NASA News: NASA Announces News Briefing On Aquarius/Sac-D Mission
WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a news briefing on Tuesday, May 17, at 1p.m. EDT, on the agency's next Earth-observing satellite mission,
Aquarius/SAC-D, scheduled to launch on June 9. The briefing will be
held at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Panelists will discuss the international spacecraft mission, a
collaboration between NASA and Argentina's space agency, Comisión
Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), with participation by
Brazil, Canada, France and Italy. CONAE provided the SAC-D spacecraft.
The mission's primary instrument, NASA's Aquarius, will make the
agency's first space-based global measurements of the salinity of the
ocean surface. Salinity, a key missing variable in satellite
observations of Earth, links ocean circulation, the global balance of
freshwater and climate. Seven other SAC-D instruments, contributed by
Argentina, Canada, France and Italy, will collect environmental data
for a wide range of applications, including studies of natural
hazards, air quality, land processes, and epidemiology.
The panelists are:
- Eric Lindstrom, Aquarius program scientist, NASA Headquarters
- Eric Ianson, Aquarius program executive, NASA Headquarters
- Gary Lagerloef, Aquarius principal investigator, Earth & Space
Research, Seattle
- Amit Sen, Aquarius project manager, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif.
- Daniel Caruso, Aquarius/SAC-D project manager, CONAE, Buenos Aires
The briefing will be held in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA
Headquarters, located at 300 E St. SW, Washington. Reporters unable
to attend in person may ask questions from participating NASA centers
or by telephone. To participate by phone, reporters must contact
Dwayne Brown at 202-358-1726 or dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov by 9 a.m. on
May 17.
The news conference will air live on NASA Television and the agency's
website. For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling
information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
Viewers also can watch the event and chat live on Ustream at:
http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2
For more information about Aquarius/SAC-D, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/aquarius
http://www.conae.gov.ar/eng/
---
NASA'S Fermi Spots 'Superflares' In The Crab Nebula
WASHINGTON -- The famous Crab Nebula supernova remnant has erupted inan enormous flare five times more powerful than any flare previously
seen from the object. On April 12, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space
Telescope first detected the outburst, which lasted six days.
The nebula is the wreckage of an exploded star that emitted light
which reached Earth in the year 1054. It is located 6,500 light-years
away in the constellation Taurus. At the heart of an expanding gas
cloud lies what is left of the original star's core, a superdense
neutron star that spins 30 times a second. With each rotation, the
star swings intense beams of radiation toward Earth, creating the
pulsed emission characteristic of spinning neutron stars (also known as pulsars).
Apart from these pulses, astrophysicists believed the Crab Nebula was
a virtually constant source of high-energy radiation. But in January,
scientists associated with several orbiting observatories, including
NASA's Fermi, Swift and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, reported
long-term brightness changes at X-ray energies.
"The Crab Nebula hosts high-energy variability that we're only now
fully appreciating," said Rolf Buehler, a member of the Fermi Large
Area Telescope (LAT) team at the Kavli Institute for Particle
Astrophysics and Cosmology, a facility jointly located at the
Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and
Stanford University.
Since 2009, Fermi and the Italian Space Agency's AGILE satellite have
detected several short-lived gamma-ray flares at energies greater
than 100 million electron volts (eV) -- hundreds of times higher than
the nebula's observed X-ray variations. For comparison, visible light
has energies between 2 and 3 eV.
On April 12, Fermi's LAT, and later AGILE, detected a flare that grew
about 30 times more energetic than the nebula's normal gamma-ray
output and about five times more powerful than previous outbursts. On
April 16, an even brighter flare erupted, but within a couple of
days, the unusual activity completely faded out.
"These superflares are the most intense outbursts we've seen to date,
and they are all extremely puzzling events," said Alice Harding at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "We think they
are caused by sudden rearrangements of the magnetic field not far
from the neutron star, but exactly where that's happening remains a mystery."
The Crab's high-energy emissions are thought to be the result of
physical processes that tap into the neutron star's rapid spin.
Theorists generally agree the flares must arise within about
one-third of a light-year from the neutron star, but efforts to
locate them more precisely have proven unsuccessful so far.
Since September 2010, NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory routinely has
monitored the nebula in an effort to identify X-ray emission
associated with the outbursts. When Fermi scientists alerted
astronomers to the onset of a new flare, Martin Weisskopf and Allyn
Tennant at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.,
triggered a set of pre-planned observations using Chandra.
"Thanks to the Fermi alert, we were fortunate that our planned
observations actually occurred when the flares were brightest in
gamma rays," Weisskopf said. "Despite Chandra's excellent resolution,
we detected no obvious changes in the X-ray structures in the nebula
and surrounding the pulsar that could be clearly associated with the flare."
Scientists think the flares occur as the intense magnetic field near
the pulsar undergoes sudden restructuring. Such changes can
accelerate particles like electrons to velocities near the speed of
light. As these high-speed electrons interact with the magnetic
field, they emit gamma rays.
To account for the observed emission, scientists say the electrons
must have energies 100 times greater than can be achieved in any
particle accelerator on Earth. This makes them the highest-energy
electrons known to be associated with any galactic source. Based on
the rise and fall of gamma rays during the April outbursts,
scientists estimate that the size of the emitting region must be
comparable in size to the solar system.
NASA's Fermi is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership
managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and
developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with
important contributions from academic institutions and partners in
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.
The Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program for
NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight
operations from Cambridge, Mass.
For more information, images and video, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/fermi
---
NASA Event To Showcase Sofia Science, Education Projects
PALMDALE, Calif. -- The Stratospheric Observatory for InfraredAstronomy (SOFIA) program will showcase its science and education
efforts to journalists on June 8 at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations
Facility in Palmdale, Calif.
SOFIA is a highly modified Boeing 747SP aircraft fitted with a
100-inch (2.5 meter) diameter telescope. It analyzes infrared light
to study the formation of stars and planets; chemistry of
interstellar gases; composition of comets, asteroids and planets; and
supermassive black holes at the center of galaxies. Infrared
observations are optimal for studying low-temperature objects in
space, such as the raw materials for star and planet formation, and
for seeing through interstellar dust clouds that block light at
visible wavelengths.
The observatory recently completed initial science flights with German
and U.S. instruments. Several basic science flights will carry
American and German teachers participating in the Airborne Astronomy
Ambassadors program in the coming months.
To kick off the media event at 9:30 a.m. PDT, June 8, SOFIA Program
Manager Bob Meyer will present an overview of the program. Other
presenters include:
- Alois Himmes, SOFIA program manager, German Aerospace Center
(DLR)
- David McBride, director of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center
in Edwards, Calif.
- Steve Zornetzer, associate center director at NASA's Ames
Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.
A panel also will discuss scientific research conducted aboard the
observatory. The participants are:
- Pamela Marcum, SOFIA project scientist
- Terry Herter, principal investigator for the Faint Object
Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST)
- Rolf Guesten, principal investigator for the German Receiver for
Astronomy at Terahertz Frequencies spectrometer (GREAT)
Another panel will discuss the importance of SOFIA's education
outreach. The participants are:
- Erick Young, SOFIA science mission operations director
- Dana Backman, SOFIA education and outreach manager
- Dorte Mehlert, education and outreach manager for the German
SOFIA Institute
Following the presentations, news media representatives will tour the
SOFIA flying observatory and meet several of the teachers selected to
work with scientists during the research flights.
The Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility is located at 30th Street East
and Avenue P (Rancho Vista Boulevard) in Palmdale. Journalists must
arrive by 9:15 a.m. PDT on Wednesday, June 8, for the event which
will run from 9:30 a.m. - noon. Requests for event credentials should
be submitted to Beth Hagenauer at beth.hagenauer@nasa.gov or
661-276-7960/3449. The deadline for U.S. citizens and permanent
resident aliens is May 31. The deadline for foreign nationals is May 16.
U.S. citizens must provide full name, date and place of birth, media
organization, the last six digits of their social security number and
the number and issuing state of their driver's license. In addition,
foreign nationals must list their country of citizenship and visa or
passport number with the country of issue and expiration date.
Permanent resident aliens must provide their registration number and
expiration date.
The SOFIA observatory is a joint NASA and German Aerospace Center
program. The program and aircraft are managed at the Dryden Aircraft
Operations Facility. NASA's Ames Research Center manages SOFIA
science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities
Space Research Association and the German SOFIA Institute in
Stuttgart, Germany.
For more information about SOFIA, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/sofia
For information about SOFIA's science missions, visit:
http://www.sofia.usra.edu
and
http://www.dlr.de/en/sofia
---
NASA Invites Reporters To Second Annual Lunabotics Competition
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- Forty-six teams of undergraduate and graduatestudents from the United States, Bangladesh, Canada, Colombia and
India will participate in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition May 26
- 28 at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Reporters are invited to cover the competition's opening day from 10
a.m. to 2 p.m. EDT at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. For
access to the facility, reporters should contact Jillian McRae at
321-449-4273. Request for interviews with NASA representatives should
be submitted to Tracy Young at 321-867-2468.
The student teams have designed and built remote controlled or
autonomous robots that can excavate simulated lunar dirt. During the
competition, the teams' designs, known as lunabots, will go
head-to-head to determine which one can collect and deposit the most
simulated lunar dirt within 15 minutes.
The event is designed to engage and retain students in the science,
technology, engineering and math, or STEM, disciplines critical to
NASA's missions. For more information on the competition and a list
of participating teams, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/lunabotics
For information about the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, visit:
http://www.kennedyspacecenter.
For information on NASA's education programs, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/education
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