succès en Mongolie intérieure. 17 octobre. Le module de ré-entrée du vaisseau chinois Shenzhou-6 a atterri avec succès en Mongolie intérieure le 17 octobre à 4h 32 heure de Pékin, menant à son terme le deuxième vol habité chinois. La mission avait quitté la Terre mercredi 12 octobre dernier, à 9h heure locale, du centre de lancement de Jiuquan, en Chine du nord-ouest (province de Gansu). L'équipage était composé de deux "taïkonautes" (les Chinois emploient ce terme pour désigner leurs astronautes). Le vol aura duré cinq jours, au cours desquels les deux astronautes sont entrés dans la partie orbitale du vaisseau pour y mener des expériences. Le vaisseau Shenzhou est basé sur le Soyouz russe. Ce second vol habité chinois s'insère dans un plan global de développement spatial. Les prochaines étapes consisteront en rendez-vous en orbite, en sorties dans l'espace avec, en vue, la construction d'une station spatiale. Le premier vol habité chinois avait eu lieu en 2004. Un seul astronaute était à bord et le vol avait été court)

9/29/2005 Supernova Shock Waves Pinpointed Like the Primary Source of Cosmic Rays! The cosmic rays, these high energy atoms' nuclei coming from the outer space had, until now, an uncertain origine. Flares on the Sun or on other stars, supernovae shock waves, pulsars, or black hole accretion disks were the candidates for an explanation. Supernovae, however, were the best candidates. A team of scientists using data gathered by Chandra is leading with certainty to this idea that it's the supernovae shocks which are the primary source of cosmic rays! The team studied the well-known supernova remnant of what is called the "Tycho's supernova", a supernova which exploded in 1572 in the constellation Cassiopeia and which was observed at that time by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. One of the two shock waves seen in the supernova remnant has been found less ahead of the ring of stellar debris that it should be. The most likely explanation for this behavior is that a large fraction of the energy of the shock wave is going into the production of cosmic rays! Previous studies had only found that the shock wave was accelerating electrons. The new finding means that it's too accelerating nuclei as well. The shock wave(s) generated by a supernova event are analogous to the sonic boom produced by the supersonic motion of airplanes, bringing to sudden and large changes in pressure and temperature behind the wave. The shock waves are produced by the swift expansion of the stellar debris. The finding means that the production of cosmic rays alters the dynamics of a supernova remnants ( French translation: Une découverte fondamentale: les ondes de choc des supernovas sont la source principale des rayons cosmiques. 29 septembre. Les rayons cosmiques, ces noyaux atomiques de haute énergie qui nous viennent de l'espace, avaient, jusqu'à présent une origine incertaine: flares sur le Soleil ou sur les autres étoiles, ondes de choc des supernovae, pulsars ou disques d'accrétion des trous noirs. Les supernovae avaient la préférence des scientifiques. Une équipe, en utilisant les données du télescope dans les rayons-X Chandra, a confirmé que les supernovae sont sans doute la source principale des rayons cosmiques. Les scientifiques ont étudié les restes bien connus de la "supernova de Tycho", cette étoile qui explosa en 1572 dans la constellation de Cassiopée et qui fut alors observée par Tycho Brahé, l'astronome danois. Ils ont découvert que l'une des deux ondes de choc de la supernova précède l'anneau des débris de l'étoile d'une distance moindre que prévu. L'explication la plus plausible pour cela est tout simplement qu'une grande partie de l'énergie de l'onde est en fait absorbée dans le mécanisme de production de rayons cosmiques! On savait, d'études précédentes, que l'onde de choc accélérait des électrons. On sait maintenant qu'elle accélère aussi des noyaux d'atomes. La ou les ondes de choc générée (s) par une supernova sont la source de mécanismes de compression et de hausse de température à l'arrière de l'onde. Les ondes de choc sont produites par l'expansion rapide des débris de l'étoile qui a explosé. Ces nouveaux travaux signifient que la production de rayons cosmiques affecte la dynamique des restes des supernovae)

9/28/2005 More News From the Heliosphere by Voyager 1. The interaction between our Sun with the surrounding interstellar environment seems more dynamic and complex than thought. It's what a paper published in the Sept. 23 issue of Science reveals, from the data sent back by Voyager 1, this NASA's spaceship heading to the outside of the protective bubble of our solar system, the heliosphere. Voyager 1 has reached what is called the "termination shock", the inner enveloppe of the heliosphere, there where the solar wind begins to come to the contact of the interstellar medium, being compressed, heated and slowed. The solar wind has been seen slowed by much more than expected, even leading to it to appear flowing back toward the Sun. This might be linked to that the Sun is nearing the minimum of its 11-year cycle. In the same manner the 13 days-cycled interplanetary magnetic field is slowing past the termination shock, turning into a 100-day cycle. Voyager 1 is one of four spacecraft which are now heading to the interstellar space: Voyager 2, Voyager 1's sister ship, and Pioneer 1 and 2. The Voyagers only are still making science and able to communicate with Earth. Voyager 1 is going to reach the real limit of the heliosphere in 8 to 10 years, followed 5 years later by Voyager 2. see more about the heliosphere ( French translation: L'interaction entre notre Soleil et l'environnement interstellaire pourrait être plus dynamique et complexe qu'on ne le pensait. 28 septembre. C'est ce que révèle un article publié dans la revue Science datée du 23/09, faisant état de données collectées par Voyager 1. Ce vaisseau de la NASA est ce vaisseau qui se dirige vers la frontière du domaine du Soleil, l'héliosphère, là où se termine l'influence de ce dernier et où règne le milieu interstellaire. Voyager 1, pour l'instant, est arrivé au "choc de terminaison" ("termination shock"), l'enveloppe intérieure de l'héliosphère. C'est là que le vent solaire commence de s'affronter au milieu interstellaire. Il se compresse, chauffe et est ralenti. Il semble que le vent solaire soit ralenti d'une façon beaucoup plus forte que prévu et que dans certains cas, il semble même revenir en direction du Soleil! Cela pourrait s'expliquer par le fait que le Soleil approche en ce moment du minimum de son cycle de 11 ans. De la même façon, le champ magnétique interplanétaire, à cycle de 13 jours, ralentit après avoir passé le "choc de terminaison", adoptant un cycle de 100 jours. Voyager 1 est l'un de ces quatre vaisseaux spatiaux -avec Voyager 2, Pioneer 1 et Pioneer 2 qui sont en route pour quitter le domaine du Soleil et atteindre le milieu interstellaire. Seuls les deux Voyager font encore de la science et sont capables de communiquer. Voyager 1 atteindra la dernière limite de l'héliosphère d'ici 8 à 10 ans, suivi 5 ans plus tard par Voyager 2)

9/28/05 More News From the Heliosphere by Voyager 1. The interaction between our Sun with the surrounding interstellar environment seems more dynamic and complex than thought. It's what a paper published in the Sept. 23 issue of Science reveals, from the data sent back by Voyager 1, this NASA's spaceship heading to the outside of the protective bubble of our solar system, the heliosphere. Voyager 1 has reached what is called the "termination shock", the inner enveloppe of the heliosphere, there where the solar wind begins to come to the contact of the interstellar medium, being compressed, heated and slowed. The solar wind has been seen slowed by much more than expected, even leading to it to appear flowing back toward the Sun. This might be linked to that the Sun is nearing the minimum of its 11-year cycle. In the same manner the 13 days-cycled interplanetary magnetic field is slowing past the termination shock, turning into a 100-day cycle. Voyager 1 is one of four spacecraft which are now heading to the interstellar space: Voyager 2, Voyager 1's sister ship, and Pioneer 1 and 2. The Voyagers only are still making science and able to communicate with Earth. Voyager 1 is going to reach the real limit of the heliosphere in 8 to 10 years, followed 5 years later by Voyager 2. see more about the heliosphere ( French translation: 28 septembre. L'interaction entre notre Soleil et l'environnement interstellaire pourrait être plus dynamique et complexe qu'on ne le pensait. C'est ce que révèle un article publié dans la revue Science datée du 23/09, faisant état de données collectées par Voyager 1. Ce vaisseau de la NASA est ce vaisseau qui se dirige vers la frontière du domaine du Soleil, l'héliosphère, là où se termine l'influence de ce dernier et où règne le milieu interstellaire. Voyager 1, pour l'instant, est arrivé au "choc de terminaison" ("termination shock"), l'enveloppe intérieure de l'héliosphère. C'est là que le vent solaire commence de s'affronter au milieu interstellaire. Il se compresse, chauffe et est ralenti. Il semble que le vent solaire soit ralenti d'une façon beaucoup plus forte que prévu et que dans certains cas, il semble même revenir en direction du Soleil! Cela pourrait s'expliquer par le fait que le Soleil approche en ce moment du minimum de son cycle de 11 ans. De la même façon, le champ magnétique interplanétaire, à cycle de 13 jours, ralentit après avoir passé le "choc de terminaison", adoptant un cycle de 100 jours. Voyager 1 est l'un de ces quatre vaisseaux spatiaux -avec Voyager 2, Pioneer 1 et Pioneer 2 qui sont en route pour quitter le domaine du Soleil et atteindre le milieu interstellaire. Seuls les deux Voyager font encore de la science et sont capables de communiquer. Voyager 1 atteindra la dernière limite de l'héliosphère d'ici 8 à 10 ans, suivi 5 ans plus tard par Voyager 2)

9/22/2005 Young Stars Near M31 Super-Massive Black Hole! Using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers confirmed that there really is a super-massive black hole at the center of our neighbour-galaxy, M31, the Andromeda Galaxy, and that young, blue stars are circling about it. More than 400 stars formed in a burst of activity about 200 million years ago and they all are located inside a pancake-shaped disk 1 light-year across. The disk is nested inside a ring of older, redder stars, which was already known to astronomers. This finding now poses another question: how the star formation process may take place there where a galactic black hole's tidal forces are acting and tearing matter apart? The team lead scientist thinks that the dynamics seen at the core of the Andromeda Galaxy may be more common than thought. Our own Milky Way, for example, has even younger stars close to the central black hole ( French translation: Un anneau d'étoiles jeunes au coeur de la galaxie d'Andromède! Une équipe de chercheurs utilisant le Hubble Space Telescope ont, dans le même temps, confirmé qu'un trou noir super-massif existe bien au centre de M31, la fameuse galaxie d'Andromède et qu'un anneau d'étoiles jeunes, bleues se trouve à proximité. Plus de 400 étoiles se sont formées là il y a 200 millions d'années et forment un disque d'1 année-lumière de diamètre. Ce disque est situé à l'intérieur d'un autre disque d'étoiles plus anciennes et rouges. L'existence de ce disque était déjà connue. La découverte amène une autre question: comment le processus de formation des étoiles a-t-il pu fonctionner aussi près d'un trou noir galactique? Les forces gravitationnelles auraient dû disperser la matière. Le chef de l'équipe de chercheurs pense qu'une telle formation d'étoiles dans ces conditions pourrait être en fait beaucoup plus commune qu'on ne le pense: ne serait-ce que dans notre Galaxie, des étoiles encore plus jeunes se trouvent près du trou noir super-massif)

9/21/2005 NASA Unveils Its Next CEV Exploration System! Nasa unveiled the next Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) system! The CEV and its launchers is NASA's next-generation exploration system. The CEV will be a multi-purpose vehicle, having to be able to serve as a crew and supplies ferry ship to the International Space Station (ISS), as the ship which will bring 4 astronauts to the Moon and back, or carry 6 astronauts to Mars. The new program borrows both to the Apollo program concepts and to the Shuttle program engines. The CEV proper will be shaped like an Apollo capsule, although three times larger, as the lunar missions will use a lunar module, an inserting burn to the lunar trajectory and a general scheme which is remembering of the Apollo journeys. The missions will parachute on dry land however. First manned lunar missions are scheduled for 2018. Two launchers will serve the program, both based on Shuttle program Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs) and Shuttle's main engine, which proved reliable. see more and illustrations at the tutorial The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) ( French translation: La NASA dévoile le système d'exploration qui remplacera la navette! La NASA a dévoilé le nouveau système qu'elle va mettre en place pour remplacer la navette spatiale. Le nouveau véhicule spatial (en anglais, le "Crew Exploration Vehicle", "CEV") de l'agence spatiale américaine sera multi-usage: il devra à la fois servir de véhicule et de cargo à destination de la Station Spatiale Internationale, de véhicule pour gagner la Lune avec 4 astronautes à bord et de vaisseau pour atteindre Mars avec 6 personnes à bord. Le nouveau programme emprunte à la fois des concepts au programme Apollo et des moteurs et des lanceurs au programme de la navette spatiale. Le CEV proprement dit ressemblera à une capsule Apollo. Il sera cependant 3 fois plus grand. Les missions lunaires utiliseront un module lunaire, une injection sur trajectoire lunaire et une organisation générale qui rappelle les missions Apollo. Les missions parachuteront sur la terre ferme. Les premières nouvelles missions lunaires sont prévues pour 2018. Deux nouveaux lanceurs accompagneront le programme. Les deux nouvelles fusées sont toutes les deux basées sur les fusées à combustible solide (les "SRBs") de la navette et sur le moteur principal de cette dernière, deux éléments qui ont prouvé leur fiabilité. voir plus de détails et des illustrations au tutoriel The Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV))

8/1/2005 What About the Last, Large Kuiper Belt Object Found? The end of July scored the announcement made by a Caltech team of the discovery of what has been called the 10th planet of the solar system. This discovery of the largest found yet Kuiper Belt Object is taking back the astronomical community to a pending debate about what is to be called a planet at the outskirts of the solar system, and what is not. It's seems better to settle the case by saying that the objects found in the area, plus the ones of the Oort Cloud, added to the findings made about exoplanets and protoplanetary disks, are widening how a solar system has to be analysed, generally. see more on a dedicated page ( French translation: Gros objet de la ceinture de Kuiper ou 10ème planète du système solaire? Fin juillet a vu l'annonce par une équipe du California Institute of Technology (Caltech) de l'annonce tonitruante de la découverte de la 10ème planète du système solaire. Cet objet, qui, à ce jour, est le plus gros objet découvert dans la ceinture de Kuiper ramène la communauté astronomique au fameux débat en cours sur la question de savoir ce qui peut être appelé "planète" aux limites du système solaire et ce qui ne le peut pas. Une façon simple de simplifier le débat est sans doute de dire que les objets trouvés dans cette région, comme ceux du nuage de Oort, ajoutés aux découvertes faites sur les disques proto-planétaires et les exo-planètes, permettent d'étendre le concept de système solaire en général. plus de détails sur cette page consacrée à cette découverte)

8/1/2005 30 Years Ago, the Viking Missions! On August 20th and September 9th, 1975 respectively, the NASA's Viking 1 and 2 missions were launching to Mars in an attempt to check at the surface whether life did exist or not! Both missions were composed by an orbiter and a lander. The Viking missions reached the Mars' orbit by 1976 as their lander successfully touched down in July and September. No clear evidence of life was found, although unexpected and enigmatic chemical activity was found. The orbiter fully succeeded its surveillance of the planet, sending back 50,000 pictures. The Viking missions were the last US missions to Mars for a long time, as it's not until 1997 that the Mars Global Surveyor reached Mars back. more about the Viking missions on this site. picture courtesy NASA/NSSDC ( French translation: Il y a trente ans: les missions Viking. 1er août. Les 20 août et 9 septembre 1975, les missions Viking 1 et 2 partaient pour Mars. Leur mission: vérifier à la surface si la vie existait ou non sur la planète rouge. Chaque mission comportait un élément qui devait rester en orbite et un lander. Les Viking atteignirent Mars en 1976 et les landers atterrirent sans problème en juillet et en septembre. Ils ne trouvèrent pas de preuves claires de vie. Une activité chimique étrange et inattendue fut cependant notée. Les vaisseaux en orbite, quant à eux, remplirent parfaitement leur fonction d'étude de la planète. Ils renvoyèrent 50 000 images! Les missions Viking furent les dernières missions américaines sur Mars avant longtemps. Ce ne fut pas avant 1997 qu'une nouvelle mission revint dans les parages de Mars, Mars Global Surveyor)

7/21/2005 Chandra Surely Found the Missing Link Toward Millisecond Pulsars. NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope has found out how millisecond pulsars are forming, providing a strong chain of evidence to support a theory most astronomers were already accepting. All begins with an usual neutron star. Neutron stars are highly dense, rapidly rotating stars originating when a star explodes as a supernova. The conditions then is that the remaining star be located inside a dense globular cluster, where stars are not separated by more than one tenth of a light year (that is about 600 billion miles -950 billion km). The star performs erratic orbits around the cluster's center, as along the way it picks up a companion star, possibly swaping it for another, etc. The crowded population of the cluster leads to that one pair eventually forms that is a very close one. This in turn brings to that the neutron star pulls matter down from its partner. This forms an X-ray binary system. The infalling matter knocks again the radiating particles from the neutron star, emitting X-rays. The infalling matter, on the other hand, slowly spins up the main star's rotation. Along 10 to 100 million years of acceleration, the neutron star comes to rotate once every few milliseconds! The infall of matter eventually stops, hence the X-ray emission. The neutron star now just emits radio pulses. It has become what is called a "millisecond pulsar". 47 Tuc W, which the binary Chandra observed inside the globular star cluster 47 Tucanae, is a transitional object coming to support the fact that most astronomers were already accepting the binary spin-up scenario. Speeding neutron stars were found in X-ray binary systems, as almost all radio millisecond pulsars were in binary systems. The definitive proof was lacking until now however. The X-ray emission of 47 Tuc W, a millisecond binary neutron star, has the same characteristics than the X-ray emission of an usual X-ray emitting binary system. It seems that the missing link has been found ( French translation: Chandra a trouvé le chaînon manquant qui explique les pulsars milliseconde. 21 juillet. Le télescope dans les rayons X, Chandra, de la NASA, a trouvé comment se forment les pulsars milliseconde, confirmant une théorie déjà acceptée par la plupart des astronomes. Tout commence par une étoile à neutrons normale, ces étoiles super-denses, à rotation rapide, qui sont les restes de l'explosion d'une supernova. Il faut ensuite que cette étoile se trouve dans un amas globulaire dense. Dans ses orbites erratiques dans l'amas, l'étoile à neutrons va capturer des compagnons successifs jusqu'au moment où elle formera un système double très rapproché. Cela a comme conséquence que du matériau va se déverser du compagnon sur l'étoile à neutrons, donnant naissance à une binaire à rayons X. L'influx de matériau, d'autre part, va rapidement accélérer la rotation de l'étoile principale. Sur une période de 10 à 100 millions d'années, l'étoile à neutrons finit par avoir une rotation extrême (une rotation chaque quelques millisecondes!) et n'émet plus que des ondes radio. Elle est devenue ce que l'on appelle un "pulsar milliseconde". 47 Tuc W, le pulsar que Chandra a observé dans l'amas 47 du Toucan est un objet de transition qui vient confirmer le fait que la communauté astronomique acceptait déjà largement le scénario de l'accélération des étoiles à neutrons. De telles étoiles étaient observées dans des binaires à rayons X d'une part; la plupart des pulsars milliseconde se trouvaient dans des systèmes binaires, d'autre part. Mais, jusqu'à présent, le chaînon manquant manquait. Les émissions rayons X du pulsar observé ayant la même signature que l'émission d'un système binaire normal, il semble donc bien que 47 Tuc W soit l'élément manquant du puzzle)

7/14/2005 NASA's Crew Exploration Vehicle Keeping On. The process is keeping on for the new NASA Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), meant to replace the Shuttle by the 2010s, as the definitive team chosen to build the craft will be selected next year in 2006 ahead of a planned 2008. Two teams are competing for the allocation of the project, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. allied to The Boeing Co. Both teams are keeping on to develop designs for the next-generation of the crew vehicle as they will perform too sustained engineering in support of a July 2006 review of engineering systems for the CEV. NASA's Exploration Systems Architectural Study, on the other hand, which defines the parameters for the new vehicle, will be incorporated into a "call for improvements" to be released later this year, 2005, inviting proposals from both teams. Such proposals will be evaluated for the final selection of a single contractor. The CEV is expected to carry up to six astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit and then on to the Moon ( French translation: Le développement du nouveau véhicule spatial de la NASA continue. 14 juillet. Le processus continue à la NASA pour le développement du véhicule spatial qui a vocation à remplacer la navette spatiale à l'horizon 2010, le "Crew Exploration Vehicle" (CEV). Alors que la compagnie qui construira le vaisseau sera sélectionnée en janvier 2006 (au lieu de 2008 comme cela était prévu), deux équipes continuent de participer à la sélection: Lockheed Martin Corp. et Northrop Grumman Corp. allié à "The Boeing Co.". Chaque équipe développe des concepts en prévision d'une revue des systèmes d'ingénierie en juillet 2006. Par ailleurs, une "Etude de l'Architecture des Systèmes d'Exploration" de la NASA, définissant les paramètres du nouveau véhicule, sera incorporée dans un "appel à améliorations", à paraître à la fin de cette année. L'"appel à améliorations" invite les deux compagnies à des propositions. Les propositions seront utilisées pour la sélection finale de la compagnie qui construira le CEV. Le nouveau véhicule spatial pourra emporter six astronautes en orbite terrestre basse et haute et, par-delà, sur la Lune)

7/14/2005 A New Model for Exoplanets Around Multiple Star Systems? A NASA-funded astronomer of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif., using the Keck I telescope atop Mauna Kea mountain in Hawaii has found an exoplanet in a triple-star system (HD 188753). As such findings had already been performed in such stars systems -which account for the half of all the stars, the new discovery is interesting in that the stars to which the new planet is linked are all packed inside a distance equivalent to the distance between the Sun and Saturn. The planet is a hot Jupiter. This contradicts this idea that such planets are forming at the outskirts of their star and move inward then. In this case, the parent star would have got a truncated disk due to the disruptive presence of its companions. The planet orbits every 3.3 days around its parent star which is itself circled by a binary system where two stars are locked into a 156-day orbit! The study used an improved version of the "wobble," planet-hunting technique where the tangled light of the various stars were teased apart

7/14/2005 30 Years Ago, an Apollo Craft and a Soyuz Were Meeting in Space! 30 years ago, on July 17, 1975, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project made that three NASA astronauts and two Soviet cosmonauts met in orbit. The diplomatic chill thawing of these days and the Moon race successfully won by the USA brought Tom Stafford, Deke Slayton, and Vance Brand, and the USSR cosmonauts Aleksey Leonov and Valeriy Kubasov to encounter in space aboard their respective craft, an Apollo Command and Service Module and a Soyuz. The docking used a jointly designed, U.S.-built docking module. The docking took place on July 17, 1975, just after noon EDT, as both craft had launched two days before. A few hours later, the crews shook hands and exchanged ceremonial gifts, including U.S., Soviet and United Nations flags. The crews received a congratulatory message from the Soviet premier, Leonid Brezhnev, and a phone call from the U.S. President Ford. Such an encounter took place during a pause of sort in the Cold War. It was not until two decades later, that U.S. astronauts met back in space with people from what had become, this time, the former USSR, or Russia! The Shuttle-Mir program and the International Space Station (ISS) were the two cooperative programs which ensued

7/4/2005 A Japanese Mission Carries an Advanced Joint JAXA-ISAS-NASA X-Ray Detector. Launching next July 6, 2005 at 12:30 p.m. Japan time (11:30 p.m. EDT), with a launch window July 6 - July 15 and July 22 - August 2, a Japanese mission, the Astro-E2, is carrying an innovative X-ray detector developed by NASA'S Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md jointly with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). This high-resolution X-ray Spectrometer (XRS) is measuring the heat created by the individual X-ray photons it's collecting. It's cooled at -460°F that is 4°rees below the coldest place in space. The X-ray instrument is the highly anticipated complement to NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Europe's XMM-Newton. Incoming light particles will raise the temperature of the detector by only a few thousandths of a degree! The craft is sporting other X-ray detectors. All of them will study the extremely energetic objects of the Universe, like neutron stars, merging galaxies, or black holes and supernovae. (the mission actually launched at 11:30 p.m. EDT, July 9 -12:30 p.m., July 10 local time; according to the Japanese space use, the craft was renamed after launch; its new name is "Suzaku")

6/27/2005 A Fermionic Bose-Einstein Condensate Found to be Superconductive For the First Time! A study by an MIT team, published in the June 23rd, 2005 issue of Nature, is bringing the first evidence for the superfluidity of a fermionic Bose-Einstein condensate. A Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) is a new state of matter, along with solids, liquids, gas and plasmas. Under the form of a BEC the matter is behaving like a super-particle which acts like a wave and no more like a speck of matter. The BEC had been predicted by Einstein as soon as 1925 and was first discovered in 1995 by this very team which made the late discovery. In such a state, further, atoms are becoming superconductive, through superfluidity. Such physical states were well established for bosonic atoms at it was underway only for fermionic ones due to the fact that the Pauli Exclusion Principle forbids fermions to gather in a same quantum state. Fermionic and bosonic atoms are a way of classification for the atoms. The first ones have an odd number of electrons, protons, and neutrons, the second ones an even number of them. The technique to get a fermionic Bose-Einstein condensate was eventually to pair fermionic atoms. Such pairs are retaining some of their fermionic origin, as they gain some bosonic abilities. With the pairs merging, one gets a BEC! This late work is the other step about fermionic BECs. The NASA-funded MIT team brought the first evidence that a fermionic condensate is supraconductive too. Such studies might bring one day to room-temperature superconductors, with many real-world application like in the domains of medical diagnostics or energy transport. Such studies will be also helping scientists to test ideas about the neutron stars and the primordial soup of the early Universe

6/20/2005 Lowest-Hanging Full Moon Since 18 Years! The various elements of the orbit of Moon around the Earth and of Earth around the Sun make that the Full Moon, this month -just one day after the summer solstice (June 22 compared to June 21), will be the lowest-hanging one since 1987. This is prone to the famed "Moon Illusion", this illusion that a low-hanging Moon is detected larger by an observer. Low or high-hanging, Moon has always the same apparent diameter of about ½°. Such an illusion is still ill-explained, as explanations may range from light refraction to optical illusions or habits

6/16/2005 NASA Selects Competing Contractors for the Next Crew Ship. As part of the process towards its new crew ship, NASA selected Lockheed Martin Corp. (the Northrop Grumman Corp. team), and The Boeing Co to mature theirs projects and designs. The "Crew Exploration Vehicle" (CEV) is NASA's next crew ship, which is bound to replace the Shuttle, serving as the ferrying ship to the ISS and the Earth orbit, and as the vehicle to the return to the Moon plans. It was announced in January 2004 as part of the Vision for Space Exploration. The selection is part of NASA's plan to have two contractors compete in the design and production of the new vehicle. A single industry team will be finally selected as soon as next year, in 2006, to avoid any gap between the Shuttle's retirement planned in 2010 and the new spaceship being operational

6/13/2005 The Remnant Star in Cassiopeia A Might Be a Magnetar. NASA's Spitzer Telescope, which is studying the Universe in the infrared, just tumbled by chance on a new discovery. As the telescope was performing a test, it just found the signature of a light echoe in the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. Cassiopeia A exploded 325 years ago. Such a supernova event usually turns the remaining star into a neutron star or a black hole. Spitzer's finding comforts scientists as it's the proof that young neutron stars are active when still young as they settle along time. The neutron star at Cassiopeia A, on the other hand, might be a magnetar, that is an instable, very active variety. Magnetars' surfaces are torn apart by gigantic quakes, releasing tremendous amounts of high-energy gamma rays. This hickup of the star occurred in 1953 that is 270 years after the supernova went off

6/2/2005 A New Page Dedicated to Hurricanes at NASA. NASA has just opened a web page dedicated to hurricanes on last May 31st. This Internet resource page is highlighting the agency's hurricane research, as the site opened just in time for the 2005 Atlantic Ocean hurricane season, officially runing Jun. 1-Nov. 30. The direct link is: http://www.nasa.gov/hurricane. Here you will find data of various satellites and computer models, data about active hurricanes and famous past storms, or why and how NASA is investigating hurricanes

6/2/2005 It Was the 206th Meeting of the AAS! The American Astronomical Society held its semi-annual meeting on May 29-June 2, in Minneapolis, Minn. Various astronomical findings are usually unveiled at the AAS meeting. This encompasses this year the discovery of a great variety of small stars in the Eta Carinae region, and a sky filled by ultraviolet events as seen by NASA's galaxies-minded, UV Galex mission

5/27/2005 Voyager 1 Really Reached One of the Solar System Boundaries! Latest data from Voyager 1, this star bound craft, are showing that it really crossed the "termination shock" and is now inside the "heliosheath", the last layer of the heliosphere before the interstellar space. Voyager 1 is one of four spacecraft which are now heading to the interstellar space once their mission in the solar system over: Voyager 2, Voyager 1's sister ship, and Pioneer 1 and 2. At now 8.7 billion miles (13.9 billion km) away, Voyager 1 is past the border where the solar wind is abruptly reducing its speed, enduring a sudden increase of the strength of the magnetic field it carries, and becoming denser and hotter. The shock naturally accelerates electrically charged particles that bounce back and forth between the fast and slow winds on opposite sides of the shock, and these particles can generate plasma waves. Voyager 1 has shown during the last years that the termination shock is far more complicated than thought, as changes in the speed and pressure of the solar wind cause the termination shock to expand, contract, and ripple. Voyager 1 and 2 were missions to Jupiter and Saturn of the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, as their mission was eventually extended into a comprehensive tour of the gas giants. At the difference of Pioneer 10 and 11 which are no more able to make science nor may be contacted, Voyager 1 and 2 are still fit for science. Their work should continue during two or three decades as communications with them will be maintained until their radioisotope power generators stop working. Voyager 1 is travelling at an angle of 35° to the ecliptic as Voyager 2 is journeying at minus 48° under it. Voyager 2 is 2 billion miles (3.2 billion km) less away from us. After having crossed the termination shock, the solar wind further slows and turns into the ambient flow in the interstellar medium. Further, the heliopause is the outer border of the heliosheath, where the heliosphere meets the interstellar medium. see more about the heliosphere

5/20/2005 More Than a Hundred Laser Incidents Since Last November! More than a hundred laser incidents have been reported by aircraft pilots since last November 2004! As already mentioned, laser pointers used in astronomy star parties, or like telescopes finders, might proved to be hazardous to the civilian aviation, or to be potential terrorist weapons, as they are able to temporarily blind, or cause annoyance to pilots. Criminal complaints have been filled against stargazers and as of March 2005, a subcommittee of the House of Representatives convened a hearing to consider possible new laser-pointer regulations in the US. They had a page at Sky & Telescope about safe use tips (note: this link is a direct link and it may or may not work)

5/16/2005 Some More Details About the 2029 NEO Close Graze. The 2004 MN4 NEO which caused a scare in last December 2004 at the same time a large tsunami was hiting in the Indian Ocean, will graze Earth on April 13th, 2029. The graze will be at a mere 18,600 mi (30,000 km) above the Earth, that is under the altitude of the geosynchronous satellites! A collision has definitely been ruled out. Should the asteroid have hit, it could have flattened an area the size of Texas, and have triggered widespread tsunamis in case of a hit into an ocean! Asteroid 200 MN4 will provide an eye-popping passage instead, shining like a 3rd magnitude object and moving rapidly along the background stars. The show will be visible from Africa, Europe, and Asia. The 2029 passage, as it will be bending 2004 MN4 trajectory by 28°, will be blurring any further prediction of the passages to come. It's only with two passages of the asteroid in 2013 and 2021 that the trajectory will be able to be calculated until at least 2070. Nobody alive will have ever seen such a bright asteroid naked-eye, as such passages occur about each 1,000 years only. As the asteroid won't display an apparent size over 2 to 4 arcseconds, any amateur instrument will be of no use. At last, April 13th, 2029 is a Friday, and ... it's webmaster's birthday :-)

5/12/2005 Swift Sees a Short GRB! NASA's Swift, this satellite devised to improve the study of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), these most energetic events in the Universe, has detected and pinned down, last May 9th, the location of its first short gamma-ray burst. GRBs seem to part into two categories. The longer bursts appear to originate at massive star explosions in very distant galaxies. They last more than two seconds, with afterglows lingering from days to weeks. The shorter GRBs might be the result of a collision between some combination of black holes or neutron stars. Such short bursts last less than two seconds and often just a few milliseconds, and their afterglow is very short (the one observed by Swift lasted about 5 minutes). This is due to that there isn't much fuel, such as dust and gas, to sustain the event. The burst, called GRB 050509B, appears to have occurred near a galaxy that has old stars and is relatively nearby, about 2.7 billion light years away from Earth. This is consistent with the theory that short bursts come from older, evolved neutron stars and black holes. In contrast, longer gamma-ray bursts tend to be in young, distant galaxies filled with young, massive stars, remnants of the early universe. Swift dedicated tools allow the satellite to autonomously lock onto the location of a detected GRB. It's the satellite's X-ray telescope which detected the glow as its Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope did not see it, nor did ground-based telescopes

5/12/2005 A Decisive Chandra Study? A study of Sun-like, 1 to 10 million years old stars in the constellation Orion by NASA's Chandra has shown what might prove a decisive study. Giant X-ray super-flares would electrically charge the protoplanetary disk and combines with other factors to produce incredible turbulence, acting like a "planetary protection program"! Instead of coping with a dangerously smooth-textured disk which inexorably pushes the forming planets down to their Sun, planets, in the case of such giant flares would be allowed a more random motion hence avoiding falling into the star and collecting more material for their growth at the same time. The activity of the baby-stars seems thus fundamental for the fate of the planets around them. Should one have quiet stars and all the planets eventually turn into "hot Jupiters", these planets which stop at the gas giant stage and get close to the star, or to no planets at all -all of beeing swallowed by their Sun. Should one have very active young stars and the planet formation process safely brings to a solar sytem similar to ours

5/11/2005 No Great Wall of China Visible From the Moon Nor From Orbit! It's at least in 1938 that the theoretical statement that the Great Wall of China was visible from the Moon surfaced. It surfaced again during the Apollo missions. In fact, no any manmade artefact is visible at the Earth's surface from the Moon. It's simply too far away! The question bounced back lately and went a step further: is the China's Wall visible from orbit? As the first Chinese astronaut said that he had even been unable to see this great monument of his country from the low-Earth orbit, Leroy Chiao, the U.S. commander of the last crew to reside aboard the International Space Station, was able, last November 2004, to capture small sections of the China's Wall with a digital camera fitted with a 180mm lens. Although Chiao did not see the Wall by himself nor is he sure that his picture showed it, Kamlesh P. Lulla, NASA's chief scientist for Earth observation at Johnson Space Center in Houston, is about sure the picture is showing the Great Wall. Generally, a lot of things are visible from orbit like major roadways and bridges, airports, etc. Even the Great Pyramids of Egypt have showed on pictures taken from space! But the question of the Great Wall of China is different. It's hard to see and hard to photograph, because the material from which it is made is about the same color and texture as that of the land of the area surrounding it. The picture of November 2004 was certainly due to an exceptional occurrence of the right set of conditions. It was a sunny day and a recent snowfall had helped make the wall more visible

5/2/2005 JPL Annual Open House Next May 14-15! Like last year the famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is holding an Open House. The event is to take place next Saturday-Sunday May 14-15, at the JPL headquarters in Pasadena, Calif. The public this year is invited to share the "Spirit of Exploration", with exhibits, displays, etc about spacecraft and missions in the solar system, the Earth, and the Universe. A fine opportunity for LA dwellers and neighbourhood to visit the JPL. JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. Admission is free. Event hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. more practical details at the JPL site

4/25/2005 Laser Pointers Flagged Like Potentially Dangerous Once Again. As already mentioned here, laser pointers used in astronomy star parties, or like telescopes finders, might proved to be hazardous to the civilian aviation, or to be potential terrorist weapons, as being able to temporarily blind, or cause annoyance to pilots. At Sky & Telescope, they are once again warning against that, as some criminal complaints have been filled against stargazers and as, as of March 2005, a subcommittee of the House of Representatives convened a hearing to consider possible new laser-pointer regulations in the US. see more and safe use tips at this direct page on the Sky & Telescope site

4/21/2005 Spitzer Sees an Asteroid Belt. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope likely saw an asteroid belt around a Sun-like star. This means that Earth-like planets might exist there inasmuch that our own Asteroid Belt, located between Mars and Jupiter, is made of the remains of the solar system. If confirmed, this would be the first asteroid belt ever detected around a Sun-like star, as the two known such belts were seen at younger, more massive stars. The star HD69830 is 41 light-years away. A less-likely theory is that the dust would be due to a comet, the size of Pluto, which was trapped in the inner system and is now boiling out. The other characteristics of the belt is that it's denser than ours, with more collisions, and that it's closer to the star, about at the orbit of Venus

4/18/2005 NASA's New Administrator Now in Post. The man chosen by president George Bush to be the 11th NASA's administrator, Michael Griffin, from the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, is now in post after having been confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Among the new administrator's statements are that "in the twenty-first century and beyond, for America to continue to be preeminent among nations, it is necessary for us also to be the preeminent spacefaring nation," as he thinks that "we as a nation can clearly afford well-executed, vigorous programs in both robotic and human space exploration as well as in aeronautics. We know this. We did it." During the hearings at the Senate, he had unveiled some of his views about the agency, worrying that the U.S. preeminence in space exploration is being challenged and has to be reasserted, and thinking that 2014 as a target for NASA's next-generation U.S. space vessel, known as the "Crew Exploration Vehicle", leaves a 4-year gap once the Shuttle retired, during which the USA would be grounded or forced to use Russian spaceships to access space. Generally, Mr Griffin was worried too by the access to space of Russians and Chinese, as the USA will assure their international commitment to the ISS. With the Shuttle grounded during two years, the Hubble Space Telescope in doubt, and the ISS hampered, Senators were thinking that NASA was stuck "in the wilderness". Michael Griffin holds 5 masters, and a PhD. in Aerospace Engineering of the University of Maryland

4/14/2005 "Hey Houston, We've Had a Problem Here!" It Was 35 Years Ago. 35 years ago, after having launched on April 11, 1970, the Apollo 13 mission ran into trouble as it was heading to the Moon. A Service Module oxygen tank blow up on April 13th. The three crewmembers were forced to take refuge into the lunar module as they waited the Apollo craft to circle the Moon, and be back in the vicinity of Earth. They then sucessfully were able to make an usual re-entry, using the command module. Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert were the astronauts aboard

3/24/2005 The UN Has Declared 2005 "The World Year of Physics" to Celebrate Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. The UN has declared 2005 "The World Year of Physics" to celebrate Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. It's in 1905 that Einstein set the bases for the General Theory of Relativity which was to be finalized in 1915 only. Einstein's papers of 1905 revolutionarized the physics of the time, just like Newton's Theory of Universal Gravitation had done in 1666. Einstein, daring to make the great leaps of his time, based on an intuitive process, laid the foundation of quantum physics and modern science with his papers about light like particulates, space-time like issued from a same fabric, and the famous formula "E=Mc²". Grown up in a German family dealing with dynamos, arc lamps, light bulbs and telephones, the Silicon Valley of the time, it might that Einstein's genius be related too to some particularities of his brain or to his ability to practice curiosity and inspiration

3/24/2005 A Bonus for the Spitzer Space Telescope: It Can Study Exoplanets in the Infrared! Two teams, using the ability of the Spitzer Space Telescope to see in the infrared, have, for the first time, been able to observe the infrared glow of two previously discovered exoplanets. The new technique might be applied to stars akin to our Sun, in a radius of 500 light-years, for transiting exoplanets. The planets in question, HD 209458b et TrES-1 are "hot Jupiters" that is gas giants orbiting very close to their planets. Their atmopshere was found to be at a temperature of 1340° F (727° C). Their study was made possible as they are transiting across their star's disk, just like, for example, we may sometime see Venus or Mercury transiting the Sun. Such studies are of importance as they bring to this idea that exoplanets's study will be a bonus for the Spitzer Space Telescope which was not devised for this purpose. On the other hand, the new technique, using a range of infrared wavelengths, will also allow to study the planets' winds and atmospheres, providing a fundamental step into knowing how such faraway worlds are looking like. The next main step will be in 2016 when NASA's future Terrestrial Planet Finder coronagraph will be able to directly image extrasolar planets as small as Earth

3/24/2005 South Asia and Burning Biomass and Vegetation Account for 2/3 of Polar Regions-Soiling Soot! Tracking back the North pole, polar regions-soiling soot, a NASA-funded study has been able to determine that South Asia accounts for 1/3 of the phenomenon, burning biomass and vegetation around the world for another 1/3, as Europe, Russia, and North America account for the remainder. Soot in the polar regions is increasing the trend observed there to the melting of ice caps and sea ice, bringing changes in the climate in the region and having potential long-term implications on climate patterns for much of the globe

3/19/2005 The Safe Zone Inside the Van Allen Belts is Due to Lightnings. There is a safe zone between both Van Allen belts. It's beneficial to satellites in MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) as it's less hazardous to them. The reason for this void has been found lately. The Van Allen Belts slot is cleansed by radio waves, byproducts of lightnings. Radio waves circulate along the lines of the Earth's magnetic field. On their course they interact with some of the radiation belt particles, removing a little of their energy and changing their direction. This eventually leads the particles to enter the Earth's atmosphere and dissipate their energy there. Strong solar storms, on the other hand, may at the occasion fill the slot inside the Van Allen belts. Spacecraft generating radio waves at the correct frequency and location could clear radiation belts around other planets allowing for a safer environment for astronauts

3/19/2005 No Stars Larger Than 150 Suns? Due to not enough details about the star-formation process, astronomers until now were unable to predict the upper limit for stellar masses. Data by the Hubble Space Telescope are demonstrating that an upper limit of 150 solar masses might exist. As the standard theories were predicting 20 to 30 stars with masses between 130 and 1,000 solar masses in a star cluster, none were found. This finding is consistent with other statistical studies and observations. A star's weight ranges from less than one-tenth to more than 100 times the mass of our sun

3/7/2005 Einstein Once More Confirmed By a Gravity Study. Using the laser reflectors that the Apollo missions let on the Moon, a team of JPL scientists confirmed a foundation of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and the value over time of Newton's gravitational constant, with accuracies enhanced by two and ten respectively. Earth and Moon are "falling together" towards the Sun at the same rate, as the gravitational constant is remaining the same over time. This was made possible by accurately measuring Earth and Moon's motions around the Sun, via the Apollo laser reflectors. The fact that objects of various weights and compositions are affected by gravity at the same rate -that is, at Earth, they are falling at the same speed- was first established by Galileo atop the Leaning Pisa Tower, in Italy, in 1604, under the name of "equivalence principle", as its ultimate version (the "strong equivalence principle") was formulated by Einstein as a base for the General Theory of Relativity. All forms of matter are accelerated at the same rate by gravity. Newton's gravitational constant is the fact that gravity is remaining the same over time. Such a findings, along others, is comforting the most classical ideas about the world of modern physics, hence questioning most advanced steps taken in the domain, like the string theories or the searches about reconciling quantum physics and gravitation (Grand Unified Theories (GUT), Theories of Everything (TOE)), which, all, necessitate either a change in the fundamental constants, or that Einstein predictions prove false at a high degree of accuracy

3/3/2005 Stars' Birth: Gravity, and Magnetic Fields. Working with data of the European ESA XMM-Newton observatory and corroborative data by the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the Japan's Subaru telescope in Hawaii, and the University of Hawaii 88-inch telescope, a NASA-funded team of the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, found that strong magnetic fields are actively participating into the birth of stars. Such fields are accelerating the infall of matter, from the original dust cloud unto the protostar, under the form of ions. How this magnetic field and the ions are formed is still unknown, but once the X-rays, 100 million degrees F temperatures generating process triggered, more ions are created in the original cloud. Such magnetic fields are working like the loops seen at our Sun and they are moderating the cloud collapse. Such a finding is of importance as it's further hinting to that gravity is not the sole factor acting at a star's birth

2/19/2005 NASA's Swift Craft Observed the Brightest GRB Ever. It's a Soft Gamma Repeater in Our own Galaxy! NASA's Swift mission is the most recent mission dedicated to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), these powerful, most energetic events in the Universe thought now to be linked to the birth of stellar black holes. Last December 27, 2004, Swift observed the brightest such event ever. The flare originated at the surface of a "magnetar", an exotic neutron star. Neutron stars are highly magnetic, fast-spinning, 15-mile wide only star remains of supernovae and they exist by millions in our Milky Way as magnetars, which have been discovered to be a dozen only, are ultra-magnetic, a thousand stronger, such stars, with intensely strong magnetic fields. Further, the explosion observed by Swift was emanating from what is called a Soft Gamma Repeater (SGR), that is a magnetar which flares randomly with a gamma-ray release. Four such stars only have been found as of now, and flares are linked to some "starquake", fracturing the star's surface. Hence it might be a once-in-a-lifetime event, as only two other giant such events -although a hundred times weaker- were observed in the past 35 years. Had such a SGR event occurred 10 light-years away from us, it would have severely damaged our atmosphere. All the magnetars known until now are luckily much farther. Such an event however is raising the question again of whether a GRB of this class, larger still, might have been the cause of one of the mass extinctions seen in the Earth's past history -or might still be. From a more scientific point of view, this event brings back scientists to the debate of what the gamma-ray bursts really are. It appears now that GRBs sort into short and long ones. The first kind might be related to soft gamma repeaters (SGRS), as the second would originate at black-hole, supernova events. More generally this Swift discovery is definitely telling that all such events are occurring outside, as inside, our own Milky Way Galaxy! SGR1806-20, the magnetar responsible for this flare, is 50,000 light-years away only, in constellation Sagittarius, that is probably on the other side of the Galaxy

2/19/2005 NASA Invalidates News That Some of Its Scientists Might Have Evidence For Life at Mars. News reports last Feb. 16, 2005 stated that NASA scientists at the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. would have found strong evidence that life might exist at Mars. In a statement released Feb. 18 at the NASA Headquarters, Washington D.C., NASA is invalidating this announcement, saying that "NASA does not have any observational data from any current Mars missions that supports this claim. The work by the scientists mentioned in the reports cannot be used to directly infer anything about life on Mars, but may help formulate the strategy for how to search for martian life. Their research concerns extreme environments on Earth as analogs of possible environments on Mars. No research paper has been submitted by them to any scientific journal asserting martian life". More to come?

2/17/2005 145 Exoplanets Found As of Now! The last count in exoplanets is now of 145. Dozens of ongoing searches around the world allowed the discovery of these faraway worlds, mostly gas-giants until now. The first solid evidence of a planet circling another star occurred in 1995. They have a useful section -with a table- about exoplanets at the JPL. see at "PlanetQuest, the search for another Earth". Their exoplanets atlas it at "New Worlds Atlas"

2/17/2005 Chandra and Hubble Find Two Kinds of Supermassive Black Holes. Peering deep into the Universe through the Lockman Hole, a region of our Galaxy almost free of neutral hydrogen gas usually absorbing the X-rays, Chandra and Hubble have been able to provide an accurate census of supermassive black holes in the Universe. A further study of how such black holes, which are found at the heart of most galaxies is showing that they part into two species. One with a fast, one with a slow growing rate. The fast growing (a few hundred million to a few billion Suns in mass) galactic black holes are linked to rapidly grown galaxies which developped along a billion years only, 13 billion years ago as others (less than 100 million Suns in mass) are still growing, attaining their maximum size several billion years from now only, and be linked to other kinds of galaxies. The second kind is much less rare than the first one as they have larger torus of gas and dusts due to a lesser jetlike activity. This jets of high energy seen at the larger variety of supermassive black holes surely had a blowback effect, swiftly clearing the surrounding feeding material, hence bringing the growth rapidly to a stop. On the other hand, this lack of jet activity at smaller black holes is leading to these to be buried under large amounts of dust and gas

2/14/2005 Final Launch of an Atlas-Centaur for CCAFS Launch Complex 36. CCAFS Launch complex 36, with launch pads 36A and 36 B performed its last launch of an Atlas-Centaur rocket, on February 3rd, 2005. The complex, at Cape Canaveral, had been built in 1961 to match the needs of the new Atlas-Centaur booster and developed an intertwined history with that family of launch vehicles. Fe. 3, 2005 was the last launch of an Atlas-Centaur rocket and the last launch at CCAFS LC-36. The first Surveyor mission launched from there in May 1966 as six more Surveyor missions further. Surveyor missions were missions scouting for the Apollo program. The launch complex then served for the upgraded Atlas II and III, performing a total of 145 rockets lift off from the pads. Mariner to Mars or Pioneers to Jupiter and Saturn, or the solar mission SOHO, were launched from there too. Launch assets at Cape Canaveral are parted into the NASA part, now mainly used for Shuttle launches, and the U.S.A.F. part -the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS)- which performs launch of NASA, government or army's craft

2/4/2005 Caution, NEO! 2004 MN4 to Graze Earth at The Geosynchronous Orbit on April 13th, 2029! Asteroid 2004 MN4, which had brought an additional scare at the epoch of the Indonesian tsunami last December 2004 (see more in the Archives), have had its orbit refined by radar measurements by the end of January. 2001 MN4 will be a stunning 3.3 magnitude, 42° per hour-moving object on April 13th, 2029! Outside the fact that this day will be webmaster's birthday ;-) it surely will a rare and spectacular event. This graze might well be the closest approach for the century. The asteroid is 1,050 ft-wide (320 meters), and such a close approach occurs about every 1,300 years only. The asteroid will graze Earth within 22,300 mi (36,350 km), that is just the altitude of the geostationary orbit! On the other hand any impact at Earth is still ruled out. Impressive! Such an object is a country (European-style) killer, being able to flatten an area the size of the state of New Jersey, USA, with agriculture affected for months by debris in the atmosphere and tsunamis hundreds of feet high destroying coastal cities. 9 impact possibilities are existing as of now for the 21st century. 2002 CU11 (2,000 ft in diameter -600 m) is of the same country-killer class than 2004 MN4. It has a 0.01 percent chance to hit Earth on August 31st, 2049. There are 8 further other possibilities of impact between 2032 and 2096

1/31/2004 Genesis Samples Eventually Distributed to Researchers. Scientists at the Johnson Space Center, Houston, one of NASA's centers, successfully curated the samples brought back by the Genesis mission, samples-carrying capsule of which crashed in Utah instead of parachuting. A meticulous job allowed to reduce or eliminate contamination resulting from the impact. The first shipment was of a piece of Genesis polished aluminum collector, to researchers at the Washington University in St. Louis. Next will be of samples from the gold foil, to the University of Minnesota. Genesis had as a mission to collect samples from the solar wind to help understand what gases are found inside the Sun. Such samples were of interest too as they will help to provide insights about the composition of the primordial medium from which the Sun and the solar system have been born

1/13/2004 A Mob of Binary-System Membership Stellar Black Holes and Neutron Stars Near the Galaxy's Center! X-ray binaries seen by NASA Chandra X-Ray Observatory within 3 light-years from Sgr A are a hint to that the immediate surroundings of our Milky Way Galaxy central black hole are filled with a dense swarm of 10,000 or more binary-system membership stellar-mass black holes and neutron stars. Such a density was not forecasted. It's explained by a process called "stellar dynamical friction" -that is the gravitational interactions between stellar black holes and stars orbiting at several light-years from Sgr A, the Galaxy's center. Such tugs accelerate the stars and deccelerate the black holes. These spiral inwards as stars get further. A similar process is at work for neutron stars, although weaker due to their lower mass. The binary membership is due to stellar black holes', or neutron stars' gravitation attracting one star out of a nearby, pre-existing binary system there. Stellar black holes involved in such events have masses of 10 Suns

1/13/2004 205th American Astronomical Society (AAS) Meeting, San Diego. The 205th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) is presently held in San Diego, Calif. Like each year, new findings, or studies are announced. see some

?/?/2004 Joint NASA-NGA 3-D Topographic Map of the Earth Completed. NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) have finally completed the compilation of the global Earth topographic data gathered in February 2000 by the Space Shuttle Endeavour Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Combined to such visible light images like those of a satellite like Landsat, this database is allowing fine 3-D views of Earth's surface. The Earth was mapped from 56° South to 60° North as the resolution of the publicly available data is 295 ft (90 m) at the equator. Releases of this project successively showed various Earth's continents. click on the picture to see another type of picture allowed by this database (no link back)

1/10/2005 Laser Pointers Used as a Terrorist Weapon! They Might be Outlawed. They have a recent article at Sky & Telescope about laser pointers being used as terrorist weapons. Laser pointers are these laser-beaming devices which are used in the astronomer community to help point out sky objects to an audience during sky parties or to point telescopes to which they are affixed. Such laser-pointers have been recently used directed to planes in flight. Lasers, generally, keeps their light path coherent at long distances. Should you look at a laser-pointer source from one mile away, it would still be bright as a 100-watt bulb seen at less than 100 ft. Direct viewing of a laser-pointer beam, even briefly and at a distance of a kilometer or two, has the potential to cause temporary vision reduction or loss. Many U.S. states have already classified shining a laser pointer at a person or a vehicle a misdemeanor. There's now a very real chance that they might be outlawed. Indeed, 5 mW green lasers are already banned in the United Kingdom. This same page at Sky & Telescope hints at safe practices. read it (note: this is a direct link)