Oct 14 2010
From The Space Library
MEDIA ADVISORY: M10-077
NASA HOLDS MEDIA BRIEFING ON RESULTS OF BLACK HOLE SURVEY
WASHINGTON -- NASA will hold a media teleconference Wednesday, May 26, at 1 p.m. EDT, to discuss new results from the Swift satellite's survey of active black holes. Swift's hard X-ray survey detects supermassive black holes in the hearts of nearby galaxies that are absorbing gas and emitting energy. The survey has uncovered dozens of previously unknown active black holes that were hidden from observations at other wavelengths. These discoveries confirm theoretical ideas about how black hole activity is triggered. The teleconference panelists are: - Neil Gehrels, Swift principal investigator, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. - Michael Koss, graduate student, University of Maryland - Meg Urry, professor, Yale University - Joel Bregman, professor, University of Michigan To participate in the teleconference, reporters should e-mail J.D. Harrington at j.d.harrington@nasa.gov by 10 a.m. May 26. Requests must include the media affiliation and telephone number. Supporting information for the briefing will be posted at noon on May 26: http://www.nasa.gov/swift Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live at: http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio
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RELEASE: 10-244
NASA'S WMAP PROJECT COMPLETES SATELLITE OPERATIONS MISSION OBSERVED UNIVERSE'S OLDEST LIGHT
WASHINGTON -- After nine years of scanning the sky, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) space mission has concluded its observations of the cosmic microwave background, the oldest light in the universe. The spacecraft has not only given scientists their best look at this remnant glow, but also established the scientific model that describes the history and structure of the universe. "WMAP has opened a window into the earliest universe that we could scarcely imagine a generation ago, said Gary Hinshaw, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., who manages the mission. The team is still busy analyzing the complete nine-year set of data, which the scientific community eagerly awaits. WMAP was designed to provide a more detailed look at subtle temperature differences in the cosmic microwave background that were first detected in 1992 by NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). The WMAP team has answered many longstanding questions about the universe's age and composition. WMAP acquired its final science data on Aug. 20. On Sept. 8, the satellite fired its thrusters, left its working orbit, and entered into a permanent parking orbit around the sun. "We launched this mission in 2001, accomplished far more than our initial science objectives, and now the time has come for a responsible conclusion to the satellite's operations, said Charles Bennett, WMAP's principal investigator at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. WMAP detects a signal that is the remnant afterglow of the hot young universe, a pattern frozen in place when the cosmos was only 380,000 years old. As the universe expanded over the next 13 billion years, this light lost energy and stretched into increasingly longer wavelengths. Today, it is detectable as microwaves. WMAP is in the Guinness Book of World Records for most accurate measure of the age of the universe. The mission established that the cosmos is 13.75 billion years old, with a degree of error of one percent. WMAP also showed that normal atoms make up only 4.6 percent of today's cosmos, and it verified that most of the universe consists of two entities scientists don't yet understand. Dark matter, which makes up 23 percent of the universe, is a material that has yet to be detected in the laboratory. Dark energy is a gravitationally repulsive entity which may be a feature of the vacuum itself. WMAP confirmed its existence and determined that it fills 72 percent of the cosmos. Another important WMAP breakthrough involves a hypothesized cosmic "growth spurt called inflation. For decades, cosmologists have suggested that the universe went through an extremely rapid growth phase within the first trillionth of a second it existed. WMAP's observations support the notion that inflation did occur, and its detailed measurements now rule out several well-studied inflation scenarios while providing new support for others. "It never ceases to amaze me that we can make a measurement that can distinguish between what may or may not have happened in the first trillionth of a second of the universe, says Bennett. WMAP was the first spacecraft to use the gravitational balance point known as Earth-Sun L2 as its observing station. The location is about 930,000 miles or (1.5 million km) away. "WMAP gave definitive measurements of the fundamental parameters of the universe, said Jaya Bapayee, WMAP program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Scientists will use this information for years to come in their quest to better understand the universe. Launched as MAP on June 30, 2001, the spacecraft was later renamed WMAP to honor David T. Wilkinson, a Princeton University cosmologist and a founding team member who died in September 2002. For images and more information, visit: http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov
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RELEASE: 10-323
NASA AND HIGH TECH PARTNERS HOST RANDOM HACKS OF KINDNESS
WASHINGTON -- NASA joined with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and the World Bank Dec. 3-4 to bring together computer experts looking for new approaches to disaster relief challenges. The third Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event included more than 1,500 software developers, students and disaster risk experts for a "hackathon at 20 locations around the world. The locations included New York, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Tel Aviv, Nairobi and Bangalore, India. NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver joined U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to deliver introductory remarks at the RHoK event in New York. Google Vice President of Research Alfred Spector and RHoK co-founder Patrick Svenburg, director of government platform strategy at Microsoft, also attended. "The RHoK hackathons provide a forum for innovators to come up with real-world solutions that can make a huge difference in people's lives, Garver said. NASA's commitment to building on its data and opening it up to other users allows us to expand the tools available for disaster response. At a RHoK event in Chicago, a group of hackers worked to create an application that will access mapping data from the Rapid Response Database in NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer project. The team found the publicly available land imagery after visiting NASA's Open Government website, then worked to create a better interface to select and review the imagery. Response teams could use this tool to more quickly identify areas that may be affected by disasters, such as flooding and forest fires. The first RHoK event was held in Mountain View, Calif., in November 2009. The event resulted in applications that were used after the devastating earthquakes in Haiti and Chile to help identify survivors and help rescuers find them. The second RHoK hackathon took place simultaneously in six countries in June. For more details about RHoK events, visit: http://www.rhok.org
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RELEASE: 10-104
NASA ANNOUNCES NEXT UNDERSEA EXPLORATION MISSION DATES AND CREW
WASHINGTON -- NASA will send two astronauts, a veteran undersea engineer and an experienced scientist into the ocean depths off Florida's east coast this month to test exploration concepts and learn more about working in an unforgiving, treacherous environment. The 14th expedition of NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations, or NEEMO, begins May 10. Canadian Space Agency astronaut and veteran spacewalker Chris Hadfield will lead the NASA team on a 14-day undersea mission aboard the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory near Key Largo. Aquarius is owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Joining Hadfield will be NASA astronaut and flight surgeon Thomas Marshburn, Lunar Electric Rover Deputy Project Manager Andrew Abercromby and Steve Chappell, a research scientist. Abercromby and Chappell work for Wyle Integrated Science and Engineering of Houston. To request interviews with the NEEMO 14 crew during the mission, contact NASA's Johnson Space Center newsroom at 281-483-5111, or Carole Duval of the Canadian Space Agency at 450-926-4370, or Fred Gorell of NOAA, at 301-734-1010. During NEEMO 14, the ocean floor will simulate aspects of another planet's surface and a low-gravity environment. In October 2009, a team of aquanauts set the stage for NEEMO 14 by placing mockups near Aquarius of a lander, rover and small crane that simulates a robotic arm. The NEEMO 14 crew will live aboard the underwater laboratory, venture out on simulated spacewalks, operate the crane and maneuver the vehicles much like explorers would in setting up a habitat on another planet. As the aquanauts interact with these developing technologies, they will provide information and feedback to NASA engineers. The crew will simulate removing a mockup of the Lunar Electric Rover from the lander, retrieve small payloads from the lander and the ocean floor, and simulate the transfer of an incapacitated astronaut from the ocean floor to the deck of the craft. The rover and lander mockups are similar in size to vehicles NASA is considering for future planetary exploration. The lander mockup is wider than a school bus is long and almost three times as high. It measures 45 feet wide and 28 feet high, including a 10-foot- high crane. The rover mockup is slightly larger than a full-size SUV, standing eight feet tall and 14 feet long. While inside Aquarius, the crew will perform life science experiments focused on human behavior, performance and physiology. The mission also includes a study of autonomous crew work. There will be periods when there is limited communication between the crew and the mission control center, much like what could happen during missions to the moon or Mars. The six-member crew of NEEMO 14 brings a wide range of experience to the mission. Hadfield conducted two spacewalks and operated the International Space Station's robotic arm, known as Canadarm2, during the space shuttle's STS-100 mission in April 2001. He also worked extensively with the shuttle's robotic Canadarm on STS-74 in 1995. Marshburn, a flight surgeon, conducted three spacewalks on STS-127 in 2009 Abercromby adds his extensive experience in planning and executing field test operations, or analogs, that simulate space environments, such as NEEMO and NASA's Haughton Mars Project, Desert Research and Technology Studies and the Pavilion Lake Research Project. Chappell is an active member of Rocky Mountain Rescue based in Boulder, Colo., and earned a doctorate degree with a focus on human performance in reduced gravity. James Talacek and Nate Bender of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington are habitat technicians and will provide engineering support.
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