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Space News Update — March 15, 2016 —

Contents

In the News

Story 1:

ExoMars Mission Underway after Proton Launch

Story 2:

NASA's K2 mission: The Kepler Space Telescope's Second Chance to Shine

Story 3:

Unpacking Space Radiation Key to Controlling Astronaut and Potentially Earthbound Cancer Risk

Departments

The Night Sky

ISS Sighting Opportunities

NASA-TV Highlights

Space Calendar

Food for Thought

Space Image of the Week

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1. ExoMars Mission Underway after Proton Launch

ExoMars 2016 liftoff Credit and Copyright ESA–Stephane Corvaja, 2016

The first of two joint ESA-Roscosmos missions to Mars has begun a seven-month journey to the Red Planet,

where it will address unsolved mysteries of the planet’s atmosphere that could indicate present-day geological

– or even biological – activity.

The Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator lifted off on a Proton-M

rocket operated by Russia’s Roscosmos at 09:31 GMT (10:31 CET) this morning from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Following separation of Proton’s first and second stages, the payload fairing was released. The third stage

separated nearly 10 minutes after liftoff.

The Breeze-M upper stage, with ExoMars attached, then completed a series of four burns before the

spacecraft was released at 20:13 GMT (21:13 CET).

Signals from the spacecraft, received at ESA’s control center in Darmstadt, Germany via the Malindi ground

tracking station in Africa at 21:29 GMT (22:29 CET), confirmed that the launch was fully successful and the

spacecraft is in good health.

The orbiter’s solar wings have also now unfolded and the craft is on its way to Mars.

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“It’s been a long journey getting the first ExoMars mission to the launch pad, but thanks to the hard work and

dedication of our international teams, a new era of Mars exploration is now within our reach,” says Johann-

Dietrich Woerner, ESA’s Director General.

“I am grateful to our Russian partners, who have given this mission the best possible start today. Now we will

explore Mars together.”

Igor Komarov, General Director of the Roscosmos State Space Corporation, adds, “Only the process of

collaboration produces the best technical solutions for great research results. Roscosmos and ESA are

confident of the mission’s success.”

“We’re not only looking forward to the world-class science data that this mission will return, but it is also

significant in paving the way for the second ExoMars mission, which will move our expertise from in-orbit

observations to surface and subsurface exploration of Mars,” says Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science.

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli will travel to Mars together before separating on 16 October at

distance of 900 000 km from the planet.

Then, on 19 October, Schiaparelli will enter the Martian atmosphere, descending to the surface in just under

six minutes.

Schiaparelli will demonstrate key entry, descent, and landing technologies for future missions, and will conduct

a number of environmental studies during its short 4-day mission on the surface.

For example, it will obtain the first measurements of electric fields on the surface of Mars that, combined with

measurements of the concentration of atmospheric dust, will provide new insights into the role of electric

forces on dust lifting – the trigger for dust storms.

Meanwhile, on the same day, TGO will enter an elliptical four-day orbit around Mars, taking it from about 300

km at its nearest to around 96 000 km at its furthest point.

After a year of complex ‘aero-braking’, maneuvers during which the spacecraft will use the planet’s

atmosphere to lower its orbit slowly to a circular 400 km, its scientific mission to analyze rare gases in the

atmosphere will begin.

Of particular interest is methane, which on Earth, points to active geological or biological processes.

One of the mission’s key goals is to follow up on the methane detection made by ESA’s Mars Express in 2004

to understand the processes at play in its generation and destruction, with an improved accuracy of three

orders of magnitude over previous measurements.

TGO will also image features on the Martian surface that may be related to trace-gas sources such as

volcanoes. In addition, it will be able to detect buried water-ice deposits, which, along with locations identified

as sources of the trace gases, could influence the choice of landing sites of future missions.

The orbiter will also act as a data relay for the second ExoMars mission, comprising a rover and stationary

surface science platform, which is scheduled for launch in May 2018, arriving in early 2019. It also will have

the capability to relay data to and from the current NASA rovers operating on the planet.

Source: European Space Agency Return to Contents

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2. NASA's K2 mission: The Kepler Space Telescope's Second Chance to Shine

The engineers huddled around a telemetry screen, and the mood was tense. They were watching streams of data

from a crippled spacecraft more than 50 million miles away – so far that even at the speed of light, it took nearly

nine minutes for a signal to travel to the spacecraft and back.

It was late August 2013, and the group of about five employees at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, was waiting

for NASA’s Kepler space telescope to reveal whether it would live or die. A severe malfunction had robbed the

planet-hunting Kepler of its ability to stay pointed at a target without drifting off course.

The engineers had devised a remarkable solution: using the pressure of sunlight to stabilize the spacecraft so it

could continue to do science. Now, there was nothing more they could do but wait for the spacecraft to reveal its

fate.

Finally, the team received the confirmation from the spacecraft they had been waiting for. The room broke out in

cheers. The fix worked! Kepler, with a new lease on life, was given a new mission as K2. But the biggest surprise

was yet to come. A space telescope with a distinguished history of discovering distant exoplanets – planets orbiting

other stars – was about to outdo even itself, racking up hundreds more discoveries and helping to usher in entirely

new opportunities in astrophysics research.

The discoveries roll in A little more than two years after the tense moment for the Ball engineers, K2 has

delivered on its promise with a breadth of discoveries. Continuing the exoplanet-hunting legacy, K2 has discovered

more than three dozen exoplanets and with more than 250 candidates awaiting confirmation. A handful of these

worlds are near-Earth-sized and orbit stars that are bright and relatively nearby compared with Kepler discoveries,

allowing scientists to perform follow-up studies. In fact, these exoplanets are likely future targets for the Hubble

Space Telescope and the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), with the potential to study these

planets’ atmospheres in search of signatures indicative of life.

K2 also has astronomers rethinking long-held planetary formation theory, and the commonly understood lonely "hot

Jupiter" paradigm. The unexpected discovery of a star with a close-in Jupiter-sized planet sandwiched between two

smaller companion planets now has theorists back at their computers reworking the models, and has sent

astronomers back to their telescopes in search of other hot Jupiter companions.

Like its predecessor, K2 searches for planetary transits – the tiny, telltale dip in the brightness of a star as a planet

crosses in front – and for the first time caught the rubble from a destroyed exoplanet transiting across the remains

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of a dead star known as a white dwarf. Exoplanets have long been thought to orbit these remnant stars, but not

until K2 has the theory been confirmed.

K2 has fixed its gaze on regions of the sky with densely packed clusters of stars which has revealed the first

transiting exoplanet in such an area, popularly known as the Hyades star cluster. Clusters are exciting places to find

exoplanets because stars in a cluster all form around the same time, giving them all the same "born-on" date. This

helps scientists understand the

The repurposed spacecraft boasts discoveries beyond the realm of exoplanets. Mature stars – about the age of our

sun and older – largely populated the original single Kepler field of view. In contrast, many K2 fields see stars still in

the process of forming. In these early days, planets also are assembled and by looking at the timescales of star

formation, scientists gain insight into how our own planet formed.

Studies of one star-forming region, called Upper Scorpius, compared the size of young stars observed by K2 with

computational models. The result demonstrated fundamental imperfections in the models. While the reason for

these discrepancies is still under debate, it likely shows that magnetic fields in stars do not arise as researchers

expect.

Looking in the ecliptic – the orbital path traveled around the sun by the planets of our solar system and the location

of the zodiac – K2 also is well equipped to observe small bodies within our own solar system such as comets,

asteroids, dwarf planets, ice giants and moons. Last year, for instance, K2 observed Neptune in a dance with its two

moons, Triton and Nereid. This was followed by observations of Pluto and Uranus.

“K2 can’t help but observe the dynamics of our planetary system," said Barclay. "We all know that planets follow

laws of motion but with K2 we can see it happen.”

These initial accomplishments have come in the first year and a half since K2 began in May 2014, and have been

carried off without a hitch. The spacecraft continues to perform nominally.

Searching for far out worlds In April, K2 will take part in a global experiment in exoplanet observation with a

special observing period or campaign, Campaign 9. In this campaign, both K2 and astronomers at ground-based

observatories on five continents will simultaneously monitor the same region of sky towards the center of our

galaxy to search for small planets, such as the size of Earth, orbiting very far from their host star or, in some cases,

orbiting no star at all.

For this experiment, scientists will use gravitational microlensing – the phenomenon that occurs when the gravity of

a foreground object, such as a planet, focuses and magnifies the light from a distant background star. This

detection method will allow scientists to find and determine the mass of planets that orbit at great distances, like

Jupiter and Neptune do our sun.

Design by community what could turn out to be one of the most important legacies of K2 has little to do with the

mechanics of the telescope, now operating on two wheels and with an assist from the sun. The Kepler mission was

organized along traditional lines of scientific discovery: a targeted set of objectives carefully chosen by the science

team to answer a specific question on behalf of NASA – how common or rare are "Earths" around other suns?

K2’s modified mission involves a whole new approach-- engaging the scientific community at large and opening up

the spacecraft's capabilities to a broader audience. "The new approach of letting the community decide the most

compelling science targets we’re going to look at has been one of the most exciting aspects," said Steve Howell, the

Kepler and K2 project scientist at Ames. Kepler’s field of view surveyed just one patch of sky in the northern

hemisphere. The K2 ecliptic field of view provides greater opportunities for Earth-based observatories in both the

northern and southern hemispheres, allowing the whole world to participate.

With more than two years of fuel remaining, the spacecraft’s scientific future continues to look unexpectedly bright.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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3. Unpacking Space Radiation Key to Controlling Astronaut and Potentially Earthbound Cancer Risk

Mars Habitat: Artist's concept of living quarters covered with soil to shield the crew from the sun’s radiation. The

extended base has greenhouse and a pressurized work facility where full spacesuits would not be required. This artist

conception (being released by NASA) was provided by CASE FOR MARS, an independent organization concerned with

a Mars mission. Credit: NASA

NASA limits an astronaut’s radiation exposures to doses that keep their added risk of fatal cancer below 3 percent.

Unfortunately, that ceiling restricts the time an astronaut may spend in space, which in turn restricts the ability to

perform longer missions, say a mission to Mars. Now a network of research laboratories seeks to understand the

mechanisms and effects of space radiation with the goal of predicting and preventing radiation-induced cancers,

both in space and at home. One of these laboratories is that of Michael Weil, PhD, investigator at the University of

Colorado Cancer Center and professor in the Colorado State University Department of Environmental & Radiological

Health Sciences, whose paper recently published in the journal Frontiers in Oncology describes attempts to

personalize the assessment of radiation-induced cancer risk in astronauts.

“I have become a bit of a space aficionado, but I suspect the major impact of what we do is going to be for cancer

patients,” Weil says. This is because high-energy ions similar to the radiation experienced in space are being

increasingly used in cancer treatments. Carbon ions are in use to treat cancer patients in Japan and Germany, and

similar treatment facilities are in the planning stages in the United States. “The way carbon ions deposit energy is

very suitable for hitting tumors while missing healthy tissue,” Weil says. However, the same radiation used in cancer

treatments presents a risk for the future development of new tumors.

On earth, discovering the cancer risk associated with radiation dose is generally done by noting levels of radiation

exposure and later cancer development in large populations of people. For example, “Radiation epidemiologists

know the radiation doses received by 120,000 survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings and their

health outcomes. With this, we can estimate how much a given dose will increase cancer risk,” Weil says.

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But the calculation of cancer risk from space radiation is much different. First, space radiation is not the same as

radiation on earth. “NASA is most concerned about galactic cosmic radiation and the worst component is HZE ions,”

Weil says. These ions, composed of atomic nuclei stripped of their electrons and moving through space at near light

speed “can punch right through a couple meters of aluminum or right through an astronaut, leaving ionization

tracks,” Weil says. (The acronym HZE comes from high (h) atomic number (z) and energy (e)). Fortunately for

everyone on earth, these HZE ions are deflected by the Earth’s magnetosphere. However, the deflection of HZE ions

also means that no epidemiological data exists that could ground risk calculations. Instead, determining the risk of

HZE ions requires experimental models and technology.

“We don’t have access to galactic cosmic radiation on earth, but we do have accelerators,” Weil says. The NASA

Space Radiation Laboratory on Long Island, NY can simulate the types of radiation found in space. NASA-funded

researchers like Weil use the facility to irradiate mice or cultured human cells.

“How effective are these radiations at causing cancer?” Weil asks. “The answer is incredibly effective.”

In addition to showing that HZE ions efficiently cause cancer, Weil and colleagues hope to understand how the

timing of HZE ion delivery impacts risk.

“For example, maybe every morning when I wake up, I take 81 milligrams of aspirin because it’s good for my heart.

But if I take a year’s dose all at once, that will cause problems.” Weil says. We have good data on the effects of

acute radiation exposures. However, while the accumulated dose an astronaut receives may be quite high, the dose

is generally delivered over time, leading to a lower “dose-rate” and, potentially, less risk than if the same dose had

been delivered over a shorter time. And, unfortunately, an accelerator is not capable of delivering low exposure

over a protracted period.

“We don’t have good experimental ways to approach this question,” Weil says. He does, however, note that

historical data from uranium miners who are at increased risk for lung cancer from occupational exposure to Radon

gas provides clues to cancer risk with lower dose-rate exposures.

Another issue facing investigators is the difference between cancer incidence and cancer mortality.

“NASA is primarily concerned not just with how many cancers will be caused by space radiation, but with how many

of these cancers will be fatal,” Weil says. Cancer researchers know the incidence-to-fatality ratios of cancers

experienced by earthbound populations – they can query a database for, say, the number of lung cancer cases and

compare it to the number of lung cancer deaths. However, there is increasing evidence that not only are HZE ions

especially good at causing cancer, but that the types of cancer they cause tend to be more aggressive than their

counterparts on earth.

When Weil’s group “hauled mice to an accelerator facility and irradiated them to produce liver tumors,” more of

these tumors than expected went on to metastasize to the lung, implying a more aggressive liver cancer. For NASA

and potentially for earthling cancer patients, this means that risk assessments have to take into account not only

the risk of developing cancer with HZE ion doses, but the higher percentage of these cancers that may be fatal.

The eventual goal of this work is twofold: To more accurately calculate cancer risk to spaceflight crews and provide

a better understanding of how HZE ions cause cancer which, in turn, will lead to ways to mitigate this risk.

Ultimately you’d like to “develop a pill you can take that will prevent space radiation from causing cancer,” Weil

says. “To do that, you have to understand the mechanisms whereby radiation causes cancer.”

And so, overall, the goal is to understand how, when and with what outcomes HZE ions cause cancer. In addition to

allowing human beings to travel to Mars, solving these questions may make us healthier here at home.

Source: University of Colorado Cancer Center Return to Contents

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The Night Sky

Source: Sky and Telescope Return to Contents

Mars and Saturn glow over Scorpius in early dawn all week. On Wednesday morning, Mars is just 0.2° from

Beta Scorpii

Tuesday, March 15

First-quarter Moon (exactly so at 1:03 p.m. EDT).

This evening the Moon shines in the dim Club of

Orion, above the bright stars of Orion's body.

Before dawn brightens on Wednesday morning,

look south for Scorpius. Mars will seem (at first

glance) to have replaced Beta Scorpii, as shown

at right. It's as if the top star of the Scorpius's

familiar head has flared up to be ten times

brighter!

Wednesday, March 16

Mid-March is when Sirius blazes mid-south (on

the meridian) in mid-twilight. As more stars come

out, piece together more of its constellation,

Canis Major. A real challenge for a 10-inch or

larger telescope is Sirius B, the famous white-

dwarf companion of Sirius. It's only 1/10,000 as

bright! But it's less difficult now than in the last

couple of decades, having widened to 10.6

arcseconds east-northeast of Sirius A. Practice on

Rigel, which outshines a companion star of its

own by a mere 1,000 times. Rigel's companion is

9.5 arcseconds to its south-southwest.

Thursday, March 17

The waxing gibbous Moon this evening shines

more or less between Pollux and Castor above it

and Procyon below it.

Friday, March 18

This is the time of year when Orion declines in the southwest after dark, with his Belt roughly

horizontal. But when does Orion's Belt appear exactly horizontal? That depends on where you're

located east-west in your time zone, and on your latitude. How accurately can you time this event?

If you're near your time zone's standard longitude, expect it around 9:15 this evening (daylight-

saving time), more or less.

Saturday, March 19

Look lower left of the Moon this evening for Regulus. The Sickle of Leo, a backward question mark,

extends upper left from there. Much farther lower left shines bright Jupiter.

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ISS Sighting Opportunities (from Denver)

Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears

Wed Mar 16, 4:48 AM < 1 min 11° 11° above NNE 11° above NNE

Wed Mar 16, 6:23 AM 1 min 10° 10° above N 10° above NNE

Thu Mar 17, 5:31 AM 1 min 10° 10° above NNW 10° above N

Fri Mar 18, 6:15 AM 3 min 12° 10° above NNW 10° above NE

Sat Mar 19, 5:23 AM 2 min 11° 10° above N 10° above NNE

Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone)

Wednesday, March 16

12 p.m. - Video File of the ISS Expedition 47-48 Crew’s Soyuz TMA-20M Mating and Rollout to the

Launch Pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (all channels)

12 p.m. - Women’s History Month Special – “NASA Women in Action” (NTV-1 (Public))

1 p.m. - Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum Presents - “STEM in 30”- the SR-71 Blackbird - the

World's Fastest Jet-Propelled Aircraft (NTV-1 (Public), NTV-2 (Education))

Thursday, March 17

4 p.m. - Replay of the Russian State Commission Meeting and Final ISS Expedition 47-48 Pre-Launch

Crew News Conference in Baikonur, Kazakhstan (Ovchinin, Skripochka, J. Williams) (all channels)

Friday, March 18

4:30 p.m. - ISS Expedition 47-48 Soyuz TMA-20M Launch Coverage (Ovchinin, Skripochka, J. Williams;

launch scheduled at 5:26 p.m. ET; includes video B-roll of the crew’s pre-launch activities at 4:40 p.m.

ET) (all channels)

7:30 p.m. - Video File of ISS Expedition 47-48 Soyuz TMA-20M Pre-Launch, Launch Video B-Roll and

Related Interviews (all channels)

10:30 p.m. - ISS Expedition 47-48 Soyuz TMA-20M Docking Coverage (Ovchinin, Skripochka, J.

Williams; docking scheduled at 11:11 p.m. ET) (all channels)

Saturday, March 19

12:30 a.m., - ISS Expedition 47-48 Soyuz TMA-20M Hatch Opening and Other Activities (Ovchinin, Skripochka and J. Williams) Hatch Opening is scheduled at 12:55 a.m. (all channels)

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website. Return to Contents

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Space Calendar

Mar 15 - Comet 73P-AF/Schwassmann-Wachmann At Opposition (0.813 AU)

Mar 15 - Comet 252P/LINEAR Perihelion (0.996 AU)

Mar 15 - Comet P/2016 BA14 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (1.009 AU)

Mar 15 - Comet 9P/Tempel At Opposition (1.062 AU)

Mar 15 - Apollo Asteroid 2010 FR Near-Earth Flyby (0.089 AU)

Mar 15 - Asteroid 6 Hebe Closest Approach To Earth (1.893 AU)

Mar 15 - Asteroid 1756 Giacobini Closest Approach To Earth (1.999 AU)

Mar 15 - Asteroid 4513 Louvre Closest Approach To Earth (2.145 AU)

Mar 15 - 210th Anniversary (1806), Alais Meteorite Fall in France (1st Carbonaceous Chondrite)

Mar 16 - 50th Anniversary (1966), Gemini 8 Launch (Neil Armstrong & David Scott)

Mar 16 - Comet 132P/Helin-Roman-Alu At Opposition (3.777 AU)

Mar 16 - Comet C/2015 ER61 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (4.326 AU)

Mar 16 - Apollo Asteroid 2016 EW85 Near-Earth Flyby (0.004 AU)

Mar 16 - Aten Asteroid 2016 ES85 Near-Earth Flyby (0.008 AU)

Mar 16 - Asteroid 10101 Fourier Closest Approach To Earth (1.335 AU)

Mar 16 - Asteroid 4783 Wasson Closest Approach To Earth (1.408 AU)

Mar 16 - Asteroid 15058 Billcooke Closest Approach To Earth (2.394 AU)

Mar 16 - 90th Anniversary (1926), 1st Liquid Fuel Rocket Launch By Robert Goddard

Mar 17 - Comet 332P/Ikeya-Murakami Perihelion (1.573 AU)

Mar 17 - Comet 127P/Holt-Olmstead Perihelion (2.206 AU)

Mar 17 - Apollo Asteroid 2016 ES155 Near-Earth Flyby (0.015 AU)

Mar 17 - Amor Asteroid 2016 ER28 Near-Earth Flyby (0.086 AU)

Mar 17 - Atira Asteroid 2014 FO47 Closest Approach To Earth (0.106 AU)

Mar 17 - Asteroid 241418 Darmstadt Closest Approach To Earth (2.564 AU)

Mar 17 - 5th Anniversary (2011), MESSENGER, Mercury Orbit Insertion

Mar 18 - Soyuz TMA-20M Soyuz-FG Launch (International Space Station 47S)

Mar 18 - Comet P/2015 X6 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (2.287 AU)

Mar 18 - Comet 259P/Garradd Closest Approach To Earth (2.332 AU)

Mar 18 - Comet 309P/LINEAR At Opposition (2.768 AU)

Mar 18 - Asteroid 27500 Mandelbrot Closest Approach To Earth (2.790 AU)

Mar 19 - Comet 119P/Parker-Hartley At Opposition (3.439 AU)

Mar 19 - Comet 261P/Larson At Opposition (4.011 AU)

Mar 19 - Comet C/2013 W2 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (4.201 AU)

Mar 19 - Apollo Asteroid 2010 FX9 Near-Earth Flyby (0.018 AU)

Source: JPL Space Calendar Return to Contents

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Food for Thought

Hunt for Intelligent Aliens Should Focus on 'Transit Zone'

Artist's impression of an exoplanet transiting a red-dwarf star. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

Scientists searching for signs of intelligent extraterrestrial life should put themselves in the aliens' shoes, a new

study suggests.

Researchers have identified and characterized many potentially habitable alien planets via the "transit

method," which notes how parent stars' light changes when orbiting worlds cross these stars' faces from

Earth's perspective. (NASA's Kepler space telescope is the most famous and prolific instrument to use this

technique.)

Intelligent aliens could theoretically use this same strategy to discover Earth, and to determine that it has the

ability to support life, scientists said.

"It's impossible to predict whether extraterrestrials use the same observational techniques as we do," study

lead author René Heller, of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany, said in a

statement. "But they will have to deal with the same physical principles as we do, and Earth's solar transits are

an obvious method to detect us."

Advanced aliens who have made such a detection might try to send Earth a message to get in touch, the

reasoning goes.

But cosmic geometry dictates that Earth's solar transits are visible from a limited swath of the sky — a sliver

Heller and co-author Ralph Pudritz, a professor of physics and astronomy at McMaster University in Canada,

dub the "transit zone."

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) — including projects such as the recently launched

Breakthrough Listen Initiative — should therefore focus on the transit zone, Heller and Pudritz wrote in the

new study, which will be published in the journal Astrobiology.

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Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million, 10-year search for intelligent life in the universe was announced July 20,

2015 by famed scientist Stephen Hawking and other researchers. It will be the most powerful search ever

taken for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth. The project will survey the 1 million stars in the Milky Way

closest to Earth, as well as the 100 closest galaxies.

The transit zone contains about 100,000 stars, according to the researchers, so there's no shortage of

potential targets for SETI scientists' radio telescopes. (Observations by Kepler and other instruments suggest

that every Milky Way star hosts at least one planet on average, and many of these worlds orbit in the

"habitable zone" — the range of distances from a host star where water may exist in liquid form on a planet's

surface.)

"If any of these planets host intelligent observers, they could have identified Earth as a habitable, even as a

living world long ago, and we could be receiving their broadcasts today," Heller and Pudritz wrote in the new

study.

Source: Space.com

More about Breakthrough Listen

Breakthrough Listen will harness two of the world's largest telescopes — the 100-meter (330 feet) Green Bank

Telescope in West Virginia and the 64-meter (210 feet) Parkes Telescope in Australia — covering 10 times

more of the sky than previous SETI programs, scanning at least five times more of the radio spectrum and

doing so 100 times faster.

"We will be examining something like 10 billion radio channels simultaneously," planet-hunting pioneer

Geoffrey Marcy, an astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley, said at the news conference. "We're

listening to a cosmic piano, and every time we listen with the telescopes, we'll be listening not to 88 keys, but

10 billion keys."

If a civilization based around one of the 1,000 nearest stars is transmitting at Earth with the power of a

common aircraft radar, or if they are transmitting from the center of the Milky Way with more than a dozen

times the output of the interplanetary radars that scientists on Earth use to probe the solar system, these

radio telescopes can detect it.

The project will also enlist the aid of the Automated Planet Finder Telescope at Lick Observatory in California

to search for laser transmissions, using techniques 1,000 times more effective than previous efforts to detect

interstellar laser signals, according to a statement from the researchers. From a "nearby" star 25 trillion miles

(40 trillion kilometers) away, it could detect a 100-watt laser emitting the same amount of energy as a normal

household light bulb, the statement added.

"If the Milky Way actually has other intelligent species sending their spacecraft across the galaxy to settle

around other stars on other planets, they might communicate using lasers," Marcy said. "There could be a

galactic Internet not borne by copper wires, not borne by fiber optics, but carried by laser beams crisscrossing

the galaxy." All of the data from Breakthrough Listen will be available to the public.

Source: Space.com Return to Contents

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Space Image of the Week

Edge-On Galaxy NGC 5866

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive;

Processed & Copyright: Hunter Wilson

Explanation: Why is this galaxy so thin? Many disk galaxies are actually just as thin as NGC 5866, pictured

above, but are not seen edge-on from our vantage point. One galaxy that is situated edge-on is our own Milky

Way Galaxy. Classified as a lenticular galaxy, NGC 5866 has numerous and complex dust lanes appearing dark

and red, while many of the bright stars in the disk give it a more blue underlying hue. The blue disk of young

stars can be seen extending past the dust in the extremely thin galactic plane, while the bulge in the disk

center appears tinged more orange from the older and redder stars that likely exist there. Although similar in

mass to our Milky Way Galaxy, light takes about 60,000 years to cross NGC 5866, about 30 percent less than

light takes to cross our own Galaxy. In general, many disk galaxies are very thin because the gas that formed

them collided with itself as it rotated about the gravitational center. Galaxy NGC 5866 lies about 50 million

light years distant toward the constellation of the Dragon (Draco).

Source: NASA APOD Return to Contents