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Space News Update — November 25, 2014 —

Contents

In the News

Story 1:

NASA's Swift Mission Probes an Exotic Object: ‘Kicked’ Black Hole or Mega Star?

Story 2:

The Party’s Over for These Youthful Compact Galaxies

Story 3:

Geologic Maps of Vesta from NASA’s Dawn Mission Published

Departments

The Night Sky

ISS Sighting Opportunities

NASA-TV Highlights

Space Calendar

Food for Thought

Space Image of the Week

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1. NASA's Swift Mission Probes an Exotic Object: ‘Kicked’ Black Hole or Mega

Star?

A simulation of two colliding galaxies (left) shows how their coalescing supermassive black holes can launch the resulting

larger black hole (dot, lower left) on a wide orbit. Right: Compare the simulation with this Keck II near-infrared image of

Markarian 177 and SDSS1133 (lower left). Credit: Simulation, L. Blecha (UMD); image, W. M. Keck Observatory/M. Koss

(ETH Zurich) et al.

An international team of researchers analyzing decades of observations from many facilities, including NASA's

Swift satellite, has discovered an unusual source of light in a galaxy some 90 million light-years away. Using

the Keck II telescope in Hawaii, researchers obtained high-resolution images of Markarian 177 and SDSS1133

using a near-infrared filter. Twin bright spots in the galaxy's center are consistent with recent star formation, a

disturbance that hints this galaxy may have merged with another.

The object's curious properties make it a good match for a supermassive black hole ejected from its home

galaxy after merging with another giant black hole. But astronomers can't yet rule out an alternative

possibility. The source, called SDSS1133, may be the remnant of a massive star that erupted for a record

period of time before destroying itself in a supernova explosion.

"With the data we have in hand, we can't yet distinguish between these two scenarios," said lead researcher

Michael Koss, an astronomer at ETH Zurich, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. "One exciting discovery

made with NASA's Swift spacecraft is that the brightness of SDSS1133 has changed little in optical or

ultraviolet light for a decade, which is not something typically seen in a young supernova remnant."

In a study published in the Nov. 21 edition of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Koss and his

colleagues report that the source has brightened significantly in visible light during the past six months, a

trend that, if maintained, would bolster the black hole interpretation. To analyze the object in greater detail,

the team is planning ultraviolet observations with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph aboard the Hubble Space

Telescope in October 2015.

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Whatever SDSS1133 is, it's persistent. The team was able to detect it in astronomical surveys dating back

more than 60 years.

The mystery object is part of the dwarf galaxy Markarian 177, located in the bowl of the Big Dipper, a well-

known star pattern within the constellation Ursa Major. Although supermassive black holes usually occupy

galactic centers, SDSS1133 is located at least 2,600 light-years from its host galaxy's core.

In June 2013, the researchers obtained high-resolution near-infrared images of the object using the 10-meter

Keck II telescope at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. They reveal the emitting region of SDSS1133 is

less than 40 light-years across and that the center of Markarian 177 shows evidence of intense star formation

and other features indicating a recent disturbance.

"We suspect we're seeing the aftermath of a merger of two small galaxies and their central black holes," said

co-author Laura Blecha, an Einstein Fellow in the University of Maryland's Department of Astronomy and a

leading theorist in simulating recoils, or "kicks," in merging black holes. "Astronomers searching for recoiling

black holes have been unable to confirm a detection, so finding even one of these sources would be a major

discovery."

The collision and merger of two galaxies disrupts their shapes and results in new episodes of star formation. If

each galaxy possesses a central supermassive black hole, they will form a bound binary pair at the center of

the merged galaxy before ultimately coalescing themselves.

Merging black holes release a large amount of energy in the form of gravitational radiation, a consequence of

Einstein's theory of gravity. Waves in the fabric of space-time ripple outward in all directions from accelerating

masses. If both black holes have equal masses and spins, their merger emits gravitational waves uniformly in

all directions. More likely, the black hole masses and spins will be different, leading to lopsided gravitational

wave emission that launches the black hole in the opposite direction.

The kick may be strong enough to hurl the black hole entirely out of its home galaxy, fating it to forever drift

through intergalactic space. More typically, a kick will send the object into an elongated orbit. Despite its

relocation, the ejected black hole will retain any hot gas trapped around it and continue to shine as it moves

along its new path until all of the gas is consumed.

If SDSS1133 isn't a black hole, then it might have been a very unusual type of star known as a Luminous Blue

Variable (LBV). These massive stars undergo episodic eruptions that cast large amounts of mass into space

long before they explode. Interpreted in this way, SDSS1133 would represent the longest period of LBV

eruptions ever observed, followed by a terminal supernova explosion whose light reached Earth in 2001.

The nearest comparison in our galaxy is the massive binary system Eta Carinae, which includes an LBV

containing about 90 times the sun's mass. Between 1838 and 1845, the system underwent an outburst that

ejected at least 10 solar masses and made it the second-brightest star in the sky. It then followed up with a

smaller eruption in the 1890s.

In this alternative scenario, SDSS1133 must have been in nearly continual eruption from at least 1950 to 2001,

when it reached peak brightness and went supernova. The spatial resolution and sensitivity of telescopes prior

to 1950 were insufficient to detect the source. But if this was an LBV eruption, the current record shows it to

be the longest and most persistent one ever observed. An interaction between the ejected gas and the

explosion's blast wave could explain the object's steady brightness in the ultraviolet.

Whether it's a rogue supermassive black hole or the closing act of a rare star, it seems astronomers have

never seen the likes of SDSS1133 before.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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2 .The Party’s Over for These Youthful Compact Galaxies

Two galaxies merge (Panel 1), funneling a large amount of gas into the central region. The gas compresses, sparking a

firestorm of star birth (Panel 2). Devoid of its fuel, the galaxy settles into a quiet existence, composed of aging stars

(Panel 3). Image Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Field, STScI

Researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory have uncovered young,

massive, compact galaxies whose raucous star-making parties are ending early. The firestorm of star birth has

consumed much of the gaseous fuel needed to make future generations of stars, and the powerful stellar

winds of the newly born stars have blown away any remaining fuel. Now the party’s over for these gas-starved

galaxies, and they are on track to possibly becoming so-called “red and dead galaxies,” composed only of

aging stars.

Astronomers have debated for decades how massive galaxies rapidly evolve from active star-forming machines

to star-starved graveyards. Previous observations of these galaxies reveal geysers of gas shooting into space

at up to 2 million miles an hour. Astronomers have suspected that powerful monster black holes lurking at the

centers of the galaxies triggered the gaseous outflows and shut down star birth by blowing out any remaining

fuel.

Now an analysis of 12 merging galaxies at the end of their star-birthing frenzy is showing that the stars

themselves are turning out the lights on their own star-making party, with their own outflows of gaseous fuel.

This happened when the universe was a little less than 7 billion years old, half its current age.

“Before our study, the common belief was that stars cannot drive high-velocity outflows in galaxies; only more

powerful supermassive black holes can do that,” explained Paul Sell of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, lead

author of a science paper describing the study’s results. “Through our analysis we found that if you have a

compact enough starburst, which Hubble showed was the case with these galaxies, you can actually produce

the velocities of the outflows we observed from the stars alone without needing to invoke the black hole.”

Team member Christy Tremonti of the University of Wisconsin-Madison first identified the galaxies from the

Sloan Digital Sky Survey as galaxies past their peak of starburst activity, and that are ejecting gas at a high

velocity. The sharp visible-light views from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 show that the outflows are arising

from the most compact galaxies yet found. These galaxies contain as much mass as our Milky Way galaxy, but

packed into a much smaller area. The smallest galaxies are about 650 light-years across.

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In such small regions of space, these galaxies are forming stars at a rate of a few hundred suns a year. By

comparison, the Milky Way makes only about one sun a year. This makes for a rowdy, star-making party that

wears itself out quickly, in only a few tens of millions of years. One reason for the stellar shutdown is that the

gas rapidly heats up, becoming too hot to contract under gravity to form new stars. Another possibility is that

the star-birthing frenzy blasts out most of the star-making gas via powerful stellar winds.

“The biggest surprise from Hubble was the realization that the newly formed stars were born so close

together,” said team member Aleks Diamond-Stanic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who first

suggested the possibility of starburst-driven outflows from these galaxies in a 2012 science paper. “The

extreme physical conditions at the centers of these galaxies explain how they can expel gas at millions of miles

per hour.”

To identify the mechanism triggering the high-velocity outflows, Sell and his team used the Chandra X-ray

Observatory and other telescopes to determine whether the galaxies’ supermassive black holes, which weigh

up to a billion suns, were the powerhouses driving them. After analyzing all of the observations, the team

concluded that the black holes were not the source of the outflows. Rather, it was the powerful stellar winds

from the most massive and short-lived stars at the end of their lives, combined with their explosive deaths as

supernovae.

Based on their analysis of the Hubble and Chandra data, team members suggest that the “party begins” when

two gas-rich galaxies collide, funneling a torrent of cold gas into the merging galaxies’ compact center. The

large amount of gas compressed into the small space ignites the birth of numerous stars. The energy from the

stellar firestorm then blows out the leftover gas, quenching further star formation.

“If you stop the flow of cold gas to form stars, that’s it,” explained Sell, who conducted the research while a

graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The stars stop forming, and the galaxy rapidly

evolves and may eventually become a red, dead elliptical galaxy. These extreme starbursts are quite rare,

however, so they may not grow into the typical giant elliptical galaxies seen in our nearby galactic

neighborhood. They may, instead, be more compact.”

The team’s results were published in the July 11 edition of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical

Society.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

Hubble Image of Outflows from 12 Merging Galaxies Credit NASA

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3. Geologic Maps of Vesta from NASA’s Dawn Mission Published

This high-resolution geological map of Vesta is derived from Dawn spacecraft data. Brown colors represent the

oldest, most heavily cratered surface. Purple colors and light blue represent terrains modified by the Veneneia

and Rheasilvia impacts, respectively. Light purples and dark blue colors below the equator represent the

interior of the Rheasilvia and Veneneia basins. Greens and yellows represent relatively young landslides or

other downhill movement and crater impact materials, respectively. Tectonic features such as faults are shown

by black lines. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Images from NASA’s Dawn Mission have been used to create a series of high-resolution geological maps of the

large asteroid Vesta, revealing the variety of surface features in unprecedented detail. These maps are

included with a series of 11 scientific papers published this week in a special issue of the journal Icarus.

Geological mapping is a technique used to derive the geologic history of a planetary object from detailed

analysis of surface morphology, topography, color and brightness information. A team of 14 scientists mapped

the surface of Vesta using Dawn spacecraft data, led by three NASA-funded participating scientists: David A.

Williams of Arizona State University, Tempe; R. Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson,

Arizona; and W. Brent Garry of the NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland.

“The geologic mapping campaign at Vesta took about two-and-a-half years to complete, and the resulting

maps enabled us to recognize a geologic timescale of Vesta for comparison to other planets,” said Williams.

Scientists discovered through these maps that impacts from several large meteorites have shaped Vesta's

history. Asteroids like Vesta are remnants of the formation of the solar system, giving scientists a peek at its

history. Asteroids could also harbor molecules that are the building blocks of life and reveal clues about the

origins of life on Earth.

The geologic mapping of Vesta is enabled by images obtained by the framing camera provided by the Max

Planck Institute for Solar System Research of the German Max Planck Society and the German Aerospace

Center. This camera takes panchromatic images and seven bands of color-filtered images. Stereo photos are

used to create topographic models of the surface that aid in the geologic interpretation.

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Vesta’s geologic timescale is determined by the sequence of large impact events, primarily by the Veneneia

and Rheasilvia impacts in Vesta's early history and the Marcia impact in its late history. The oldest crust on

Vesta pre-dates the Veneneia impact. The relative timescale is supplemented by model-based absolute ages

from two different approaches that apply crater statistics to date the surface.

"This mapping was crucial for getting a better understanding of Vesta’s geological history, as well as providing

context for the compositional information that we received from other instruments on the spacecraft: the

visible and infrared (VIR) mapping spectrometer and the gamma-ray and neutron detector (GRaND)," said

Carol Raymond, Dawn’s deputy principal investigator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,

California.

The objective of NASA’s Dawn mission is to characterize the two most massive objects in the main asteroid

belt between Mars and Jupiter – Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. The spacecraft launched in 2007. Vesta,

orbited by the Dawn spacecraft between July 2011 and September 2012, was thought to be the source of a

unique set of basaltic meteorites (called HEDs, for howardite-eucrite-diogenite), and Dawn confirmed the

Vesta-HED connection.

The Dawn spacecraft is currently on its way to Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. Dawn will arrive

at Ceres in March 2015.

Dawn uses ion propulsion in spiraling trajectories to travel from Earth to Vesta, orbit Vesta and then continue

on to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres. Ion engines use very small amounts of onboard fuel, enabling a mission

that would be unaffordable or impossible without them.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

Vesta Credit: NASA

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The Night Sky

Source

Friday, November 28

First-quarter Moon (exactly so at 5:06 a.m. Saturday morning EST). Look for Fomalhaut far to its lower

left, and Enif, the nose of Pegasus, almost as far to the Moon's upper right.

Saturday, November 29

The Moon stands high in the south soon after nightfall, with the western side of the Great Square of

Pegasus pointing down at it from above.

By 10 or 11 p.m. now (depending in how far east or west you live in your time zone), the dim Little Dipper

hangs straight down from Polaris.

Source: Sky and Telescope Return to Contents

Tuesday, November 25

Look for Mars left of the crescent Moon in

twilight, as shown to the right.

Algol is at minimum light for a couple hours

centered on 8:39 p.m. EST.

Wednesday, November 26

The Moon now shines near Alpha and Beta

Capricorni at nightfall, as shown above

(depending on your location). Both Alpha and

Beta Cap are wide double stars for binoculars.

Alpha is easy to resolve; Beta is somewhat less

so with its narrower separation and greater

brightness difference.

It's still Summer Triangle season. The Triangle's

brightest star is Vega, well up in the west-

northwest after dinnertime. The brightest star

above Vega is Deneb. The Triangle's third star,

Altair, is farther to Vega's left.

Thursday, November 27

Whenever Fomalhaut is "southing" (crossing the

meridian due south, which it does around 6 or 7

p.m. this week), you know that the first stars of

Orion are just about to rise in the east, and the

Pointers of the Big Dipper stand directly below

Polaris (if you're in the world's mid-northern

latitudes).

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ISS Sighting Opportunities (from Denver)

Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone)

Tuesday, November 25

9:40 a.m. - ISS Expedition 42 In-Flight Interviews with WBAL-TV, Baltimore and WKRN-TV, Nashville, TN

with Station Commander Barry Wilmore and Flight Engineer Terry Virts of NASA (all channels)

Tuesday, December 2

7:45 a.m. - ISS Expedition 42 In-Flight Event for ESA and Italian Media with Flight Engineer Samantha

Cristoforetti (interpretation included) (all channels)

Wednesday, December 3

10 a.m. - Space Station Live (all channels)

Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website. Return to Contents

Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears

Wed Nov 26, 5:35 AM 3 min 61° 28 above NW 34 above ESE

Thu Nov 27, 4:48 AM < 1 min 28° 28 above ENE 21 above E

Thu Nov 27, 6:21 AM 5 min 24° 11 above W 11 above S

Fri Nov 28, 5:33 AM 3 min 45° 41 above WSW 11 above SSE

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Space Calendar

Nov 25 - Comet 300P/Catalina Closest Approach To Earth (1.462 AU)

Nov 25 - Comet 133P/Elst-Pizarro At Opposition (2.447 AU)

Nov 25 - Asteroid 4970 Druyan Closest Approach To Earth (1.071 AU)

Nov 25 - Asteroid 5703 Hevelius Closest Approach To Earth (1.173 AU)

Nov 25 - Asteroid 14967 Madrid Closest Approach To Earth (1.377 AU)

Nov 25 - Asteroid 7495 Feynman Closest Approach To Earth (1.661 AU)

Nov 25 - Asteroid 9499 Excalibur Closest Approach To Earth (1.949 AU)

Nov 25 - Kuiper Belt Object 145453 (2005 RR43) At Opposition (38.255 AU)

Nov 25 - Kuiper Belt Object 386723 (2009 YE7) At Opposition (49.830 AU)

Nov 26 - Mercury Passes 1.7 Degrees From Saturn

Nov 26 - Comet C/2014 L5 (Lemmon) Perihelion (6.204 AU)

Nov 26 - Asteroid 2014 WY119 Near-Earth Flyby (0.011 AU)

Nov 26 - Asteroid 2014 VG10 Near-Earth Flyby (0.040 AU)

Nov 26 - Asteroid 2309 Mr. Spock Closest Approach To Earth (1.787 AU)

Nov 26 - Asteroid 4305 Clapton Closest Approach To Earth (1.900 AU)

Nov 26 - Asteroid 7392 Kowalski Closest Approach To Earth (1.976 AU)

Nov 26 - Asteroid 8250 Cornell Closest Approach To Earth (2.302 AU)

Nov 26 - Auguste Charlois' 150th Birthday (1864)

Nov 27 - Astra 2G Proton-M Briz-M Launch

Nov 27 - Moon Occults Asteroid 433 Eros

Nov 27 - Asteroid 2014 WR6 Near-Earth Flyby (0.045 AU)

Nov 27 - Asteroid 2014 WA5 Near-Earth Flyby (0.057 AU)

Nov 27 - Asteroid 2014 TX57 Near-Earth Flyby (0.072 AU)

Nov 28 -50th Anniversary (1964), Mariner 4 Launch (Mars Flyby Mission)

Nov 28 - Comet 108P/Ciffreo Closest Approach To Earth (0.793 AU)

Nov 28 - Comet C/2013 V4 (Catalina) Closest Approach To Earth (4.723 AU)

Nov 28 - Asteroid 2459 Spellmann Occults HIP 38868 (6.0 Magnitude Star)

Nov 28 - Asteroid 3 Juno Occults HIP 43790 (10.1 Magnitude Star)

Nov 28 - Asteroid 3838 Epona Closest Approach To Earth (1.282 AU)

Nov 28 - Kuiper Belt Object 229762 (2007 UK126) At Opposition (42.541 AU)

Nov 29 - Asteroid 2014 WE120 Near-Earth Flyby (0.048 AU)

Nov 29 - Asteroid 1862 Apollo Closest Approach To Earth (0.620 AU)

Nov 29 - Asteroid 34901 Mauna Loa Closest Approach To Earth (1.641 AU)

Source: JPL Space Calendar Return to Contents

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Food for Thought

Study Investigates How Men and Women Adapt Differently to Spaceflight

Image Credit: NASA/NSBRI

As NASA sets its sights on longer-duration spaceflight deeper into the solar system, the health and safety

considerations for its astronauts grow increasingly complex. The agency, in partnership with the National Space

Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), is researching risk-reducing countermeasures and developing technologies

to advance human health and ensure operational performance in deep space. Following up on a 2011 report from

the National Academy of Sciences, NASA and NSBRI assembled six workgroups to investigate and summarize the

current body of published and unpublished human and animal spaceflight research data. In June 2013, NASA and

NSBRI hosted a virtual workshop to present the groups’ findings. The Journal of Women's Health published the

manuscripts in the Nov. 2014 issue.

“Fortunately, we have the International Space Station,” said Dr. Marshall Porterfield, Director of Space Life and

Physical Sciences Research at NASA Headquarters. “Station provides us with years of biological data on male and

female astronauts, and many of them continue to participate in ground-based studies to evaluate the lasting effects

of spaceflight.”

“This is the first major integrated examination of the issues of sex and gender in relationship to space exploration,”

said Dr. Mark Shelhamer Chief Scientist for NASA’s Human Research Program at Johnson Space Center. “There are,

in many cases, sex-based differences in the response to the stressors of space flight.” He believes that is important

to recognize—not ignore—such differences, and to provide countermeasures that are appropriate for each

subpopulation or even to each individual.

The Sex & Gender work groups released five recommendations:

Select more female astronauts for spaceflight missions.

Encourage and facilitate the participation of more female and male subjects in both ground and flight

research studies.

Focus on the responses of individual astronauts to spaceflight and return to Earth.

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Include sex and gender factors in the design of the experiments.

Incorporate sex and gender and other individual risk factors into NASA-funded research programs

A summary of the Sex & Gender work groups' major findings is listed below:

Orthostatic Intolerance, or the inability to stand without fainting for protracted periods, is more prevalent

upon landing in female astronauts than in their male counterparts. One possible reason for this observed

difference in orthostatic intolerance between the sexes is reduced leg vascular compliance, which was

demonstrated in bed-rest studies – which is a ground analog for spaceflight.

Women have greater loss of blood plasma volume than men during spaceflight, and women’s stress

response characteristically includes a heart rate increase while men respond with an increase in vascular

resistance. Still, these Earth observations require further study in space.

The VIIP syndrome (visual impairment / intracranial pressure) manifests with anatomical ocular changes,

ranging from mild to clinically significant, with a range of corresponding changes in visual function. Currently

82% of male astronauts vs. 62% of women astronauts (who have flown in space) are affected. However, all

clinically significant cases so far have occurred in male astronauts.

Changes in function and concentration of key constituents of the immune system related to spaceflight have

been reported. However, differences between male and female immune responses have not been observed

in space. On the ground, women mount a more potent immune response than men, which makes them

more resistant to viral and bacterial infections; once infected, women mount an even more potent response.

This response, however, makes women more susceptible to autoimmune diseases. It is not clear if these

changes on the ground will occur during longer space missions, or missions that involve planetary

exploration (exposure to gravity).

Radiation presents a major hazard for space travel. It has been reported that female subjects are more

susceptible to radiation-induced cancer than their male counterparts; hence radiation permissible exposure

levels are lower for women than men astronauts.

Upon transition to microgravity after arriving at the International Space Station (ISS), female astronauts

reported a slightly higher incidence of space motion sickness (SMS) compared with men. Conversely, more

men experience motion-sickness symptoms upon return to Earth. These data were however not statistically

significant, due both to the relatively small sample sizes and small differences in the incidence of SMS

reported by the men and women astronauts.

Hearing sensitivity, when measured at several frequencies, declines with age much more rapidly in male

astronauts than it does in female astronauts. No evidence suggests that the sex-based hearing differences

in the astronaut population are related to microgravity exposure.

The human musculoskeletal response to gravity unloading is highly variable among individuals and a sex-

based difference was not observed.

Urinary tract infections in space are more common in women and have been successfully treated with

antibiotics.

There is no evidence of sex differences in terms of behavioral or psychological responses to spaceflight.

Analysis of ISS astronauts’ neurobehavioral performance and sleep measures showed no sex or gender

differences using the Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) of alertness and Visual Analog Scales of workload,

stress, and sleep quality. Since all astronaut candidates undergo a robust process of psychological screening

and selection, the likelihood of an adverse behavioral health condition or psychiatric disorder is greatly

diminished.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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Space Image of the Week

NASA's SDO Shows Moon Transiting the Sun

Credit: NASA/SDO

On Nov. 22, 2014 from 5:29 to 6:04 p.m. EST., the moon partially obscured the view of the sun from NASA's

Solar Dynamics Observatory. This phenomenon, which is called a lunar transit, could only be seen from SDO's

point of view.

In 2014, SDO captured four such transits -- including its longest ever recorded, which occurred on Jan. 30,

and lasted two and a half hours.

SDO imagery during a lunar transit always shows a crisp horizon on the moon -- a reflection of the fact that

the moon has no atmosphere around it to distort the light from the sun. The horizon is so clear in these

images that mountains and valleys in the terrain can be seen.

Source: NASA Return to Contents