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Fri Dec 11 02:33:17 CST 2015

good morning all,
 Trying to get settled after a most amazing experience. I have to thank my wonderful hosts who did so much to make the visit special….in Oslo. Sandines, and in Billund. So many chipped in to make it such a special time, then of course with the celebration of the beginning of Christmas….all the schools decorated, the towns lit with beautiful lights, sharing in such a festive season…and more than anything the kids….so warm, so friendly, so eager to learn….we had so much fun and I know the connection with them was very, very special….I can’t thank them enough…i had doubts as if I could go 11 straight day plus the hectic schedule I had before I left but they made it so easy for me…..with their never ending smiles, questions, and affection….I know by the time you get this the undocing will have happened but you can still go to NASA TV to see the relay…wishing you al a wonderful weekend, of course, one day at a time....we have to remember to always do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, make each day special, let those we care about most know, smile and have fun… Gabe

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Dec. 4, 2015
M15-168
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NASA to Televise Return of Three Space Station Crew Members
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/m15-168-exp45.jpg>
Expedition 45 Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will return Dec. 11 from a six-month mission aboard the International Space Station.
Credits: NASA
NASA Television will provide complete coverage Friday, Dec. 11 of the departure of three crew members from the International Space Station and their return to Earth beginning at 1 a.m. EST.

Expedition 45 Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Oleg Kononenko of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will undock their Soyuz TMA-17M spacecraft from the space station at 4:49 a.m. The crew members will land in Kazakhstan at 8:12 a.m. (7:12 p.m. Kazakhstan time). Their return will wrap up 141 days in space since their launch in late July.

Activities and NASA TV coverage are as follows:

1 a.m. - Farewell and hatch closure coverage (hatch closure scheduled at 1:25 a.m.)
4:30 a.m. - Undocking coverage (undocking scheduled at 4:49 a.m.)
7 a.m. - Deorbit burn and landing coverage (deorbit burn scheduled at 7:19 a.m., with landing at 8:12 a.m.)
10 a.m. - Video file of hatch closure, undocking and landing activities
9 p.m. - Video file of landing and post-landing activities and post-landing interviews with Lindgren and Yui in Kazakhstan
At the time of undocking, Expedition 46 will begin aboard the station under the continued command of NASA astronaut Scott Kelly. Along with his crewmates Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, the three-person crew will operate the station for four days until the arrival of three new crew members. NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Tim Peake of ESA (European Space Agency) are scheduled to launch from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on Tuesday, Dec. 15.
Kelly and Kornienko are spending one year in space <http://www.nasa.gov/content/one-year-crew>, twice the typical mission duration, to provide researchers the opportunity to advance their knowledge of the medical, psychological and biomedical challenges faced by astronauts during long-duration spaceflight.
For the NASA TV streaming video and schedule, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv <http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv> 
For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station <http://www.nasa.gov/station>
What Spawned the Jellyfish Nebula?
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/ic443.jpg>
 Back to Gallery <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/images/index.html>
The Jellyfish Nebula, also known by its official name IC 443, is the remnant of a supernova lying 5,000 light years from Earth. New Chandra observations show that the explosion that created the Jellyfish Nebula may have also formed a peculiar object located on the southern edge of the remnant, called CXOU J061705.3+222127, or J0617 for short. The object is likely a rapidly spinning neutron star, or pulsar. 

When a massive star runs out of thermonuclear fuel, it implodes, forming a dense stellar core called a neutron star. The outer layers of the star collapse toward the neutron star then bounce outward in a supernova explosion. A spinning neutron star that produces a beam of radiation is called a pulsar. The radiation sweeps by like a beacon of light from a lighthouse and can be detected as pulses of radio waves and other types of radiation. 

This new composite image includes a wide-field view from an astrophotographer that shows the spectacular filamentary structure of IC 443. Within the inset box, another optical image from the Digitized Sky Survey (red, green, orange, and cyan) has been combined with X-ray data from Chandra (blue). The inset shows a close-up view of the region around J0617. 

The Chandra image reveals a small, circular structure (or ring) surrounding the pulsar and a jet-like feature pointing roughly in an up-down direction that passes through the pulsar. It is unclear if the long, pink wisp of optical emission is related to the pulsar, as similar wisps found in IC 443 are unrelated to X-ray features from the pulsar.  The ring may show a region where a high speed wind of particles flowing away from the pulsar, is slowing down abruptly. Alternately, the ring may represent a shock wave, similar to a sonic boom, ahead of the pulsar wind. The jet could be particles that are being fired away from the pulsar in a narrow beam at high speed.

The X-ray brightness of J0617 and its X-ray spectrum, or the amount of X-rays at different wavelengths, are consistent with the profiles from known pulsars. The spectrum and shape of the diffuse, or spread out, X-ray emission surrounding J0617 and extending well beyond the ring also match with expectations for a wind flowing from a pulsar.

The comet-like shape of the diffuse X-ray emission suggests motion towards the lower right of the image. As pointed out in previous studies, this orientation is about 50 degrees away from the direction expected if the pulsar was moving away from the center of the supernova remnant in a straight line. This misalignment has cast some doubt on the association of the pulsar with the supernova remnant. However, this misalignment could also be explained by movement towards the left of material in the supernova remnant pushing J0617’s cometary tail aside.

This latest research points to an estimate for the age of the supernova remnant to be tens of thousands of years. This agrees with previous work that pegged IC 443’s age to be about 30,000 years. However, other scientists have inferred much younger ages of about 3,000 years for this supernova remnant, so its true age remains in question.

These findings are available in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online <http://arxiv.org/abs/1506.05507>. The authors are Douglas Swartz (Marshall Space Flight Center), George Pavlov (Penn State University), Tracy Clarke (Naval Research Laboratory), Gabriela Castelletti (IAEF, Argentina), Vyacheslav Zavlin (MSFC), Niccolo Bucciantini (INAF, Italy), Margarita Karovska (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory), Alexander van der Horst (George Washington University), Mihoko Yukita (Goddard Space Flight Center), and Martin Weisskopf (MSFC).

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

Read More from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. <http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2015/ic443/> For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/chandra <http://www.nasa.gov/chandra>

Cool Star Marked by Long-Lived Storm 
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/spitzer-16.gif>
This illustration shows a cool star, called W1906+40, marked by a raging storm near one of its poles. The storm is thought to be similar to the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. Scientists discovered it using NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes.

The location of the storm is estimated to be near the north pole of the star based on computer models of the data. The telescopes cannot see the storm itself, but learned of its presence after observing how the star's light changes over time. The storm travels around with the star, making a full lap about every 9 hours. When it passes into a telescope's field of view, it causes light of particular infrared and visible wavelengths to dip in brightness.
The storm has persisted for at least two years. Astronomers aren't sure why it has lasted so long.
While planets are known to have cloudy storms, this is the best evidence yet for a star with the same type of storm. The star, W1906+40, belongs to a thermally cool class of objects called L-dwarfs. Some L-dwarfs are considered stars because they fuse atoms and generate light, as our sun does, while others, called brown dwarfs, are known as "failed stars" for their lack of atomic fusion.
The L-dwarf W1906+40 is thought to be a star based on estimates of its age (the older the L-dwarf, the more likely it is a star). Its temperature is about 2,200 Kelvin (3,500 degrees Fahrenheit). That may sound scorching hot, but as far as stars go, it is relatively cool. Cool enough, in fact, for clouds to form in its atmosphere.
W1906+40 is located 53 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.

Robotic Eyes to Assist Satellite Repairs in Orbit <http://links.govdelivery.com/track?type=click&enid=ZWFzPTEmbWFpbGluZ2lkPTIwMTUxMTAzLjUwOTgwOTIxJm1lc3NhZ2VpZD1NREItUFJELUJVTC0yMDE1MTEwMy41MDk4MDkyMSZkYXRhYmFzZWlkPTEwMDEmc2VyaWFsPTE3MjE1MzIyJmVtYWlsaWQ9Zm9yZGdhYmVAbmV0emVyby5jb20mdXNlcmlkPWZvcmRnYWJlQG5ldHplcm8uY29tJmZsPSZleHRyYT1NdWx0aXZhcmlhdGVJZD0mJiY=&&&100&&&http://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/robotic-eyes-to-assist-satellite-repairs-in-orbit?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery>
11/03/2015 11:37 AM EST

NASA is developing and demonstrating technologies to service and repair satellites in distant orbits. This photo looks closely at one of the tools that could be used for satellite servicing in the future: the Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot (VIPIR), a robotic, articulating borescope equipped with a second motorized, zoom-lens camera.

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