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

Fri Nov 13 06:56:58 CST 2015

Good morning all,
 I want to wish you a wonderful day….the visit to Roosevelt Elementary and Lawton Elementary went great…as well as everything I attempted to do between the two…the kids were so much fun at Roosevelt and would like to thank Holly for all her help and the wonderful program they have, Night Under the Stars, to speak with the kids and share telescope views of the stars…stars are so magic... what great way to get the kids' interest…in the evening at Lawton in was Math night and thanks to Hannah, who continually called me to check on how I was doing as well as so appreciative of my last minute substitution also went very well with a mixture of adults and kids…it as fun for sure… this morning I am meeting with a group of students who are visiting KSC and it will be fun to see them again as I presented to them at their school a couple of weeks ago…they sent me some heartwarming letters of hope and dreams..which is what keeps driving me to do this because I see the joy and excitement that have for their future….wishing you a wonderful day….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

Psychedelic Pluto
 <http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/nh-psychedelic-pluto_pca.png>
New Horizons scientists made this false color image of Pluto using a technique called principal component analysis to highlight the many subtle color differences between Pluto's distinct regions. The image data were collected by the spacecraft’s Ralph/MVIC color camera on July 14 at 11:11 AM UTC, from a range of 22,000 miles (35,000 kilometers). This image was presented by Will Grundy of the New Horizons’ surface composition team on Nov. 9 at the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) in National Harbor, Maryland.

NASA - Citizen Scientists Discover Four-Star Planet with NASA Kepler 
October 15, 2012

 <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/images/ExoUpClose.html>Click image for multiple resolutions and full caption. A Four-Star Planet: An artist's illustration of PH1, a planet discovered by volunteers from the Planet Hunters citizen science project. PH1, shown in the foreground, is the first reported case of a planet orbiting a double-star that, in turn, is orbited by a second distant pair of stars. The phenomenon is called a circumbinary planet in a four-star system. Image credit: Haven Giguere/Yale The discovery of planets continues to expand beyond the domain of professional astronomers. A joint effort of amateur astronomers and scientists has led to the first reported case of a planet orbiting a double-star that, in turn, is orbited by a second distant pair of stars.

Aided by volunteer citizen scientists using the Planethunters.org website, a Yale-led international team of astronomers identified and confirmed discovery of the phenomenon, called a circumbinary planet in a four-star system. Only six planets are known to orbit two stars but none of these are orbited by a distant binary.

Coined PH1, the planet was identified by the citizen scientists participating in Planets Hunters, a Yale-led program that enlists the public to review astronomical data from NASA's Kepler spacecraft for signs of planets transits distant stars.

"I celebrate this discovery as a milestone for the Planet Hunters team: discovering their first exoplanet lurking in the Kepler data. I celebrate this discovery for the wow-factor of a planet in a four-star system," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler scientist at NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "Most importantly, I celebrate this discovery as the fruit of exemplary human cooperation- cooperation between scientists and citizens who give of themselves for the love of stars, knowledge, and exploration."

A bit larger than Neptune and thought to be a gas giant, PH1 orbits its host stars every 137 days. Beyond the planet's orbit approximately 900 times the distance between the sun and Earth, a second pair of stars orbits the planetary system.

The research paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal is scheduled to be presented today at the annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Reno.

To read more about the discovery, visit Planethunters.org <http://blog.planethunters.org/2012/10/15/ph1-a-planet-in-a-four-star-system/> and the Yale <http://news.yale.edu/2012/10/15/armchair-astronomers-find-planet-four-star-system> press release.

Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., manages Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., managed the Kepler mission's development.

Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and is funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

For information about the Kepler Mission, click here <http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/main/index.html>.

NASA, ESA Telescopes Give Shape to Furious Black Hole Winds 

 	 <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/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 
On November 12, 1980, 35 years ago, Voyager 1 became the second spacecraft to flyby Saturn. Its main objectives were to conduct close-up studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn’s rings, and the larger moons of the two planets. Built to last 5 years, the spacecraft is in interstellar space today and still operating 38 years after launch.

Voyager 1 launched on September 5, 1977, on a short and fast trajectory toward Jupiter and Saturn aboard the Titan-Centaur III expendable rocket. At the time, our solar system’s outer planets were in a rare geometric arrangement, which only occurs about every 175 years. The advantage of this alignment, is that it allows a spacecraft to swing from one planet to the next without the need for large onboard propulsion systems, also known as the gravity assist technique. Voyager 1 passed Jupiter on March 5, 1979, and Saturn on November 12, 1980. It’s current velocity is about 38,000 miles per hour.

 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/saturnvoyager.jpg>
Voyager 1 color-enhanced image of Saturn taken on October 18, 1980, 25 days before closest approach.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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