[Spacetalk] http://www.nasa.gov/index.html

Fri Feb 20 09:27:55 CST 2015

Good morning all,
 I know so many of you are in bitter cold and we, in Florida, enjoy not  having to deal with it but yesterday and today we have a little bit of reality here as with the wind chill it is below freezing.....for those of you below 0 (-18C) we feel for you and with this wind, believe me it is cold enough....and I will be in Norway in 2 weeks :), which is fine but Florida is supposed to be different :) actually by Sunday it will be back to 80F (26C) :) Wishing you a wonderful day, filled with fun and laughter...we must always remember to do our best, enjoy everything we do, make each day special, let those we care about most know, be appreciative of the good in our lives, smile & have fun! Gabe

PLEASE TRY TO FIND A FEW MINUTES TO SHARE THIS WITH THE KIDS, I AM SURE YOU WILL ALL BE RIVITED TO THE MAGESTIC WONDER DISPLAYED.....
 Astronomers decided to point the Hubble Telescope at a dark spot out in space and they left it there for 10 days. The results encouraged them to try again for 11 days.
  Turn up your sound while you look at the 3-D presentation the astronomers made: http://tinyurl.com/rdzpzu  It's almost more than we can comprehend.

This is fascinating......
NASA, ESA Telescopes Give Shape to Furious Black Hole Winds

        [http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/673xvariable_height/public/thumbnails/image/15-021-nustar.jpg] <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/15-021-nustar.jpg>
Supermassive black holes at the cores of galaxies blast out radiation and ultra-fast winds, as illustrated in this artist's conception. NASA's NuSTAR and ESA's XMM-Newton telescopes show that these winds, containing highly ionized atoms, blow in a nearly spherical fashion.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) and ESA's (European Space Agency) XMM-Newton telescope are showing that  fierce winds from a supermassive black hole blow outward in all directions -- a phenomenon that had been suspected, but difficult to prove until now.
This discovery has given astronomers their first opportunity to measure the strength of these ultra-fast winds and prove they are powerful enough to inhibit the host galaxy's ability to make new stars.
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/226xvariable_height/public/nustar.jpg]<http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/nustar.jpg>
NASA's NuSTAR telescope, launched in June 2012, observed the high-energy portion of the X-ray light spectrum emitted by the supermassive blackhole dubbed PDS 456.
Image Credit: NASA
"We know black holes in the centers of galaxies can feed on matter, and this process can produce winds. This is thought to regulate the growth of the galaxies," said Fiona Harrison of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California. Harrison is the principal investigator of NuSTAR and a co-author on a new paper about these results appearing in the journal Science. "Knowing the speed, shape and size of the winds, we can now figure out how powerful they are."
[http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/styles/226xvariable_height/public/thumbnails/image/15-021-xmmnewton.jpg]<http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/15-021-xmmnewton.jpg>
ESA's XMM-Newton Telescope observed the low-energy portion of the X-ray light spectrum emitted by PDS 456.
Image Credit: ESA
Supermassive black holes blast matter into their host galaxies, with X-ray-emitting winds traveling at up to one-third the speed of light. In the new study, astronomers determined PDS 456, an extremely bright black hole known as a quasar more than 2 billion light-years away, sustains winds that carry more energy every second than is emitted by more than a trillion suns.
"Now we know quasar winds significantly contribute to mass loss in a galaxy, driving out its supply of gas, which is fuel for star formation," said the study's lead author Emanuele Nardini of Keele University in England.
NuSTAR and XMM-Newton simultaneously observed PDS 456 on five separate occasions in 2013 and 2014. The space telescopes complement each other by observing different parts of the X-ray light spectrum: XMM-Newton views low-energy and NuSTAR views high-energy.
Previous XMM-Newton observations had identified black hole winds blowing toward us, but could not determine whether the winds also blew in all directions. XMM-Newton had detected iron atoms, which are carried by the winds along with other matter, only directly in front of the black hole, where they block X-rays. Combining higher-energy X-ray data from NuSTAR with observations from XMM-Newton, scientists were able to find signatures of iron scattered from the sides, proving the winds emanate from the black hole not in a beam, but in a nearly spherical fashion.
"This is a great example of the synergy between XMM-Newton and NuSTAR," said Norbert Schartel, XMM-Newton project scientist at ESA. "The complementarity of these two X-ray observatories is enabling us to unveil previously hidden details about the powerful side of the universe."
With the shape and extent of the winds known, the researchers could then determine the strength of the winds and the degree to which they can inhibit the formation of new stars.
Astronomers think supermassive black holes and their home galaxies evolve together and regulate each other's growth. Evidence for this comes in part from observations of the central bulges of galaxies -- the more massive the central bulge, the larger the supermassive black hole.
This latest report demonstrates a supermassive black hole and its high-speed winds greatly affect the host galaxy. As the black hole bulks up in size, its winds push vast amounts of matter outward through the galaxy, which ultimately stops new stars from forming.
Because PDS 456 is relatively close, by cosmic standards, it is bright and can be studied in detail. This black hole gives astronomers a unique look into a distant era of our universe, around 10 billion years ago, when supermassive black holes and their raging winds were more common and possibly shaped galaxies as we see them today.
"For an astronomer, studying PDS 456 is like a paleontologist being given a living dinosaur to study," said study co-author Daniel Stern of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena. "We are able to investigate the physics of these important systems with a level of detail not possible for those found at more typical distances, during the 'Age of Quasars.'"
NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by Caltech and managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
For more information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nustar
and
http://www.nustar.caltech.edu/

Updated Dates Announced for Space Station U.S. Spacewalks

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The mirror like visor of NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman reflects NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore during their Oct. 15, 2014 spacewalk outside the International Space Station. They are in the process of making repairs and preparing for the installation of docking adapters for future commercial vehicles.
Image Credit: NASA
Three spacewalks on the International Space Station by two American astronauts now are planned for Saturday, Feb. 21; Wednesday, Feb. 25; and Sunday, March 1. The spacewalks will help prepare the space station for two new docking ports that will welcome U.S. commercial spacecraft launching from Florida beginning in 2017.
NASA Television coverage for all three excursions will begin at 6 a.m. EST. The spacewalks are planned to begin each day around 7:10 a.m.
Space station managers decided Thursday to move the first two spacewalks by NASA's Expedition 42 Commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts by one day because of added analysis of spacesuits they will wear.
Built by Boeing under contract to NASA, the International Docking Adapters are a critical component of the station's reconfiguration to ensure long-term docking ports for future commercial crew and other visiting spacecraft. They will permit the standard station crew size to grow from six to seven, potentially doubling the amount of crew time devoted to research aboard the orbiting laboratory.
The two new docking adapters will be launched to the station on a pair of SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft this year. Astronauts will install the first of two adapters on Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 on the forward end of the station's Harmony module during a future spacewalk. The second adapter will be installed on Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 after it is relocated robotically to the space-facing port of Harmony later this year.
The spacewalks will be the 185th, 186th and 187th in support of space station assembly and maintenance. Wilmore has conducted one spacewalk in his career last October. The spacewalks will be the first of Virts' career.
For the first two spacewalks, Wilmore will be designated as extravehicular (EV) crew member 1 and wear a spacesuit bearing red stripes. Virts will be EV 2 and will wear a suit with no stripes. For the third spacewalk, they will reverse roles, with Virts as EV 1 wearing red stripes, and Wilmore as EV 2 wearing a suit without stripes.
To view the recorded broadcast previewing the spacewalks, visit:
http://go.nasa.gov/1EacQAj
For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv
For more information about the International Space Station and its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/station
For more information about NASA's commercial crew plans, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/commercial/crew

<http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-s-orion-flight-test-yields-critical-data-as-engineers-improve-spacecraft-for-next/index.html>
Orion Flight Test Yields Critical Data For Next Mission
 <http://www.nasa.gov/content/nasa-s-orion-flight-test-yields-critical-data-as-engineers-improve-spacecraft-for-next/index.html>
NASA's Orion spacecraft continues on the agency's journey to Mars as engineers analyze data from the spacecraft's December flight test and make progress developing and building the spacecraft for its first mission atop NASA Space Launch System (SLS) heavy-lift rocket. On future missions, Orion will send astronauts to an asteroid and onward toward the Red Planet.
<http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-s-maven-spacecraft-completes-first-deep-dip-campaign/index.html>
MAVEN Spacecraft Completes First 'Deep Dip' Campaign
 <http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-s-maven-spacecraft-completes-first-deep-dip-campaign/index.html>
NASA'S Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution has completed the first of five "deep-dip" maneuvers designed to gather measurements closer to the lower end of the Martian upper atmosphere. The first deep dip campaign ran from Feb. 10 to 18. The first three days of this campaign were used to lower the periapsis. Each of the five campaigns lasts for five days allowing the spacecraft to observe for roughly 20 orbits.

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