[Spacetalk] HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Fri May 12 00:27:47 CDT 2017

Hi all,
 I want to quickly get this off to wish all the moms and teacher/moms (i know so many of you call your students “your kids”) a Very Happy Mother’s Day… not only to the mom’s in the States but also all over the world….I hope you will join us in giving a special thanks to your mom as well…I don’t think we can ever actually express how much they do for us and how much the give up for us….

I had such a wonderful visit to Mims Elementary yesterday…it was their first ever Leadership Day, a very special day for all the kids, in all grades through 6…I always try to let teachers know how much I admire them, you are so amazing to me…the things so many do to make learning fun, to give kids hope, to do so much more for their well being…this, today, was a prime example of how very creative as the whole school participated…my presentation was to the 6th graders but I was able to watch some of the other grades…one of the most entertaining was the second graders singing songs about what they learned…they were absolutely adorable and they were having so much fun…it was easy to see all the kids enjoyed the day as each was made to feel special about their accomplishments. I know so many teachers feel their creativity is taken away by state & federal requirements but they don’t give up and still do everything they can because they genuinely love what they do…I personally think it is the most difficult job in the world but also the most rewarding…my very special thanks to Danine, such a great friend for so many years, for including me and I know she was such an instrumental part of the day…

I hope you will be able to share some of the spacewalk with the kids on Friday (come on, it’s Friday…lol) https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv <https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv>  

On Monday I leave for a week in Missouri, visiting schools….it is sort of an annual event as I also see special friends while I am there…have great day and fun weekend with your moms...we must always remember to do our best, enjoy everything we do, live in the present, make each day special, let those we care about most know, be thankful for the good in our lives, smile and have fun :-) ;-) gabe

Astronomers Pursue Renegade Supermassive Black Hole
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/rsmbhfinal.jpg>

Supermassive black holes are generally stationary objects, sitting at the centers of most galaxies. However, using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, astronomers recently hunted down what could be a supermassive black hole that may be on the move. This possible renegade black hole, which contains about 160 million times the mass of our Sun, is located in an elliptical galaxy about 3.9 billion light years from Earth. Astronomers are interested in these moving supermassive black holes because they may reveal more about the properties of these enigmatic objects.
 This black hole may have “recoiled,” in the terminology used by scientists, when two smaller supermassive black holes collided and merged to form an even larger one. At the same time, this collision would have generated gravitational waves that emitted more strongly in one direction than others. This newly formed black hole could have received a kick in the opposite direction of those stronger gravitational waves. This kick would have pushed the black hole out of the galaxy’s center, as depicted in the artist’s illustration. The strength of the kick depends on the rate and direction of spin of the two smaller black holes before they merge. Therefore, information about these important but elusive properties can be obtained by studying the speed of recoiling black holes. Astronomers found this recoiling black hole candidate by sifting through X-ray and optical data for thousands of galaxies. First, they used Chandra observations to select galaxies that contain a bright X-ray source and were observed as part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Bright X-ray emission is a common feature of supermassive black holes that are rapidly growing. Next, the researchers looked to see if Hubble Space Telescope observations of these X-ray bright galaxies revealed two peaks near their center in the optical image. These two peaks might show that a pair of supermassive black holes is present or that a recoiling black hole has moved away from the cluster of stars in the center of the galaxy. If those criteria were met, then the astronomers examined the SDSS spectra, which show how the amount of optical light varies with wavelength. If the researchers found telltale signatures in the spectra indicative of the presence of a supermassive black hole, they followed up with an even closer examination of those galaxies. After all of this searching, a good candidate for a recoiling black hole was discovered. The left image in the inset is from the Hubble data, which shows two bright points near the middle of the galaxy. One of them is located at the center of the galaxy and the other is located about 3,000 light years away from the center. The latter source shows the properties of a growing supermassive black hole and its position matches that of a bright X-ray source detected with Chandra (right image in inset). Using data from the SDSS and the Keck telescope in Hawaii, the team determined that the growing black hole located near, but visibly offset from, the center of the galaxy has a velocity that is different from the galaxy. These properties suggest that this source may be a recoiling supermassive black hole. The host galaxy of the possible recoiling black hole also shows some evidence of disturbance in its outer regions, which is an indication that a merger between two galaxies occurred in the relatively recent past. Since supermassive black hole mergers are thought to occur when their host galaxies merge, this information supports the idea of a recoiling black hole in the system. Moreover, stars are forming at a high rate in the galaxy, at several hundred times the mass of the Sun per year. This agrees with computer simulations, which predict that star formation rates may be enhanced for merging galaxies particularly those containing recoiling black holes. Another possible explanation for the data is that two supermassive black holes are located in the center of the galaxy but one of them is not producing detectable radiation because it is growing too slowly. The researchers favor the recoiling black hole explanation, but more data are needed to strengthen their case. A paper describing these results was recently accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal and is available online <https://arxiv.org/abs/1704.05549>. The first author is Dongchan Kim from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Charlottesville, Virginia. 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. Image credit: Illustration: CXC/M. Weiss; X-ray: NASA/CXC/NRAO/D.-C. Kim; Optical: NASA/STScI Read More from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory <http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2017/rsmbh/> For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/chandra <http://www.nasa.gov/chandra>

This Week in NASA History: First Flight of Space Shuttle Endeavour Launches -- May 7, 1992
 <https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/9256691orig.jpg>

This week in 1992, STS-49 launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on the first flight of the space shuttle Endeavour. The primary mission objective was to capture, repair and redeploy the INTELSAT VI (F-3) communications satellite. Today, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is developing NASA's Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever built that will be capable of sending astronauts deeper into space than ever before, including to Mars. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the Marshall History Program’s webpage <https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/index.html>. (NASA)

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