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Como viene siendo habitual publicamos las ultimas noticias y videos disponibles en las diferentes agencias internacionales.
NASA, ESA, JAXA, ESO…etc

Hubble’s Universe: Extrasolar Planets

Hubble’s Universe Unfiltered (Episode 7): Eye Spy A Planet (Part 2/2) – Extrasolar Planets.

Up until the 1990s, we only knew of the planets in our own solar system. Since then, we have discovered over 300 planets orbiting other stars (extrasolar planets, exoplanets). However, most of these planets were found when scientists observed the effect of the planet’s gravity upon their host stars.

Astronomers could not show the world what we wanted most: a visible light picture of a planet around a star like the Sun. That situation changed in November 2008 with a discovery by the Hubble Space Telescope. Join us for the story that begins a new era in our knowledge of planetary systems.

Note that Hubble’s discovery of Fomalhaut b is billed as the “first visible-light snapshot of a planet orbiting another star.” It is important to note that the first direct detection of a planet will likely turn out to be the planet known as 2M1207 b. However, the host, 2M1207, is not a full-fledged star, but a brown dwarf (see below). In addition, pictures of three planets around HR 8799, released the same day as the Fomalhaut discovery, were taken in the infrared.

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- Let me clarify about 2M1207. It has less than 3% the mass of our Sun, roughly 25 times the mass of Jupiter. That mass places it in the brown dwarf category: large enough to ignite deuterium fusion in its core (thus not a planet), but not large enough for hydrogen fusion (thus not a star). Brown dwarfs glow faintly at formation and then spend the rest of their lives cooling and fading away. Brown dwarfs are generally thought to be those objects with between 15 and 70 times the mass of Jupiter.

- I wanted to make a joke that what the Hubble image of Fomalhaut looked most like is the “Eye of Sauron” from the “Lord of the Rings” movies. However, New Line Cinema did not respond to my requests for permission, and my producer would not let me use the image in the podcast. That joke is one reason why the episode is called “Eye Spy.”

- A betting astronomer might have chosen Beta Pictoris as the first star around which a planet would have been seen. We have been getting intriguing evidence that planets should be there for more than a decade. However, since the disk in the Beta Pic system is roughly perpendicular to our line of sight, any planets will travel in front of and behind the star from our point of view. Hence, we could only observe them well during parts of their orbits. Face-on systems, like HR 8799, are much more favorable for direct images.

- If confirmed, the Beta Pictoris planet would indicate that giant planets can form quickly. Beta Pictoris is about 12 million years old. We believe that giant planets must form within the first 10 or so million years of a developing system, as winds and radiation from newborn stars should remove the gas from the system on that timescale. A giant planet needs to accrete some of that gas during its formation, and thus must form in millions of years. In contrast, it is thought that Earth may take as much as a couple hundred million years to form.

Hubble’s Universe Unfiltered is a collection of video podcasts. Each episode offers an in-depth explanation of the latest news story or image from the Hubble Space Telescope, presented by astronomer Frank Summers.

http://hubblesite.org/explore_astronomy/hubbles_universe_unfiltered/

• http://hubblesite.org/

Pluto Red Outpost of the Final Frontier
Pluto was kicked off the list of major planets. It seems to have responded by turning a mysterious red color, according to scientists working with the Hubble Space Telescope. They’re now trying to find out what makes its surface so dynamic. From the Space Telescope Science Institute.

The Road to Pad Abort

At the White Sands Missile Range in Las Cruces, N.M., engineers and technicians are preparing for the Pad Abort 1 flight test. The Launch Abort System is a sophisticated new rocket tower designed to pull a spacecraft away from danger on the pad and initial ascent. For the first time, all the components of the system will work together. The test not only develops core technology needed for future spacecraft, but also directly improves the chances of crew survival in an emergency.

STS-132 Mission Overview

Atlantis 12-day mission will deliver the Russian-built Mini Research Module-1 that will provide additional storage space and a new docking port for Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft. MRM-1, also known as Rassvet, which means dawn in Russian, will be permanently attached to the bottom port of the stations Zarya module. MRM-1 will carry important hardware on its exterior including a radiator, airlock and a European robotic arm. Atlantis also will deliver additional station hardware stored inside a cargo carrier. Three spacewalks are planned to stage spare components outside the station, including six spare batteries, a Ku-band antenna and spare parts for the Canadian Dextre robotic arm. Shuttle mission STS-132 is the final scheduled
flight for Atlantis.

Atlantis Crew to Deliver Mini-Module to ISS

STS-132 mission managers detail how the crew of space shuttle Atlantis will deliver and install on the International Space Station “Rassvet”, the Russian Mini Research Module. The six-member STS-132 crew of Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Mike Good, Garrett Reisman, Piers Sellers and Steve Bowen will spend 12 days in space; their launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is targeted for May 14 at 2:20 p.m. EDT.

Three to Share Spacewalking Duties on Next Shuttle Journey

When they visit the International Space Station later this month, astronauts Garrett Reisman, Mike Good and Steve Bowen will each conduct two EVAs (extra vehicular activity) to stage and install cargo and equipment outside the orbiting complex. The trio, along with Commander Ken Ham, Pilot Tony Antonelli and Mission Specialist Piers Sellers, are targeted to begin their 12-day STS-132 mission with a targeted liftoff aboard space shuttle Atlantis on May 14. STS-132 is slated to be the final flight of Atlantis.

The Galaxy 15 Zombie Satellite – 2010.05.04

The Galaxy 15 satellite has become a zombie and will soon eat the brains of AMC-11 on your Spacevidcast Daily for May 4th, 2010.On April 5th, 2010 Intelsat lost control of the Orbital Sciences built Galaxy 15 satellite and has been unable to regain it’s correct position in orbit. Losing communication with a multi-million dollar satellite is generally not that great of a thing to have happen, but in this case it is even worse. The bird itself is floating around with its transponders still active. Now for the really fun part: the satellite is moving out of its assigned orbital slot and is about to enter in to range of another satellite: AMC-11.Typically one would be worried of an impact event which then causes tons of space debris, but in this case the problem will be interference. Since both satellites will be broadcasting at the same time in the same orbital slot, the malfunctioning Galaxy 15 could end up knocking out communications of AMC-11 when it gets too close. Right now best estimates put that date at May 23rd. Then we’ll have TWO decommissioned satellites.But the fun doesn’t end there! If ground controllers can’t regain control of Galaxy 15, and it keeps drifting, eventually it will exit the assigned orbital slot for AMC-11 some time around June 7th, and could then move on to take out the next satellite in its way. And so forth and so on until they can either shut it down or it loses its Earth pointing capability which would then cause the solor arrays to lose lock with the sun, and a couple of hours later the batteries would drain and the unit would shut down on its own.Yesterday Intelsat was going to try one last hail mary to see if they can’t get control of the satellite. Well, less control and more of an emergency shutdown command. This was a powerful command sent for around 30 minutes to try and get Galaxy 15 to turn off its transponders and go dark so it won’t wreak havoc on the satellite constellation. No word yet on if this attempt worked or not.Galaxy 15 has been replaced by Galaxy 12 which was already located at another orbital location and moved in to the proper orbital slot for the old Galaxy 15. Since most of the transponders on Galaxy 15 match that of Galaxy 12, that was a fairly good workaround, although Galaxy 12 is missing L-Band units that were available on the other satellite.If the satellite is not shut down, then around July 13th it should reach the vicinity of Galaxy 13, on July 30th it will reach Galaxy 14 and in Mid August it will reach Galaxy 18. Eventually it is expected to reach the satellite wasteland at 105 degrees west where satellites go to die. There are two parking lots for satellites, one at 105 degrees west and one at 75 degrees east. Current estimates put more than 160 zombiesats parked at these two locations. This will be the first Orbital Sciences built satellite to get zombified.