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Space News Update — July 21, 2015 —

Contents

In the News

Story 1:

$100 Million Initiative to Search for ET

Story 2:

New Horizons Update: Pluto Wags its Tail: Discovery of a Cold, Dense Region of Atmospheric Ions Behind Pluto and an Extended Atmosphere

Story 3:

With One Year to Jupiter, NASA's Juno Team Prepares

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. $100 Million Initiative to Search for ET

Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner, theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, Astronomer Royal Martin Rees, SETI pioneer

Frank Drake, and Ann Druyan, widow of late astronomer Carl Sagan who helped craft interstellar messages carried

aboard NASA’s Voyager probes. Credit: Getty Images

Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner is pledging $100 million to fund the most sophisticated search for

extraterrestrials ever attempted, a 10-year campaign using radio and optical telescopes, ultra-sensitive

detectors and state-of-the-art software to study nearby stars and galaxies for tell-tale signals of alien

civilizations, he said Monday.

Joined by Frank Drake, the U.S. astrophysicist who pioneered the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or

SETI, famed U.S. planet hunter Geoff Marcy, Astronomer Royal Martin Rees and other luminaries, including

physicist Stephen Hawking, Milner said he was inspired to act by the recent discovery that Earth-like planets

are commonplace.

Citing NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, which has detected hundreds of extra-solar planets and, by statistical

extension, vast numbers of Earth-like worlds across the Milky Way, Milner said “that really opened up the

conversation around intelligent life, providing us evidence that there are many billions of Earth-like planets in

our galaxy alone.”

Milner announced two programs Monday in London. The “Breakthrough Listen” initiative will focus on the

search for optical and radio signals from other civilizations while a “Breakthrough Message” competition will

seek suitable responses to a signal if one is detected.

The latter will feature a pool of prizes totaling $1 million, although officials say there is no commitment to

actually send such a message.

“It’s a way to learn about the potential languages of interstellar communication and to spur global discussion

on the ethical and philosophical issues surrounding communication with intelligent life beyond Earth,” Milner’s

organization said in a statement.

Ann Druyan, who worked with her husband, the late astronomer Carl Sagan, to develop a message from Earth

carried on NASA’s twin Voyager spacecraft, said “we will succeed on this leg of the initiative if we inspire a

new degree of self-awareness and a sense of consciousness about what it is to be alive on this planet.”

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“In formulating such a message, whether it be sent or not, you’re forced to really look at who you are, who

you share this planet with,” she said. “And I think that will be all to the good. I know that these efforts ignite

fascination in the young, and this is part of what we have to be doing as a civilization.”

The “Breakthrough Listen” program will survey the one million closest stars to Earth, across the plane of the

Milky Way and toward its center where stars are densely packed and even other nearby galaxies.

The program’s instruments and detectors will be sensitive enough to discern emissions from Earth-level

technologies, like air defense radars, some 2,000 light years away.

“The problem, I guess, (is that) they only illuminate a small fraction of the sky,” said Andrew Siemion, director

of the SETI Research Center at the University of California at Berkeley. “So those radars would have to be

pointed in our direction (to be detected).

“But of course, there are many, many stars along the line of sight towards the galactic plane or the galactic

center, so we would have a very good chance of detecting those if we were pointed in that direction,” he said.’

Providing much-needed outside funding, the Breakthrough Listen project will buy extensive observing time on

the football field-size National Radio Astronomy Observatory dish in Green Bank, West Virginia, and the 210-

foot Parkes Observatory radio telescope in Australia. The project will cover 10 times more of the sky, with 50

times the sensitivity, of previous searches.

Equally important, Breakthrough Listen has arranged to use the 2.4-meter Automated Planet Finder Telescope

at Lick Observatory in California to search for optical laser signals.

Marcy said “it’s possible, if the Milky Way galaxy actually has other intelligent species that are sending their

spacecraft around the galaxy, maybe setting up colonies on other planets or even around other stars, they

may be communicating with all of those sites using lasers.”

“Indeed, there could, therefore, be a sort of galactic internet … carried by laser beams crisscrossing the

galaxy. And we here on the Earth may serendipitously just happen to fall in one of those laser beams.

Moreover, it’s possible they know about us and they’re purposely shining their laser beams at us.”

The Breakthrough Listen project will take “spectra of thousands of stars and hundreds of galaxies looking for

specific wavelengths, single wavelengths, at which there’s a lot of light that would be best interpreted as from

lasers from some other civilization,” he said.

The data collected will be available to the public and Breakthrough Listen will join and support the SETI@home

project, the University of California at Berkeley’s innovative screen saver program that uses idle personal

computers to sift through collected data in search of unusual signals.

Project officials said any signal detection of possible extra-terrestrial origin would be treated like any other

scientific discovery, requiring independent verification and peer-reviewed analysis. But they emphasized the

program will be conducted “in the open” and that the public would be informed about any potential detections.

“Our intention would certainly not to be to get folks excited about something that might turn out to be

interference,” Siemion said. “But by the same token, we’ll be absolutely open about any discoveries that we

make and our level of confidence in them.”

Source: Spaceflightnow.com Return to Contents

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2. New Horizons Update: Pluto Wags its Tail: Discovery of a Cold, Dense Region

of Atmospheric Ions Behind Pluto and an Extended Atmosphere

Artist’s concept of the interaction of the solar wind (the supersonic outflow of electrically charged particles from the Sun) with Pluto’s predominantly nitrogen atmosphere. Some of the molecules that form the atmosphere have enough energy

to overcome Pluto’s weak gravity and escape into space, where they are ionized by solar ultraviolet radiation. As the solar wind encounters the obstacle formed by the ions, it is slowed and diverted (depicted in the red region), possibly forming a shock wave upstream of Pluto. The ions are “picked up” by the solar wind and carried in its flow past the dwarf planet

to form an ion or plasma tail (blue region). The Solar Wind around Pluto (SWAP) instrument on the New Horizons spacecraft made the first measurements of this region of low-energy atmospheric ions shortly after closest approach on

July 14. Such measurements will enable the SWAP team to determine the rate at which Pluto loses its atmosphere and, in turn, will yield insight into the evolution of the Pluto’s atmosphere and surface. Also illustrated are the orbits of Pluto’s

five moons and the trajectory of the spacecraft. Credits: NASA/APL/SwRI

New Horizons has discovered a region of cold, dense ionized gas tens of thousands of miles beyond Pluto --

the planet’s atmosphere being stripped away by the solar wind and lost to space. Beginning an hour and half

after closest approach, the Solar Wind Around Pluto (SWAP) instrument observed a cavity in the solar wind --

the outflow of electrically charged particles from the Sun -- between 48,000 miles (77,000 km) and 68,000

miles (109,000 km) downstream of Pluto. SWAP data revealed this cavity to be populated with nitrogen ions

forming a “plasma tail” of undetermined structure and length extending behind the planet.

Similar plasma tails are observed at planets like Venus and Mars. In the case of Pluto’s predominantly nitrogen

atmosphere, escaping molecules are ionized by solar ultraviolet light, “picked up” by the solar wind, and

carried past Pluto to form the plasma tail discovered by New Horizons. Prior to closest approach, nitrogen ions

were detected far upstream of Pluto by the Pluto Energetic Particle Spectrometer Science Investigation

(PEPSSI) instrument, providing a foretaste of Pluto’s escaping atmosphere.

Plasma tail formation is but one fundamental aspect of Pluto’s solar wind interaction, the nature of which is

determined by several yet poorly constrained factors. Of these, perhaps the most important is the atmospheric

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loss rate. “This is just a first tantalizing look at Pluto’s plasma environment,” says co-investigator Fran Bagenal,

University of Colorado, Boulder, who leads the New Horizons Particles and Plasma team. “We’ll be getting

more data in August, which we can combine with the Alice and Rex atmospheric measurements to pin down

the rate at which Pluto is losing its atmosphere. Once we know that, we’ll be able to answer outstanding

questions about the evolution of Pluto’s atmosphere and surface and determine to what extent Pluto’s solar

wind interaction is like that of Mars.”

Scientists working with NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft have also observed Pluto’s atmosphere as far as 1,000

miles (1,600 kilometers) above the surface of the planet, demonstrating that Pluto’s nitrogen-rich atmosphere

is quite extended. This is the first observation of Pluto’s atmosphere at altitudes higher than 170 miles above

the planet’s surface (270 kilometers).

The new information was gathered by New Horizon’s Alice imaging spectrograph during a carefully designed

alignment of the sun, Pluto, and the spacecraft starting about an hour after the craft’s closest approach to the

planet on July 14. During the event known as a solar occultation, New Horizons passed through Pluto’s shadow

while the sun backlit Pluto’s atmosphere.

“This is only the beginning for Pluto atmospheric science” says New Horizons scientist Andrew Steffl of the

Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “Next month, the full Alice occultation dataset will

be sent to Earth for analysis. Even so, the data we have now show that Pluto’s atmosphere rises higher above

its surface, in relative terms, than does the Earth’s.”

Pluto’s moon Nix (left), shown here in enhanced color as imaged by the New Horizons Ralph instrument, has a

reddish spot that has attracted the interest of mission scientists. The data were obtained on the morning of July

14, 2015 and received on the ground on July 18. At the time the observations were taken New Horizons was

about 102,000 miles (165,000 km) from Nix. The image shows features as small as 213 miles across on Nix,

which is estimated to be 26 miles (42 kilometers) long and 22 miles (36 kilometers) wide.

Pluto’s small, irregularly shaped moon Hydra (right) is revealed in this black and white image taken from New

Horizons’ LORRI instrument on July 14, 2015 from a distance of about 143,000 miles (231,000 kilometers).

Features as small as 0.7 miles (1.2 kilometers) are visible on Hydra, which measures 34 miles (55 kilometers)

in length.

Image Credit: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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3. With One Year to Jupiter, NASA's Juno Team Prepares

This artist's rendering shows NASA's Juno spacecraft making one of its closest passes over Jupiter. Credits: NASA/JPL-

Caltech

With just one year remaining in a five-year trek to Jupiter, the team of NASA's Juno mission is hard at work

preparing for the spacecraft's expedition to the solar system's largest planet. The mission aims to reveal the

story of Jupiter's formation and details of its interior structure. Data from Juno will provide insights about our

solar system's beginnings, and what we learn from the mission will also enrich scientists' understanding of

giant planets around other stars.

Juno is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016 (Pacific Daylight Time). Once it settles into orbit, the

spacecraft will brave the hazards of Jupiter's intense radiation when it repeatedly approaches within a few

thousand miles, or kilometers, of the cloud tops to collect its data.

Juno is the first mission dedicated to the study of a giant planet's interior, which it will do by mapping the

planet's magnetic and gravity fields. The mission will also map the abundance of water vapor in the planet's

atmosphere, providing the key to understanding which of several theories about the planet's formation is likely

the correct one. In addition, Juno will travel through the previously unexplored region above the planet's

poles, collecting the first images from there, along with data about electromagnetic forces and high-energy

particles in the environment.

Although other spacecraft have previously visited Jupiter, the space around the planet is full of unknowns,

especially the regions above the poles. With these challenges in mind, the Juno team has been busy fine-

tuning their flight plan.

"We're already more than 90 percent of the way to Jupiter, in terms of total distance traveled," said Scott

Bolton, Juno principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. "With a year to go, we're

looking carefully at our plans to make sure we're ready to make the most of our time once we arrive."

Following a detailed analysis by the Juno team, NASA recently approved changes to the mission's flight plan at

Jupiter. Instead of taking 11 days to orbit the planet, Juno will now complete one revolution every 14 days.

The difference in orbit period will be accomplished by having Juno execute a slightly shorter engine burn than

originally planned.

The revised cadence will allow Juno to build maps of the planet's magnetic and gravity fields in a way that will

provide a global look at the planet earlier in the mission than the original plan. Over successive orbits, Juno

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will build a virtual web around Jupiter, making its gravity and magnetic field maps as it passes over different

longitudes from north to south. The original plan would have required 15 orbits to map these forces globally,

with 15 more orbits filling in gaps to make the map complete. In the revised plan, Juno will get very basic

mapping coverage in just eight orbits. A new level of detail will be added with each successive doubling of the

number, at 16 and 32 orbits.

The slightly longer orbit also will provide a few extra days between close approaches to the planet for the

team to react to unexpected conditions the spacecraft might experience in the complex environment very

close to Jupiter.

"We have models that tell us what to expect, but the fact is that Juno is going to be immersed in a strong and

variable magnetic field and hazardous radiation, and it will get closer to the planet than any previous orbiting

spacecraft," said Bolton. "Juno's experience could be different than what our models predict -- that's part of

what makes space exploration so exciting."

The revised plan lengthens Juno's mission at Jupiter to 20 months instead of the original 15, and the

spacecraft will now complete 32 orbits instead of 30. But the extra time doesn't represent bonus science for

the mission -- rather, it's an effect of the longer orbital period and the change in the way Juno builds its web

around Jupiter. Basically, it will take Juno a bit longer to collect the full data set the mission is after, but it will

get a low-resolution version of its final products earlier in the mission than originally planned.

NASA also recently approved a change to the spacecraft's initial orbit after Jupiter arrival, called the capture

orbit. The revised plan splits the originally planned, 107-day-long capture orbit into two. The new approach

will provide the Juno team a sneak preview of their science activities, affording them an opportunity to test the

spacecraft's science instruments during a close approach to Jupiter before beginning the actual science phase

of the mission

In addition to myriad preparations being made on the engineering side, Juno's science team is also busy

preparing to collect valuable data about the giant planet's inner workings. One piece of this science

groundwork is a collection of images and spectra being obtained by powerful ground-based telescopes and

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (spectra are like chemical fingerprints of gases in the atmosphere). These

data are intended to provide big-picture context for Juno's up-close observations of Jupiter, which is important

for interpreting what the spacecraft's instruments will see.

With the countdown clock ticking -- this time, not toward launch, but toward arrival at their destination -- the

Juno team is acutely aware of how quickly they're sneaking up on the giant planet. And their excitement is

building.

Juno is the second mission chosen as part of NASA's New Frontiers program of frequent, medium-class

spacecraft missions that address high-priority exploration initiatives in the solar system. NASA's New Horizons

mission is the first New Frontiers mission; OSIRIS-REx is next in the lineup, slated to launch in 2016.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal

investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The New Frontiers Program is

managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space Systems,

Denver, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Source: NASA Return to Contents

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The Night Sky

Source: Sky and Telescope Return to Contents

Tuesday, July 21

Arcturus shines very high above the crescent Moon at nightfall. Arcturus is the brightest star of Bootes, the Herdsman. The main stars of Bootes form a narrow, slightly bent kite that currently extends up from Arcturus (where the tail would be tied on). The kite is about two fists at arm's length tall.

Wednesday, July 22

Look southwest this evening for Spica shining about 7° left of the Moon (for North America).

Thursday, July 23

First-quarter Moon (exact at 12:04 a.m. Friday morning EDT; 9:04 p.m. Thursday evening PDT). Spica now shines about 7° to the Moon's lower right (for North America).

Friday, July 24 The Moon this evening appears more than halfway from Spica (far to its lower right) to Saturn (left of

the Moon). Much closer to the Moon, look for fainter Alpha Librae (Zubenelgenubi), a very wide double star for binoculars.

Saturday, July 25

Ceres, the first-discovered asteroid, is at opposition. It's glimmering south of Capricornus within binocular reach at magnitude 7.5.

The waxing gibbous Moon poses to the right of Saturn this evening, as shown below.

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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, July 21

10 a.m. - ISS Expedition 44 Interviews with NASA Flight Engineer Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Mikhail Kornienko of the Russian Federal Space Agency with CNBC and the BBC’s “Future” (starts at 10:20 a.m.) (all channels)

3 p.m. - Replay of the Russian State Commission Meeting and Final Expedition 44 Pre-Launch Crew News Conference (all channels)

Wednesday, July 22

4 p.m. - ISS Expedition 44 Soyuz TMA-17M Launch Coverage (Launch scheduled at 5:02 p.m. ET) (all channels)

6:30 p.m. - Video File of ISS Expedition 44 Soyuz TMA-17M Pre-Launch, Launch Video B-Roll and Related Interviews (all channels)

10 p.m. - ISS Expedition 44 Soyuz TMA-17M Docking Coverage (Docking scheduled at 10:46 p.m. ET) (all channels)

11:30 p.m. - ISS Expedition 44 Soyuz TMA-17M Hatch Opening and Other Activities (Hatch Opening scheduled at 12:25 a.m. ET July 23) (all channels)

Thursday, July 23

2 a.m., - Video File of ISS Expedition 44 Soyuz TMA-17M Docking, Hatch Opening and Other Activities (all channels)

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

Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears

Tue Jul 21, 5:09 AM < 1 min 10° 10 above N 10 above N

Wed Jul 22, 2:39 AM < 1 min 22° 22 above N 19 above NNE

Wed Jul 22, 4:15 AM 2 min 11° 10 above NNW 10 above N

Thu Jul 23, 1:48 AM < 1 min 11° 11 above NE 11 above NE

Thu Jul 23, 3:20 AM 2 min 13° 10 above NW 12 above N

Thu Jul 23, 4:59 AM 1 min 10° 10 above N 10 above NNE

Fri Jul 24, 2:29 AM < 1 min 16° 16 above N 15 above N

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Space Calendar

Jul 21 - Comet P/2015 J3 (NEOWISE) Closest Approach To Earth (1.111 AU)

Jul 21 - Comet 25D/Neujmin Closest Approach To Earth (2.974 AU)

Jul 21 - Asteroid 2010 PR66 Near-Earth Flyby (0.063 AU)

Jul 21 - Asteroid 96193 Edmonton Closest Approach To Earth (1.615 AU)

Jul 21 - Asteroid 17023 Abbott Closest Approach To Earth (1.696 AU)

Jul 21 - Jean Picard's 395th Birthday (1620)

Jul 22 - Soyuz TMA-17M Soyuz FG Launch (International Space Station 44S)

Jul 22 -Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS-7) Delta 4 Launch

Jul 23 - Comet C/2013 US10 (Catalina) At Opposition (1.301 AU)

Jul 23 - Comet C/2014 QU2 (PANSTARRS) At Opposition (3.834 AU)

Jul 23 - Asteroid 21088 Chelyabinsk Closest Approach To Earth (0.421 AU)

Jul 23 - Asteroid 4864 Nimoy Closest Approach To Earth (1.091 AU)

Jul 23 - Asteroid 770 Bali Closest Approach To Earth (1.373 AU)

Jul 23 - Asteroid 2135 Aristaeus Closest Approach To Earth (1.779 AU)

Jul 23 - Dwarf Planet Ceres Closest Approach To Earth (1.939 AU)

Jul 23 - Asteroid 6824 Mallory Closest Approach To Earth (2.148 AU)

Jul 23 - 20th Anniversary (1995), Discovery of Comet Hale-Bopp by Alan Hale and Tom Bopp

Jul 23 - Etienne-Louis Malus' 240th Birthday (1775)

Jul 24 - Comet 141P-D/Machholz Closest Approach To Earth (0.546 AU)

Jul 24 - Comet 136P/Vaisala-Oterma At Opposition (2.372 AU)

Jul 24 - Comet C/2012 LP26 (Palomar) Closest Approach To Earth (5.562 AU)

Jul 24 - Comet C/2012 LP26 (Palomar) At Opposition (5.562 AU)

Jul 24 - Comet C/2014 M2 (Christensen) Closest Approach To Earth (6.484 AU)

Jul 24 - Asteroid 2015 LC21 Near-Earth Flyby (0.049 AU)

Jul 24 - Asteroid 171183 Haleakala Closest Approach To Earth (1.616 AU)

Jul 24 - 65th Anniversary (1950), 1st Rocket Launch from Cape Canaveral (Bumper/V-2 Rocket)

Jul 25 - Cassini, Distant Flyby of Titan

Jul 25 - Comet P/2004 FY140 (LINEAR) Perihelion (4.059 AU)

Jul 25 - Asteroid 49 Pales Occults HIP 14649 (6.6 Magnitude Star)

Jul 25 - Asteroid 85989 (1999 JD6) Near-Earth Flyby (0.048 AU)

Jul 25 - Asteroid 2955 Newburn Closest Approach To Earth (0.960 AU)

Source: JPL Space Calendar Return to Contents

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Food for Thought

Weird 'Buckyballs' May Be at Root of Milky Way Mystery

Artist's concept of buckyball molecules against the backdrop of the Small Magellanic Cloud, which was imaged by NASA's

Spitzer Space Telescope. Spitzer discovered huge quantities of buckyballs in space, and a new study further suggests that

these molecules are common across the universe. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Soccer-ball-shaped carbon molecules known as buckyballs may be the cause of mysterious bands seen in light

across the Milky Way that have puzzled astronomers for nearly a century, a new study reports.

The discovery suggests these carbon spheres may be commonplace across the universe, and may even be

sources of organic molecules that are key to the origin and evolution of life, scientists added.

Astronomers often focus on dark lines in the spectra of the light streaming down on Earth from outer space.

These "absorption lines" are fingerprints left behind by molecules, each of which absorbs a unique pattern of

colors. Absorption lines can yield insights into the composition of whatever the light passed through on its way

to Earth, be it the outer layers of a star, a cloud of interstellar gas or the dusty birthplace of a planet.

Nearly 100 years ago, astronomers began spotting unknown absorption bands associated with the interstellar

gas and dust of the Milky Way and other galaxies. More than 400 of these "diffuse interstellar bands" have

been found to date, and their cause is "often cited as the biggest enigma of observational astronomy," study

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co-author John Maier, a spectroscopist and chemical physicist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, told

Space.com.

In 1994, researchers suggested that some of these absorption bands might arise from buckyballs, which are

cagelike spheres also known as C60, since each molecule is made up of 60 carbon atoms.

Buckyballs, also known as fullerenes, are named after their resemblance to the architect Buckminster Fuller's

geodesic domes, a giant example of which is found at the entrance to Disney World's Epcot theme park in

Florida. Discovered in 1985, buckyballs are about 1 nanometer in size, or about one ten-thousandth the

average diameter of a human hair.

Five years ago, scientists confirmed that buckyballs exist in space around stars. Now, Maier and his colleagues

have found the first unambiguous evidence that buckyballs exist in the interstellar medium between stars in

the Milky Way.

In the lab, the researchers created a positively charged version of C60 known as C60+, which can form when

buckyballs are bombarded with radiation. They cooled a gas of C60+ to the kind of temperatures found in

deep space — about minus 449 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 267 degrees Celsius). They next tested what

C60+'s absorption bands were. Altogether, this project took 20 years, Maier said.

The researchers found that buckyballs are responsible for two diffuse interstellar bands, marking the first time

investigators have identified a culprit behind any of these mysterious features.

"The whole mystery has not been solved, but perhaps this is the beginning," Maier said.

Previous research suggested buckyballs are created in dying stars and pushed out into planetary nebulas.

These new findings suggest buckyballs ultimately make their way into diffuse clouds that provide the seeds

for the formation of new stars.

"C60+ may well be ubiquitous in space and stable in very hostile environments," Maier said. "Buckyballs may

even be the precursors of important organic molecules necessary for the formation of life on planets."

Future research can investigate whether other diffuse interstellar bands are caused by buckyballs laced with

metals and other elements, Maier said.

The scientists detailed their findings in online Wednesday (July 15) in the journal Nature.

Source: Space.com Return to Contents

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Space Image of the Week

Messier 43

Image Credit & Copyright: Yuri Beletsky (Carnegie Las Campanas Obs.), Igor Chilingarian

(Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

Explanation: Often imaged but rarely mentioned, Messier 43 is a large star forming region in its own right.

It's just part of the star forming complex of gas and dust that includes the larger, more famous neighboring

Messier 42, the Great Orion Nebula. In fact, the Great Orion Nebula itself lies off the lower edge of this scene.

The close-up of Messier 43 was made while testing the capabilities of a near-infrared instrument with one of

the twin 6.5 meter Magellan telescopes at Las Campanas Observatory in the Chilean Andes. The composite

image shifts the otherwise invisible infrared wavelengths to blue, green, and red colors. Peering into caverns

of interstellar dust hidden from visible light, the near-infrared view can also be used to study cool, brown

dwarf stars in the complex region.

Along with its celebrity neighbor, Messier 43 lies about 1,500 light-years away, at the edge of Orion's giant

molecular cloud. At that distance, this field of view spans about 5 light-years.

Source: NASA Return to Contents