NASA Chat: Striking Up a Conversation About Lightning

June is Lightning Safety Awareness Month. Lightning is the number two killer of severe weather. Flooding is number one. A lot of people think if it is sunny or maybe just a few clouds around and you hear thunder, it is okay to stay outside until you actually see the lightning. That is not true. If you hear thunder when you are outside, that means that lightning is close enough to strike you!

On Thursday, June 23, from 7-8 p.m. EDT, Dr. Richard Blakeslee, atmospheric research scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will answer your questions about lightning safety, the global distribution and frequency of lightning occurrence as well as some of its physical characteristic, the relationship of lightning to severe storms and weather (e.g., lightning rate changes may serve as a "pre-cursor" or advanced indicator to later severe weather at the ground such as tornadoes), and other lightning research topics such as lightning-hurricane relationships and terrestrial gamma ray burst.

Joining the chat is easy. Simply visit this page on Thursday, June 23 a few minutes before the start of the chat. The chat window will be open at the bottom of this page: http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/lightning_chat.html. Simply log in and be ready to ask questions at 7 p.m. EDT.

See you in chat!

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NASA'S Chandra Finds Massive Black Holes Common In Early Universe

Trent J. Perrotto                               

Headquarters, Washington

 

Janet Anderson

Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala.                

Megan Watzke                         

Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.

 

WASHINGTON -- Using the deepest X-ray image ever taken, astronomers found the first direct evidence that massive black holes were common in the early universe. This discovery from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory shows that very young black holes grew more aggressively than previously thought, in tandem with the growth of their host galaxies.

By pointing Chandra at a patch of sky for more than six weeks, astronomers obtained what is known as the Chandra Deep Field South (CDFS). When combined with very deep optical and infrared images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, the new Chandra data allowed astronomers to search for black holes in 200 distant galaxies, from when the universe was between about 800 million to 950 million years old.

"Until now, we had no idea what the black holes in these early galaxies were doing, or if they even existed," said Ezequiel Treister of the University of Hawaii, lead author of the study appearing in the June 16 issue of the journal Nature. "Now we know they are there, and they are growing like gangbusters."

The super-sized growth means that the black holes in the CDFS are less extreme versions of quasars -- very luminous, rare objects powered by material falling onto supermassive black holes. However, the sources in the CDFS are about a hundred times fainter and the black holes are about a thousand times less massive than the ones in quasars.

The observations found that between 30 and 100 percent of the distant galaxies contain growing supermassive black holes. Extrapolating these results from the small observed field to the full sky, there are at least 30 million supermassive black holes in the early universe. This is a factor of 10,000 larger than the estimated number of quasars in the early universe.

"It appears we've found a whole new population of baby black holes," said co-author Kevin Schawinski of Yale University. "We think these babies will grow by a factor of about a hundred or a thousand, eventually becoming like the giant black holes we see today almost 13 billion years later."

A population of young black holes in the early universe had been predicted, but not yet observed. Detailed calculations show that the total amount of black hole growth observed by this team is about a hundred times higher than recent estimates.

Because these black holes are nearly all enshrouded in thick clouds of gas and dust, optical telescopes frequently cannot detect them. However, the high energies of X-ray light can penetrate these veils, allowing the black holes inside to be studied.

Physicists studying black holes want to know more how the first supermassive black holes were formed and how they grow. Although evidence for parallel growth of black holes and galaxies has been established at closer distances, the new Chandra results show that this connection starts earlier than previously thought, perhaps right from the origin of both.

"Most astronomers think in the present-day universe, black holes and galaxies are somehow symbiotic in how they grow," said Priya Natarajan, a co-author from Yale University. "We have shown that this codependent relationship has existed from very early times."

It has been suggested that early black holes would play an important role in clearing away the cosmic "fog" of neutral, or uncharged, hydrogen that pervaded the early universe when temperatures cooled down after the Big Bang. However, the Chandra study shows that blankets of dust and gas stop ultraviolet radiation generated by the black holes from traveling outwards to perform this "reionization." Therefore, stars and not growing black holes are likely to have cleared this fog at cosmic dawn.

Chandra is capable of detecting extremely faint objects at vast distances, but these black holes are so obscured that relatively few photons can escape and hence they could not be individually detected. Instead, the team used a technique that relied on Chandra’s ability to accurately determine the direction from which the X-rays came to add up all the X-ray counts near the positions of distant galaxies and find a statistically significant signal.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

More information, including images and other multimedia, can be found at http://www.nasa.gov/chandra and http://chandra.si.edu.

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Upper Stage Engine Ready For Testing At NASA's Stennis Space Center

Michael Braukus/J.D. Harrington

Headquarters, Washington                                        

 

Rebecca Strecker

Stennis Space Center, Miss.

 

Jennifer Stanfield

Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala.

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. -- NASA's new J-2X rocket engine, which could power the upper stage of the nation's future heavy-lift launch vehicle, is ready for its first round of testing. The fully assembled engine was installed Saturday in the A-2 Test Stand at the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

Beginning in mid-June, the engine will undergo a series of 10 test firings that will last several months.

"An upper stage engine is essential to making space exploration outside low-Earth orbit a reality," said Mike Kynard, manager of the J-2X upper stage engine project at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "The J-2X goes beyond the limits of its historic predecessor and achieves higher thrust, performance, and reliability than the J2. We are thrilled to have the engine in the test stand to validate our assumptions about engine performance and reliability."

The test stand, which supported the space shuttle main engine project, has been modified to accommodate the J-2X engine's different shape. In addition to the structural, electrical and plumbing modifications, a new engine start system was installed and control systems were upgraded on the stand. The liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen transfer lines that dated back to the 1960s were replaced.

Fueled by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, the J-2X engine will generate 294,000 pounds of thrust in its primary operating mode to propel a spacecraft into low-Earth orbit.

By changing the mixture ratio of liquid oxygen to liquid hydrogen, the J–2X can operate in a secondary mode of 242,000 pounds of thrust required to power a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit to the moon, an asteroid or other celestial destination. The J-2X can start and restart in space to support a variety of mission requirements.

"We are excited to have a new engine in the A-2 Test Stand," said Gary Benton, manager of the J-2X engine testing project at Stennis. "Installation of the J-2X engine marks the beginning of the third major rocket engine test project on this historic stand."

The A-2 Test Stand originally was used to test Saturn V rocket stages for NASA's Apollo Program. In the mid-1970s, the stand was modified from Apollo Program parameters to allow testing of space shuttle main engines.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., designed and built the J-2X for NASA.

To learn more about the J-2X engine, visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/j2x/.

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NASA Administrator Bolden to Open Exploration Symposium

David S. Weaver

Headquarters, Washington                                    

 

Angela Storey

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

 

Liz Klipp

Georgia Tech Media Relations, Atlanta

WASHINGTON -- NASA and the Georgia Institute of Technology will review the achievements of the agency's Space Shuttle Program and look ahead to the future of space exploration during a symposium June 6-8.

Georgia Tech will host "The Space Shuttle: An Engineering Milestone" at the university's Global Learning Center at 84 5th Street NW in Atlanta. The event is open to media.

The symposium will bring together an international group of scientists, technologists, engineers, mission designers, policymakers and students to discuss the shuttle era's significant contributions and exchange ideas about the future of space transportation.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will open the symposium on Tuesday, June 7. Other speakers include agency personnel such as astronaut Shannon Lucid; Bill Hill, assistant associate administrator for the Space Shuttle Program; and Michael Gazarik, deputy chief technologist.

"The Space Shuttle Program has accomplished many amazing things for the entire world," Bolden said. "Not least of which is the construction of the International Space Station, which will anchor our human spaceflight activities for the coming decade. It will provide unparalleled opportunities for critical research and technology demonstrations that will help us reach destinations farther in the solar system."

Speakers will highlight some of the many scientific discoveries about Earth, the solar system and the universe enabled by the shuttle program and how it has advanced technology and affected peoples' lives across the globe.

"The space shuttle program is an engineering accomplishment no other country has been able to duplicate," said Robert Loewy, conference chair and Georgia Tech professor of aerospace engineering. "The symposium is intended to honor those who contributed to the design, construction, operation and scientific data-taking that the three decades of the shuttle's operation have made possible."

The shuttle program has spanned 30 years of operation, and its last flight will be the STS-135 mission targeted for a July 8 launch. The five orbiters, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, have flown more than 130 times, carrying more than 360 people into space and traveling more than 500 million miles. Designed to return to Earth and land like a glider, the shuttle was the first successful reusable space vehicle.

Registration is required to attend the conference. For the agenda and registration information, visit http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/tab2.aspx?EventID=923094.

The conference is sponsored by Georgia Tech's Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, with the co-sponsorship of NASA, the Georgia Space Grant Consortium, the Boeing Company, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

For more information about the space shuttle program, including an interactive feature about the spacecraft and photo galleries, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttleflyout.

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NASA Administrator Bolden to Open Exploration Symposium

David S. Weaver

Headquarters, Washington                                    

 

Angela Storey

Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

 

Liz Klipp

Georgia Tech Media Relations, Atlanta

WASHINGTON -- NASA and the Georgia Institute of Technology will review the achievements of the agency's Space Shuttle Program and look ahead to the future of space exploration during a symposium June 6-8.

Georgia Tech will host "The Space Shuttle: An Engineering Milestone" at the university's Global Learning Center at 84 5th Street NW in Atlanta. The event is open to media.

The symposium will bring together an international group of scientists, technologists, engineers, mission designers, policymakers and students to discuss the shuttle era's significant contributions and exchange ideas about the future of space transportation.

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will open the symposium on Tuesday, June 7. Other speakers include agency personnel such as astronaut Shannon Lucid; Bill Hill, assistant associate administrator for the Space Shuttle Program; and Michael Gazarik, deputy chief technologist.

"The Space Shuttle Program has accomplished many amazing things for the entire world," Bolden said. "Not least of which is the construction of the International Space Station, which will anchor our human spaceflight activities for the coming decade. It will provide unparalleled opportunities for critical research and technology demonstrations that will help us reach destinations farther in the solar system."

Speakers will highlight some of the many scientific discoveries about Earth, the solar system and the universe enabled by the shuttle program and how it has advanced technology and affected peoples' lives across the globe.

"The space shuttle program is an engineering accomplishment no other country has been able to duplicate," said Robert Loewy, conference chair and Georgia Tech professor of aerospace engineering. "The symposium is intended to honor those who contributed to the design, construction, operation and scientific data-taking that the three decades of the shuttle's operation have made possible."

The shuttle program has spanned 30 years of operation, and its last flight will be the STS-135 mission targeted for a July 8 launch. The five orbiters, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour, have flown more than 130 times, carrying more than 360 people into space and traveling more than 500 million miles. Designed to return to Earth and land like a glider, the shuttle was the first successful reusable space vehicle.

Registration is required to attend the conference. For the agenda and registration information, visit http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/tab2.aspx?EventID=923094.

The conference is sponsored by Georgia Tech's Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, with the co-sponsorship of NASA, the Georgia Space Grant Consortium, the Boeing Company, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

For more information about the space shuttle program, including an interactive feature about the spacecraft and photo galleries, visit http://www.nasa.gov/shuttleflyout.

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Tornado Challenges Satellite Damage Track Detection Techniques

The Short-term Prediction Research and Transition, or SPoRT, team has used satellite data from the North Alabama region to identify tornado damage from the April 27th super storm outbreak.

NASA's Terra satellite, part of the Earth Observing System of satellites, captured images of the damage path. An instrument aboard Terra called the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER, was used to discern vegetation contrasts over the region.

"This is the first time ASTER data has been applied to such a massive outbreak of storms," said Gary Jedlovec, atmospheric scientist at Marshall Space Flight Center. "The usefulness of satellite information in providing improved accuracy along with damage assessment in severe weather events continues to evolve."

The tornado track signature observed by ASTER is seen as a disruption in the vegetation or other reflective surfaces over a region caused by tornado winds. Uprooted trees quickly stop the process of photosynthesis and change color -- this is easily detected by satellite.

However, detecting damage in areas outside of heavy forestland is challenging.

In Madison and Limestone counties much of the area scarred by the tornadoes are agricultural in nature. Fields are either pasture land or row crops -- therefore the effect of tornado winds is minimal and the mark on satellite imagery is suppressed.

While this indicates a limitation to the use of this particular image analysis for tornado track detection over primarily agricultural land use, the SPoRT team is exploring the use of temperature channels from ASTER to better identify damage marks on Earth's surface. Terra/ASTER is a joint activity between NASA's Science Mission Directorate Earth Science Division and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Terra is one of 14 NASA satellites that look at the Earth to study and understand changes in the Earth system and provide societal benefits.

The NASA image created by the Short-term Prediction and Research Transition or SPoRT project at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, using data provided courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center, Japan’s Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, along with the Japan Research Observation System Organization.

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NASA Dawn Spacecraft Reaches Milestone Approaching Asteroid

Dwayne C. Brown

Headquarters, Washington

 

Jia-Rui Cook

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft has reached its official approach phase to the asteroid Vesta and will begin using cameras for the first time to aid navigation for an expected July 16 orbital encounter. The large asteroid is known as a protoplanet – a celestial body that almost formed into a planet.

At the start of this three-month final approach to this massive body in the asteroid belt, Dawn is 752,000 miles (1.21 million kilometers) from Vesta, or about three times the distance between the Earth and the moon. During the approach phase, the spacecraft's main activity will be thrusting with a special, hyper-efficient ion engine that uses electricity to ionize and accelerate xenon to generate thrust. The 12-inch-wide ion thrusters provide less thrust than conventional engines, but will provide propulsion for years during the mission and provide far greater capability to change velocity.

"We feel a little like Columbus approaching the shores of the New World," said Christopher Russell, Dawn principal investigator, based at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA). "The Dawn team can't wait to start mapping this Terra Incognita."

Dawn previously navigated by measuring the radio signal between the spacecraft and Earth, and used other methods that did not involve Vesta. But as the spacecraft closes in on its target, navigation requires more precise measurements. By analyzing where Vesta appears relative to stars, navigators will pin down its location and enable engineers to refine the spacecraft's trajectory. Using its ion engine to match Vesta's orbit around the sun, the spacecraft will spiral gently into orbit around the asteroid. When Dawn gets approximately 9,900 miles (16,000 kilometers) from Vesta, the asteroid's gravity will capture the spacecraft in orbit.

"After more than three and a half years of interplanetary travel, we are finally closing in on our first destination," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "We're not there yet, but Dawn will soon bring into focus an entire world that has been, for most of the two centuries scientists have been studying it, little more than a pinpoint of light."

Scientists will search the framing camera images for possible moons around Vesta. None of the images from ground-based and Earth-orbiting telescopes have seen any moons, but Dawn will give scientists much more detailed images to determine whether small objects have gone undiscovered.

The gamma ray and neutron detector instrument also will gather information on cosmic rays during the approach phase, providing a baseline for comparison when Dawn is much closer to Vesta. Simultaneously, Dawn's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer will take early measurements to ensure it is calibrated and ready when the spacecraft enters orbit around Vesta.

Dawn's odyssey, which will take it on a 3-billion-mile journey, began on Sept. 27, 2007, with its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It will stay in orbit around Vesta for one year. After another long cruise phase, Dawn will arrive at its second destination, an even more massive body in the asteroid belt called Ceres, in 2015.

These two icons of the asteroid belt will help scientists unlock the secrets of our solar system's early history. The mission will compare and contrast the two giant asteroids, which were shaped by different forces. Dawn's science instrument suite will measure surface composition, topography and texture. In addition, the Dawn spacecraft will measure the tug of gravity from Vesta and Ceres to learn more about their internal structures.

The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in Washington. Dawn is a project of SMD's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp. of Dulles, Va., designed and built the Dawn spacecraft. The framing cameras have been developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau in Germany, with significant contributions by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Planetary Research in Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering in Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by NASA, the Max Planck Society and DLR.

For more information about Dawn, visit http://www.nasa.gov/dawn.

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NASA And USAID To Sign Agreement To Tackle Worldwide Problems

Stephen Cole/Michael Braukus

Headquarters, Washington     

 

Gina Jackson

U.S. Agency for International Development, Washington

WASHINGTON -- Reporters are invited to the signing of a formal agreement between NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote collaboration on scientific and technological solutions to worldwide problems. The memorandum of understanding addresses such challenges as global health, climate change, food security, and disaster mitigation and response.

The event will take place in the NASA Headquarters auditorium at 300 E Street SW in Washington on Monday, April 25, at 2 p.m. EDT. NASA Television and the agency's website will broadcast the event live.

The participants are:

Charles Bolden, NASA administrator

Dr. Rajiv Shah, USAID administrator

Leland Melvin, NASA associate administrator for education

Daniel Irwin, scientist, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.

Josh Nesbit, CEO, Medic Mobile, Austin, Texas

Dieterich Lawson, chief technology officer, Medic Mobile

Alex Dehgan, science and technology adviser to the USAID administrator

Before the signing ceremony, there will be a presentation on two NASA-USAID programs, SERVIR and LAUNCH. The SERVIR program integrates satellite observations, ground-based data and forecast models to monitor and forecast environmental changes and improve response to natural disasters in Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, and the Himalayas. It helps inform science-based decision-making in the areas of climate change, health, agriculture, environment, water, and weather.

LAUNCH is a global initiative to identify and support innovative work poised to contribute to a sustainable future and accelerate solutions to meet urgent challenges facing our society. NASA, USAID, the Department of State, and Nike joined to form LAUNCH in an effort to identify, showcase and support innovative approaches to global challenges through a series of forums.

There also will be a question-and-answer session with students from area high schools and universities with the NASA and USAID administrators.

For more information on SERVIR, visit  http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/servir/index.html.

For more information on LAUNCH, visit http://launch.org/.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

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Next Generation Space Telescope

NASA engineer Ernie Wright looks on as the first six flight ready James Webb Space Telescope's primary mirror segments are prepped to begin final cryogenic testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

This represents the first six of 18 segments that will form NASA's James Webb Space Telescope’s primary mirror for space observations. Engineers began final round-the-clock cryogenic testing to confirm that the mirrors will respond as expected to the extreme temperatures of space prior to integration into the telescope's permanent housing structure.

Image Credit: NASA/MSFC/David Higginbotham

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