International Cooperation for Sustainable Space Exploration > 3rd joint ESA / ASI Workshop

"Fourteen space organisations from all over the world will gather in Italy to discuss further coordination for long-term space exploration efforts. From 30 May until 1 June, the 3rd joint ESA / ASI workshop on international cooperation for sustainable space exploration will bring together representatives from 14 space organisations worldwide.

Europe’s Aurora Exploration Programme, the US Vision for Space Exploration, Japan’s plans for future exploration activities, as well as ambitious automatic missions being prepared by nations like Russia, India and China, offer numerous opportunities for scientific and technological cooperation. The very nature of space exploration with its long-term goals and political and technological challenges call for a more structured international cooperation approach."

More at ESA.int

Cassini-Huygens > News from Saturn and its Moons

Four new releases are available at ESA.int concerning news coming from the Saturnian system:

Saturn > "New Cassini research suggests that eddies, or giant rotating storms, are the 'engine' powering Saturn's jet stream winds."

Enceladus > "Rubbing your hands together on a cold day generates a bit of heat, and the same process of frictional heating may be what powers the geysers jetting out from the surface of Saturn's moon Enceladus."

Titan > "Bright and dark terrain on Titan's trailing hemisphere is revealed by Cassini's Imaging Science Subsystem in this mosaic of images taken during the T28 flyby in April 2007."
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"Cassini completed its 31st flyby of Saturn's moon Titan On 12 May 2007. The RADAR instrument obtained this image showing the coastline and an archipelago in a portion of a large sea, consistent with the larger sea seen by the Cassini imaging instrument."

News to Celebrate > Europe’s Space Policy Becomes a Reality Today

ESA's Press Release:

"Paris, 22 May 2007

A stronger Europe in space, better equipped and better coordinated to face the future needs of its citizens. A wider strategic scope to address new challenges, including in the areas of security and defence space programmes, and space as an added dimension to the EU’s external relations: all this in a novel policy designed to fit European interests and values.

Ministers in charge of space activities in the Member States of the European Space Agency, and those tasked with internal market, industry and research within the European Union’s Competitiveness Council, met in Brussels today to adopt a Resolution on the European Space Policy. Jointly drafted by the European Commission and the Director General of the European Space Agency, the European Space Policy outlines the strategic guidelines for Europe’s future activities in space. Through this document, the European Union, ESA and their Member States commit themselves to increasing coordination of their activities and programmes and to organising their respective roles relating to space.

Space Council Meeting Participants > Brussels, 22 May 2007 > Credits: ESA - S.Corvaja

The European Space Policy comes with the preliminary elements of a European Space Programme, which is a planning and strategic tool comprising all Europe’s major space activities. The Programme supports the optimisation of public resources and skills when deciding and implementing the Space Policy.The European Space Policy aims at fostering better coordination of space activities between the EU, ESA and their respective Member States, to maximise value for money and avoid unsustainable duplication, thus meeting shared European needs. Increased synergy between civil and defence space programmes and technologies is also addressed by the ESP."

More at ESA.int

Mars Express > Deuteronilus Mensae

This 3D anaglyph view of Deuteronilus Mensae is based on data captured by the High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) onboard the ESA’s Mars Express, with a ground resolution of about 29 metres per pixel. The image was calculated from the nadir and one stereo channel. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

"The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express has captured breathtaking images of the Deuteronilus Mensae region on Mars. The images were taken on 14 March 2005 during orbit number 1483 of the Mars Express spacecraft with a ground resolution of approximately 29 metres per pixel.

They show the Deuteronilus Mensae region, located on the northern edge of Arabia Terra and bordering the southern highlands and the northern lowlands. Situated at approximately 39° North and 23° East, Deuteronilus Mensae are primarily characterised by glacial features.

The scene is dominated by a depression measuring approximately 2 000 metres in depth and 110 kilometres in diameter, north to south."

More at ESA.int

Hubble sights best evidence yet of dark matter

Ring of dark matter in the galaxy cluster ZwCl0024+1652 as imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Credits: NASA, ESA, M. Jee and H. Ford (Johns Hopkins University)

The ring had formed long ago during a titanic collision between two massive galaxy clusters.
A discovery, to be published on 1 June 2007 in the Astrophysical Journal, and achieved by a team of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope, marks the best evidence yet for the existence of dark matter, leading to this conclusion is the fact that its distribution differs substantially from the distribution of ordinary matter.
The dark matter presents itself in the form of a ring formed long ago resulting from the collison between to massive galaxy clusters and measuring 2.6 million light-years across in the ZwCl0024+1652 (Cl 0024+17 in the publication) cluster, located 5 thousand million light-years away from Earth.

More at ESA.int

COROT 14.05.07 > Update with Malcolm Fridlund

Transit of exoplanet CoRoT-Exo-1b Copyright: CoRoT exo-team

According to the latest news coming from the COROT front, the spacecraft that, according to Malcolm Fridlund, the Mission’s Project Scientist, "was certainly born under a lucky star" will be able to detect smaller exoplanets than expected, even those Earth-sized and, if circumstances allow so, to achieve information about their chemical composition. I asked Dr. Fridlund for some more details that could permit a better understanding of the processes that lead to this possiblity.

According to his words there are two particular issues to have in account for and both reside in the staggering fact that COROT has surpassed its specifications for a large margin and it is working more than 10 times better than expected, first of all, eclipses that can be detected are “shallower and thus the planets detectable are going to be smaller. If the periods are short enough so that we can see enough eclipses for a given planet (a process called epoch-folding) we are going to be so sensitive that we could see one earth-radii planets.”

Secondly, “when a planet is not being being eclipsed or is eclipsing the star, you will see the stellar light PLUS the reflected light from the planet, while when the planet is in front or behind the planet you only see light from the star. If, you subtract these two parts of the light curve from each other, you will have a direct detection of exo-planetary light. This is what SPITZER is doing at the moment for a few large and hot exoplanets (infrared light).”

According to Dr. Fridlund “there is a faint possibility that COROT will be so sensitive” that it will be able to perform this “in VISIBLE light for large planets”, the Project Scientist adds that this will not be possible to achieve with exoplanets the size of our own but will be “nevertheless” very “interesting for exo-planetologists.”

After COROT-Exo-1b, the first exoplanet detected by COROT, what worlds are there waiting to be revealed? Now knowing the quality and accuracy of the data retrieved we, as Dr. Fridlund said “can expect great discoveries in the future”. We are waiting.

Gliese 581 C > An Astrobiologist's Perspective

After the May 9th Q’n’A with Xavier Bonfils, one of the astronomers envolved in the discovery of Gliese 581 C, the possibility of the exoplanet gathering the conditions for the existence of life stayed floating in the air.
As Bonfils referred, some of the questions were not from his field of study, in consequence of this Lewis Dartnell, from the University College London and author of 'Life in the Universe: A Beginner's Guide', initiates his participitation as spacEurope’s resident astrobiologist by explaining the astrobiological significance of this new discovery.

"The discovery of Gliese 581 c, the third rock out from the star Gliese 581, has got astrobiologists like myself extremely excited. This planet is the smallest one ever spotted orbiting a main-sequence star, and is only around five-times more massive than Earth. This superearth is a terrestrial planet with a rocky/icy surface, and orbits so close to its ruddy sun that a year there lasts only 13 Earth-days. But since its star is cooler than the Sun, this tight orbit places Gliese 581 c within the so-called habitable zone where the warmth it receives from the star means it is not too hot and not too cold, but just right for liquid water on its surface. A second important factor affecting surface temperatures is how thick the atmosphere is and, as Xavier Bonfils says, if Gliese 581 c has an atmosphere as dense as Earth's it may generate enough of a greenhouse warming effect to push the temperatures up to around 100degC - near the upper limit for terrestrial life.

Red dwarf stars are a particularly intriguing possibility for astrobiology, as they are far more common in the galaxy than larger sun-like stars and burn for many billions of years; perhaps making them ideal nurseries for life. There are some potentially major problems with such stars, however. These cooler, dimmer, stars necessitate a planet to orbit much closer to be warm enough for liquid water. But this means that the planet may become 'tidally locked' to its star, in just the same way that the Moon's rotation has become locked to the Earth and we only ever see one side. For a red dwarf planet this would create a state of eternal day on one face of the planet, with the red sun looming motionless in the sky, and freezing never-ending night on the far side. Such a situation might create very turbulent climatic conditions on the planet, with maybe even the atmosphere frosting-out on the night side. As Bonfils explains, we do not yet know whether Gliese 581 c is tidally-locked or not, or whether a thick-enough atmosphere might be able to redistribute the heat effectively. Secondly, red dwarves can be very active stars, regularly throwing up great flares and bathing their family of planets with UV and particle radiation. Gliese 281, however, appears to be unusually calm, and so would offer life a better chance.

The most exciting prospect with future telescopes will be to filter out the brightness of the star and collect the light of the planet itself. Examining 'absorption fingerprints' in this spectrum will allow astronomers to read the composition of the atmosphere for any tell-tale indications of life, such as air rich with oxygen and methane."

Recommended reading:
Astrobiology journal's recent special edition focussing on M-dwarf planet habitability and detectability of biosignatures of photosynthesis, etc:
Astrobiology, volume 7, number 1 (Spring 2007)

Life in the Universe: A Beginner's Guide > Book Review*

Oneworld Publications bring us Life in the Universe: A Beginner's Guide, a book by Lewis Dartnell that take us on a journey.

A journey from the hours devoided of light of the primordial Universe to the outburst of life on our home planet and, from here, establishing bridges to the tantalizing hypothesis, theories and search for life outside of Earth’s boundaries.

On a vivid, comprehensive, addicting writing, Dartnell not only embarks on this immense adventure but allow us to join him, giving us space in his vehicule to accompany him in the quest.

The author, besides possessing the knowledge, is gifted to legate it to inquisitory minds and to those giving their first steps in the astrobiology domains, a science conquering its space as times passes.

Dartnell, a researcher at CoMPLEX (the Centre for Mathematics & Physics in the Life Sciences Experimental Biology), at University College London, and with who you had already the opportunity of making acquaintance in an interview in this blog, present us a book for begginers and for dreamers, a book that doesn’t limit itself to resume what has been done in the astrobiology field but also draws a map for the future.

SpacEurope proudly associates to the release of a new book that couldn’t be more actual and essencial to understand life, as exoplanets pop out from the darkness of space, as our knowledge about Mars, Titan, Enceladus and other stellar bodies grow, Life in the Universe: A Beginner's Guide appears at the perfect time as the perfect guide to know more about the secrets of the alchemy that brought us here and that permit us making the question:

Where might life be waiting us?

This is a book where the author, traveling across the different branches of the tree of science, from biology to astronomy, from geology to chemistry, doesn’t forget the roots and foresees the fruits that the future will bring.
RNA and DNA, red dwarfs, extremophiles, the search for a new Earth, possible alien life forms and other caracthers have their role in eight acts of an exciting play.

Go ahead, you can't miss it, you’ll find it on the D row, just aside Darwin, in a bookshop near you...

*Review copy courtesy of Oneworld Publications

XMM-Newton reveals new short-lived novae class

"Whilst monitoring the M31 novae frequently over several months for the appearance and subsequent disappearance of the X-rays, Pietsch made an important discovery. Some novae started to emit X-rays and then turned them off again within just a few months.
“These novae are a new class. They would have been overlooked before,” says Pietsch. That’s because previous surveys looked only every six months or so. Within that time, the fast X-ray novae could have blinked both on and off."

More at ESA.int

Gliese 581C, an exoplanetary landmark. Q'n'A with Xavier Bonfils

Gliese 581C, the exoplanet orbiting a red dwarf discovered by Stéphane Udry’s team (in which participate astronomers from France, Portugal and Switzerland) made its way to global news.
And why? Because so far it is the most similar to Mother Earth and presenting caractheristiques that make it suitable for the ocurrence of life.

Its discovery, announced worlwide on the 24th of April, was made possible by radial velocity technique using HARPS, an instrument based at the European Southern Observatory.

One of the astronomers envolved in such promising breakthrough on opening new paths in exoplanetary search is Xavier Bonfils, from the Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa, that kindly answered some SpacEurope questions.

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As previously announced there was a potential Gliese 581C transit predicted for the 7th of May.
Are there available new information regarding this?

No new information for now.


And into the future?
What activities can we expect regarding further knowledge about the planet?

The goal will be to observe directly such planet, to get a spectrum of its atmosphere.
We don't have the instruments for that. We need to wait Esa-Darwin or Nasa-TPF, expected for ~2025.
I rather see our discovery as a landmark. That is the first planet with a mass low enough and a good distance from its parent star, such that we can no longer exclude there is liquid water on the surface.
For all other 200-plus exoplanets discovered so far, they were either too massive, too cold or too hot to think that liquid water could exist.
Except if that planet transit (chances are 2%), we will find more planets of this kind before beeing able to characterize Gl 581 c. And hopefully, one of the next habitable planets will be a transiting one.


The media announced it as a possible new Earth but the planet is way beyond the habitable zone...
Is there a better comparison with other body in our solar system?

The planet is at 0.07 AU from its star, or 7% the distance Sun-Earth. The parent star (Gliese 581) is a red dwarf, a kind of star much cooler than our Sun.
The region where the water can be liquid is thus much closer.
However, still, if we scale our Solar System to Gliese 581, we can see Gl 581c occupies the place of Venus.
It means that if the atmosphere of Gl 581 c would be similar to our Earth atmosphere, on that planet the greenhouse effect would quickly make it too hot (>>100 degree celcius).
Interestingly, if you take into account an important greenhouse effect, Gliese 581 d (the outer planet in the system) may be more hospitable!
Anyway, I recall my point: we can not exclude there is liquid water, that is the first planet for which it is the case, Gl 581 c is a landmark.


The temperatures are quite comfortable...but the planet orbits a red dwarf, which are known for being quite temperamental...with quite violent outbursts, and consequent radiation spreading.
Does this anihilate any possibility of life out there?
And a global ocean...What are the odds of this?

Gl 581 is one of the most inactive star of our sample. Maybe unusally inactive for red dwarfs.
I have read outbursts could stimulate the emergence of life...anyway, it is not my field...


The hypothesis of a tidally locked Gliese 581C...
Where does it take us?

The day side facing permanently the star may be hotter, the night side cooler and average temperature in between. The actual temperature depends on how efficiently the heat is redistributed from the day to the night side. It will depend from the planet composition (atmosphere?, ocean?), and meteorology.
And we don't know much about that. Interestingly, M dwarfs were first removed from the SETI sample because they were thought to be unsuitable for life. Since few years, astrobiologists consider the arguments of flares and tidal locking are not strong arguments against the formation of life.


Regarding the other planets known to orbit the star is it possible to know how do they interact with the newly found planet?
And a possible moon around it? What would be its influence?

There is no measurable planet-planet interaction on the timescale of our measurements (few years).
A colleague (H. Beust), specialist of planetary dynamics, is working on the system.
He considers the system as 'almost boring', meaning it is very stable...


What major differences can we expect from a system orbiting a star so different from our Sun?
This opens a whole new range of possibilities, do this discoveries changes the observation method?

Not sure it directly answer the question...
It is easier to find a few earth masses planet in the habitable zone of M dwarfs because:

-a given planet induces a larger displacement of the star if the later is lighter

- a given planet induces a larger displacement of the star when the planet is closer. The first planets in the habitable zone should be find around M dwarfs first, then around more massive stars, progressively.


How would it be the scenario from Gliese 581C ground?
How would its Sun appear to our eyes?

Its angular size is 5 degrees, for someone on the surface (10 times the size of our sun).
It is also much redder (a dark orange probably).


Planets look like they are coming out from every little corner...are we in a golden age of exoplanetary search?
What will the future bring us knowing that COROT is revealing to be even more accurate than predicted and that other missions are on the way?

COROT will help understanding the structure of massive planets (transit methode).
Next, Kepler will determine the frequency of Earth-like planets (transit methode).
It will still be interesting to find Earth-like how we do it (radial velocity search) because we are looking for the one in our neighborhood, and those will be easier to characterize with follow-up observations.
Then Esa-Darwin, Nasa-TPF, etc...to get spectra and images of exoplanets...to find life...


What would you expect to see, a tangible goal in your quest, in the next 30 years?

The holy graal of finding biosignature in exoplanet atmospheres is within reach in the 30 forthcoming years.


More information at ESO.

Image credit: ESO

Venus Express > VIRTIS > New videos show unprecedent atmospheric details

"An exciting new series of videos from ESA’s Venus Express has been capturing atmospheric details of day and night areas simultaneously, at different altitudes. The south pole of the planet and its gigantic double vortex has been pictured as never before.

“With video sequences of this kind, combining all the pieces of information together, we can study the dynamics and the evolution of the vortex both in the short and the long term,” said Pierre Drossart, the other co-Principal Investigator on VIRTIS. “What we want to understand is the overall 3D thermal structure of the vortex, especially the vertical variation of the horizontal winds.”"

More at ESA.int