Category: NASA Space Place

by Patrick Barry

At one time or another, we’ve all stared at beautiful images of spiral galaxies, daydreaming about the billions of stars and countless worlds they contain. What mysteries—and even life forms—must lurk within those vast disks?

Now consider this: many of the galaxies you’ve seen are actually much larger than they appear. NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer, a space telescope that “seesâ€? invisible, ultraviolet light, has revealed that roughly 20 percent of nearby galaxies have spiral arms that extend far beyond the galaxies’ apparent edges. Some of these galaxies are more than three times larger than they appear in images taken by ordinary visible-light telescopes.

“Astronomers have been observing some of these galaxies for many, many years, and all that time, there was a whole side to these galaxies that they simply couldn’t see,â€? says Patrick Morrissey, an astronomer at Caltech in Pasadena, California, who collaborates at JPL.

The extended arms of these galaxies are too dim in visible light for most telescopes to detect, but they emit a greater amount of UV light. Also, the cosmic background is much darker at UV wavelengths than it is for visible light. “Because the sky is essentially black in the UV, far-UV enables you to see these very faint arms around the outsides of galaxies,â€? Morrissey explains.

These “invisible armsâ€? are made of mostly young stars shining brightly at UV wavelengths. Why UV? Because the stars are so hot. Young stars burn their nuclear fuel with impetuous speed, making them hotter and bluer than older, cooler stars such as the sun. (Think of a candle: blue flames are hotter than red ones.) Ultraviolet is a sort of “ultra-blueâ€? that reveals the youngest, hottest stars of all.

“That’s the basic idea behind the Galaxy Evolution Explorer in the first place. By observing the UV glow of young stars, we can see where star formation is active,â€? Morrissey says.

The discovery of these extended arms provides fresh clues for scientists about how some galaxies form and evolve, a hot question right now in astronomy. For example, a burst of star formation so far from the galaxies’ denser centers may have started because of the gravity of neighboring galaxies that passed too close. But in many cases, the neighboring galaxies have not themselves sprouted extended arms, an observation that remains to be explained. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer reveals one mystery after another!

“How much else is out there that we don’t know about?â€? Morrissey asks. “It makes you wonder.â€?

Spread the wonder by seeing for yourself some of these UV images at www.galex.caltech.edu. Also, Chris Martin, principle scientist for Galaxy Evolution Explorer —or rather his cartoon alter-ego—gives kids a great introduction to ultraviolet astronomy at spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/live#martin.

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Caption (color image):

In this image of galaxy NGC 1512, red represents its visible light appearance, the glow coming from older stars, while the bluish-white ring and the long, blue spiral arms show the galaxy as the Galaxy Evolution Explorer sees it in ultraviolet, tracing primarily younger stars. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSS/GALEX).

Caption (greyscale images):

Galaxy NGC 1512 is represented in both images. The visible light image on the left shows the glow of older stars, while the Galaxy Evolution Explorer ultraviolet image on the right shows the ring and long, spiral arms, tracing primarily younger stars. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/DSS/GALEX).

by Patrick L. Barry

During the summer and fall of 2006, U.S. Coast Guard planes flew over the North Pacific in search of illegal, unlicensed, and unregulated fishing boats. It was a tricky operation—in part because low clouds often block the pilots’ view of anything floating on the ocean surface below.

To assist in these efforts, they got a little help from the stars.

Actually, it was a satellite—CloudSat, an experimental NASA mission to study Earth’s clouds in an entirely new way. While ordinary weather satellites see only the tops of clouds, CloudSat’s radar penetrates clouds from top to bottom, measuring their vertical structure and extent. By tapping into CloudSat data processed at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Monterey, CA, Coast Guard pilots were better able to contend with low-lying clouds that might have otherwise hindered their search for illegal fishing activity.

In the past, Coast Guard pilots would fly out over the ocean not knowing what visibility to expect. Now they can find out quickly. Data from research satellites usually takes days to weeks to process into a usable form, but NASA makes CloudSat’s data publicly available on its QuickLook website and to users such as NRL in only a matter of hours—making the data useful for practical applications.

“Before CloudSat, there was no way to measure cloud base from space worldwide,” says Deborah Vane, project manager for CloudSat at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

CloudSat’s primary purpose is to better understand the critical role that clouds play in Earth’s climate. But knowledge about the structure of clouds is useful not only for scientific research, but also to operational users such as Coast Guard patrol aircraft and Navy and commercial ships at sea.

“Especially when it’s dark, there’s limited information about storms at sea,â€? says Vane. “With CloudSat, we can sort out towering thunderclouds from blankets of calmer clouds. And we have the ability to distinguish between light rain and rain that is falling from severe storms.â€? CloudSat’s radar is much more sensitive to cloud structure than are radar systems operating at airports, and from its vantage point in space, Cloudsat builds up a view of almost the entire planet, not just one local area. “That gives you weather information that you don’t have in any other way.â€?

There is an archive of all data collected since the start of the mission in May 2006 on the CloudSat QuickLook website at cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu. And to introduce kids to the fun of observing the clouds, go to spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/cloudsat_puz.shtml.

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

by Patrick L. Barry

Like the explorers of centuries past who set sail for new lands, humans may someday sail across deep space to visit other stars. Only it won’t be wind pushing their sails, but the slight pressure of sunlight.

Solar sails, as they’re called, hold great promise for providing propulsion in space without the need for heavy propellant. But building a solar sail will be hard; to make the most of sunlight’s tiny push, the sail must be as large as several football fields, yet weigh next to nothing. Creating a super-lightweight material for the sail itself is tricky enough, but how do you build a “mastâ€? for that sail that’s equally light and strong?

Enter SAILMAST, a program to build and test-fly a mast light enough for future solar sails. With support from NASA’s In-Space Propulsion Program to mature the technology and perform ground demonstrator tests, SAILMAST’s engineers were ready to produce a truss suitable for validation in space that’s 40 meters (about 130 feet) long, yet weighs only 1.4 kilograms (about 3 pounds)!

In spite of its light weight, this truss is surprisingly rigid. “It’s a revelation when people come in and actually play with one of the demo versions—it’s like, whoa, this is really strong!â€? says Michael McEachen, principal investigator for SAILMAST at ATK Space Systems in Goleta, California.

SAILMAST will fly aboard NASA’s Space Technology 8 (ST8) mission, scheduled to launch in February 2009. The mission is part of NASA’s New Millennium Program, which flight tests cutting-edge technologies so that they can be used reliably for future space exploration. While actually flying to nearby stars is probably decades away, solar sails may come in handy close to home. Engineers are eyeing this technology for “solar sentinels,â€? spacecraft that orbit the Sun to provide early warning of solar flares.

Once in space, ST8 will slowly deploy SAILMAST by uncoiling it. The truss consists of three very thin, 40-meter-long rods connected by short cross-members. The engineers used high-strength graphite for these structural members so that they could make them very thin and light.

The key question is how straight SAILMAST will be after it deploys in space. The smaller the curve of the mast the more load it can support. “That’s really why we need to fly it in space, to see how straight it is when it’s floating weightlessly,â€? McEachen says.

It’s an important step toward building a sail for the space-mariners of the future.

Find out more about SAILMAST at nmp.nasa.gov/st8. Kids can visit spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/st8/sailmast to see how SAILMAST is like a Slinky® toy in space.

This article was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Caption:

SAILMAST is the thin triangular truss in front of the picture. It is attached to a section of a silver foil solar sail section shown here in a laboratory test. The mast in the picture is 2m (6 ft) long. The Space Technology 8 mission will test the SAILMAST, which is 20 times longer.