Space center opens shuttle launch experience

NASA’s Visitor Complex at Kennedy Space Center will open the Shuttle Launch Experience May 25. The $60 million launch simulation will take visitors on their own journey of the space shuttle’s voyage to Earth’s orbit. Under the guidance of NASA and veteran space shuttle astronauts, this unprecedented experience duplicates the sights, sounds and sensations of launching into space fully vertical in launch mode position.

Shuttle Launch Experience combines the detailed accounts of astronaut experiences with the expertise of premiere design engineers to produce a ride unique to theme parks around the world. The attraction’s technical highlights include authentic simulation of the space shuttle’s eight-and-a-half minute launch into orbit, custom-designed crew pods with unprecedented vertical range, high-definition audiovisual effects, and advanced seating effects to maximize the reality of the experience.

For more information, please visit www.KennedySpaceCenter.com

Boeing pursues contact for Ares I

Boeing will lead a team of suppliers in pursuit of a contract for production of the upper stage for the Ares I crew launch vehicle, NASA’s first new human-rated launch vehicle since the space shuttle. The vehicle, which will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle to low Earth orbit, is an essential element of the nation’s space exploration program that will return astronauts to the moon no later than 2020. Boeing’s team will focus on providing responsive support to the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center customer.

“We will bring innovative manufacturing approaches and the best elements of Boeing and our teammates to bear on this critical NASA Constellation Program element,” said Jim Chilton, Boeing’s vice president of Exploration Launch Systems. “Our lean practices, proven in commercial airplanes and defense programs, will help us provide a low cost, safe and reliable upper stage.”

For more information, visit www.boeing.com

Earth had strong magnetic field

Geophysicists at the University of Rochester have announced that the Earth’s magnetic field was nearly as strong 3.2 billion years ago as it is today. The findings, which are contrary to previous studies, suggest that even in its earliest stages the Earth was already well protected from the solar wind, which can strip away a planet’s atmosphere and bathe its surface in lethal radiation.

“The intensity of the ancient magnetic field was very similar to today’s intensity,” says John Tarduno, professor of geophysics in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Rochester.

“These values suggest the field was surprisingly strong and robust. It’s interesting because it could mean the Earth already had a solid iron inner core 3.2 billion years ago, which is at the very limit of what theoretical models of the Earth’s formation could predict.”

For more information, please visit www.rochester.edu

NASA finds evidence for new molecular structure in space

NASA scientists have discovered evidence that a red glow, seen throughout the Milky Way and other galaxies but never on Earth, radiates from extremely fine dust clusters that cause the glow by combining molecular forces that oppose each other. Researchers theorize that the red glow, called the Extended Red Emission is due to an unusual form of charged molecular clusters. Measured in billionths of a meter (billionths of a yard), these tiny clusters are made of carbon-rich molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are chicken-wire shaped.

“We have been studying polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules (PAHs) in the laboratory at NASA Ames Research Center for a long time, and although I had results that strongly supported the idea that PAHs had something to do with the ERE, the experimental results made it clear that if PAHs were involved, they were present in some as-yet unknown exotic form,” said Murthy Gudipati of the University of Maryland and NASA Ames, who recently joined NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory after many years of close collaboration with Allamandola.

Using advanced computational methods, scientists found that the red glow is indeed carried by unusual clusters of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules. Highly developed tests confirm the presence of opposing properties within each cluster; they are charged and highly reactive, yet simultaneously, they have a stable, closed-shell electron configuration as does any stable molecule on Earth.

For more information, please visit http://spacescience.arc.nasa.gov/redglow

Search for habitable planets

Planets outside of Earth’s Solar System that are most likely to be capable of supporting life will be the focus of both a NASA-sponsored workshop later this year and a special collection of papers in the Spring 2007 (Volume 7, Number 1) issue of Astrobiology. The papers are available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ast

These reports present the preliminary results and conclusions from recent studies on the habitability of M Star Planets, which are planets about the size and mass of Earth that contain sufficient amounts of carbon dioxide in their atmosphere to support a stable source of water on the planet’s surface. The habitability of terrestrial planets depends in large part on the distance of their orbit from the nearest star.

Astrobiology presents a collection of intriguing papers that explore various aspects of M Stars (including dwarf M Stars and low mass M Stars), describe efforts to simulate Earth-like planets, consider the possible greenhouse effects in the atmosphere of Earth-like planets, and review the spectral signatures of photosynthesis.

For more information, please visit www.liebertpub.com

Supernova imposter goes supernova

In October of 2004, Japanese amateur astronomer Koichi Itagaki saw a star let loose an outburst so bright that it was initially mistaken for a supernova. The star survived, but for only two years. In October 2006, professional and amateur astronomers witnessed the star actually blowing itself to smithereens as Supernova 2006jc.

“We have never observed a stellar outburst and then later seen the star explode,” says University of California at Berkeley astronomer Ryan Foley.

His group studied the event with ground-based telescopes, including the 10-meter (32.8-foot) Keck telescope in Hawaii. Narrow helium spectral lines showed that the supernova’s blast wave ran into a slow-moving shell of material, presumably the progenitor’s upper layers ejected just two years earlier. If the spectral lines had been caused by the supernova's fast-moving blast wave, the lines would have been much broader.

For more information, please visit www.gsfc.nasa.gov

NASA finds Arctic lacking in ice replacement

A new NASA study has found that in 2005 the Arctic replaced very little of the thick sea ice it normally loses and replenishes each year. Replenishment of this thick, perennial sea ice each year is essential to the maintenance and stability of the Arctic summer ice cover. The findings complement a NASA study released in fall 2006 that found a 14-percent drop in this perennial ice between 2004 and 2005. The lack of replenishment suggests that the decline may continue in the near future.

“Recent studies indicate Arctic perennial ice is declining seven to 10 percent each decade,” explained Ron Kwok of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

“Our study gives the first reliable estimates of how perennial ice replenishment varies each year at the end of summer. The amount of first-year ice that survives the summer directly influences how thick the ice cover will be at the start of the next melt season.”

For more information, please visit www.nasa.gov

NASA targets June launch for Space Shuttle Atlantis

NASA is targeting June 8 as the next possible launch opportunity for space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-117 mission to the International Space Station. The decision by agency management followed a meeting that reviewed the progress in repairing insulating foam on the shuttle’s external fuel tank, which was damaged during a sudden hailstorm in February at Kennedy Space Center. That damage required engineers to repair approximately 2,660 sites on the tank.

“The workforce has done an amazing job of assessing and repairing the tank so far, but the sheer volume of repairs dictates moving the launch target to June,” said Space Shuttle Program Manager Wayne Hale.

For more information, please visit www.nasa.gov

Water identified in extrasolar planet atmosphere

For the first time, water has been identified in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet. Through a combination of previously published Hubble Space Telescope measurements and new theoretical models, Lowell Observatory astronomer Travis Barman has found strong evidence for water absorption in the atmosphere of transiting planet HD209458b.

“We now know that water vapor exists in the atmosphere of one extrasolar planet and there is good reason to believe that other extrasolar planets contain water vapor,” said Barman.

For more information, please visit www.lowell.edu

Spiral arms mystery

Using a trio of space observatories, astronomers may have cracked a 45-year old mystery surrounding two spiral arms in the galaxy M106 (NGC 4258). The results, obtained by a team from the University of Maryland, took advantage of the unique capabilities of the European Space Agency’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, and NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

M106 is a spiral galaxy 23.5 million light-years away, in the constellation Canes Venatici. In visible-light images, two prominent arms emanate from the bright nucleus and spiral outward. These arms are dominated by young, bright stars, which light up the gas within the arms. By analyzing data from XMM-Newton, Spitzer, and Chandra, the team in Maryland have confirmed earlier suspicions that the arms represent regions of gas that are being violently heated by shock waves.

For more information, please visit www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html