New Horizon Pluto Exploration Stamp
Image Credit: NASA / John Hopkins /Dan Durda.

Plans for the flyby are well under way – and now, so is an effort to petition the U.S. Postal Service to commemorate the historic achievements of New Horizons on a stamp. The mission team launches that petition today, in early 2012, and plans to submit the petitioners’ names and a formal proposal to the U.S. post office knowing it often takes three years or longer for a proposal to result in an actual stamp.

Soyuz Progress Resupply Mission Approaching the ISS
Image Credit: NASA TV

The spacecraft is docked and unloading vital supplies.

Sand Dunes at Noachis Terra on Mars
Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image on 29 November, 2011.

The image shows sand dunes in the Noachis Terra impact crater on Mars. Other images can be found at http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_025042_1375

Soyuz Progress M-14M Ignition
Image Credit: NASA TV

The Progress M-14M launched successfully at 4:06 PM Phoenix time (23:06 UTC) from the Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan. All three stages function normally. Concern centered around the third stage, which failed during the launch of M-12M in August.

The spacecraft is scheduled to dock on Friday at 5:08 PM Phoenix time (Saturday 00:08 UTC). NASA-TV will cover the docking to the Piers module beginning at 4:30 PM Phoenix time (23:30 UTC).

Soyuz Progress Resupply Mission Prepared for Launch
Image Credit: Roscosmos

Russia is preparing to launch the latest Progress resupply mission to the International Space Station. The schedule calls for the Progress M-14M to be launched tomorrow, Wednesday, 25 January at 4:06 PM Phoenix time (23:06 UTC) from the Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan.

The mission will deliver 2669 kilograms (about 5870 pounds) of supplies:

• 933 kg of propellant
• 50 kg of oxygen
• 421 kg of water
• 1265 kg of spare parts, maintenance items and experiment hardware.

NASA-TV will cover the launch beginning at 3:45 PM Phoenix time (22:45 UTC).

The spacecraft is scheduled to dock on Friday at 5:08 PM Phoenix time (Saturday 00:08 UTC). NASA-TV will cover the docking to the Piers module beginning at 4:30 PM Phoenix time (23:30 UTC).

The Eagle Nebula, also known as Messier-16 or NGC 6611, is a nebula visible in the Southern Hemisphere. This three color image was taken by the Wide-Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory. One easily sees the Eagle, and at the heart of the Eagle are the Pillars of Creation.

The Eagle Nebula – Messier-16 – European Southern Observatory
Image Credit: ESO

The Hubble Space Telescope imprinted the Eagle Nebula in the public’s mind in 1995 with the publication of the Pillars of Creation. The Pillars can be seen above in the middle of the lower third of the image. Hubble’s image (below) stands the pillars on end, whereas the ESO image shows them tilted over toward the right.

The Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula –
Image Credit: NASA / ESA / STScI, Hester & Scowen (Arizona State University)

In this composite image (above) of the Pillars’ star forming regions, the tallest pillar is about four (4) light years high. The images were observed using a combination of SII/H-alpha and OIII filters.

Other wavelengths allow us to see inside the gas clouds that surround these regions. Up to 1998, the ESA Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) was the most sensitive mid infrared telescope ever built. ISO observations (below) were performed at 7 microns and 15 microns, aiming to detect embedded sources in the pillars.

Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula – 1998
Image Credit: ESA / ISO / Pilbratt et al.

Near-Infrared imaging by The 8.2m-diameter Very Large Telescope’s (VLT) ANTU telescope (below), enabled astronomers to better penetrate the dust that obscures the interior of the pillars. This has allowed researchers to investigate the ‘evaporating gaseous globules’ (EGGs) first detected in the Hubble images. It looks like eleven (11) of these EEGs probably contained new stars. One can also see stars in the tips of the pillars.

Pillars of Creation in the Eagle Nebula visualized by the ANTU Telescope
Image Credit: Credits: VLT/ISAAC/McCaughrean & Andersen/AIP/ESO

Recently, new images of the Eagle Nebula (below) in the far-infrared and sub-millimeter part of the spectrum have been release by the Herschel Infrared Observatory.

The Eagle Nebula by the Herschel Observatory
Image Credit: ESA /Herschel / PACS / SPIRE / Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium

The image is color coded. 70 micron radiation is in blue and 160 microns in green from the Photodetector Array Camera (PACS). Red codes for 250 micron emissions using the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE). The image shows the temperature of the dust, which ranges from 10 degrees Kelvin (above absolute zero) to 40 degrees Kelvin.

Herschel operates from a Lissajous orbit around the second Lagrangian point of the Sun–Earth system (L2), a virtual point located 1.5 million km from Earth in the direction opposite to the Sun.

The X-Ray image below was taken by the XMM-Newton Observatory, which was launched in 1999. The image is color coded for the different energy levels observed: red: 0.3–1 keV, green: 1–2 keV and blue: 2–8 keV.

X-Ray Sources in the The Eagle Nebula – XMM-Newton Observatory
Image Credit: ESA / XMM-Newton / EPIC / XMM-Newton-SOC / Boulanger

Researchers are investigating a theory that the Eagle Nebula is being powered by a hidden supernova remnant. They are trying to detect a faint X-ray emission in the nebula. If no emission is found beyond what the Chandra and Spitzer Observatories have already detected, this would support the supernova remnant theory.

A composite image from Herschel and XMM-Newton is shown below:

Composite Far-Infrared and X-Ray Sources in the The Eagle Nebula
Credits: far-infrared: ESA/Herschel/PACS/SPIRE/Hill, Motte, HOBYS Key Programme Consortium; X-ray: ESA/XMM-Newton/EPIC/XMM-Newton-SOC/Boulanger

SpaceX announced that it will slip the launch of the Dragon spacecraft aboard a Falcon 9 from the original 7 February 2012 date. The specific reason for the delay was not specified, but was related to a “sense of responsibility in returning US crewed access to LEO”.

NASASpaceFlight notes that SpaceX was slipping in order to allow for due diligence “safety checks” ahead of launch.

It is expected that the slip will only be two to three weeks.

Updated 20 January:

If the delay is longer, then the ISS crew will be reduced to three (3) when Soyuz TMA-22 undocks on 16 March. Two astronauts are required to grapple and dock Dragon. TMA-04M is scheduled to arrive on 1 April, restoring the ISS crew to six (6). Most of April is clear of activity, assuming SpaceX can be ready by then.

There is an average of more than one planet per star in the Milky Way
Image Credit: NASA / ESA / ESO

With the forthcoming publication in the journal Nature on 12 January, it is estimated that there are more than 100 billion planets in our Milky Way galaxy. That means more than one planet per star, and results show that there are more rocky small Earth-like planets than giant Jupiter-size gas planets.

Most recent discoveries have come from the Kepler Observatory using transit observations. Some of the earliest confirmation of gas giants came from radial velocity Doppler observations.

The conclusions in the Nature article are based on micro-lensing studies.

Recent results from the Kepler Observatory have shown the existence of three small, rocky planets around the star KOI-961, a red dwarf. These three planets, named KOI-961.01, KOI-961.02 and KOI-961.03, are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the radius of Earth. The smallest is about the size of Mars (see below). Follow-up observations were made by the Palomar Observatory, near San Diego, and the Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Relative size of the three rocky planets around KOI-961
Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech

Since it is now clear that rocky planets exist around millions, if not billions, of stars, the question arises as to whether there is life on them, and whether it may resemble life on Earth.

Whether a planet exists in the “Goldilocks” region around a star depends on many factors. Three factors include the type of star, how far away from the star the planet resides and the atmospheric pressure of the planet. A red dwarf, such as Gliese 581, means the planet has to be closer than the Earth to our Sun. A white hot star means the planet has to be farther away. And if the atmosphere is low, like Mars, or to high, like Venus, liquid water is not likely.

A fourth factor is axial tilt. If a planet has no axial tilt (the spin axis is perpendicular to the plane of its orbit around the star) then the polar regions freeze and the equatorial regions bake. There is little exchange between these regions due to atmospheric circulation. Axial tilt, such as the Earth has, allows distribution of heat between the equator and the poles.

Even if a planet has axial tilt, a recent study shows that interaction at a close distance (within the “Goldilocks” region) with red dwarf will eliminate axial tilt in less than 100 million years. Bacteria on Earth required 1,000 million years to evolve. Theoretically, a planet with no axial tilt could possess bands between the equator and the poles where liquid water would exist. But, it is quite possible the atmosphere would collapse, with gases being driven off into space at the very hot equator, and freezing solid on the ground at the poles. Such a possibility faces the planets around KOI 961.

Systems with stars like our Sun present better possibilities. The “Goldilocks” conditions exist much farther out, and axial tilt is eliminated much more slowly, as our Earth is witness. Systems such as Kepler-22b are good candidates.

The conclusion drawn from these studies is that systems similar to our Solar System present the best opportunities for life.

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Curiosity, is scheduled to begin a 175 minute firing involving all eight (8) of its thrusters at 4 PM Phoenix time (2300 UTC) today. This will be the biggest maneuver that the MSL spacecraft will perform during the cruise phase to Mars.

The thruster firing is design to change the velocity by 5.5 meters per second, and will bring the spacecraft back on course toward a landing in Gale Crater. The original trajectory was established in order to send the Centaur upper stage safely past Mars, as the upper stage was not sterilized.

Curiosity was launch aboard an Atlas V 541 rocket on 26 November 2011 at 1502 UTC, and is scheduled to land on Mars on 6 August 2012.

Additional information on this maneuver will be added here as events unfold.

From Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/MarsCuriosity/status/157240197828984832

VROOM! I’ve begun firing thruster engines for my 1st & largest flight-path adjustment of the trip to Mars: http://t.co/x7GWfOyV

Follow Curiosity and JPL on Twitter.

With the start of thrusting reported by JPL around 4:10 PM Phoenix time (2310 UTC), we should hear from JPL after 7:10 PM (0210 UTC 12 January) about termination. It will take a bit more to confirm the new trajectory.

At 8 PM Phoenix time we had this twitter from Curiosity:

Today’s maneuver involved firing the thrusters 200 times in 5-second bursts over 160 mins. Speed also increased by 12.3 mph.

And this press release from NASA and JPL:

NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft successfully refined its flight path Wednesday with the biggest maneuver planned for the mission’s journey between Earth and Mars.

“We’ve completed a big step toward our encounter with Mars,” said Brian Portock of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., deputy mission manager for the cruise phase of the mission. “The telemetry from the spacecraft and the Doppler data show that the maneuver was completed as planned.”

The Mars Science Laboratory mission will use its car-size rover, Curiosity, to investigate whether the selected region on Mars inside Gale Crater has offered environmental conditions favorable for supporting microbial life and favorable for preserving clues about whether life existed.

Engineers had planned today’s three-hour series of thruster-engine firings to accomplish two aims: to put the spacecraft’s trajectory about 25,000 miles (about 40,000 kilometers) closer to encountering Mars and to advance the time of the encounter by about 14 hours, compared with the trajectory following the mission’s Nov. 26, 2011, launch.

“The timing of the encounter is important for arriving at Mars just when the planet’s rotation puts Gale Crater in the right place,” said JPL’s Tomas Martin-Mur, chief navigator for the mission.

The mission’s second trajectory correction maneuver, expected to be about one-sixth the magnitude of this first one, is scheduled for March 26. Up to four additional opportunities for fine-tuning, as needed, are scheduled before the arrival at Mars on Aug. 5, 2012, PDT (Aug. 6, EDT and Universal Time).

The spacecraft’s initial trajectory resulting from the launch included an intentional offset to prevent the upper stage of the launch vehicle from hitting Mars. That upper stage was not cleaned the way the spacecraft itself was to protect Mars from Earth’s microbes.

The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft rotates in flight at about two revolutions per minute. Today’s maneuver included two different components: one that changed velocity in the direction of the axis of the spacecraft’s rotation, and one that changed velocity in a direction perpendicular to that.

The maneuver used the eight thruster engines on the cruise stage of the spacecraft, grouped into two sets of four. It began with a thrust lasting about 19 minutes, using just one thruster in each set and affecting velocity along the direction of the axis of rotation. Then, to affect velocity perpendicular to that line, each set of thrusters was fired for 5 seconds when the rotation put that set facing the proper direction. These 5-second bursts were repeated more than 200 times during a period of about two hours for a total of about 40 minutes.

The maneuver was calculated to produce a net change in velocity of about 12.3 miles per hour (5.5 meters per second), combining a slight increase in speed with a small change in direction of travel.

As of 9 a.m. PST (noon EST) on Thursday, Jan. 12, the spacecraft will have traveled 81.2 million miles (130.6 million kilometers) of its 352-million-mile (567-million-kilometer) flight to Mars. It will be moving at about 10,300 mph (16,600 kilometers per hour) relative to Earth, and at about 68,700 mph (110,500 kilometers per hour) relative to the sun.

Curiosity at 00:00 UTC on 2012_01_11
Image Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA