NASA's Kepler Discovery Confirms First Planet Orbiting Two Stars-WITH VIDEO

(Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech)

PASADENA, Calif. -- The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet -- a planet orbiting two stars -- 200 light-years from Earth.

Unlike Star Wars' Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet, known as Kepler-16b, by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it.

NASA Awards Microwave Sounder Contract For JPSS Spacecraft

The Indian Ocean at Sunset aboard the ISS. (Photo by NASA)

WASHINGTON -- NASA, on behalf of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has awarded a sole source letter contract to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp. of Azusa, Calif., for the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) instrument planned for flight on the first Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1).

The estimated value of this letter contract is $30 million with a period of performance from 2011 through 2017. Northrop Grumman will manufacture, test and deliver ATMS, support instrument integration on JPSS-1, and provide launch and post-launch support.

NASA Announces Design For New Deep Space Exploration System

An artist's conception of an SLS launch.
(Photo by NASA)

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected the design of a new Space Launch System that will take the agency's astronauts farther into space than ever before, create high-quality jobs here at home, and provide the cornerstone for America's future human space exploration efforts.

This new heavy-lift rocket-in combination with a crew capsule already under development, increased support for the commercialization of astronaut travel to low Earth orbit, an extension of activities on the International Space Station until at least 2020, and a fresh focus on new technologies-is key to implementing the plan laid out by President Obama and Congress in the bipartisan 2010 NASA Authorization Act, which the president signed last year. The booster will be America's most powerful since the Saturn V rocket that carried Apollo astronauts to the moon and will launch humans to places no one has gone before.

"This launch system will create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that's exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, tomorrow's explorers will now dream of one day walking on Mars."

This launch vehicle decision is the culmination of a months-long, comprehensive review of potential designs to ensure the nation gets a rocket that is not only powerful but also evolvable so it can be adapted to different missions as opportunities arise and new technologies are developed.

Major Progress Made on Nation's New Space Exploration Plan

First Space Bound Orion Comes Alive:  Construction on the first space-bound Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Module
began with the first weld at the Michoud Assembly Facility on Sept. 9, 2011.  This capsule will be used during Orion's
first test flight in space.   -    After welding is completed at Michoud, the Orion spacecraft orbital test article will be
shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where the heat shield will be installed. At Kennedy, it will undergo final
assembly and checkout operations for eventual flight.

NEW ORLEANS -- Construction began this week on the first new NASA spacecraft built to take humans to orbit since space shuttle Endeavour left the factory in 1991, and marked a significant milestone in carrying out the ambitious exploration vision President Obama and Congress have laid out for the nation.

Engineers at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans started welding together the first space-bound Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. "The Orion team has maintained a steady focus on progress, and we now are beginning to build hardware for spaceflight," said Orion Program Manager Mark Geyer, NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston.

NASA spacecraft carrying CU-Boulder instruments observes new characteristics of solar flares

A new assessment of solar flares by a team led by CU-Boulder
indicates some are more powerful and last longer than
scientists had previously thought, findings that have
implications for mitigating damage by solar storms to navigate
and communication systems on Earth. (Photo by NASA
/SDO/AIA)

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is carrying a suite of instruments including a $32 million University of Colorado Boulder package, has provided scientists with new information that energy from some solar flares is stronger and lasts longer than previously thought.

Using SDO's Extreme ultraviolet Variability Experiment, or EVE instrument designed and built at CU-Boulder, scientists have observed that radiation from solar flares sometimes continues for up to five hours beyond the initial minutes of the main phase of a solar flare occurrence. The new data also show that the total energy from this extended phase of the solar flare peak sometimes has more energy than that of the initial event.

Solar flares are intense bursts of radiation coming from the release of magnetic energy associated with sunspots. Flares are our solar system's largest explosive events and are seen as bright areas on the sun. Their energy can reach Earth's atmosphere and affect operations of Earth-orbiting communication and navigation satellites.

"If we can get these new results into space weather prediction models, we should be able to more reliably forecast solar events and their effects on our communication and navigation systems on Earth," said CU-Boulder Senior Research Associate Tom Woods of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, who led the development of EVE. "It will take some time and effort, but it is important."

Our Galaxy Might Hold Thousands of Ticking "Time Bombs"

(Photo by the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics)

Cambridge, MA - In the Hollywood blockbuster "Speed," a bomb on a bus is rigged to blow up if the bus slows down below 50 miles per hour. The premise - slow down and you explode - makes for a great action movie plot, and also happens to have a cosmic equivalent.

New research shows that some old stars might be held up by their rapid spins, and when they slow down, they explode as supernovae. Thousands of these "time bombs" could be scattered throughout our Galaxy.

"We haven't found one of these 'time bomb' stars yet in the Milky Way, but this research suggests that we've been looking for the wrong signs. Our work points to a new way of searching for supernova precursors," said astrophysicist Rosanne Di Stefano of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

The specific type of stellar explosion Di Stefano and her colleagues studied is called a Type Ia supernova. It occurs when an old, compact star known as a white dwarf destabilizes.

A white dwarf is a stellar remnant that has ceased nuclear fusion. It typically can weigh up to 1.4 times as much as our Sun - a figure called the Chandrasekhar mass after the astronomer who first calculated it. Any heavier, and gravity overwhelms the forces supporting the white dwarf, compacting it and igniting runaway nuclear fusion that blows the star apart.

NASA Gives Public New Internet Tool To Explore The Solar System

NASA now gives anyone with a computer the chance to
explore space in 3D. (Photo by NASA)

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA is giving the public the power to journey through the solar system using a new interactive Web-based tool.

The "Eyes on the Solar System" interface combines video game technology and NASA data to create an environment for users to ride along with agency spacecraft and explore the cosmos. Screen graphics and information such as planet locations and spacecraft maneuvers use actual space mission data.

"This is the first time the public has been able to see the entire solar system and our missions moving together in real-time," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "It demonstrates NASA's continued commitment to share our science with everyone."

The virtual environment uses the Unity game engine to display models of planets, moons, asteroids, comets and spacecraft as they move through our solar system. With keyboard and mouse controls, users cruise through space to explore anything that catches their interest. A free browser plug-in, available at the site, is required to run the Web application.

NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity Begins Study of Martian Crater

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity used its
front hazard-avoidance camera to take this picture showing
the rover's arm extended toward a light-toned rock,
"Tisdale 2," during the 2,695th Martian day, or sol, of the
rover's work on Mars. -August 23, 2011 (Photo by
NASA/JPL/Caltech)

PASADENA, Calif. -- The initial work of NASA's Mars rover Opportunity at its new location on Mars shows surface compositional differences from anything the robot has studied in its first 7.5 years of exploration.

Opportunity arrived three weeks ago at the rim of a 14-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) crater named Endeavour. The first rock it examined is flat-topped and about the size of a footstool. It was apparently excavated by an impact that dug a crater the size of a tennis court into the crater's rim. The rock was informally named "Tisdale 2."

"This is different from any rock ever seen on Mars," said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for Opportunity at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "It has a composition similar to some volcanic rocks, but there's much more zinc and bromine than we've typically seen. We are getting confirmation that reaching Endeavour really has given us the equivalent of a second landing site for Opportunity."

Hubble Movies Provide Unprecedented View of Supersonic Jets from Young Stars

Astronomers have combined two decades of Hubble observations to make unprecedented movies revealing never-before-seen details of the birth pangs of new stars. This sheds new light on how stars like the Sun form.

Stars aren’t shy about sending out birth announcements. They fire off energetic jets of glowing gas travelling at supersonic speeds in opposite directions through space.

Although astronomers have looked at still pictures of stellar jets for decades, now they can watch movies, thanks to the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

An international team of scientists led by astronomer Patrick Hartigan of Rice University in Houston, USA, has collected enough high-resolution Hubble images over a 14-year period to stitch together time-lapse movies of young jets ejected from three stars.

The moving pictures offer a unique view of stellar phenomena that move and change over just a few years. Most astronomical processes change over timescales that are much longer than a human lifetime.

Watch Exploration Take Place LIVE 24/7 on FOSSILHD.COM!!!!!

You can now watch NASA HDTV LIVE on Fossil HD.
(Photo by NASA)

Fossil HD is proud to announce that users can now watch NASA HDTV live on fossilhd.com. As our mission statement reads, "Our goal is to expand human knowledge through study and exploration."  What better way to experience the thrill of exploration than by watching explorers themselves live?

- CLICK HERE TO WATCH NASA TV on FOSSIL HD!

Nasa HDTV is a 24/7 broadcast station that presents live coverage from NASA headquarters in Houston and onboard spacecraft.  They also show viewers exclusive NASA interviews with astronauts and much more.

Times have changed.  No one in Europe had any idea what was happening the exact moment Columbus set foot in the New World, but today, viewers can watch exploration take place live.

Therefore NASA HDTV is now available on fossilhd.com 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year at absolutely no cost.  All you have to do to access the live NASA HDTV channel on Fossil HD is click the tab that says "NASA HDTV" at the top of any page.

- CLICK HERE TO WATCH NASA TV on FOSSIL HD!

Epic search for evidence of life on Mars heats up with focus on high-tech instruments

Sensitive instuments onboard the Mars rover Curiosity and other future space missions will be key to detecting
signs of life on the planet.  (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech)

DENVER, Aug. 30, 2011 — Scientists are expressing confidence that questions about life on Mars, which have captured human imagination for centuries, finally may be answered, thanks in part to new life-detection tools up to 1,000 times more sensitive than previous instruments.

“The bottom line is that if life is out there, the high-tech tools of chemistry will find it sooner or later,” said Jeffrey Bada, Ph.D., co-organizer of a special two-day symposium on the Red Planet, which began here today during the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). “It certainly is starting to look like there may be something alive out there somewhere, with Mars being the most accessible place to search,” Bada added.

The symposium included more than two dozen presentations by experts concerned with whether life exists, or existed, on Mars. Abstracts of the presentations appear below.

Strongest evidence yet indicates icy Saturn moon hiding saltwater ocean

Water vapor jets spewing from Saturn's icy moon,
Enceladus.  (Photo courtesy of NASA/JPL/Space
Science Institute)

Samples of icy spray shooting from Saturn's moon Enceladus collected during Cassini spacecraft flybys show the strongest evidence yet for the existence of a large-scale, subterranean saltwater ocean, says a new international study led by the University of Heidelberg and involving the University of Colorado Boulder.

The new discovery was made during the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, a collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. Launched in 1997, the mission spacecraft arrived at the Saturn system in 2004 and has been touring the giant ringed planet and its vast moon system ever since.

The plumes shooting water vapor and tiny grains of ice into space were originally discovered emanating from Enceladus -- one of 19 known moons of Saturn -- by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005. The plumes were originating from the so-called "tiger stripe" surface fractures at the moon's south pole and apparently have created the material for the faint E Ring that traces the orbit of Enceladus around Saturn.

During three of Cassini's passes through the plume in 2008 and 2009, the Cosmic Dust Analyser, or CDA, on board measured the composition of freshly ejected plume grains. The icy particles hit the detector's target at speeds of up to 11 miles per second, instantly vaporizing them. The CDA separated the constituents of the resulting vapor clouds, allowing scientists to analyze them.

Exotic Galaxy Reveals Tantalising Tale

A radio image of Speca, the newly
discovered galaxy, made with the NRAO
VLA Sky Survey(NVSS).  (Photo by Hota
et al., SDSS, NCRA-TIFR, NRAO/AUI/NSF)

A galaxy with a combination of characteristics never seen before is giving astronomers a tantalising peek at processes they believe played key roles in the growth of galaxies and clusters of galaxies early in the history of the Universe.

The galaxy, dubbed Speca by the team of researchers, is only the second spiral, as opposed to elliptical, galaxy known to produce large, powerful jets of subatomic particles moving at nearly the speed of light. It also is one of only two galaxies to show that such activity occurred in three separate episodes. The scientists publish their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Giant jets of superfast particles are powered by supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies. Both elliptical and spiral galaxies harbour such black holes, but only Speca and one other spiral galaxy have been seen to produce large jets. The jets pour outward from the poles of rapidly-rotating disks of material orbiting the black hole. The on-and-off jet episodes have been seen in a dozen ellipticals, but only one other elliptical shows evidence, like Speca, for three such distinct episodes.

A Planet Made of Diamond

Artist's Conception(Photo by the Swinburne University
of Technology)

A once-massive star that’s been transformed into a small planet made of diamond: that’s what astronomers think they’ve found in our Milky Way.

The discovery, reported today in Science, was made by an international research team led by Professor Matthew Bailes, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne and the ‘Dynamic Universe’ theme leader in a new wide-field astronomy initiative, the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO).

The researchers, from Australia, Germany, Italy, the UK and the USA, first detected an unusual star called a pulsar using the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope and followed up their discovery with the Lovell radio telescope in the UK and one of the Keck telescopes in Hawaii.

Pulsars are small spinning stars about 20 km in diameter—the size of a small city—that emit a beam of radio waves. As the star spins and the radio beam sweeps repeatedly over Earth, radio telescopes detect a regular pattern of radio pulses.

For the newly discovered pulsar, known as PSR J1719-1438, the astronomers noticed that the arrival times of the pulses were systematically modulated. They concluded that this was due to the gravitational pull of a small companion planet, orbiting the pulsar in a binary system.