Support the network:

[asa default]B00005JKHP[/asa]

Do some holiday shopping through our store

• Purchase anything at Amazon.com
• Purchase anything at Think Geek using this link

Phobos-Grunt : Update

• Last time on SciByte
• SciByte 20 (Nov 8)
• The low down
• Launch Date : November 9, 2011 at 00:26 a.m. Moscow time [Nov. 8 3:36 p.m. EST]
• It successfully launched by a Zenit–2 booster rocket just after midnight Moscow time Wednesday , separated from the booster about 11 minutes later and was to fire its engines twice to set out on its path to the Red Planet, but never did
• Scientists had hoped that studies of Phobos’ surface could help solve the mystery of its origin and shed more light on the genesis of the solar system.
• About seven tons of nitrogen teroxide and hydrazine are on board
• Also a small amount of cobalt–57 onboard the spacecraft, which is intended as a gamma ray source for the probe’s soil spectrometers. Cobalt–57 has a half life of about 270 days / ~ 9 months
• What should have happened is that two and a half hours after launch, the first burn should have put the spacecraft into an higher orbit around Earth, and a second burn should have occurred 126 minutes later, which would have sent it the spacecraft to Mars. Neither occurred
• encountered problems with either computer software or the propulsion system
• The spacecraft surprised everyone by maneuvering on its own, raising its orbit a few times
• Significance
• Nov 22 : a ground station in Australia heard an acquisition of a radio signal [Perth station heard a signal from Phobos-Grunt at about 2025 GMT (3:25 p.m. EST)]
• Nov 23 : ESA’s tracking station in Australia again established two-way communication with Russia’s Phobos–Grunt spacecraft, data received from the spacecraft have been sent to the Russian mission control centre for analysis
• Nov 24 : signal was received at a Russian station at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Thursday afternoon
• Nov 25 : Russian specialists have deciphered telemetry data received
• Nov 25 : contact was lost again, as the ESA ground station near Perth Australia was unable to establish contact during several passes over the ground station
• * Of Note*
• Phobos-Grunt could be sent to orbit the Moon or may be even an asteroid
• Theoretically, Grunt’s lander could set down on any celestial body with a gravitational force similar to that of Phobos (should such asteroid candidate exists) the return capsule back to Earth might be utilized to deliver a sample of the asteroid
• Even if they can’t save the mission telemetric data from the spacecraft could help identify the causes of the failure and make adjustments for future interplanetary missions
• Multimedia
• VIDEO : Launch of Phobos-Grunt @ YouTube
• VIDEO : Phobos-Grunt rocket moving into place @ YouTube
• VIDEO : in orbit as seen from ground @ YouTube
• VIDEO : Mission Animation @ YouTube
• VIDEO : Will Phobos-Grunt fall to Earth @ Space.com
• The Phobos-Grunt mission profile @UniverseToday.com
• Social Media
• Twitter Results for [#PhobosGrunt](https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23PhobosGrunt)
• Further Reading / In the News
• Russian President Vows To Punish Space Officials [RIA Novosti] @ SpaceNews
• Phobos-Grunt goes silent again @SpaceToday
• Distant-sensing news from Phobos-Grunt received
• [Phobos-Grunt could be rerouted to visit an asteroid @NewsScientist](
  https://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/11/phobos-mission-phones-home-as.html)
• Data beamed from Russia Mars probe deciphered @MarsDaily
• Russia ‘makes first contact’ with stranded Mars probe (Update) @ PhysOrg
• ESA station keeps contact with Russian Mars mission Phobos-Grunt @ ESA.int
• Contact Established with Phobos-Grunt Spacecraft — Can the Mission Go On? @ UniverseToday
• It’s Alive! Russia’s Phobos-Grunt Probe Phones Home @Space.com
• It’s alive! Russia’s Phobos-Grunt probe phones home @ SpaceFlightNow
• Consolation Prize for Phobos-Grunt? Experts Consider Possibilities for Sending Spacecraft to Moon or Asteroid @ UniverseToday
• Russia Races to Save Mars Moon Probe from Space Junk Fate @Space.com @ Space.com
• Trouble for the Phobos-Grunt Mission @UniverseToday
• Russian probe fails to set course to Mars – Roscosmos @ Rian.ru
• Russians desperately try to save Mars moon probe (Update) @PhysOrg.com
• Outlook Grim for Stranded Russian Mars Moon Probe @Space.com
• Chance of Russia Mars probe rescue ‘very small’ @PhysOrg.com
• Russia’s attempts to save Mars probe unsuccessful (Update) @Physorg.com
• Phobos-Grunt: a legal analysis of potential liability and options for mitigation @ The Space Review

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory “Curiosity” Rover : Updates and more

• Last time on SciByte
• SciByte 18 (Oct 25)
• Rover low down
• Target Landing Date: August 5, 2012
• Length : 9 feet / 2.8 meters
• Total Weight : 1,984 pounds / 900kg [Scientific Instruments = 176 pounds / 80kg]
• Mission duration 668 Martian sols (686 Earth days)
• Not going to use the ‘airbag’ landing that the other rovers have used; a parachute will slow the rover’s descent toward Mars [Diameter of 51 feet /16 meters]
• Rocket-powered backpack will lower the rover on a tether during the final moments before landing YouTube Video – @
• It will perform the first-ever precision landing on Mars
• Launch vehicle low down
• Launch vehicle Atlas V 541
• The Atlas 5 blasted off with nearly 2 million pounds of thrust it equipped with four solid-fuel strap-on boosters for additional power, the 1.2-million-pound
• The mission got underway on time at 10:02 a.m. EST (GMT–5) from launch complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
• Four-and-a-half minutes after takeoff, the first stage dropped away
• Earth-escape velocity of 22,500 mph
• Telemetry from the rocket was spotty during a 20-minute coast to the Mars departure point
• During the eight-and-a-half-month cruise to Mars NASA will test the rover’s instruments, adjust the craft’s trajectory, and tweak the control software
• * Signatures Story*
• On the rover’s deck is a plaque inscribed with the signatures of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, in addition to other administration and NASA leaders
• The Autograph plaque will be visible and that at some point will be photographed on Mars by Curiosity’s camera-topped mast
• The signatures plaque continues a more than 40-year tradition of sending presidential plaques on planetary missions
• Elsewhere on the rover is the autograph of the 14-year-old girl from Kansas who gave Curiosity its name
• More than 1.24 million names from members of the public who signed up through NASA have digital signatures on chips about the size of a dime
• The names from the public were etched into silicon using an electron-beam machine used for fabricating micro-devices at JPL
• More than 20,000 visitors to locations of work on the rover at JPL and Kennedy Space Center wrote their names on pages, which were scanned and reproduced at microscopic scale on another chip
• Of Note
• As Curiosity drives over the martian terrain, the groves in each wheel will form a string of ‘dash’ and ‘dot’ imprints – morse code that will spell out “J-P-L.” Picture of Rover Morse Code
• Multimedia
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : Mars Science Laboratory Launch
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : MSL Launch Day Sep Video in Space
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : Mars Science Laboratory (Curiosity Rover) Mission Animation
  
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : Mars in a Minute: Is Mars Really Red?
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : Building Curiosity: Landing System Drop Test
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : Mars Curiosity Rover – First Test Drive
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover Animation
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : Curiosity Update: Curiosity’s Stunt Double Takes a Spin
• ‘Curiosity Cam’ @ Ustream provided live video from the construction
• VIDEO : Curiosity Rover’s Perculiar Mars Landing Described @ Space.com
• VIDEO : New Mars Rover Powered by Plutonium @ Space.com
• VIDEO : New Mars Science Rover Landing Site – Birds Eye View @ Space.com
• VIDEO : Tumbleweed Rovers Could Explore Mars @Discovery News Videos
• Photo Gallery: Last Look at Mars Rover Curiosity Before Launch @Space.com
• Photos: Curiosity Rover, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory @ Space.com
• Photos: Gale Crater on Mars, Curiosity Rover’s Landing Site @ Space.com
• Photos of Mars: The Amazing Red Planet @ Space.com
• Slide Show : When Discovery News Met Mars Rover ‘Curiosity’ @ Discovery.com
• Infographic : Inside Huge Mars Rover’s Sky Crane Landing @ Space.com
• Photo : Mock up’s size comparison @ NASA.gov
• Rendition Size comparison – landers @ NASA.gov
• Photo of parachute to be used @ NASA.gov
• Social Media
• Curiosity Rover @MarsCuriosity
• NASA JPL @NASAJPL
• Further Reading / In the News
• Phobos-Grunt goes silent again
• NASA’s Curiosity Rover Flying to Mars with Obama & Others’ Autographs Aboard
• Next Stop Mars! Huge NASA Rover Launches Toward Red Planet
• NASA’s Curiosity rover flying to Mars with Obama’s, others’ autographs on board
• Mars Science Laboratory begins cruise to red planet
• 11 Amazing Things NASA’s Huge Mars Rover Can Do @ Space.com
• Complete Coverage: NASA’s Huge New Rover Launching to Mars @ Space.com
• Mars Science Laboratory @ marsprogram.jpl.NASA.gov
• MSL launch delayed to Saturday, Nov. 26 @ NASA.gov
• A Mars Rover Named “Curiosity” @NASA.gov
• NASA’s Curiosity Set to Search for Signs of Martian Life @ universetoday.com
• 7 Biggest Mysteries of Mars @ Space.com
• New NASA missions to investigate how Mars turned hostile @ PhysOrg.com
• Journey to the Red Planet: A Mars Missions Timeline @ Space.com
• Mars rover carries device for underground scouting @ PhysOrg.com
• Mars Rover Curiosity Gets Sealed Up @ Discovery.com
• Could New Rover’s Wheels Deliver Germs to Mars? @ Discovery.com
  
• Curiosity Rover Testing in Harsh Mars-like Environment @ UniverseToday.com
• Encapsulating Curiosity for Martian Flight Test @ UniverseToday.com
• Assembling Curiosity’s Rocket to Mars @ UniverseToday.com
• Closing the Clamshell on a Martian Curiosity @ UniverseToday.com
• Curiosity Rover Bolted to Atlas Rocket – In Search of Martian Microbial Habitats @ UniverseToday.com
• NASA’s Next Mars Rover Hoisted Atop Rocket @ Space.com
• Curiosity Mars Rover Almost Complete @ UniverseToday.com
• Mars Science Laboratory @ Wikipedia.org

YU55, the molten asteroid : Update

• Last time on SciByte
• SciByte 19 (Nov 1)
• The low down
• In July 2010, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft flew within 3,200 kilometers of Lutetia, peered at the asteroid and attempted to read its stony story.
• Images from the OSIRIS camera reveal that parts of Lutetia’s surface are around 3.6 billion years old. Other parts are young by astronomical standards, at 50–80 million years old.
• Scientists think it is a leftover planetary seed, booted into the main belt
• Lutetia turns out to have one of the highest densities of any known asteroid: 3400 kg per cubic metre.
• The density implies that Lutetia contains significant quantities of iron, but not necessarily in a fully formed core.
• Earlier studies of its colour and surface properties showed that Lutetia was rare and represented less than 1% of the asteroid population of the main belt
• Significance
• OSIRIS camera on ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft, ESO’s New Technology Telescope (NTT) at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, and NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii and Spitzer Space Telescope were combined
• This combined data provided the most complete spectrum of an asteroid ever assembled
• Lutetia’s spectrum matched that of one particular class of meteorite called enstatite chondrites, which are known to date from the early solar system
• Enstatite chondrites are thought to have formed close to the sun and to have served as building blocks for the rocky planets
• Making Lutetia a rocky remnant of the material that formed Earth, Venus and Mercury about 4.5 billion years ago
• It was most likely booted out to its current location after a run-in with a young planet
• Of Note
• Astronomers have estimated that just 2 percent of the bodies that formed where it likely did ended up in the main asteroid belt
• Multimedia
• Astronomy Picture of the Day : YU55
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : First Video of YU55, 860,000 miles (1.38 million kilometers) away
• VIDEO : NASA | Swift Captures Flyby of Asteroid 2005 YU55 @YouTube.com
• Asteroid 2005 YU55 Passes the Earth @ Astronomy Picture of the Day
• Animation showing Asteroid 2005 YU55 moving across the sky
• Social Media
• Twitter Results for [#YU55](https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23YU55)
• Further Reading / In the News
• Swift Satellite Captures Asteroid 2005 YU55′s Tumbling Flyby @UniverseToday.com
• Swift Satellite Captures Asteroid 2005 YU55′s Tumbling Flyby @UniverseToday.com

Faster than light Neutrinos : Update

• Last time on SciByte
• SciByte 17 (Oct 18)
• The low down
• Neutrinos are among the weirdest denizens of the weird quantum subatomic world. Once thought to be massless and to travel at the speed of light, they can sail through walls and planets like wind through a screen door.
• 1300-metric-ton particle detector named Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus (OPERA)
• Since neutrinos hardly interact at all with other matter, they stream right through the ground, with only a very few striking the material in the detector and making a noticeable shower of particles.
• Significance
• New high-precision tests in Italy broadly confirm its claim to have detected neutrinos travelling at faster than the speed of light
• Some members continue to insist that further checks are needed before the result can be considered sound
• The new tests, did away with the statistical analysis by splitting each pulse into bunches just 1- to 2-nanoseconds long
• Confirmed that the neutrinos arrived 60 nanoseconds early, with an uncertainty of about 10 nanoseconds, comparable to that of the initial result
• A major concern among the dissenters is the fact that the “time window” within which neutrinos were detected by OPERA in the most recent run had a width of 50 nanoseconds, when it was initially assumed that this window was just 10 nanoseconds wide
• Leaves open the possibility, they say, that not all possible errors have been accounted for
• Food for thought
• Are there yet skill some unforeseen forces acting on the equipment or experiment?
• Do photons actually travel at the maximum speed of light?
• This process will take a while, and many repeated experiments at various locations.
• Multimedia
• IMAGE – Cern test ‘breaks speed of light’ @ bbc.co.uk
• IMAGE: Universal Speed Limit?
• IMAGE – The Neutrino’s Path ‘Side Vies’
• IMAGE – The Neutrino’s Path ‘Top View’
• IMAGE – Global Gravity model
• VIDEO – Global Gravity model
• VIDEO – New results from OPERA on neutrino properties @ CERN
• CERNtv @ youtube.com
• Social Media
• Twitter account for CERN @CERN
• Twitter account for OPERA @
• Further Reading / In the News
• Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos: OPERA Confirms and Submits Results, But Unease Remains
• Neutrinos Travel Faster Than Light, According to One Experiment @ news.sciencemag.org
• Tiny Neutrinos May Have Broken Cosmic Speed Limit @ NYtimes.com
• Speed-of-light results under scrutiny at Cern @ bbc.co.uk
• Faster-than-light neutrinos face time trial @ Nature.com
• Special Relativity May Answer Faster-than-Light Neutrino Mystery
• Measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam @ Cornell University Library
• The OPERA neutrino velocity result and the synchronisation of clocks @ Cornell University Library
• A simple explanation of OPERA results without strange physics @ Cornell University Library
• Findings that showed faster-than-light travel were released to the public too soon @ PhysOrg.com
• OPREA – Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tRacking Apparatus
• Critics take aim at fast neutrinos

*— NEWS BYTE — *

Super Saturnian storm

• The low down
• a giant storm has wrapped itself around Saturn
• it has around for more than 200 days making it the longest-lasting observed storm
• There is a giant hole torn into the deeper layers of Saturn’s atmosphere
• Multimedia
• Picture : Saturn Storm in July 2011
• Picture : Saturn Storm in Nov 2011
• Picture : Saturn Storm over time (large image)
• Further Reading / In the News
• Super Saturnian storm

Gumby-Bot

• The low down
• The Harvard team, borrowed from squids, starfish and other animals without hard skeletons to fashion a small, four-legged rubber robot
• The new robot, is 5 inches long. Its four legs can be separately controlled by pumping air into the limbs, either manually or via computer
• A drawback is that the robot is tethered to an external power source
• Significance
• robots designed to squeeze through hard-to-reach cracks after a disaster like an earthquake or navigate rough terrain in the battlefield
• * Of Note*
• Tufts University earlier this year showed off a 4-inch caterpillar-shaped robot made of silicone rubber that can curl into a ball and propel itself forward
• Multimedia
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : Harvard’s Flexible Robot
• VIDEO @ YouTube.com : Harvard’s Flexible Robot
• IMAGE : Gripping an Orange
• VIDEO @ BBC News
• VIDEO @ Phys.org
• Social Media
• Harvard University @Harvard
• Harvard University
• Further Reading / In the News
• Harvard researchers build flexible robot that can crawl, slither under a pane of glass @ WashingPost
• Bendy robot can squeeze under obstacles @ BBC News

SCIENCE CALENDER

Looking back

• Dec 04, 1819 : 192 years ago : Watermarking – A triple paper was patented in Britain by Sir William Congreve that could incorporate a colored watermark visible when the paper was held up to the light, to make currency harder to counterfeit
• Dec 6, 1830 : 181 years ago : US Navel Observatory – One of the oldest scientific agencies in the U.S., was established as the Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington, D.C. Its primary mission was to care for the U.S. Navy’s chronometers, charts and other navigational equipment.
• Dec 6, 1850 : 161 years ago : Ophthalmoscope – Hermann von Helmholtz announced his invention, the ophthalmoscope, to the Berlin Physical Society. It revolutionized ophthalmology, enabling a view inside a person’s eye to see the details of the living retina, diagnose eye diseases and prevent blindness. Ophthalmoscope Retina from Ophthalmoscope
• Dec 06, 1945 : 66 years ago : Microwave Oven – The microwave oven was patented.
• Nov 30, 1954 : 57 years ago : The Sky WAS Falling – In Alabama, USA, Ann Hodges, was bruised on the arm and hip by a meteorite that fell through the roof of her house, smashed the case of her wooden radio and struck her as she lay resting on her sofa. The meteor made a fireball visible from three states, even though it fell early in the afternoon Image Image Image of Meteorite
• Dec 01, 1997 : 14 years ago : Planets align – Eight planets from our Solar System lined up from West to East beginning with Pluto, followed by Mercury, Mars, Venus, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn, with a crescent moon alongside that lasted until Dec 8. The planets also aligned in May 2000, but too close to the sun to be visible from Earth. It will be at least another 100 years before so many planets will be so close and so visible.IMAGE

Looking up this week

• You might have seen …
• Nov 9 Filament Eruption CME VIDEO @ YouTube
• Nov 11 Coronal Mass Ejection VIDEO @ YouTube
• Nov 21 Aurora Spectacular VIDEO @ YouTube: Around the world in 90 minutes
  VIDEO : Around the world in 90minutes @ Vimeo
• Black Friday’s Secret Solar Eclipse @ UniverseToday

• Keep an eye out for …

• All this week during dawn hours, Saturn and Spica remain 5 degrees apart all this week, or about half the width of your fist held at arm’s length. IMAGE

• Friday, Dec 2nd : Moon hits first quarter IMAGE

• Monday, Dec 5th : Jupiter will be to the lower left of the Moon at nightfall. Only the Moon and Venus outshine it.

• More on whats in the sky this week

• Sky&Telescope

• AstronomyNow

• SpaceWeather.com

• HeavensAbove

• StarDate.org