Top Stories: May 2012

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Venus, a Planetary Portrait of Inner Beauty

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

News feature: 2012-150 May 31, 2012

Venus, a Planetary Portrait of Inner Beauty

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-150&cid=release_2012-150

A Venus transit across the face of the sun is a relatively rare event -- occurring in pairs with more than a
century separating each pair. There have been all of 53 transits of Venus across the sun between 2000
B.C. and the last one in 2004. On Wednesday, June 6 (Tuesday, June 5 from the Western Hemisphere),
Earth gets another shot at it – and the last for a good long while. But beyond this uniquely celestial
oddity, why has Venus been an object worthy of ogling for hundreds of centuries?

"Venus is a fascinating yet horrendously extreme place all at once," said Sue Smrekar, a scientist at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Although the surface is hot enough to melt lead
due to its runaway greenhouse atmosphere, in many respects it is Earth's twin [size, gravity and bulk
composition]."

Venus is not only nearby, but its orbit brings it closest to Earth of all the planets. Which along with its
bright atmosphere goes a long way toward making it the third brightest object in the sky (the sun and
moon are one and two). Along with Smrekar and many other equally intrigued planetary scientists, you
can add to the list of those studying the second planet from the sun the ancient Babylonians, who noted
its wanderings in texts as far back as 1600 BC. And anyone who has ever sweated out a Pythagorean
Theorem in school (a^2 + b^2 = c^2) might find some solace in knowing that Greek mathematician
Pythagoras sweated out the orbits of Venus, eventually becoming the first to determine that what had
been believed to be unique and separate evening and morning stars (as believed by the ancient
Egyptians and Greeks), was actually just one object – Venus.

But for all that these ancient astronomers and their medieval contemporaries (including the Aztecs back
in the 1500s) were able to deduce, no human had ever laid eyes on Venus as more than a bright dot in
the sky until Galileo Galilee, who in 1610 was the first human to actually see Venus in various kinds of
light. With his telescope, Galileo started cranking out Venetian discoveries, including how the planet
changed its illumination phase just like the moon as it circles Earth. Galileo's telescope provided strong
evidence that Venus goes around the sun, and not Earth, as most of his contemporaries believed.

After Galileo, Venus came under even more intense scrutiny, both scientific and fanciful. More than one
astronomer (and science fiction author) theorized it was home to some type of life form. The thick,
impenetrable clouds allowed them to imagine tropical environs with steady rainfall and lush vegetation.

With the dawn of robotic space probes, America's Mariner 2, built by JPL, became history's first
interplanetary traveler when it flew past Venus on Dec. 14, 1962. All told, 45 missions targeting Earth's
twin have been launched by the United States, Russia (and former Soviet Union), and Japan. All this
probing by astronomers and robotic explorers has found Venus to be replete with 900-degree-
Fahrenheit (500-degree-Celsius) temperatures in a carbon-dioxide-rich atmosphere with pressures
equivalent to being half a mile below the ocean surface. It is not a particularly hospitable environment.

"If our research tells us anything, it is that while Venus is devoid of life, it should be anything but
avoided," said Smrekar. "Throughout history, Venus has been one of the most studied and speculated-
about celestial bodies in our sky, and the same truth will hold well after this transit is over. Venus is a
remarkable world with many lessons for us about the climate and interior of Earth and Earth-like planets
in other solar systems."

For those who want to know more, check out NASA's web page for all things Venus transit:
http://venustransit.nasa.gov/transitofvenus/ .

If you're in the western Pacific, eastern Asia and eastern Australia, you'll get a great view of the entire
event. North and Central America, and northern South America get the beginning of the transit (on June
5), but the sun will set before the event ends. Conversely, Europeans, as well as those watching in
western and central Asia, eastern Africa and western Australia will get a glimpse at the tail end.

For information about NASA and agency programs, visit http://www.nasa.gov .

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Enceladus Plume is a New Kind of Plasma Laboratory

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2012-149 May 31, 2012

Enceladus Plume is a New Kind of Plasma Laboratory

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-149&cid=release_2012-149

PASADENA, Calif. – Recent findings from NASA's Cassini mission reveal that Saturn's
geyser moon Enceladus provides a special laboratory for watching unusual behavior of
plasma, or hot ionized gas. In these recent findings, some Cassini scientists think they have
observed "dusty plasma," a condition theorized but not previously observed on site, near
Enceladus.

Data from Cassini's fields and particles instruments also show that the usual "heavy" and
"light" species of charged particles in normal plasma are actually reversed near the plume
spraying from the moon's south polar region. The findings are discussed in two recent papers
in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

"These are truly exciting discoveries for plasma science," said Tamas Gombosi, Cassini fields
and particles interdisciplinary scientist based at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
"Cassini is providing us with a new plasma physics laboratory."

Ninety-nine percent of the matter in the universe is thought to be in the form of plasma, so
scientists have been using Saturn as a site other than Earth to observe the behavior of this
cloud of ions and electrons directly. Scientists want to study the way the sun sends energy into
Saturn's plasma environment, since that jolt of energy drives processes such as weather and
the behavior of magnetic field lines. They can use these data to understand how Saturn's
plasma environment is similar to and different from that of Earth and other planets.

The small, icy moon Enceladus is a major source of ionized material filling the huge magnetic
bubble around Saturn. About 200 pounds (about 100 kilograms) of water vapor per second –
about as much as an active comet – spray out from long cracks in the south polar region
known as "tiger stripes." The ejected matter forms the Enceladus plume – a complex structure
of icy grains and neutral gas that is mainly water vapor. The plume gets converted into
charged particles interacting with the plasma that fills Saturn's magnetosphere.

The nature of this unique gas-dust-plasma mixture has been revealed over the course of the
mission with data from multiple instruments, including the Cassini plasma spectrometer,
magnetometer, magnetospheric imaging instrument, and the radio and plasma wave science
instrument. What scientists found most interesting is that the grains range continuously in size
from small water clusters (a few water molecules) to thousandths of an inch (100
micrometers). They also saw that a large fraction of these grains trap electrons on their
surface. Up to 90 percent of the electrons from the plume appear to be stuck on large, heavy
grains.

In this environment, Cassini has now seen positively charged ions become the small, "light"
plasma species and the negatively charged grains become the "heavy" component. This is just
the opposite of "normal" plasmas, where the negative electrons are thousands of times lighter
than the positive ions.

In a paper published in the December issue of the journal, a team of Swedish and U.S.
scientists on the Cassini mission examined radio and plasma wave science instrument
observations from four flybys of Enceladus during 2008. They found a high plasma density
(both ions and electrons) within the Enceladus plume region, although the electron densities
are usually much lower than the ion densities in the plumes and in the E ring. The team
concluded that dust particles a hundred millionth to a hundred thousandth of an inch (a
nanometer to micrometer) in size are sweeping up the negatively charged electrons. The mass
of the observed "nanograins" ranges from a few hundred to a few tens of thousands of atomic
mass units (proton masses), and must therefore contain tens to thousands of water molecules
bound together. At least half of the negatively charged electrons are attached to the dust, and
their interaction with the positively charged particles causes the ions to be decelerated.
Because the dust is charged and behaves as part of the plasma cloud, this paper distinguishes
this state of matter from dust that just happens to be in plasma.

"Such strong coupling indicates the possible presence of so-called 'dusty plasma', rather than
the 'dust in a plasma' conditions which are common in interplanetary space," said Michiko
Morooka from the Swedish Institute of Space Physics, lead author of the paper and a Cassini
radio and plasma wave science co-investigator. "Except for measurements in Earth's upper
atmosphere, there have previously been no in-situ observations of dusty plasma in space."

In a dusty plasma, conditions are just right for the dust to also participate in the plasma's
collective behavior. This increases the complexity of the plasma, changes its properties
and produces totally new collective behavior. Dusty plasma are thought to exist in comet tails
and dust rings around the sun, but scientists rarely have the opportunity to fly through the
dusty plasma and directly measure its characteristics in place.

A separate analysis, based on data obtained by the Cassini plasma spectrometer, revealed the
presence of nanograins having an electric charge corresponding to a single excess electron.
"The Cassini plasma spectrometer has enabled us to discover and analyze new classes of
charged particles that were wholly unanticipated when the instrument was designed and built
in the 1980s and 90s," said Tom Hill, the study's lead author and a co-investigator based at
Rice University in Houston.

The nature of the Enceladus plume has been revealed over time due to the synergistic nature
of the fields and particles instruments on Cassini, which has been in residence in Saturn's
magnetosphere since 2004. Following the original detection of the plume based on
magnetometer measurements, Sven Simon from the University of Cologne, Germany, and
Hendrik Kriegel from the University of Braunschweig, Germany, found that the observed
perturbation of Saturn's magnetic field required the presence of negatively charged dust
grains in the plume. These findings were reported in the April and October 2011 issues of
Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics. Previous data obtained by the ion and
neutral mass spectrometer revealed the complex composition of the plume gas, and the
cosmic dust analyzer revealed that the plume grains were rich in sodium salts. Because this
scenario can only arise if the plume originated from liquid water, it provides compelling
evidence for a subsurface ocean.

Cassini will continue to study the complex nature of the plume region in the three planned
additional flybys of Enceladus. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of
NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the
mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More Cassini information is at
http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

NASA Preparing to Launch its Newest X-Ray Eyes

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

J.D. Harrington 202-358-5241
Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

News release: 2012-147 May 30, 2012

NASA Preparing to Launch its Newest X-Ray Eyes

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-147&cid=release_2012-147

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, is being
prepared for the final journey to its launch pad on Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean.
The mission will study everything from massive black holes to our own sun. It is scheduled to
launch no earlier than June 13.

"We will see the hottest, densest and most energetic objects with a fundamentally new, high-
energy X-ray telescope that can obtain much deeper and crisper images than before," said Fiona
Harrison, the NuSTAR principal investigator at the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, Calif., who first conceived of the mission 20 years ago.

The observatory is perched atop an Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket. If the
mission passes its Flight Readiness Review on June 1, the rocket will be strapped to the bottom
of an aircraft, the L-1011 Stargazer, also operated by Orbital, on June 2. The Stargazer is
scheduled to fly from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California to Kwajalein on June 5 to
6.

After taking off on launch day, the Stargazer will drop the rocket around 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30
a.m. EDT). The rocket will then ignite and carry NuSTAR to a low orbit around Earth.

"NuSTAR uses several innovations for its unprecedented imaging capability and was made
possible by many partners," said Yunjin Kim, the project manager for the mission at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We're all really excited to see the fruition of our work
begin its mission in space."

NuSTAR will be the first space telescope to create focused images of cosmic X-rays with the
highest energies. These are the same types of X-rays that doctors use to see your bones and
airports use to scan your bags. The telescope will have more than 10 times the resolution and
more than 100 times the sensitivity of its predecessors while operating in a similar energy range.

The mission will work with other telescopes in space now, including NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory, which observes lower-energy X-rays. Together, they will provide a more complete
picture of the most energetic and exotic objects in space, such as black holes, dead stars and jets
traveling near the speed of light.

"NuSTAR truly demonstrates the value that NASA's research and development programs
provide in advancing the nation's science agenda," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics
Division director. "Taking just over four years from receiving the project go-ahead to launch,
this low-cost Explorer mission will use new mirror and detector technology that was developed
in NASA's basic research program and tested in NASA's scientific ballooning program. The
result of these modest investments is a small space telescope that will provide world-class
science in an important but relatively unexplored band of the electromagnetic spectrum."

NuSTAR will study black holes that are big and small, far and near, answering questions about
the formation and physics behind these wonders of the cosmos. The observatory will also
investigate how exploding stars forge the elements that make up planets and people, and it will
even study our own sun's atmosphere.

The observatory is able to focus the high-energy X-ray light into sharp images because of a
complex, innovative telescope design. High-energy light is difficult to focus because it only
reflects off mirrors when hitting at nearly parallel angles. NuSTAR solves this problem with
nested shells of mirrors. It has the most nested shells ever used in a space telescope: 133 in each
of two optic units. The mirrors were molded from ultra-thin glass similar to that found in laptop
screens and glazed with even thinner layers of reflective coating.

The telescope also consists of state-of-the-art detectors and a lengthy 33-foot (10-meter) mast,
which connects the detectors to the nested mirrors, providing the long distance required to focus
the X-rays. This mast is folded up into a canister small enough to fit atop the Pegasus launch
vehicle. It will unfurl about seven days after launch. About 23 days later, science operations will
begin.

NuSTAR is a Small Explorer mission led by Caltech and managed by JPL for NASA's Science
Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was built by Orbital Sciences Corporation in
Dulles, Va. Its instrument was built by a consortium including Caltech; JPL; University of
California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley); Columbia University in New York; NASA's Goddard
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; the Danish Technical University in Denmark; Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif.; and ATK Aerospace Systems in Goleta,
Calif. NuSTAR will be operated by UC Berkeley, with the Italian Space Agency providing its
equatorial ground station located at Malindi, Kenya. The mission's outreach program is based at
Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, Calif. NASA's Explorer Program is managed by
Goddard. JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA.

For more information, visit http://www.nasa.gov/nustar and http://www.nustar.caltech.edu .

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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

NASA Lunar Spacecraft Complete Prime Mission Ahead of Schedule

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

DC Agle 818-393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
Dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Caroline McCall 617-253-1682
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
cmccall5@mit.edu

News release: 2012-146 May 29, 2012

NASA Lunar Spacecraft Complete Prime Mission Ahead of Schedule

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-146&cid=release_2012-146

PASADENA, Calif. -- A NASA mission to study the moon from crust to core has completed its
prime mission earlier than expected. The team of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory
(GRAIL) mission, with twin probes named Ebb and Flow, is now preparing for extended science
operations starting Aug. 30 and continuing through Dec. 3, 2012.

The GRAIL mission has gathered unprecedented detail about the internal structure and evolution of
the moon. This information will increase our knowledge of how Earth and its rocky neighbors in the
inner solar system developed into the diverse worlds we see today.

Since March 8, the spacecraft have operated around the clock for 89 days. From an orbit that passes
over the lunar poles, they have collected data covering the entire surface three times. An instrument
called the Lunar Gravity Ranging System onboard each spacecraft transmits radio signals that allow
scientists to translate the data into a high-resolution map of the moon's gravitational field. The
spacecraft returned their last data set of the prime mission today. The instruments were turned off at
10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) when the spacecraft were 37 miles (60 kilometers) above the Sea of
Nectar.

"Many of the measurement objectives were achieved from analysis of only half the primary mission
data, which speaks volumes about the skill and dedication of our science and engineering teams," said
Maria Zuber, principal investigator of GRAIL at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in
Cambridge. "While there is a great deal of work yet to be done to achieve the mission's science, it's
energizing to realize that what we traveled from Earth to the moon for is right here in our hands."

"GRAIL delivered to Earth over 99.99 percent of the data that could have been collected, which
underscores the flawless performance of the spacecraft, instrument and the Deep Space Network,"
said Zuber.

Both spacecraft instruments will be powered off until Aug. 30. The spacecraft will have to endure a
lunar eclipse on June 4. The eclipse and the associated sudden changes in temperature and the energy-
sapping darkness that accompanies the phenomena were expected and do not concern engineers about
the spacecraft's health.

"Before launch, we planned for all of GRAIL's primary mission science to occur between lunar
eclipses," said David Lehman, project manager of GRAIL from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, Calif. "But now that we have flown Ebb and Flow for a while, we understand them and are
confident they can survive these eclipses in good shape."

The extended mission goal is to take an even closer look at the moon's gravity field. To achieve this,
GRAIL mission planners will halve their current operating altitude to the lowest altitude that can be
safely maintained.

"Orbiting at an average altitude of 14 miles (23 kilometers) during the extended mission, the GRAIL
twins will be clearing some of the moon's higher surface features by about 5 miles (8 kilometers),"
said Joe Beerer of JPL, GRAIL's mission manager. "If Ebb and Flow had feet, I think by reflex they'd
want to pull them up every time they fly over a mountain."

Along with mission science, GRAIL's MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school
students) education and public outreach program is also extended. To date over 70,000 student
images of the moon have been obtained. The MoonKAM program is led by Sally Ride, America's
first woman in space, and her team at Sally Ride Science in collaboration with undergraduate students
at the University of California in San Diego.

The GRAIL mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The
mission is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala. NASA's Deep Space Network is an international network of antennas that supports
interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of
the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

For more information about GRAIL, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/grail

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Thursday, May 24, 2012

NASA to Hold News Conference About Nustar Launch

NASA Scientist Figures Way to Weigh Space Rock

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Herschel Sees Intergalactic Bridge Aglow With Stars

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Written by Adam Hadhazy
Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

News feature: 2012-139 May 19, 2012

Herschel Sees Intergalactic Bridge Aglow With Stars

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-139&cid=release_2012-139

The Herschel Space Observatory has discovered a giant, galaxy-packed filament ablaze with
billions of new stars. The filament connects two clusters of galaxies that, along with a third
cluster, will smash together and give rise to one of the largest galaxy superclusters in the
universe.

Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions.

The filament is the first structure of its kind spied in a critical era of cosmic buildup when
colossal collections of galaxies called superclusters began to take shape. The glowing galactic
bridge offers astronomers a unique opportunity to explore how galaxies evolve and merge to
form superclusters.

"We are excited about this filament, because we think the intense star formation we see in its
galaxies is related to the consolidation of the surrounding supercluster," says Kristen Coppin, an
astrophysicist at McGill University in Canada, and lead author of a new paper in Astrophysical
Journal Letters.

"This luminous bridge of star formation gives us a snapshot of how the evolution of cosmic
structure on very large scales affects the evolution of the individual galaxies trapped within it,"
says Jim Geach, a co-author who is also based at McGill.

The intergalactic filament, containing hundreds of galaxies, spans 8 million light-years and links
two of the three clusters that make up a supercluster known as RCS2319. This emerging
supercluster is an exceptionally rare, distant object whose light has taken more than seven billion
years to reach us.

RCS2319 is the subject of a huge observational study, led by Tracy Webb and her group at
McGill. Previous observations in visible and X-ray light had found the cluster cores and hinted at
the presence of a filament. It was not until astronomers trained Herschel on the region, however,
that the intense star-forming activity in the filament became clear. Dust obscures much of the
star-formation activity in the early universe, but telescopes like Herschel can detect the infrared
glow of this dust as it is heated by nascent stars.

The amount of infrared light suggests that the galaxies in the filament are cranking out the
equivalent of about 1,000 solar masses (the mass of our sun) of new stars per year. For
comparison's sake, our Milky Way galaxy is producing about one solar-mass worth of new stars
per year.

Researchers chalk up the blistering pace of star formation in the filament to the fact that galaxies
within it are being crunched into a relatively small cosmic volume under the force of gravity. "A
high rate of interactions and mergers between galaxies could be disturbing the galaxies' gas
reservoirs, igniting bursts of star formation," said Geach.

By studying the filament, astronomers will be able to explore the fundamental issue of whether
"nature" versus "nurture" matters more in the life progression of a galaxy. "Is the evolution of a
galaxy dominated by intrinsic properties such as total mass, or do wider-scale cosmic
environments largely determine how galaxies grow and change?" Geach asked. "The role of the
environment in influencing galactic evolution is one of the key questions of modern
astrophysics."

The galaxies in the RCS2319 filament will eventually migrate toward the center of the emerging
supercluster. Over the next seven to eight billion years, astronomers think RCS2319 will come to
look like gargantuan superclusters in the local universe, like the nearby Coma cluster. These
advanced clusters are chock-full of "red and dead" elliptical galaxies that contain aged, reddish
stars instead of young ones.

"The galaxies we are seeing as starbursts in RCS2319 are destined to become dead galaxies in
the gravitational grip of one of the most massive structures in the universe," said Geach. "We're
catching them at the most important stage of their evolution."

Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission, with science instruments provided by
consortia of European institutes and with important participation by NASA. NASA's Herschel
Project Office is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. JPL contributed
mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments. The NASA
Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, supports the United States astronomical community.
Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

More information is online at http://www.herschel.caltech.edu ,
http://www.nasa.gov/herschel and http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel .

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Wednesday, May 16, 2012

NASA Survey Counts Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

J.D. Harrington 202-358-5241
Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

News release: 2012-138 May 16, 2012

NASA Survey Counts Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-138&cid=release_2012-138

PASADENA, Calif. -- Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system's population of potentially hazardous
asteroids. The results reveal new information about their total numbers, origins and the possible
dangers they may pose.

Potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are a subset of the larger group of near-Earth asteroids.
The PHAs have the closest orbits to Earth's, coming within five million miles (about eight
million kilometers), and they are big enough to survive passing through Earth's atmosphere and
cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.

The new results come from the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE mission, called NEOWISE.
The project sampled 107 PHAs to make predictions about the entire population as a whole.
Findings indicate there are roughly 4,700 PHAs, plus or minus 1,500, with diameters larger than
330 feet (about 100 meters). So far, an estimated 20 to 30 percent of these objects have been
found.

While previous estimates of PHAs predicted similar numbers, they were rough approximations.
NEOWISE has generated a more credible estimate of the objects' total numbers and sizes.

"The NEOWISE analysis shows us we've made a good start at finding those objects that truly
represent an impact hazard to Earth," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-
Earth Object Observation Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "But we've many
more to find, and it will take a concerted effort during the next couple of decades to find all of
them that could do serious damage or be a mission destination in the future."

The new analysis also suggests that about twice as many PHAs as previously thought are likely
to reside in "lower-inclination" orbits, which are more aligned with the plane of Earth's orbit. In
addition, these lower-inclination objects appear to be somewhat brighter and smaller than the
other near-Earth asteroids that spend more time far away from Earth. A possible explanation is
that many of the PHAs may have originated from a collision between two asteroids in the main
belt lying between Mars and Jupiter. A larger body with a low-inclination orbit may have broken
up in the main belt, causing some of the fragments to drift into orbits closer to Earth and
eventually become PHAs.

Asteroids with lower-inclination orbits would be more likely to encounter Earth and would be
easier to reach. The results therefore suggest more near-Earth objects might be available for
future robotic or human missions.

"NASA's NEOWISE project, which wasn't originally planned as part of WISE, has turned out to
be a huge bonus," said Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator, at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Everything we can learn about these objects helps us
understand their origins and fate. Our team was surprised to find the overabundance of low-
inclination PHAs. Because they will tend to make more close approaches to Earth, these targets
can provide the best opportunities for the next generation of human and robotic exploration."

The discovery that many PHAs tend to be bright says something about their composition; they
are more likely to be either stony, like granite, or metallic. This type of information is important
in assessing the space rocks' potential hazards to Earth. The composition of the bodies would
affect how quickly they might burn up in our atmosphere if an encounter were to take place.

The WISE spacecraft scanned the sky twice in infrared light before entering hibernation mode in
early 2011. It catalogued hundreds of millions of objects, including super-luminous galaxies,
stellar nurseries and closer-to-home asteroids. The NEOWISE project snapped images of about
600 near-Earth asteroids, about 135 of which were new discoveries. Because the telescope
detected the infrared light, or heat, of asteroids, it was able to pick up both light and dark objects,
resulting in a more representative look at the entire population. The infrared data allowed
astronomers to make good measurements of the asteroids' diameters and, when combined with
visible light observations, how much sunlight they reflect.

JPL manages, and operates the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission
was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space
Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics
Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.,
Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing and archiving take place at the Infrared
Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech
manages JPL for NASA.

More information is online at http://www.nasa.gov/wise and http://wise.astro.ucla.edu and
http://jpl.nasa.gov/wise .

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NASA Lends Galaxy Evolution Explorer to Caltech

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

J.D. Harrington 202-358-5241
NASA Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

Lawren Markle 626-395-3226
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.
lmarkle@caltech.edu

News Release: 2012-137 May 16, 2012

NASA Lends Galaxy Evolution Explorer to Caltech

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-137&cid=release_2012-137

WASHINGTON -- NASA is lending the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) to the California
Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, where the spacecraft will continue its exploration of
the cosmos. In a first-of-a-kind move for NASA, a Space Act Agreement was signed May 14 so the
university soon can resume spacecraft operations and data management for the mission using private
funds.

"NASA sees this as an opportunity to allow the public to continue reaping the benefits from this
space asset that NASA developed using federal funding," said Paul Hertz, NASA's Astrophysics
Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "This is an excellent example of a
public/private partnership that will help further astronomy in the United States."

The Galaxy Evolution Explorer spent about nine years as a NASA mission, probing the sky with its
sharp ultraviolet eyes and cataloguing hundreds of millions of galaxies spanning 10 billion years of
cosmic time.

"This mission was full of surprises, and now more surprises are sure to come," said Chris Martin,
who will remain the mission's principal investigator at Caltech. "It already has scanned a large
fraction of the sky, improving our understanding of how galaxies grow and evolve. The astronomy
community will continue those studies, in addition to spending more time on stars closer to home in
our own galaxy."

The spacecraft was placed in standby mode on Feb. 7 of this year. Soon, Caltech will begin to
manage and operate the satellite, working with several international research groups to continue
ultraviolet studies of the universe. Projects include cataloguing more galaxies across the entire sky;
watching how stars and galaxies change over time; and making deep observations of the stars being
surveyed for orbiting planets by NASA's Kepler mission. Data will continue to be made available to
the public.

"We're thrilled that the mission will continue on its path of discovery," said Kerry Erickson, the
mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The Galaxy
Evolution Explorer is like the 'little engine that could,' forging ahead into unexplored territory."

During its time at NASA, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer made many discoveries involving various
types of objects that light up our sky with ultraviolet light. Perhaps the most surprising of these was
the discovery of a gargantuan comet-like tail behind a speeding star called Mira. Other finds included
catching black holes "red-handed" as they munch away on stars, spying giant rings of new stars
around old, presumed dead galaxies, and independently confirming the nature of dark energy.

For astronomers, the most profound shift in their understanding of galaxy evolution came from the
mission's findings about a "missing link" population of galaxies. These missing members helped
explain how the two major types of galaxies in our universe -- the "red and dead" ellipticals and the
blue spirals -- transition from one type to another.

"We were able to trace the life of a galaxy," Martin said. "With the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's
ultraviolet detectors, we were able to isolate the small amounts of star formation that are the
signatures of galaxies undergoing an evolutionary change. We found that galaxies don't have a single
personality, but may change types many times over their lifetime."

The mission also captured a dazzling collection of snapshots, showing everything from ghostly
nebulas to a spiral galaxy with huge, spidery arms. A slideshow showing some of the top images can
be seen here: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/gallery-index.html .

Under the new agreement, NASA maintains ownership and liability for the Galaxy Evolution
Explorer spacecraft. When Caltech completes science activities, it will decommission the spacecraft
for NASA. The mission's batteries and solar panels have an expected lifetime of 12 years or more,
and the spacecraft will remain in orbit for at least 66 years, after which it will burn-up upon re-entry
into Earth's atmosphere. The agreement can be renegotiated when it expires in three years.

Orbital Sciences Corporation in Dulles, Va., which built the spacecraft, will continue performing
flight control functions for Caltech associated with monitoring and commanding GALEX and
participating in mission planning. Universal Space Network will continue providing the ground
stations for communicating with the spacecraft.

For graphics and additional information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/galex .

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Tuesday, May 15, 2012

JPL Invites all Earthlings to Annual Open House

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Priscilla Vega 818-354-1357 / Elena Mejia 818-393-5467
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov / Elena.Mejia@jpl.nasa.gov

News release: 2012-136 May 15, 2012

JPL Invites all Earthlings to Annual Open House

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., invites the
public to its annual Open House on Saturday, June 9, and Sunday, June 10, from 9 a.m. to
4 p.m. The event, themed "Great Journeys," will take visitors on a "ride" through the
wonders of space. Highlights include a life-size model of Mars Science Laboratory, the
NASA/JPL spacecraft currently bound for Mars; demonstrations from numerous space
missions; JPL's machine shop, where robotic spacecraft parts are built; and the
Microdevices Lab, where engineers and scientists use tiny technology to revolutionize
space exploration.

The Earth Science Center, the most recent addition to JPL, will show 3-D videos of our
home planet and JPL's Earth science missions. Upon entering, visitors will pass an Earth
globe with data from NASA's Earth-orbiting satellites projected onto the sphere.

JPL Open House appeals to kids and adults, with plenty of hands-on activities and
opportunities to talk with scientists and engineers. For the first time ever, JPL invites cell
phone users with text message capabilities to take part in a mobile scavenger hunt.
Participants in "The Voyage" scavenger hunt can search for secret capsules hidden across
JPL and unlock secret codes. (Please note that message and data rates may apply.)
Scavenger hunt instructions will be available at Open House in the handout map.

Guests are also invited to ask questions, invite friends, and post photos and videos on our
Facebook Open House page at: https://www.facebook.com/events/325861567482245/ .
Visitors using Twitter are encouraged to use the #JPLOpen hashtag.

JPL is located at 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, Calif., 91109. Admission to Open
House is free. Parking is also free, but is limited. To get to JPL, take the Berkshire
Avenue/Oak Grove Drive exit from the 210 Freeway in La Canada/Flintridge. All visitors
should wear comfortable shoes -- no buses will be provided from JPL parking lots. JPL
will provide vans for mobility-challenged guests.

Vehicles entering NASA/JPL property are subject to inspection. Visitors cannot bring
these items to NASA/JPL: weapons, explosives, incendiary devices, dangerous
instruments, alcohol, illegal drugs, pets, all types of skates including skateboards,
Segways and bicycles. No bags, backpacks or ice chests are allowed, except small purses
and diaper bags.

More information, and photos of Open House from previous years are online at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/open-house.cfm .

Media wishing to cover the event should RSVP to: Priscilla Vega at
Priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov or 1-818-354-1357, or Elena Mejia at
Elena.mejia@jpl.nasa.gov or 1-818-393-5467 .

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Thursday, May 10, 2012

NASA's New Carbon-Counting Instrument Leaves the Nest

NASA Dawn Mission Reveals Secrets of Large Asteroid

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Jia-Rui Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jccook@jpl.nasa.gov

Dwayne Brown 202-358-1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

News release: 2012-132 May 10, 2012

NASA Dawn Mission Reveals Secrets of Large Asteroid

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-132&cid=release_2012-132

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Dawn spacecraft has provided researchers with the first orbital
analysis of the giant asteroid Vesta, yielding new insights into its creation and kinship with
terrestrial planets and Earth's moon.

Vesta now has been revealed as a special fossil of the early solar system with a more varied, diverse
surface than originally thought. Scientists have confirmed a variety of ways in which Vesta more
closely resembles a small planet or Earth's moon than another asteroid. Results appear in today's
edition of the journal Science.

"Dawn's visit to Vesta has confirmed our broad theories of this giant asteroid's history, while helping
to fill in details it would have been impossible to know from afar," said Carol Raymond, deputy
principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Dawn's residence at
Vesta of nearly a year has made the asteroid's planet-like qualities obvious and shown us our
connection to that bright orb in our night sky."

Scientists now see Vesta as a layered, planetary building block with an iron core – the only one
known to survive the earliest days of the solar system. The asteroid's geologic complexity can be
attributed to a process that separated the asteroid into a crust, mantle and iron core with a radius of
approximately 68 miles (110 kilometers) about 4.56 billion years ago. The terrestrial planets and
Earth's moon formed in a similar way.

Dawn observed a pattern of minerals exposed by deep gashes created by space rock impacts, which
may support the idea the asteroid once had a subsurface magma ocean. A magma ocean occurs when
a body undergoes almost complete melting, leading to layered building blocks that can form planets.
Other bodies with magma oceans ended up becoming parts of Earth and other planets.

Data also confirm a distinct group of meteorites found on Earth did, as theorized, originate from
Vesta. The signatures of pyroxene, an iron- and magnesium-rich mineral, in those meteorites match
those of rocks on Vesta's surface. These objects account for about 6 percent of all meteorites seen
falling on Earth.

This makes the asteroid one of the largest single sources for Earth's meteorites. The finding also
marks the first time a spacecraft has been able to visit the source of samples after they were
identified on Earth.

Scientists now know Vesta's topography is quite steep and varied. Some craters on Vesta formed on
very steep slopes and have nearly vertical sides, with landslides occurring more frequently than
expected.

Another unexpected finding was that the asteroid's central peak in the Rheasilvia basin in the
southern hemisphere is much higher and wider, relative to its crater size, than the central peaks of
craters on bodies like our moon. Vesta also bears similarities to other low-gravity worlds like
Saturn's small icy moons, and its surface has light and dark markings that don't match the predictable
patterns on Earth's moon.

"We know a lot about the moon and we're only coming up to speed now on Vesta," said Vishnu
Reddy, a framing camera team member at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in
Germany and the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. "Comparing the two gives us two
storylines for how these fraternal twins evolved in the early solar system."

Dawn has revealed details of ongoing collisions that battered Vesta throughout its history. Dawn
scientists now can date the two giant impacts that pounded Vesta's southern hemisphere and created
the basin Veneneia approximately 2 billion years ago and the Rheasilvia basin about 1 billion years
ago. Rheasilvia is the largest impact basin on Vesta.

"The large impact basins on the moon are all quite old," said David O'Brien, a Dawn participating
scientist from the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz. "The fact that the largest impact on
Vesta is so young was surprising."

Launched in 2007, Dawn began exploring Vesta in mid-2011. The spacecraft will depart Vesta on
August 26 for its next study target, the dwarf planet Ceres, in 2015.

Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program managed by NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission
science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft. The German
Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency
and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. The
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

For images and videos related to the findings, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/dawn/news/dawn20120510.html .

For more information about the Dawn mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn and
http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .

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Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Overfed Black Holes Shut Down Galactic Star-Making

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

J.D. Harrington 202-358-5241
Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

News release: 2012-129 May 9, 2012

Overfed Black Holes Shut Down Galactic Star-Making

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-129&cid=release_2012-129

PASADENA, Calif. -- The Herschel Space Observatory has shown galaxies with the most
powerful, active black holes at their cores produce fewer stars than galaxies with less active
black holes. The results are the first to demonstrate black holes suppressed galactic star
formation when the universe was less than half its current age.

Herschel is a European Space Agency-led mission with important NASA contributions.

"We want to know how star formation and black hole activity are linked," said Mathew Page of
University College London's Mullard Space Science Laboratory in the United Kingdom and lead
author of a paper describing these findings in this week's journal Nature. "The two processes
increase together up to a point, but the most energetic black holes appear to turn off star
formation."

Supermassive black holes, weighing as much as millions of suns, are believed to reside in the
hearts of all large galaxies. When gas falls upon these monsters, the material is accelerated and
heated around the black hole, releasing great torrents of energy. Earlier in the history of the
universe, these giant, luminous black holes, called active galactic nuclei, were often much
brighter and more energetic. Star formation was also livelier back then.

Studies of nearby galaxies suggest active black holes can squash star formation. The revved-up,
central black holes likely heat up and disperse the galactic reservoirs of cold gas needed to create
new stars. These studies have only provided "snapshots" in time, however, leaving the overall
relationship of active galactic nuclei and star formation unclear, especially over the cosmic
history of galaxy formation.

"To understand how active galactic nuclei affect star formation over the history of the universe,
we investigated a time when star formation was most vigorous, between eight and 12 billion
years ago," said co-author James Bock, a senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and co-coordinator of the Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic
Survey. "At that epoch, galaxies were forming stars 10 times more rapidly than they are today on
average. Many of these galaxies are incredibly luminous, more than 1,000 times brighter than
our Milky Way."

For the new study, Page and colleagues used Herschel data that probed 65 galaxies at
wavelengths equivalent to the thickness of several sheets of office paper, a region of the light
spectrum known as far-infrared. These wavelengths reveal the rate of star formation, because
most of the energy released by developing stars heats surrounding dust, which then re-radiates
starlight out in far-infrared wavelengths.

The researchers compared their infrared readings with X-rays streaming from the active central
black holes in the survey's galaxies, measured by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. At lower
intensities, the black holes' brightness and star formation increased in sync. However, star
formation dropped off in galaxies with the most energetic central black holes. Astronomers think
inflows of gas fuel new stars and supermassive black holes. Feed a black hole too much,
however, and it starts spewing radiation into the galaxy that prevents raw material from
coalescing into new stars.

"Now that we see the relationship between active supermassive black holes and star formation,
we want to know more about how this process works," said Bill Danchi, Herschel program
scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Does star formation get disrupted from the
beginning with the formation of the brightest galaxies of this type, or do all active black holes
eventually shut off star formation, and energetic ones do this more quickly than less active
ones?"

Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission, with science instruments provided by
consortia of European institutes and important participation by NASA. NASA's Herschel Project
Office is based at JPL. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three
science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and
Analysis Center at Caltech, supports the United States astronomical community. Caltech
manages JPL for NASA.

For NASA's Herschel website, visit http://www.nasa.gov/herschel/ . For ESA's Herschel website,
visit http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html .

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Tuesday, May 8, 2012

NASA’s Spitzer Sees the Light of Alien ‘Super Earth’

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

J. D. Harrington 202-358-5241
NASA Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

News release: 2012-127 May 8, 2012

NASA's Spitzer Sees the Light of Alien 'Super Earth'

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-127&cid=release_2012-127

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a "super-
Earth" planet beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the
detection is a historic step toward the eventual search for signs of life on other planets.

"Spitzer has amazed us yet again," said Bill Danchi, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters
in Washington. "The spacecraft is pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving
the way for NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to apply a similar technique on
potentially habitable planets."

The planet, called 55 Cancri e, falls into a class of planets termed super Earths, which are more
massive than our home world but lighter than giant planets like Neptune. The planet is about twice as
big and eight times as massive as Earth. It orbits a bright star, called 55 Cancri, in a mere 18 hours.

Previously, Spitzer and other telescopes were able to study the planet by analyzing how the light from
55 Cancri changed as the planet passed in front of the star. In the new study, Spitzer measured how
much infrared light comes from the planet itself. The results reveal the planet is likely dark, and its
sun-facing side is more than 2,000 Kelvin (3,140 degrees Fahrenheit), hot enough to melt metal.

The new information is consistent with a prior theory that 55 Cancri e is a water world: a rocky core
surrounded by a layer of water in a "supercritical" state where it is both liquid and gas, and topped by
a blanket of steam.

"It could be very similar to Neptune, if you pulled Neptune in toward our sun and watched its
atmosphere boil away," said Michaël Gillon of Université de Liège in Belgium, principal investigator
of the research, which appears in the Astrophysical Journal. The lead author is Brice-Olivier Demory
of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

The 55 Cancri system is relatively close to Earth, at 41 light-years away. It has five planets, with 55
Cancri e the closest to the star and tidally locked, so one side always faces the star. Spitzer discovered
the sun-facing side is extremely hot, indicating the planet probably does not have a substantial
atmosphere to carry the sun's heat to the unlit side.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to launch in 2018, likely will be able to learn even
more about the planet's composition. The telescope might be able to use a similar infrared method to
Spitzer to search other potentially habitable planets for signs of molecules possibly related to life.

"When we conceived of Spitzer more than 40 years ago, exoplanets hadn't even been discovered,"
said Michael Werner, Spitzer project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
Calif. "Because Spitzer was built very well, it's been able to adapt to this new field and make historic
advances such as this."

In 2005, Spitzer became the first telescope to detect light from a planet beyond our solar system. To
the surprise of many, the observatory saw the infrared light of a "hot Jupiter," a gaseous planet much
larger than the solid 55 Cancri e. Since then, other telescopes, including NASA's Hubble and Kepler
space telescopes, have performed similar feats with gas giants using the same method.

In this method, a telescope gazes at a star as a planet circles behind it. When the planet disappears
from view, the light from the star system dips ever so slightly, but enough that astronomers can
determine how much light came from the planet itself. This information reveals the temperature of a
planet, and, in some cases, its atmospheric components. Most other current planet-hunting methods
obtain indirect measurements of a planet by observing its effects on the star.

During Spitzer's ongoing extended mission, steps were taken to enhance its unique ability to see
exoplanets, including 55 Cancri e. Those steps, which included changing the cycling of a heater and
using an instrument in a new way, led to improvements in how precisely the telescope points at
targets.

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute
of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about Spitzer, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer and
http://spitzer.caltech.edu . More information about exoplanets and NASA's planet-finding program
is at http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov .

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Monday, May 7, 2012

NASA to Hold News Conference on Dawn Mission Results

Upcoming Workshop at NASA/JPL's Educator Resource Center

Upcoming Educator Workshop May 7, 2012

This is a feature from the NASA/JPL Education Office.

Reading, Writing and Rings

Date: Saturday, May 12, 2012, 10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Target audience:1st through 8th grade educators (all educators are welcome)

Location:NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center, Pomona, Calif.

Overview: Cassini-Huygens Mission Writing, and Rings uses science notebooks throughout the lessons, student assessment, and a wealth of science and math integration with language arts to make this an exciting student journey! Recommended for educator grades first through eighth, all educators are welcome. This workshop is being offered at the NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center located in Pomona, please call 909-397-4420 to reserve your spot.

For more information and directions, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=115

NASA/JPL Educator Resource Center workshops are offered on Saturdays at the Educator Resource Center in Pomona, Calif. from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. For a full list of professional development workshops from NASA/JPL Education, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/education/index.cfm?page=110.

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Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Black Hole Caught Red-Handed in a Stellar Homicide

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. PHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

J.D. Harrington 202-358-0321
Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

NEWS RELEASE: 2011-122 May 2, 2012

BLACK HOLE CAUGHT RED-HANDED IN A STELLAR HOMICIDE

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-122&cid=release_2012-122

PASADENA, Calif. – Astronomers have gathered the most direct evidence yet of a supermassive
black hole shredding a star that wandered too close. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer, a space-
based observatory, and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope on the summit of Haleakala in Hawaii were
among the first to help identify the stellar remains.

Supermassive black holes, weighing millions to billions times more than the sun, lurk in the centers of
most galaxies. These hefty monsters lie quietly until an unsuspecting victim, such as a star, wanders
close enough to get ripped apart by their powerful gravitational clutches.

Astronomers had spotted these stellar homicides before, but this is the first time they have identified
the victim. Using several ground- and space-based telescopes, a team of astronomers led by Suvi
Gezari of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., identified the victim as a star rich in helium
gas. The star resides in a galaxy 2.7 billion light-years away. The team's results appear in today's
online edition of the journal Nature.

"When the star is ripped apart by the gravitational forces of the black hole, some part of the star's
remains falls into the black hole, while the rest is ejected at high speeds," Gezari said. "We are seeing
the glow from the stellar gas falling into the black hole over time. We're also witnessing the spectral
signature of the ejected gas, which we find to be mostly helium. It is like we are gathering evidence
from a crime scene. Because there is very little hydrogen and mostly helium in the gas, we detect
from the carnage that the slaughtered star had to have been the helium-rich core of a stripped star."

This observation yields insights about the harsh environment around black holes and the types of
stars swirling around them. It is not the first time the unlucky star had a brush with the behemoth
black hole.

The team believes the star's hydrogen-filled envelope surrounding the core was lifted off a long time
ago by the same black hole. The star may have been near the end of its life. After consuming most of
its hydrogen fuel, it had probably ballooned in size, becoming a red giant. Astronomers think the
bloated star was looping around the black hole in a highly elliptical orbit, similar to a comet's
elongated orbit around the sun. On one of its close approaches, the star was stripped of its puffed-up
atmosphere by the black hole's powerful gravity. The stellar remains continued its journey around the
center, until it ventured even closer to the black hole to face its ultimate demise.

Astronomers predict stripped stars circle the central black hole of our Milky Way galaxy. These close
encounters are rare, occurring roughly every 100,000 years. To find this event, Gezari's team
monitored hundreds of thousands of galaxies in ultraviolet light with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer,
and in visible light with Pan-STARRS1. Pan-STARRS, short for Panoramic Survey Telescope and
Rapid Response System, scans the entire night sky for all kinds of transient phenomena, including
supernovae.

The team was looking for a bright flare in ultraviolet light from the nucleus of a galaxy with a
previously dormant black hole. Both telescopes spotted one in June 2010. Astronomers continued to
monitor the flare as it reached peak brightness a month later and slowly faded during the next 12
months. The brightening event was similar to the explosive energy unleashed by a supernova, but the
rise to the peak was much slower, taking nearly one-and-a-half months.

"The longer the event lasted, the more excited we got, because we realized this is either a very
unusual supernova or an entirely different type of event, such as a star being ripped apart by a black
hole," said team member Armin Rest of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

By measuring the increase in brightness, the astronomers calculated the black hole's mass to be
several million suns, which is comparable to the size of our Milky Way's black hole.

Spectroscopic observations with the Multiple Meter Telescope Observatory on Mount Hopkins in
Arizona showed the black hole was swallowing lots of helium. Spectroscopy divides light into its
rainbow colors, which yields an object's characteristics, such as its temperature and gaseous makeup.

To completely rule out the possibility of an active nucleus flaring up in the galaxy, the team used
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to study the hot gas. Chandra showed that the characteristics
of the gas didn't match those from an active galactic nucleus.

For images, video and more information about this study, visit: http://hubblesite.org/news/2012/18 .

For graphics and information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/galex and http://www.galex.caltech.edu .

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