The quest for the unseen worlds is about to begin > COROT update

Two weeks ago, to be more precise, on the 17 and 18 of January ESA's COROT mission to look out for exoplanets, successfuly opened is eyes for the first time.

Celebrating that event and the upcoming beggining of scientific operations, spaceurope had the opportunity to ask some questions to the Project Scientist of the mission, Dr. Malcolm Fridlund.


Here is the result.


Know more about COROT.

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COROT will begin it’s most awaited scientific observations as February begins.
You might ask, how does a team spirit beahve on such exciting premisses?
According to Dr. Fridlund, it's “very high” and there are reasons for that: “the qualification of the spacecraft has been going perfectly and it is almost ready to start observations”.

After such a long wait one might ask if the spacecraft is really starting it’s work at 100%. The answer is yes. But, there are some conditions at this moment “the first two targets are primarily devoted to asteroseismology.

We will still pick up planets, but only larger ones because the first two pointings are 30 days each.
If you are waiting to see how does our galactic cousins home planet look like you’ll have to wait just a bit more...”The first 150 day pointing (which can observe small planets like the Earth) will start in April”

From then on there is a strong chance to spot through COROT’s eyes, an extrasolar planet like our own, on that event what will we, specifically, see?
“COROT detects the dip in the lightcurve of the star as the planet passes in front of it. In order to see a planet the size of our Earth, the dip will be 1 part in 10000 or smaller.”
Taking into account that the farest star where COROT can detect an orbiting body is located “Out to distances of several thousand light years”, just exercise your imagination...an A4 sheet, got it? Now divide it’s lenght, 297mm, by 5000 and it’s height, 210mm, by 2000.
You will get a square with 0,00594mm x 0,0105mm...
You really need to have great eyes to spot a dot that size on a piece of paper!

The quality of the first image matched with the ones predicted in simulations, what could only come as great news.
According to Dr. Fridlund, which kindly provided a brief description in order to help understanding what we are seing in that image, “it is a starfield with stars selected for calibration purposes. Each star is forming a small low resolution spectrum because there is a prism (or actually it is called a grism, a kind of combination of prism and grating) in front of the detector that breaks the light into different colors. One does this because a planet occulting a star will do so in all colours. An intrinsic diminishing of the flux of the star will do so differently in different colours.”

COROT will survey a vast region of space, does all that space, all those stars look the same? Or might there be a specific region where to look more carefully? “COROT can, for reasons of the orbit it is in, only look for long at two regions which are about 10 degrees in diameter. Within these regions COROT will select fileds of diameter 2.8 degrees (the field of view of the telescope)."
In terms of numbers, the mission’s Project Scientist make us dream about all the possible worlds awaiting us out there: “In each such field there are between 12000 and 6000 solar type stars which will all be observed. In the nominal mission this is 6 fileds with about a total of 60000 targets.”
And if you thought that this is like opening a tresor ark, that ain’t the whole story, “The extended mission will add about as many.”
Aren’t you smiling? I know I am...

Major gas giants should be the most probable to be detected, “they are the easiest to detect and we know that 10% of solar type stars have them.
Then about 2% of those will have occultations so we will pick up a number in each field.”
Exoplanets like our Earth are rare gems out there, and the time to distinguish a rocky planet like our own from another, let’s say, like Venus, it will still take a while, “for this we will need the Darwin (ESA) or TPF (NASA) missions in the future."
COROT is teaching the way for tomorrow’s misions, “the next step are bigger missions like COROT. NASA has one planned for 2009 called KEPLER which will observe only one field in the sky but for a longer period. The telescope is bigger so the number of stars will be maybe close to what COROT will sample, but fainter (more distant). The main advantage is to pick up planets in longer period orbits. After that will come the direct detection missions like Darwin and TPF which will observe the feeble light from the planet itself and analyse the light for atmospheric content and so-called bio-markers (signs of life as we know it)”.

Regarding scientific results “It will be a few months. I can not give it more exact than that at the moment”.
It is now a question of time to wait and see what the vastness of space has to reveal to COROT's querying vision.

Dr. Christensen reports on Hubble's ACS camera problems

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), Hubble's main camera, entered into safemode, ceasing operations, probably due to a short-circuit.

A similar problem happened In June 2006 caused by an electronic failure, this time although NASA (responsable for mission operations) is investigating what happened under a Anomaly Review Board, trying to figure out a reason and a solution for the succeded, has already indicated that the next servicing mission won't occur before May 2008.
Untill then the telescope will function with the remaining instruments with all the conditioning this might bring to investigators using ACS.

Dr. Lars Christensen, PIO/Head of Communication ESA/Hubble, informed spaceurope that "there are are good chances that the Solar Blind Channel of ACS can be recovered. The WFC (Wide Field Channel, the most used one) and HRC (High-Resolution Channel) will most likely not be recovered." Which represents a major loss if we think on the unbelievable work this two have performed.

"Next is the Servicing Mission and it is too early to say what the chances are now."

Let's just cross fingers and wait for better future days for Hubble...

Know more about ACS

Dr. Richard Marsden tell us about Ulysses everlasting adventures around the Sun

As Ulysses (the mission launched with the purpose of achieving the first-ever measurements of the region of space above the poles of our Sun) is under it's way to one more cross of our star's South Pole and rapidly approaching it's 17th anniversary (October, 6th), Dr. Richard Marsden, Ulysses ESA Mission Manager, accepted spaceurope request to answer some questions about the current status and future activities.

Know more about Ulysses.

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Let’s start by putting things into perspective, where is Ulysses now?
Roughly halfway between the Sun and the Earth and moving at a speed for me to leave home and reach my office in 7 seconds...
I could use one of that...
-On 22 Jan, Ulysses was 371,398,272 km (2.48 AU) from the Sun, 393,805,934 km(2.63 AU) from the Earth, 78.98 degrees south solar latitude, travelling at167,494 km/hr relative to Earth.

Ulysses is on route to it's 17th anniversary, after such a long and successful mission, some might think, what is more to know about the Sun that this spacecraft can still provide.
From Dr. Marsden words, there is lot of new stuff to understand:
-The key events still to come include the completion of the third traversal of the Sun's southern polar cap, the third "fast latitude scan" as the spacecraft swings from high southern to high northern latitudes in less than one year, and the third traversal of the northern polar cap. As in 1994-95,the Sun will be close to sunspot minimum conditions. The big difference, however, is that the polarity of the Sun's magnetic field has reversed in the meantime. (In addition to the 11-year activity cycle, the Sun also has a 22-year magnetic cycle, the so-called Hale cycle). We expect to see the biggest effect in the behaviour of cosmic rays (which are charged particles). Previously, the number of positively charged cosmic ray particles (ions) increased slightly from the equator to the poles; this time, we expect the negatively charged cosmic ray electrons to show a similar effect.

A whole fleet of solar study spacecrafts also assure a new course for Ulysses:
-Also, the launch of the twin STEREO spacecraft in October 2006 means that we now have the possibility to make measurements from several points in the inner heliosphere, something that was not possible in 1994. In fact, we didn't even have SOHO or ACE back then!

It made me some confusion that at the 2001 extension 2001, it was referred that the state of the RTG wouldn't allow much more, we are now in 2007 and the mission has, approximately, at least, a year more ahead.
How was it possible to witness the RTG extended longevity?
The RTG continues to behave as expected (its output decreases by 3.75 Watts per year, and it currently produces 199 W). The main reason we've been able to continue the mission so long is that we've changed the way we operate the spacecraft over the years. In particular, we don't operate the full scientific payload simultaneously any more. Rather, we have an agreed power-sharing scheme that allows us to be flexible while at the same time acquiring the high-priority scientific measurements (solar wind, magnetic fields, cosmic rays).

It’s incredible to know that the spacecraft is in very good shape and all science instruments are still working well also.
The only failure to date has been the loss of one of the two Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTA) in the communications subsystem.
Looks like Ulysses herited not only the name but the resilient caractheristiques of the mythic hero also...

Almost two decades of mission would be impossible to describe in a brief interview, so the focus was set on last year’s highlights, which according to the mission manager were the declining phase of the present solar cycle (from maximum in 2000 to the near-minimum conditions right now) has been very different from that of the previous cycle, with large surges in activity late in the cycle. A good example was the recent outburst in Dec 2006.
The main interest over the last 12 months has been to see the way this has affected the conditions observed by Ulysses as it climbed poleward.
Although we still have to analyse the results in detail, it is clear that Ulysses recorded very clear signatures of December 2006 solar flares (increases in the intensity of energetic particles, etc) even though it was well above 70 degrees latitude at the time.

And the future? Does it goes beyond 2008? The possiblity exists, the spacecraft allows it but... Is it feasible a possible mission extension after March 2008?

Nothing to report at this time. Technically, the mission could continue beyond March 2008. The main problem is funding, which is in turn related to the priorities in the ESA and NASA science programmes. The Ulysses science teams are currently looking at the scientific rationale for continuing beyond March 2008.

For those interested and following the current New Horizons approach to Jupiter and it’s Moons, our guest inform us that there is a detailed account of the scientific results from the Jupiter flyby on the ESA Ulysses web site.

As a way of cellebrating Ulysses' future successes I'll finish with an Ambrose Bierce quotation used by Dr. Marsden:

'There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots of old things we don't know.'

Wuthering Titan

"A fast moving, high altitude wind (above 200 kilometres) was blowing around Titan at latitude of 50 degrees north. They estimated that it was moving at 200 metres per second (or 720 kilometres per hour) and would encircle the planet in less than one terrestrial day."

More at ESA.int

Christer Fuglesang talks about his journey beyond the craddle

"What was it like to see the ISS for the first time? "First there was just a really big bright star- when it came closer and you could see the details, it was big and beautiful. When you get close to dock, it's really big!""
More at ESA.int

COROT with eyes wide open

"In the night between 17 and 18 January 2007, the protective cover of the COROT telescope has been successfully opened, and COROT has seen for the first time light coming from stars."

More at ESA.int

Rosetta images 21-Lutetia

"Earlier this month ESA's Rosetta had a first look at asteroid 21-Lutetia, one of the targets of its long mission.

The onboard camera OSIRIS imaged the asteroid passing through its field of view during the spacecraft's gradual

approach to Mars.

The planet will be reached on 25 February 2007 for the mission's next gravity assist."

More at ESA.int

SMART-1 Mission > More than 30000 images after.

ESA's efforts to better know the Moon had a fantastic reward with the success of the SMART-1 mission Dr. Bernard Foing, the mission's Project Scientist, has given some of it's time to help us understanding a bit more what was achieved and what might the future bring for the knowledge of the Moon and the role of Man in it.

To know more about the mission and published papers related with Lunar Geochemistry, Geophysics and Resources Survey please consult: sci.esa.int/smart-1/

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The maximization of recovered data was one of the mission's major objectives.
And if there was any question about the success of the mission the given answer leaves no doubts behind: We obtained much more data than planned initially, as we enhanced the software to transmit 10 times more images per orbit. The balance? More than 30000 images, and plenty of IR and X spectra.

The end of the mission at Lacus Excellentiae also provided science and knowledge about impacts physics (we detected a flash), and debris dynamics. The team responsible for the maneuvers to navigate the spaceacraft until the Moon and to delay the impact (which was an hymn to spacecraft's ground control capabilities) are now working on other projects, such as Venus Express, Bepi Colombo and the next planetary exploration missions.

One of the questions was to know if the D-CIXS, which measures the lunar fluorescence due to elements (as Mg, Silicium, Aluminum, Iron), provided surprising answers or helped confirming the Moon formation theory by detecting less iron and more magnesium and aluminium than on Earth, Si, Mg, Al, Ca, Fe were well measured in a few areas, during solar flares but it will take more analysis to get a full map of the Moon.

SIR (created to detect the aborption bands due to minerals on the surface) distinguishes about 256 wavelenght bands.A lot of bands to study the specific fingerprint of mineral ingredients on the surface, and even in subsurface layers by looking at central peaks of craters where the underground soil bounced up during impacts...

Colour images of the Moon where obtained using a technique dubbed "push-broom", in what does it consists? The CCD is coated with various coated filters; we moved the spacecraft keep its orientation fixed as a push broom, to be able to image the same scene with the different filters.

AMIE's different filters provide us clues about Moon's evolution by allowing to make high resolution colour maps of units of different composition.

According to SMART-1 mission’s project scientist, the importance of mapping pyroxenes, olivines and feldspars is relevant not only because it tell us about the formation and history of rocks but also on a resources exploration perspective: one can exploit the minerals, glasses, metals and the oxygen contained in them.
And the volatiles survey? What answers did it provide?
Mr. Foing tell us that the team has well mapped light and shadows; but, for now, it is still analysing the long exposures at the poles.

SMART-1, in spite of its proper objectives, worked also as a unique way to test and adjust science and ground segment components that will be used by China's Chang'e 1 and India's Chandraayan 1 mission. Also technology demonstration, and preparation for exploration were motives for a success celebrated by three different space agencies.

The use, for the first time, of electric propulsion on a space exploration vehicule, was, in my oppinion, a gigantic breakthrough and one of the highest points in this mission.
The question is, after this achievement where can an ion drive take us in the future? It could bring us to Mercury, Venus, near the Sun (Solar orbiter), or also to asteroids and Mars.

Actually there are actual and future missions being planned under this same concept: Bepicolombo to Mercury, but also Dawn US mission to asteroids.

19kgs of payload...That was a triomphe of miniaturization...The heaviest instrument onboard was KATE (6.2kgs) and the lighter one was SPEDE, weighting...0.8kgs!
Things can only get better...: we are now studying light instruments for robotic landers and rovers, but they will also be useful to support astronauts.

Shackleton Crater appears as the most plausible must-be site for human settlement but also the site near the North pole deserves a special attention.

Mr. Foing, as Executive Director of the ILEWG, considers that all space countries have interest and they develop elements of an international programme for the return of Man to the Moon. And even in a public perspective, Mankind is regaining it’s passion for our unique satellite, SMART-1 helped engaging a lot of public and youth interest for science, technology, space and exploration and stimulated people to observe the Moon and navigate there using their telescope, or images transmitted by SMART-1.

Dr. Lars Lindberg Christensen sheds some light on dark matter > Questions

Dr. Lars Lindberg Christensen works as PIO/Head of Communication ESA/Hubble and is author and co-author of several works such as the amazing Hubble: 15 Years of Discovery (with Robert A. Fosbury and M. Kornmesser). He as given some of his time to clarify some doubts concerning the first 3D map of the Universe’s dark matter assembled by an international team of scientists, confirming theories of structure formation, becoming one historic milestone on the unwrapping of the Universe's secrets.
Want to know more?

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Can you give us a commonly understandable definition for dark matter in opposition to normal matter?

Simply put, dark matter cannot be observed with the unaided eye. Nor can it be detected. A more accurate definition is that dark matter is matter that neither emits nor reflects enough electromagnetic radiation to be detected directly. Nevertheless, its presence may be inferred from its gravitational effects on visible matter.

Do we, humans, somehow, transport some of that dark matter in our composition?

As far as we know, we are made up of normal matter.

From another perspective: Will dark matter expand and clump even more to the point of turning into a different form of matter or will it, assuming the ceasing of expansion, gather again into infinite density?

Dark matter will continue clumping, just like the normal matter. Therefore, we will have to wait to know exactly how dark matter evolves in the universe and how it exactly influences its surroundings. But nothing has suggested to date that dark matter will eventually turn into a different kind of matter.

How can this data be interpreted at the eyes of a singularity originated universe theory?

The data from the map does confirm the validity of standard theories of formation. The data indicates that the universe went from a smooth initial state at early times (as shown by the cosmic microwave background radiation) to the lumpy distribution of galaxies and their clusters we see today — the large-scale structure of the universe. You may think of this as small rivers converging to form a large river.

Is normal matter also clumping?

As shown by the map, normal matter clumps along the densest concentrations of dark matter. These clumps grow bigger with time. Thus, dark matter acts as a compactor of structure.

How dense are those clumps? Can they reach collapse and form a dark matter black hole?

I am not sure of the density.It seems that dark matter is the "scaffolding" inside of which stars and galaxies have been assembled over billions of years. The evolution of large-scale-structure in our Universe is driven by the gravitational attraction of dark matter, but dark matter itself has not been proven to collapse on itself and form a black hole.

Practical implications of this discovery?

This map of dark matter's distribution in space and time is key to understanding how galaxies formed and clustered over billions of years. Gaining a deeper insight into the growth of clustering in dark matter may eventually shed some light on dark energy, a repulsive form of gravity that might have influenced how dark matter clumps. Now that astronomers have begun to map out where dark matter is, their next objective is to determine what it is, and its relationship to normal matter.

What can we expect from Hubble in a near future?

With the depth of the COSMOS image and its excellent resolution, Hubble has been able to provide a detailed map of dark matter since the survey spans a large enough area to see the extended filamentary structures of dark matter. Thus, with the upcoming Servicing Mission to upgrade the telescope, Hubble will keep on delivering and uncovering some of the most fascinating phenomena previously unknown to us. It will continue gazing across space and time while providing answers to some of the questions that have eluded astronomers for decades, such as the nature of dark energy.

SOHO and Comet McNaught > Questions answered by Dr. Bernhard Fleck

SOHO is a joint ESA-NASA project which discoveries include complex currents of gas flowing beneath the visible surface, and rapid changes in the pattern of magnetic fields. It is responsible for a wider understanding of solar-surface features, magnetic fields pattern rapid alterations and the flow of gas currents under our Star’s surface.
Want to know more about SOHO?...

From the 12th to the 16th of January, the LASCO C3 coronagraph aboard SOHO will track comet McNaught as it passes between the Earth and the Sun. Dr. Bernhard Fleck, SOHO Project Scientist, was kind enough to answer some questions and to risk being the first guest of this house.

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According to Morrill "Close to the Sun the ion and dust tails moveapart, a phenomenon that is often difficult to observe from the Earth. By measuring the ion-tail angle we can get information about the solarwind speed very close to the Sun". What practical data can we get from knowing our star wind speed?

The acceleration of the solar wind is still poorly understood. Fastsolar wind streams can cause geomagnetic disturbances. Measuring the solar wind speed in that regime will help improve our understanding of the solar wind, which in turn will help us in our understanding of the connection between the Sun and Earth.

To reduce things to a more understandable perception of distances, let's imagine a soccer field where Earth and Sun are the at opposite goal areas. Where is SOHO? Playing on Earth's defense? And the comet? Is it a midfielder?

SOHO is 1 m from Earth's goal, so practically goalie. The comet will be an offender, almost getting to the Sun's box.

I read that McNaught should be the brightest comet ever observed by SOHO. Will it be necessary to take, technically speaking, any special measures?

No, not really. The worst that can happen is that the images are overexposed. So we will work with very short exposure times.

Now some SOHO related questions:

So far, what has been, in your oppinion, the major acknowledgement from SOHO? And what would be the crown of this mission? Is there any possible purpose for SOHO? What could we expect from pointing it to another star?

I'm afraid not. The mirrors are simply too small. Astronomical telescopes need much larger collecting areas.

We know that if something happened to the Sun or in it's vicinity we would only be aware of that 8 minutes later. Does this understanding changes with SOHO in action?

No - no information can travel faster than the speed of light.

In terms of solar unmanned spaceflight, let's dream a little...let's think that funds are not a problem. After SOHO what? A fly-by? A sample return mission?

A mission close to the Sun. ESA has plans for a "Solar Orbiter" that will go down to 0.22 astronomical units (the distance between the Sun and Earth). NASA is studying a Solar Probe, that will fly through the Sun's corona.

The latest Universe's dark matter map will help us opening new paths of knowledge. Have you already look at the Sun and thought on different applications for SOHO under this perspective?

While SOHO is a wonderful machine, I'm afraid SOHO won't be able to contribute in that field.

Is it possible to reorientate SOHO on a manner that it could follow a solar flare on it's way towards the Earth?

No, SOHO has to be pointed always towards the Sun. Without the Sun shining on SOHO's solar panels, we would have no power. STEREO has an instrument that can follow CMEs as they travel through interplanetary space.

What can we expect from SOHO in the future, now that the attentions are over Stereo?

SOHO will continue to make unique observations, some of them in collaboration with STEREO ("3rd eye"), some in collaboration with Hinode (Japan's new solar mission with contributions from NASA, the UK, and ESA). Remember that the instrumentation on SOHO is much more comprehensive than that of STEREO. SOHO carries also UV and EUV spectrometers, a UV coronagraph, a magnetograph, and most importantly also helioseismology instruments, which allow us to look inside the Sun. STEREO doesn't have any of those.

Have the seismology aboard COROT been derived from SOHO concepts? Or were they developed under a different concept?

Yes, COROT will be doing exactly with stars what the VIRGO instrument is doing with the Sun (measuring tiny variations in the stars'/Sun's intensity that result from the stars'/Sun's global oscillations). From the frequencies of these oscillations we can make inferences about the internal structure of the Sun/stars. On the Sun we call that "helioseismology", doing the same now with stars "astroseismology".

Any surprise or fact worthing a special mention? (question made under comet's observation...)

The predictions were right - it's getting _REALLY_ bright!

So far, what has been, in your oppinion, the major acknowledgement from SOHO? And what would be the crown of this mission?

Hm, that's a difficult one. SOHO has made so many ground-breaking discoveries, that it's realy difficult to pick one. Among them are:

• Revealing the first images ever of a star’s convection zone (it's turbulent outer shell) and of the structure of sunspots below the surface.
• Providing the most detailed and precise measurements of the temperature structure, the interior rotation, and gas flows in the solar interior.
• Measuring the acceleration of the slow and fast solar wind.
• Identifying the source regions and acceleration mechanism of the fastsolar wind in the magnetically "open" regions at the Sun's poles.
• Discovering new dynamic solar phenomena such as coronal waves and solar tornadoes.
• Revolutionising our ability to forecast space weather, by giving up to three days notice of Earth-directed disturbances, and playing a lead role in the early warning system for space weather.• Monitoring the total solar irradiance (the ‘solar constant’) as well as variations in the extreme ultra violet flux, both of which are important to understand the impact of solar variability on Earth’s climate.

The Reason Why

According to Goethe’s words, Europe was made by walking, establishing paths as vital arteries for it’s survival and development.
On those days each and every European had a role to play.
Now, the time is different and so is the walk but the main objectives remain immutable:
“Ultreya et Sus Eia!”.
The words from the millenary pilgrims towards Santiago de Compostela stay actual in our days, exploring Space: To go Onward and Upward!
To go Onward and Upward to survive.

This blog will try to keep a close look at those working on those premisses, making Mankind walk further ahead, opening roads for the Future.

A Future beyond Earth.

Exploring Space. Seeding Evolution.

Rui Borges