Apr 12 2012

From The Space Library

RELEASE: 12-109 NASA'S WISE MISSION SEES SKIES ABLAZE WITH BLAZARS

WASHINGTON -- Astronomers are actively hunting a class of supermassive black holes throughout the universe called blazars thanks to data collected by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The mission has revealed more than 200 blazars and has the potential to find thousands more. Blazars are among the most energetic objects in the universe. They consist of supermassive black holes actively "feeding," or pulling matter onto them, at the cores of giant galaxies. As the matter is dragged toward the supermassive hole, some of the energy is released in the form of jets traveling at nearly the speed of light. Blazars are unique because their jets are pointed directly at us. "Blazars are extremely rare because it's not too often that a supermassive black hole's jet happens to point towards Earth," said Franceso Massaro of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology near Palo Alto, Calif., and principal investigator of the research, published in a series of papers in the Astrophysical Journal. "We came up with a crazy idea to use WISE's infrared observations, which are typically associated with lower-energy phenomena, to spot high-energy blazars, and it worked better than we hoped." The findings ultimately will help researchers understand the extreme physics behind super-fast jets and the evolution of supermassive black holes in the early universe. WISE surveyed the entire celestial sky in infrared light in 2010, creating a catalog of hundreds of millions of objects of all types. Its first batch of data was released to the larger astronomy community in April 2011 and the full-sky data were released last month. Massaro and his team used the first batch of data, covering more than one-half the sky, to test their idea that WISE could identify blazars. Astronomers often use infrared data to look for the weak heat signatures of cooler objects. Blazars are not cool; they are scorching hot and glow with the highest-energy type of light, called gamma rays. However, they also give off a specific infrared signature when particles in their jets are accelerated to almost the speed of light. One of the reasons the team wants to find new blazars is to help identify mysterious spots in the sky sizzling with high-energy gamma rays, many of which are suspected to be blazars. NASA's Fermi mission has identified hundreds of these spots, but other telescopes are needed to narrow in on the source of the gamma rays. Sifting through the early WISE catalog, the astronomers looked for the infrared signatures of blazars at the locations of more than 300 gamma-ray sources that remain mysterious. The researchers were able to show that a little more than half of the sources are most likely blazars. "This is a significant step toward unveiling the mystery of the many bright gamma-ray sources that are still of unknown origin," said Raffaele D'Abrusco, a co-author of the papers from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. "WISE's infrared vision is actually helping us understand what's happening in the gamma-ray sky." The team also used WISE images to identify more than 50 additional blazar candidates and observed more than 1,000 previously discovered blazars. According to Massaro, the new technique, when applied directly to WISE's full-sky catalog, has the potential to uncover thousands more. "We had no idea when we were building WISE that it would turn out to yield a blazar gold mine," said Peter Eisenhardt, WISE project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., who is not associated with the new studies. "That's the beauty of an all-sky survey. You can explore the nature of just about any phenomenon in the universe." JPL manages and operates WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The principal investigator for WISE, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program, managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing and archiving take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

RELEASE: 12-110 COMMERCIAL PLATFORM OFFERS EXPOSURE AT SPACE STATION

WASHINGTON -- Researchers will be able to expose experiments to the weightlessness and vacuum of space by using a new commercial platform outside of International Space Station (ISS). NanoRacks LLC will develop and operate the External Platform Program (EPP) to take advantage of the only orbiting lab that offers long-term, repeat access to the unique environment of unpressurized space. NanoRacks is a private company already operating research facilities under a NASA Space Act Agreement for use of the station's U.S. National Laboratory. The EPP and equipment will be developed and operated using only commercial funding. NASA will contribute space station hardware and resources such as power and data transmission systems. The Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), which manages the portion of the station operated as a U.S. National Laboratory, will reserve the first external platform site for commercial researchers. The external platform, scheduled to be launched by 2014, will provide low-cost access to space. It is designed to encourage users to test materials, biological samples, sensors and sophisticated electronics outside the space station, which orbits 240 miles above Earth. "This program opens the door to allow commercial users to fully utilize not only the U.S. National Laboratory in a pressurized environment but also outside," said ISS National Laboratory Manager Marybeth Edeen. "It's another example how companies are investing their own money to take advantage of this unique national resource." NanoRacks selected Astrium North America as a team member in the development of the EPP facility. The program capitalizes on the history and strengths of the two companies in providing external payload platforms, operating commercial facilities, and using off-the-shelf hardware, standard interfaces and existing space station data and power systems. The contributions by NanoRacks and Astrium are the most recent example of NASA efforts to expand the station's research capacity through innovative partnerships with commercial companies. "This new capability offers unique opportunities for the research community and industry to engage in exciting areas of study, including materials and observational sciences," said CASIS Interim Executive Director Jim Royston. NanoRacks operates platforms inside the U.S. National Laboratory, which also were financed and developed solely by the commercial company and its partners.

MEDIA ADVISORY: M12-065 NASA HOSTS TELECONFERENCE ON STATUS OF NEW MARS PROGRAM PLANS

WASHINGTON -- NASA will host a media teleconference at 1 p.m. EDT on Friday, April 13, to provide an update about the framework and schedule of the newly formed Mars Program Planning Group (MPPG). The MPPG was established to construct a coordinated strategy and continue America's leadership role in the exploration of Mars within available future budgets. Participants are: -- John Grunsfeld, associate administrator, NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington -- Doug McCuistion, director, Mars Exploration Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington -- Orlando Figueroa, MPPG team lead