X-ray photos show bright ring of black holes

A pair of galaxies like Arp 147 ", taken by space telescopes Hubble, is in itself a rarity. For it is not often that a spiral galaxy (a disk-shaped galaxy with a pronounced spiral pattern) with an elliptical galaxy (a galaxy with uniform light distribution without conspicuous structures) collided. What's left of the clash in 430 million light years away from Earth remained is a giant, mostly blue ring.

Japan Draws Plans To Build Research Center On Moon

Japan is developing a program to build a scientific research base on the moon, Yomiuri Shimbun reported on Wednesday. The Japanese government plans to invest some 200 billion yen ($2.2 bln) on lunar research up to 2020, and will include robots operating on the moon's surface, according to the news agency.

Japan's strategy for exploring the moon's surface will be carried out in two phases. The first phase of sending a mobile robot to the moon is to be completed by 2015. The robot is to send video images of the surface as well as conduct seismographic research on the moon's composition.

The following five years, according to the program, the Japanese plan to build a scientific research center on the moon's South Pole in order to study the surface within a 100-kilometer radius. The station will be able to produce its own electricity and take surface samples. Some samples will then be sent back to Earth for further study.

Lunar projects were actively discussed under former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso's government and former U.S. President George Bush's administration. However, Barack Obama's administration has put more emphasis on exploring Mars. Under Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's administration, Japan will continue its lunar research projects.

Japan is striving to secure its position on the moon before China and India, who are also interested in lunar research, are able to complete their programs.

LockMart Dedicates New PAC-3 Missile Facility

Lockheed Martin dedicated the expansion of its state-of-the-art Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) Missile production complex in Camden, AR. The company anticipates that the new facility will allow for continued production expansion and modest employment growth over the next several years.

The new 72,000 square-foot PAC-3 All Up Round (AUR) II building is located on Camden Operations' campus adjacent to the existing 52,000-square-foot PAC-3 AUR I facility.

"The dedication of the new building marks our continued investment in the state of Arkansas and Lockheed Martin's commitment to developing and manufacturing the PAC-3 Missile here in Camden," said Glenn David Woods, site director of Lockheed Martin Missile and Fire Control's Camden Operations.

"Our Camden employees are proud to play a pivotal role in producing the world's most advanced terminal air defense missile that serves our Warfighters in their defining moments."

"This expansion reaffirms our strong commitment to the U.S. Army and the Camden community," said Richard McDaniel, director of the PAC-3 Programs for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "Through this expansion, we will be able to maintain the high level of quality and performance that our customers demand and accommodate future program growth."

Camden Operations is the final assembly site for the Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) line of launchers and precision-strike guided rockets; the transformational High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launcher; the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) Launcher and Fire Control System; and the PAC-3 Missile, currently the world's only fielded, combat-proven terminal air defense missile employing hit-to-kill technology.

The PAC-3 Missile defeats the entire Patriot Air Defense System threat spectrum: tactical ballistic missiles, evolving cruise missiles and fixed and rotary winged aircraft. PAC-3 Missiles significantly increase the Patriot system's firepower, since 16 PAC-3s load out on a Patriot launcher, compared with four legacy Patriot PAC-2 missiles.

Lockheed Martin achieved the first-ever hit-to-kill intercept of a ballistic missile target in 1984 with the Homing Overlay Experiment, using force of impact alone to destroy a mock warhead outside of the Earth's atmosphere.

Further development and testing produced today's PAC-3 Missile, which won a competition in 1993 to become the first hit-to-kill interceptor produced by the U.S. government. The PAC-3 Missile has been the technology pathfinder for today's total conversion to kinetic energy interceptors for all modern missile defense systems.

NASA Satellite Spots Oil At Mississippi Delta Mouth

On May 24, 2010, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft captured this false-color, high-resolution view of the very tip of the Mississippi River delta. Ribbons and patches of oil that have leaked from the Deepwater Horizon well offshore appear silver against the light blue color of the adjacent water. Vegetation is red.

In the sunglint region of a satellite image--where the mirror-like reflection of the sun gets blurred into a wide, bright strip--any differences in the texture of the water surface are enhanced.

Oil smoothes the water, making it a better "mirror." Oil-covered waters are very bright in this image, but, depending on the viewing conditions (time of day, satellite viewing angle, slick location), oil-covered water may look darker rather than brighter.

The relative brightness of the oil from place to place is not necessarily an indication of the amount of oil present. Any oil located near the precise spot where the sun's reflection would appear, if the surface of the Gulf were perfectly smooth and calm, is going to look very bright in these images.

The cause of the dark patch of water in the upper left quadrant of the image is unknown. It may indicate the use of chemical dispersants, skimmers or booms, or it may be the result of natural differences in turbidity, salinity or organic matter in the coastal waters.

With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products.

The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance.

The ASTER U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.

Space technology used to study the Maya

University of Central Florida scientists say they have used laser technology to collect 25 years worth of archaeological data on the Maya in four days.

The researchers said a flyover of Belize's thick jungles using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) equipment has revolutionized archaeology, illustrating the complex urban centers developed by one of the most-studied ancient civilizations -- the Maya.

Aboard a Cessna 337, the scientists used LiDAR to bounce laser beams to sensors on the ground, penetrating the thick tree canopy and producing images of the ancient settlement and environmental modifications made by the inhabitants of the Maya city of Caracol.

The researchers said the technology detected thousands of new structures, 11 new causeways, tens of thousands of agricultural terraces and many hidden caves.

"It's very exciting," said UCF anthropology Professor Arlen Chase. "The images not only reveal topography and built features, but also demonstrate the integration of residential groups, monumental architecture, roadways and agricultural terraces, vividly illustrating a complete communication, transportation and subsistence system."

UCF Biology Professor John Weishampel, who designed the unique LiDAR approach, said it was the first time the specific technology fully recorded an archaeological ruin under a tropical rainforest.

"Further applications of airborne LiDAR undoubtedly will Â… effectively render obsolete traditional methods of surveying," Chase said.

Russia Announces Participants In Mars Flight Simulation Mission

The names of the participants in a 520-day simulation of an expedition to Mars were announced on Tuesday. Six main participants plus one reserve will take part in the experiment in the Mars-500 module, which will simulate all aspects of a journey to the Red Planet, with a 250-day outward trip, a 30-day stay on its surface, and a 240-day return flight.

"The crew is likely to be headed by a Russian participant," the project's director, Boris Morukov, said, adding that there will be also a flight engineer and a doctor. Three other crew members will be researchers.

During nearly two years of isolation, the crew members will experience many of the conditions likely to be encountered by astronauts on a real space flight, except for radiation and weightlessness.

The Mars-500 project started in the Moscow Institute of Medical and Biological Problems and included 11 candidates: seven candidates from Russia and one each from China, France, Italy and Belgium.

The institute has already held a 105-day experiment to simulate a flight to Mars, which ended last July. Six people - four Russians and two Europeans - spent over three months in a lab that simulated life on board a spaceship.

The list of participants includes two Russian engineers, 37-year-old Mikhail Sidelnikov and 38-year-old Alexei Sitev, Russian surgeon Sukhrob Kamolov, 32 and Russian general practitioner Alexander Smolevsky, 33, as well as Italian Diego Urbina, 27, China's Wang Yue, 27, and 31-year-old Roman Charles from France.

The reserve has not yet been named.

Morukov added that the experiment is scheduled to begin on June 3 this year and the participants will be paid 3 million rubles ($100,000).

Mars Rovers Set Surface Longevity Record

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project will pass a historic Martian longevity record on Thursday, May 20. The Opportunity rover will surpass the duration record set by NASA's Viking 1 Lander of six years and 116 days operating on the surface of Mars. The effects of favorable weather on the red planet could also help the rovers generate more power.

Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, began working on Mars three weeks before Opportunity. However, Spirit has been out of communication since March 22. If it awakens from hibernation and resumes communication, that rover will attain the Martian surface longevity record.

Spirit's hibernation was anticipated, based on energy forecasts, as the amount of sunshine hitting the robot's solar panels declined during autumn on Mars' southern hemisphere. Unfortunately, mobility problems prevented rover operators from positioning Spirit with a favorable tilt toward the north, as during the first three winters it experienced. The rovers' fourth winter solstice, the day of the Martian year with the least sunshine at their locations, was Wednesday, May 12.

"Opportunity, and likely Spirit, surpassing the Viking Lander 1 longevity record is truly remarkable, considering these rovers were designed for only a 90-day mission on the surface of Mars," Callas said. "Passing the solstice means we're over the hump for the cold, dark, winter season."

Unless dust interferes, which is unlikely in the coming months, the solar panels on both rovers should gradually generate more electricity. Operators hope that Spirit will recharge its batteries enough to awaken from hibernation, start communicating and resume science tasks.

Unlike recent operations, Opportunity will not have to rest to regain energy between driving days. The gradual increase in available sunshine will eventually improve the rate of Opportunity's progress across a vast plain toward its long-term destination, the Endeavour Crater.

This month, some of Opportunity's drives have been planned to end at an energy-favorable tilt on the northern face of small Martian plain surface ripples. The positioning sacrifices some distance to regain energy sooner for the next drive. Opportunity's cameras can see a portion of the rim of Endeavour on the horizon, approximately eight miles away, across the plain's ripples of windblown sand.

"The ripples look like waves on the ocean, like we're out in the middle of the ocean with land on the horizon, our destination," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is the principal investigator for Opportunity and Spirit. "Even though we know we might never get there, Endeavour is the goal that drives our exploration."

The team chose Endeavour as a destination in mid-2008, after Opportunity finished two years examining the smaller Victoria Crater. Since then, the goal became even more alluring when orbital observations found clay minerals exposed at Endeavour. Clay minerals have been found extensively on Mars from orbit, but have not been examined on the surface.

"Those minerals form under wet conditions more neutral than the wet, acidic environment that formed the sulfates we've found with Opportunity," said Squyres.

"The clay minerals at Endeavour speak to a time when the chemistry was much friendlier to life than the environments that formed the minerals Opportunity has seen so far. We want to get there to learn their context. Was there flowing water? Were there steam vents? Hot springs? We want to find out."

Launched in 1975, Project Viking consisted of two orbiters, each carrying a stationary lander. Viking Lander 1 was the first successful mission to the surface of Mars, touching down on July 20, 1976. It operated until Nov. 13, 1982, more than two years longer than its twin lander or either of the Viking orbiters.

The record for longest working lifetime by a spacecraft at Mars belongs to a later orbiter: NASA's Mars Global Surveyor operated for more than 9 years after arriving in 1997.

NASA's Mars Odyssey, in orbit since in 2001, has been working at Mars longer than any other current mission and is on track to take the Mars longevity record late this year. Science discoveries by the Mars Exploration Rover have included Opportunity finding the first mineralogical evidence that Mars had liquid water and Spirit finding evidence for hot springs or steam vents and a past environment of explosive volcanism.

NASA picks 17 low gravity flight projects

NASA says it has selected 17 projects for reduced-gravity flights to discover if emerging technologies can perform in reduced or zero-gravity environments.

Officials said they selected the projects through NASA's Facilitated Access to the Space Environment for Technology program, or FAST. The selected projects are from U.S. companies, universities and NASA laboratories in 10 states. The project testing is to begin in September.

The space agency said the program is designed to incorporate new technologies into NASA's flight programs and other commercial aerospace applications. Reduced-gravity conditions can be simulated for periods of 25 seconds in an aircraft flying repeated parabolic trajectories.

"The FAST program can reduce the risk of using new technologies during space missions by providing an opportunity to prove how they work in a reduced-gravity environment," NASA said. "The flights also can provide insight into why some technologies may fail before deploying them on a costly ride into the unforgiving environment of space."

The test operations will be supervised by the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

A list of the selected projects is available at http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ipp/innovation_incubator/FAST/fast_2010_selected_projects.html.

Unique Eclipsing Binary Star System Discovered

Santa Barbara CA (SPX) May 19, 2010 Astrophysicists at UC Santa Barbara are the first scientists to identify two white dwarf stars in an eclipsing binary system, allowing for the first direct radius measurement of a rare white dwarf composed of pure helium.

The results will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. These observations are the first to confirm a theory about a certain type of white dwarf star.

The story began with observations by Justin Steinfadt, a UCSB physics graduate student who has been monitoring white dwarf stars as part of his Ph.D. thesis with Lars Bildsten, a professor and permanent member of UCSB's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Steve Howell, an astronomer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Ariz.

Brief eclipses were discovered during observations of the star NLTT 11748 with the Faulkes Telescope North of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT), a UCSB-affiliated institution. NLTT 11748 is one of the few very low-mass, helium-core white dwarfs that are under careful study for their brightness variations.

Rapid snapshots of the star - about one exposure every minute - found a few consecutive images where the star was slightly fainter. Steinfadt quickly realized the importance of this unexpected discovery. "We've been looking at a lot of stars, but I still think we got lucky!" he said.

Avi Shporer, a postdoctoral fellow at UCSB and LCOGT, assisted with the observations and quickly brought his expertise to the new discovery. "We knew something was unusual, especially as we confirmed these dips the next night," Shporer said. The scientists observed three-minute eclipses of the binary stars twice during the 5.6-hour orbit.

The excitement of the discovery and the need to confirm it rapidly led to the use of the 10-meter Keck Telescope, located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, just five weeks after the first observation. The team also brought in David Kaplan, a Hubble Fellow and KITP postdoctoral fellow. Bildsten and Kaplan arranged for use of the Keck by swapping time they had reserved for another project with Geoff Marcy at UC Berkeley.

During that night, the scientists were able to measure the changing Doppler shift of the star NLTT 11748 as it orbited its faint, but more massive, white dwarf companion. "It was amazing to witness the velocity of this star change in just a few minutes," said Kaplan, who was present at the Keck telescope during the observations.

These observations led to the confirmation of an important theory about white dwarf stars. Stars end their lives in many ways. "The formation of such a binary system containing an extremely low mass helium white dwarf has to be the result of interactions and mass loss between the two original stars," said Howell.

White dwarf stars are the very dense remnants of stars like the sun, with dimensions comparable to the earth. A star becomes a white dwarf when it has exhausted its nuclear fuel and all that remains is the dense inner core, typically made of carbon and oxygen.

One of the stars in the newly discovered binary is a relatively rare helium-core white dwarf with a mass only 10 to 20 percent of that of the sun. The existence of these special stars has been known for more than 20 years. Theoretical work predicted that these stars burn hotter and are larger than ordinary white dwarfs.

Until now, their size had never been measured. The observations of the star NLTT 11748 by this research group have yielded the first direct radius measurement of an unusual white dwarf that confirms this theory.

The other star in the binary is also a white dwarf, albeit a more ordinary one, composed of mostly carbon and oxygen with about 70 percent of the mass of the sun. This star is more massive and also much smaller than the other white dwarf. The light it gives off is 30 times fainter than that of its partner star in the binary.

Bildsten credits the scientific collaborations at UCSB for the success of this work, noting that the original team was expanded to include KITP, the Physics Department, and LCOGT to quickly respond to the new discovery.

"A particularly intriguing possibility to ponder is what will happen in 6 to 10 billion years," said Bildsten. "This binary is emitting gravitational waves at a rate that will force the two white dwarfs to make contact. What happens then is anybody's guess."

The National Science Foundation, LCOGT, and NASA supported this work.

Fly Your Thesis! 2011 Call For Proposals

ESA's Education Office is again offering European students the flights of a lifetime with the third call for proposals for the 'Fly your Thesis!' programme.

This exciting programme enables university students to fly their experiments in microgravity in a series of parabolic flights on the Airbus A300 Zero-G aircraft.

'Fly your Thesis!' requires each team of students to design a scientific or technology experiment to be performed in microgravity, as part of their master's or PhD thesis or research programme.

Interested teams should register on ESA's Education Office's Projects Portal and upload their outline proposals using the letter of intent template, by 12 July 2010.

A letter of endorsement from a professor or academic supervisor is required. Proposals by teams from ESA's Cooperating States are also encouraged.

In a new move, medical research proposals will now be accepted under certain conditions.

A review board will select up to 20 teams who will be invited to elaborate on their scientific proposal, with the support of a scientific mentor. The teams will present their projects to a review board during a dedicated workshop at an ESA centre in February 2011.

After this initial workshop, up to four teams will be selected to develop and carry out their experiment at an ESA Microgravity Research Campaign that will take place in Bordeaux, France, during the spring of 2012. There, the student teams will work in close contact with renowned European scientists carrying out their own research.

During the campaign, the students will accompany their experiments for three flights of 30 parabolas, experiencing about 20 seconds of microgravity during each parabola.

During the 'Fly your Thesis!' programme, the teams will be supported by ESA's Education Office, ESA microgravity experts and members of the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA). ESA will offer financial support to cover part of the cost of the experiments, travel and accommodation.

US reveals nuclear arsenal: 5,113 warheads

The United States revealed for the first time Monday that it has a total of 5,113 nuclear warheads, an unprecedented move meant to bolster arms control efforts.

"It is in our national security interest to be as transparent as we can be about the nuclear program of the United States," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as the Pentagon unveiled figures long shrouded in secrecy.

"We think that builds confidence, brings more people to an understanding of what President (Barack) Obama and this administration are trying to do," she said at a conference in New York on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The symbolic step was timed to add momentum to the non-proliferation conference and comes after the United States and Russia agreed to new reductions in nuclear weapons.

Independent experts had already estimated the size of the US stockpile over the years, and arms control advocates had said keeping the numbers secret no longer made sense with the Cold War long over.

Clinton said there had been "numerous debates" inside the administration over whether to reveal the figures.

"As of September 30, 2009, the US stockpile of nuclear weapons consisted of 5,113 warheads," the Pentagon said in a statement.

The number included active warheads ready for deployment at short notice, as well as "inactive" warheads maintained at a depot in a "non-operational status," it said.

The figure represented an 84-percent reduction from the arsenal at its peak of 31,255 in 1967 during the Cold War, and a 75-percent reduction from late 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell.

The US government last disclosed details of the stockpile in 1993, releasing figures current up to only 1961.

Clinton said releasing the figures was not "in any way in opposition to our nuclear security" and that experts had already estimated the US stockpile.

A US defense official said the administration hoped more transparency from Washington would set a standard that would encourage countries to be more open.

"We hope that others will follow," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters.

"In particular we'd like to see more transparency from China. We have really quite little visibility into their programs and plans," the official said.

The numbers did not include warheads that are scheduled to be dismantled.

From 1994 to 2009, the United States dismantled 8,748 warheads but "several thousand additional nuclear weapons are currently retired and waiting dismantlement," the Pentagon said.

The US government planned to finish dismantling the weapons "in the early part of the next decade," said an official with the Energy Department.

The figures from the Pentagon appeared to confirm previous estimates from outside arms control experts, who had said the United States had about 9,000 nuclear weapons with 5,000 ready to be deployed.

Aerojet And Florida Turbine Technologies To Develop NASA's New Rocket Engines

Aerojet and Florida Turbine Technologies (FTT) have announced that the companies have entered into a strategic partnership to compete for research, development and production on NASA's new hydrocarbon engine and advanced upper stage engine.

This expands the very successful teamwork that Aerojet and FTT have underway on the U.S. Air Force Hydrocarbon Boost Technology Demonstrator (HBTD) and Upper Stage Engine Technology (USET) programs.

The HBTD program is developing key, high-impact components and enabling technology for a world-class hydrocarbon engine. Aerojet and FTT will provide the innovation to expand this effort into a comprehensive engine development program that provides transformational propulsion capability for NASA, DoD and commercial launch vehicles.

In 2007, Aerojet and FTT competed and won the HBTD program which is the only U.S. engine development program working on an advanced rocket engine cycle.

"NASA's plans for innovative propulsion R and D on a new hydrocarbon engine are critical to America's leadership in space launch," said Aerojet CEO Scott Seymour.

"Winning the opportunity to work on these new NASA investments will allow Aerojet and FTT to expand and employ a whole new generation of engineers and scientists in developing the world's best hydrocarbon engine - and then to produce these engines in a new facility located in the United States. Aerojet is excited about joining in a strategic partnership with the innovative professionals at FTT to compete for and win this very important work."

"We look forward to growing our relationship with Aerojet, and the opportunity to build on our Air Force hydrocarbon engine technology with NASA," said FTT CEO Shirley Brostmeyer. "We are also proud of the opportunity to help build new high technology R and D engineering and manufacturing positions within the state of Florida."

Aerojet and FTT are the premier hydrocarbon engine team in the United States.

Aerojet continues to be a pioneer in developing world-class U.S. hydrocarbon engine capabilities. Aerojet is providing the AJ26 engine (derived from the NK-33, the world's first oxidizer-rich, staged-combustion, oxygen/kerosene rocket engine, which achieves very high performance in a lightweight, compact package) for Orbital Sciences Corporation's Taurus II launch vehicle.

This summer Aerojet will begin acceptance testing of the AJ26 engine at NASA Stennis Space Center leading to a planned first flight of the Taurus II in June 2011.

Aerojet also just successfully hot-fire tested a 5,500 lbf liquid oxygen - liquid methane engine at NASA White Sands Test Facility under a contract with NASA Glenn Research Center with support from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

Florida Turbine Technologies is working closely with AFRL, NASA, and Aerojet to develop state-of-the-art technologies for next generation turbopumps which provide extremely high pressure fuel to the rocket's engine.

These technologies include cavitation models, bearing and seal components, flowpath design, and health management sensors, which are being developed and tested as part of the USET, HBTB and other R and D programs

Survivor Black Holes May Be Mid-Sized

New evidence from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton strengthens the case that two mid-sized black holes exist close to the center of a nearby starburst galaxy. These "survivor" black holes avoided falling into the center of the galaxy and could be examples of the seeds required for the growth of supermassive black holes in galaxies, including the one in the Milky Way.

For several decades, scientists have had strong evidence for two distinct classes of black hole: the stellar-mass variety with masses about ten times that of the Sun, and the supermassive ones, located at the center of galaxies, that range from hundreds of thousands to billions of solar masses.

But a mystery has remained: what about black holes that are in between? Evidence for these objects has remained controversial, and until now there were no strong claims of more than one such black hole in a single galaxy. Recently, a team of researchers has found signatures in X-ray data of two mid-sized black holes in the starburst galaxy M82 located 12 million light years from Earth.

"This is the first time that good evidence for two mid-sized black holes has been found in one galaxy," said Hua Feng of the Tsinghua University in China, who led two papers describing the results. "Their location near the center of the galaxy might provide clues about the origin of the Universe's largest black holes - supermassive black holes found in the centers of most galaxies."

One possible mechanism for the formation of supermassive black holes involves a chain reaction of collisions of stars in compact star clusters that results in the buildup of extremely massive stars, which then collapse to form intermediate-mass black holes. The star clusters then sink to the center of the galaxy, where the intermediate-mass black holes merge to form a supermassive black hole.

In this picture, clusters that were not massive enough or close enough to the center of the galaxy to fall in would survive, as would any black holes they contain.

"We can't say whether this process actually occurred in M82, but we do know that both of these possible mid-sized black holes are located in or near star clusters," said Phil Kaaret from the University of Iowa, who co-authored both papers. "Also, M82 is the nearest place to us where the conditions are similar to those in the early Universe, with lots of stars forming."

The evidence for these two "survivor" black holes comes from how their X-ray emission varies over time and analysis of their X-ray brightness and spectra, i.e., the distribution of X-rays with energy.

Chandra and XMM-Newton data show that the X-ray emission for one of these objects changes in a distinctive manner similar to stellar-mass black holes found in the Milky Way. Using this information and theoretical models, the team estimated this black hole's mass is between 12,000 and 43,000 times the mass of the Sun.

This mass is large enough for the black hole to generate copious X-rays by pulling gas directly from its surroundings, rather than from a binary companion, like with stellar-mass black holes.

The black hole is located at a projected distance of 290 light years from the center of M82. The authors estimate that, at this close distance, if the black hole was born at the same time as the galaxy and its mass was more than about 30,000 solar masses it would have been pulled into the center of the galaxy. That is, it may have just escaped falling into the supermassive black hole that is presumably located in the center of M82.

The second object, located 600 light years in projection away from the center of M82, was observed by both Chandra and XMM-Newton. During X-ray outbursts, periodic and random variations normally present in the X-ray emission disappear, a strong indication that a disk of hot gas dominates the X-ray emission.

A detailed fit of the X-ray data indicates that the disk extends all the way to the innermost stable orbit around the black hole. Similar behavior has been seen from stellar-mass black holes in our Galaxy, but this is the first likely detection in a candidate intermediate-mass black hole.

The radius of the innermost stable orbit depends only on the mass and spin of the black hole. The best model for the X-ray emission implies a rapidly spinning black hole with mass in the range 200 to 800 times the mass of the Sun. The mass agrees with theoretical estimates for a black hole created in a star cluster by runaway collisions of stars.

"This result is one of the strongest pieces of evidence to date for the existence of an intermediate-mass black hole," said Feng. "This looks just like well-studied examples of stellar-mass black holes, except for being more than 20 times as massive."

The two papers describing these results recently appeared in The Astrophysical Journal. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

The XMM-Newton spacecraft is controlled by the European Space Operations Center. The XMM-Newton Science Operations Center situated at ESAC in Villafranca, Spain, manages observation requests and receives XMM-Newton data.

The XMM-Newton Survey Science Centre at Leicester University, UK, processes and correlates all XMM-Newton observations with existing sky data held elsewhere in the world.

Australian Defence Force Extends Hosted Payload Contract On Intelsat 22

Intelsat has announced an expansion of its April 2009 agreement for UHF hosted payload services with the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The ADF exercised its option to purchase the remainder of the specialized UHF communications payload that Intelsat is integrating within its Intelsat 22 satellite, scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2012.

This announcement follows the historic Memorandum of Understanding signing between the Commonwealth of Australia and the United States, under the terms of which UHF communications resources will be shared between the two countries.

"Our growing partnership with the ADF is an example of the long-term capabilities that can be provided by commercial satellite operators to government and military users. As a result of our direct partnership with the ADF, we are building a payload that will serve the ADF's growing communication requirements for the next two decades," said Don Brown, Vice President for Hosted Payload Programs at Intelsat General Corp., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Intelsat.

"This agreement extends Intelsat's ongoing commitment to the Australian government and exemplifies the powerful tool that hosted payloads offer government users for SATCOM augmentation."

The Intelsat 22 satellite, which will be positioned at 72 degrees East longitude, will provide optimal coverage for growing opportunities for enterprise networks, mobility and defense-related applications.

Scientists Finds Evidence Of Water Ice On Asteroid's Surface

Asteroids may not be the dark, dry, lifeless chunks of rock scientists have long thought.

Josh Emery, research assistant professor with the earth and planetary sciences department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has found evidence of water ice and organic material on the asteroid 24 Themis. This evidence supports the idea that asteroids could be responsible for bringing water and organic material to Earth.

The findings are detailed in the journal "Nature."

Using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, Emery and Andrew Rivkin of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Md., examined the surface of 24 Themis, a 200-kilometer wide asteroid that sits halfway between Mars and Jupiter.

By measuring the spectrum of infrared sunlight reflected by the object, the researchers found the spectrum consistent with frozen water and determined that 24 Themis is coated with a thin film of ice. They also detected organic material.

"The organics we detected appear to be complex, long-chained molecules. Raining down on a barren Earth in meteorites, these could have given a big kick-start to the development of life," Emery said.

Emery noted that finding ice on the surface of 24 Themis was a surprise because the surface is too warm for ice to stick around for a long time.

"This implies that ice is quite abundant in the interior of 24 Themis and perhaps many other asteroids. This ice on asteroids may be the answer to the puzzle of where Earth's water came from," he said.

Still, how the water ice got there is unclear.

24 Themis' proximity to the sun causes ice to vaporize. However, the researchers' findings suggest the asteroid's lifetime of ice ranges from thousands to millions of years depending on the latitude.

Therefore, the ice is regularly being replenished. The scientists theorize this is done by a process of "outgassing" in which ice buried within the asteroid escapes slowly as vapor migrates through cracks to the surface or as vapor escapes quickly and sporadically when 24 Themis is hit by space debris.

Since Themis is part of an asteroid "family" that was formed from a large impact and the subsequent fragmentation of a larger body long ago, this scenario means the parent body also had ice and has deep implications for how our solar system formed.

The discovery of abundant ice on 24 Themis demonstrates that water is much more common in the Main Belt of asteroids than previously thought.

"Asteroids have generally been viewed as being very dry. It now appears that when the asteroids and planets were first forming in the very early Solar System, ice extended far into the Main Belt region," Emery said.

"Extending this refined view to planetary systems around other stars, the building blocks of life - water and organics - may be more common near each star's habitable zone. The coming years will be truly exciting as astronomers search to discover whether these building blocks of life have worked their magic there as well."

The scientists' discovery also further blurs the line between comets and asteroids. Asteroids have long been considered to be rocky and comets icy. Furthermore, it was once believed that comets could have brought water to Earth. This theory was nixed when it was discovered comets' water has different isotopic signatures than water on Earth.

Now, due to Emery and Rivkin's findings, many wonder if asteroids could be responsible for seeding Earth with the ingredients for life.

Giant NASA balloon crashes in Australia

A giant NASA science balloon crashed during take-off in Australia Thursday, destroying its multi-million-dollar payload, toppling a large car and narrowly missing frightened observers.

Dramatic footage of the incident showed the balloon's large undercarriage coming loose from its moorings, smashing through a fence and knocking a four-wheel-drive car on its side before coming to rest.

"We were sitting in our car and preparing to move it out of the way and we actually were within a foot (30 centimetres) of being wiped out," a relieved bystander said, on footage relayed by public broadcaster ABC.

"If it hadn't been for the other gentleman's car being there, we'd be somewhere else by now, I think."

The balloon, the size of a football field when inflated and designed to float up to 40 kilometres (25 miles) high, deep in the stratosphere, fluttered back down to the Alice Springs launch site after it came loose.

Witnesses said they were asked to move out of the way before the payload, containing expensive scientific instruments, was suddenly dragged across the launch site.

"We started moving the cars and just barely made it out without getting smashed," one witness said.

"(There was) debris flying through the air everywhere," said another. "That was it, just an instance of chaos outside."

Scientists last week completed a similar balloon flight to measure X-rays and gamma rays sent out by various stars and galaxies from deep in the Earth's atmosphere.

Ravi Sood, director of the Alice Springs Balloon Launching Centre, said scientists involved in the NASA-sponsored project were extremely disappointed.

"Ballooning, that's the way it happens on occasions but it is very, very disappointing. Gut-wrenching actually," he told ABC.

Sanswire Awarded Contract For Skysat UAV

Sanswire has announced that defense contractor Global Telesat Corp. (GTC) has agreed to purchase a 50% interest in one SkySat airship for $250,000, with an option to purchase the remaining 50% for an additional $750,000.

The SkySat is Sanswire's mid-altitude, lighter-than-air, UAV platform. The airship was initially designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions performed at altitudes up to 45,000 ft. Sanswire and Global Telesat intend to upgrade the airship to improve its viability for multipurpose defense and communications operations.

More specifically, the two companies plan to develop a flexible platform allowing the SkySat to accommodate a range of customer requirements.

The agreement states that Sanswire will initially receive $250,000 from Global Telesat in exchange for a 50% interest in one SkySat airship.

Sanwire will immediately deliver the existing airship to a facility designated by Global Telesat, whereupon GTC will make a first payment of $50,000 within three days of inspection. This payment will be followed by four additional payments of $50,000, each at 30-day intervals.

Sanswire also granted Global Telesat the option to acquire the remaining 50% interest in the airship for an additional $750,000. GTC must make an initial payment of $250,000 within ten business days upon exercising the option, followed by two additional payments of $250,000, each at 30-day intervals. The option expires on December 31, 2010.

Global Telesat agreed to the purchase following recent meetings with potential customers, strategic partners and defense contractors. GTC requires that Sanswire utilize the $250,000 in proceeds to complete development work that will enable the airship to be tested and demonstrated to potential customers.

The companies plan to work closely together, as well as with third-party US government-certified defense contractors, to integrate approved ground station controls and electronics packages into the airship.

GTC has already partnered with Sanswire to develop the STS-111 UAV, a flexible multi-segmented airship that began flight-testing in December 2009.

Sanswire's Chairman of the Board, Major General Wayne P. Jackson (US Army, Ret.), stated: "We are keenly focused on leveraging our existing airships and technologies to generate near-term revenue. We also are expanding our product portfolio of integrated, near-space UAV designs. Our goal is to offer a broad range of low-cost, long-duration surveillance solutions for our customers that can be delivered in a timely and cost-efficient manner."

NASA Extends Hubble Space Telescope Science Operations Contract

NASA has exercised an option to extend the period of performance of the contract with the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy for the Hubble Space Telescope Science Operations Center located at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

This action will extend the period of performance for 36 months through April 30, 2013, and it has a total estimated value of approximately $113 million.

The contractor will continue to be responsible for providing the products and services required to execute the science program; process, archive and distribute science data; maintain and calibrate the telescope's onboard instruments; maintain science operations' ground systems; administer grants, perform public and educational outreach; and conduct astronomical research during the remaining years of the Hubble science mission.

The Mysterious Molasses Markings Of Pluto

Lonely Pluto floats in the darkness at the edge of our solar system. It's so far away even the Hubble Space Telescope has trouble making out the details. Nevertheless, Pluto is so interesting, even fuzzy images of the dwarf planet are compelling.

A team of researchers led by Marc Buie of the Southwest Research Institute recently released the best Hubble images to date:

The data reveal an icy molasses-colored world with a surprising amount of activity. Buie compared Hubble images taken in 1994 vs. 2003 and discovered that Pluto's northern hemisphere has brightened while the southern hemisphere has dimmed.

Ground-based observations suggest that Pluto's atmosphere doubled in mass during approximately the same time period. And no one is certain what's causing the molasses-colored splotches on Pluto's surface.

"It's baffling," says dwarf planet expert Mike Brown of Caltech. "For now, we can only guess. Although these images are the best we have to date, they just aren't clear enough to answer all the questions they raise."

For instance, what's happening to Pluto's atmosphere?

Pluto can get so cold, researchers believe, that its atmosphere can actually freeze and fall to the ground. If Earth's atmosphere did that, it would make a layer 30 feet thick, but Pluto has less to work with. When it's on the ground, Pluto's entire blanket of air is no more than a frosty film of nitrogen and methane.

"Until the mid-1980s, Pluto's northern hemisphere was tilted away from the sun for over 100 years, accumulating a substantial amount of frost," says Buie. "Now the northern hemisphere is coming into sunlight and appears, as shown in the Hubble images, to have been growing brighter."

The atmosphere might also be changing in response to Pluto's highly eccentric orbit. During the late 1980s, Pluto approached as close to the sun as it ever gets (about 2 1/2 billion miles) and gradually started warming.

Now the temperature on Pluto is up to a balmy -385 degrees Fahrenheit! Surface frosts exposed to such "warmth" may be subliming-that is, changing back into a gas.

"Pluto, right now, has the best atmosphere it's had in our lifetime," says Brown.

And about that molasses...

Researchers think these dark areas may be primordial organic matter.

"We know there's methane on Pluto," says Brown. "Here's what we think happens: Sunlight hits the methane and breaks it apart into its chemical components - hydrocarbons. Over millions of years this process makes a dark reddish-brown oil or tar like substance that sticks to the ground. These darker areas spread larger as they absorb more sunlight and cause additional frost to sublimate."

"Now, Pluto is headed away from the sun again," says Brown. "It will gradually get colder and colder and its atmosphere will refreeze to its surface. In fact, that should have already started happening, but apparently it has not. It's a mystery."

NASA's New Horizons probe is en route to investigate. The spacecraft left Earth in January 2006 and has been racing toward Pluto for an encounter in July 2015, hopefully before the atmosphere refreezes.

"New Horizons will map the entire sunlit portion of Pluto," says Buie. "And as it swings closer, it will get very detailed images, maybe as good as 50-100 meter resolution."

"This will allow us to explore some of the interesting areas we've pinpointed," he continues. "For example, the recent Hubble images reveal a very bright spot - brighter than anything else on Pluto - near the equator. And just to the left of that bright spot is some of the darkest terrain on Pluto's surface.

We want to examine the area where these bright and dark areas are touching and figure out what's causing the differences. This is a good target because it includes every kind of terrain Pluto has to offer."

"We know there are surprises waiting for us on Pluto," says Brown.

Orbital Ready To Launch First Minotaur IV Rocket

Orbital Sciences is in final campaign mode preparing for the first launch of its Minotaur IV rockets in support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2 (HTV-2) program.

The Minotaur IV launch vehicle is based on decommissioned Peacekeeper rocket motors that Orbital integrates and upgrades with modern avionics and other subsystems to produce a cost-effective booster based on flight-proven hardware.

Subject to final preparations and favorable weather conditions, the mission will originate from Space Launch Complex-8 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, CA, with its first available launch window from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (PST) tomorrow, April 20, 2010.

For the HTV-2 mission, Orbital will fly a three-stage Minotaur IV "Lite" version of the rocket to carry out the suborbital flight trajectory. The Minotaur IV will propel the HTV-2 air vehicle into the upper atmosphere, where it will be released. The HTV-2 will then descend at hypersonic speed into the Pacific Ocean near Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

The Minotaur IV rocket is the newest in the Minotaur family of launchers that Orbital produces for the U.S. Air Force under the Orbital/Suborbital Program-2 contract. The first orbital mission of the Minotaur IV will take place later this year when it launches the Air Force's Space Base Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite.

"The first flight of the Minotaur IV rocket ushers in an all-new capability for the Air Force and other U.S. Government customers at a time when reliable, cost-effective missions are at a premium," said Mr. Ron Grabe, Orbital's Executive Vice President and General Manager of its Launch Systems Group.

"Building on the outstanding record of the 16 previous flights of the Minotaur family, all of which have been successful, we are excited to begin flying the Minotaur IV rocket for our Air Force customer."

The debut of Minotaur IV begins a series of launch vehicle system introductions that will highlight Orbital's position as the most active current developer of new rocket systems in the world. Beginning with Minotaur IV, Orbital is scheduled to complete the development and carry out the first flights of five new space and strategic launch systems in the next two and a half years.

The four other launch vehicles are the Launch Abort System for NASA's Orion program, the two-stage interceptor booster for the Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, the Taurus II medium-class space launch vehicle for NASA and other customers, and the Air Force's Minotaur V rocket that is scheduled to launch NASA's LADEE lunar mission in 2012.

Mr. Grabe also stated, "With the introduction of several new space launch vehicles in the next couple of years, combined with our heritage Pegasus, Taurus and Minotaur vehicles, Orbital will offer its defense and intelligence, civil government and commercial satellite customers the world's most complete and proven line of launchers for small- and medium-class satellites weighing up to 12,000 lbs."

The HTV-2 Mission
DARPA's HTV-2 program objective is to create new technological options that enable capabilities that urgently address threats to U.S. national security. The program is developing and testing an unmanned, rocket-launched, maneuverable, hypersonic air vehicle that glides through the Earth's atmosphere, at speeds of Mach 20 and above.

The key technical challenges of the HTV-2 program are the design of an innovative high lift-to-drag aerodynamic shape, advanced lightweight but tough thermal protection structures, materials and fabrication technologies, autonomous hypersonic navigation guidance and control systems, and an autonomous flight safety system.

The Minotaur IV
The Minotaur IV space launch vehicle leverages the flight-proven heritage of Orbital's Minotaur I, Pegasus and Taurus space launch vehicles to provide a reliable, capable and cost-effective space launcher.

Minotaur IV utilizes three government-furnished solid rocket motors from decommissioned Peacekeeper ICBMs and a commercial solid rocket upper stage. Minotaur IV builds on a long heritage of launch systems with over 50 flights of each core stage and is capable of launching payloads up to 3,800 lbs. (1,730 kgs.) to low Earth orbit.