NASA confirms that Voyager 1 in interstellar space

Dear readers and followers,

Voyager 1 made headlines around the world last year when mission scientists announced that the probe had apparently left the heliosphere in August 2013. Few weeks ago, new data collected by the +NASA's spacecraft have helped scientists confirm that the far-flung probe is indeed cruising through interstellar space, the researchers say.

Credit image: NASA

They came to this conclusion after analyzing measurements Voyager 1 made in the wake of a powerful solar eruption known as a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The shock wave from this CME caused the particles around Voyager 1 to vibrate substantially, allowing mission scientists to calculate the density of the probe's surroundings. 

The CME in question erupted in March 2012, and its shock wave reached Voyager 1 in April 2013. After these data came in, the team dug up another, much smaller CME-shock event from late 2012 that had initially gone unnoticed. By combining these separate measurements with knowledge of Voyager 1's cruising speed, the researchers were able to trace the probe's entry into interstellar space to August 2012.

Credit image: NASA

Now mission scientists from NASA announced on July 7th, that the third CME shock has been really observed by Voyager 1 in March 2014. The spacecraft launched in September 1977, about two weeks after its twin, Voyager 2. The probes embarked upon a "grand tour" of the outer solar system, giving the world some its first good looks at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the moons of these planets. Like Voyager 1, Voyager 2 is still active and operational. It took a different route through the solar system and is expected to follow its twin into interstellar space a few years from now.

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Testing Completed on NASA's James Webb Space Telescope Backplane

Dear readers and followers,

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has reached another development milestone with the completion of static load testing of its primary mirror backplane support structure (PMBSS) moving the telescope one step closer to its 2018 launch.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's next-generation space observatory and successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Designed to be the most powerful space telescope ever built, Webb will observe the most distant objects in the universe, provide images of the first galaxies formed and see unexplored planets around distant stars. The Webb telescope is a joint project of +NASA , the +European Space Agency, ESA  and the +Canadian Space Agency . 

Credit image: NASA 

The PMBSS is the stable platform that holds the telescope's science instruments and the 18 beryllium mirror-segments that form the 21-foot-diameter primary mirror nearly motionless while the telescope peers into deep space. The primary mirror is the largest mirror in the telescope -- the one starlight will hit first.

Lee Feinberg, NASA’s Optical Telescope Element manager at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, announced "Static testing demonstrates the backplane has the structural integrity to withstand the forces and vibrations of launch and is the final test prior to starting the integration of the backplane with the rest of the telescope,"

The Northrop Grumman Corporation and ATK of Magna, Utah, completed the testing before delivering the structure to Northrop Grumman's facilities in Redondo Beach, California.

The next step for the space telescope is to integrate the composite structures with the deployment mechanisms to create the overall Optical Telescope Element (OTE) structure. The OTE structure will then be shipped to Goddard for integration with the mirrors. NASA and Northrop Grumman will perform cryogenic testing of the PMBSS structure after mirror integration is complete.

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Curiosity in the middle on the Martian sand

Dear followers,

fews day ago, we proposed you an impressive night picture of Curiosity, today a new 360° panorama has been built and published on our blog.

Curiosity Mars rover performed a successful proximity mode deployment of APXS in the wheel track on Sol 673. The images for panorama obtained by the rover's 34-millimeter Mast Camera. The mosaic, which stretches about 30,000 pixels width, includes 137 images taken on Sol 673.

Mars Panorama - Curiosity rover: Martian solar day 673 in The World

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Rise of the exoplanet discovery in 2014

Dear readers and followers,

2014 is an amazing year for the announcements of the discovery of expo-planets. The histogram shows the number of planet discoveries by year for roughly the past two decades of the exoplanet search. The blue bar shows previous planet discoveries, the red bar shows previous Kepler planet discoveries, the gold bar displays the 715 new planets verified by multiplicity.

Credit image: +NASA 

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