Astronaut Makes Sushi in Space

Houston, we have space sushi.

Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi may be far from home, but not from his country's trademark dish. He is making sushi in space while floating weightless aboard his current post on the International Space Station, and even wears a chef's hat while he does it.

In a demonstration, Noguchi held a piece of seaweed in one hand and used a spoon to nudge a floating clump of rice into it. With a few quick twists, he wrapped it all up in a neat roll.

"The first hand-rolled sushi in space, there you go," a proud Noguchi told Fuji TV reporters after making a sushi roll while floating inside the space station's Japanese-built Kibo laboratory. "It has salmon inside."

Noguchi made the sushi during a space-to-ground video interview with Fuji TV reporters on Wednesday. He spoke Japanese, with an interpreter on Earth providing an English translation.

"You have a gourmet cooking corner in your show, too, so I would actually like to cook here for you," he told them before wowing the reporters with his zero gravity culinary skill.

Food in space is a precious commodity for astronauts, particularly those living on the space station for up to six months at a time.

But since astronauts live in weightlessness, the food floats around like everything else. Shuttle astronauts, for example, use tortillas, powdered eggs and sausage patties to make space burritos. Bread, they said, leads to troublesome crumbs.

Noguchi has lived aboard the space station since December and is one of five astronauts from three countries staffing the orbiting laboratory. He represents the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Two Russians and two Americans round out the rest of the current crew.

Noguchi did not mention if he had any wasabi to go with his space sushi.

One astronaut, American Sunita Williams of NASA, took a tube of the spicy green condiment to the space station in 2007. But it got loose and stuck to the walls. The astronauts eventually condemned it to a cargo ship to avoid future spills, Williams said in televised interview at the time.

NASA's chief astronaut Peggy Whitson requested re-hydratable hamburger patties and dinner rolls during her last trip to the space station in late 2007. She made space hamburgers for her crew, and kept a steady supply of hot sauce in hand.

Astronaut Don Pettit, also of NASA, spent six months at the space station before returning to Earth 2003. When he returned in 2008 on a two-week space shuttle mission, he invented a zero gravity coffee cup so he could drink his beloved caffeinated beverage like he does on Earth, rather than through the ubiquitous straws that accompany most drinks in space.

In addition to cooking in space, Noguchi has been performing his normal science duties and sending home updates about his mission on Twitter, where he posts tweets as Astro_Soichi. He has cheered Japan's various national teams on during the ongoing 2010 Winter Olympics and donned homemade skis for a weightless ski jump last week.

He also has a reputation as a space shutterbug, and has been posting photos of cities, deserts and other stunning views of Earth from space on Twitter as well.

It was Noguchi who sent the first photo from the space station's new seven-window Cupola observation deck. He also caught a snapshot of the shuttle Endeavour re-entering Earth's atmosphere when it landed on Sunday night.

But this week was all about sushi for the astronaut. He offered it to his Fuji TV guests, even though they were 220 miles (354 km) below in Japan.

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A distant planet's "death march"

An international team has determined that a massive planet outside our Solar System is being distorted and destroyed by its host star—a finding that helps explain the unexpectedly large size of the planet, WASP-12b.

It's a discovery that not only explains what's happening to WASP-12b; it also means scientists have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to observe how a planet enters this final stage of its life.

"This is the first time that astronomers are witnessing the ongoing disruption and death march of a planet," says UC Santa Cruz professor Douglas N.C. Lin. Lin is a co-author of the new study and the founding director of the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics (KIAA) at Peking University, which was deeply involved with the research.

The research was led by Shu-lin Li of the National Astronomical Observatories of China. A graduate of KIAA, Li and a research team analysed observational data on the planet to show how the gravity of its parent star is both inflating its size and spurring its rapid dissolution.
Hot football

WASP 12-b, discovered in 2008, is one of the most enigmatic of 400-plus planets that have been found outside our Solar System over the past 15 years. It orbits a star, in the constellation Auriga, roughly similar in mass to our Sun.

Like most known extra-solar planets, it is large and gaseous, resembling Jupiter and Saturn in this respect. But unlike Jupiter, Saturn or most other extra-solar planets, it orbits its parent star at extremely close range—75 times closer than the Earth is to the Sun, or just over 1.5 million kilometres.

It is also larger than astrophysical models would predict. Its mass is estimated to be almost 50 per cent larger than Jupiter's and its size is 80 per cent larger, giving it six times Jupiter's volume. It is also unusually hot, with a daytime temperature of more than 2,500 degrees Celsius.

Some mechanism must be responsible for expanding this planet to such an unexpected size, say the researchers. They have focused their analysis on tidal forces, which they say are strong enough to produce the effects observed on WASP 12b.

On Earth, tidal forces between the Earth and the Moon cause local sea levels rise and fall modestly—twice per day. WASP-12b, however, is so close to its host star that the gravitational forces are enormous. The tremendous tidal forces acting on the planet completely change the shape of the planet into something similar to that of a rugby or AFL football.

These tides not only distort the shape of WASP 12-b. By continuously deforming the planet, they also create friction in its interior. The friction produces heat, which causes the planet to expand.

"This is the first time that there is direct evidence that internal heating (or 'tidal heating') is responsible for puffing up the planet to its current size," says Lin.
Facing an early death

Huge as it is, WASP 12-b faces an early demise, say the researchers. In fact, its size is part of its problem. It has ballooned to such a point that it cannot retain its mass against the pull of its parent star's gravity.

As the study's lead author Li explains, "WASP-12b is losing its mass to the host star at a tremendous rate of six billion metric tons each second. At this rate, the planet will be completely destroyed by its host star in about ten million years. This may sound like a long time, but for astronomers it's nothing. This planet will live less than 500 times less than the current age of the Earth."

The material that is stripped off WASP-12b does not directly fall onto the parent star. Instead, it forms a cloud around the star and slowly spirals inwards.

A careful analysis of the orbital motion of WASP-12b suggests circumstantial evidence of the gravitational force of a second, lower-mass planet in the disc. This planet is most likely a massive version of Earth—a so-called "super-Earth."

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New NASA tracking dish for Australia

NASA will construct a second new state-of-the-art antenna, DSS36, at the Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex at Tidbinbilla.

The confirmation of DSS36, to be completed by 2016, follows NASA's announcement last year that it would build another dish at Tidbinbilla, DSS35.

NASA estimates that each 34m Beam Wave Guide Antenna will cost approx US$45m.

NASA's long term commitment to developing space infrastructure in Australia was warmly welcomed by Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr.

"I'm thrilled that Tidbinbilla will be the first node of the global deep space communications network to receive this upgrade," Senator Carr said at a ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Australia-US space partnership at Parliament House.

"The new antenna is a multi-decade commitment to continue using the Tidbinbilla complex as a hub for deep space communication.

"Australia has derived enormous benefit from working with the US on space and space exploration— it is fantastic to see NASA investing in new opportunities to continue this.

"As we mark 50 years of working with NASA, this is a great endorsement of the strength of our partnership in space discovery.

"It recognises our efforts to boost Australia's involvement in a wide range of space activities, including communications, navigation, earth observation and fundamental astronomy to help us understand our place in the universe. Space science is a focus of the Government's $1.1 billion Super Science Initiative."

A groundbreaking ceremony marking the start of construction of the first of these antennas, DSS35, was held at Tidbinbilla on February 25.

"The two new antennas will join existing dishes at Tidbinbilla to provide NASA with the latest space vehicle tracking technology. They will build on the great work done supporting deep space explorations to Mars and Saturn, and of course the first moon landing.

"This is a growth industry we are determined to be part of, with launches of deep space missions expected to increase over the next decade."

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50 years of NASA in Australia

To celebrate 50 years of space relations between Australia and the US, both governments have agreed to continue this highly successful relationship.

Notes formalising the extension of the agreement were exchanged by Innovation Minister, Senator Kim Carr and the US Ambassador Jeffrey L. Bleich in Canberra on February 25.

"It is 50 years tomorrow since the agreement that launched our longstanding collaboration with NASA was first made," Senator Carr said.

"From the first man on the Moon to the first robot on Mars, this collaboration has given Australia a pivotal role in global space research and exploration."

"Since 1960, the agreement has resulted in over $610 million in US investment, supported hundreds of highly-skilled jobs, and given Australian scientists and technicians access to cutting-edge facilities and expertise."

"In return, Australia has provided critical support to NASA missions, backed by our own world-class capabilities in space science and astronomy. Space science is a focus of the Government's $1.1 billion Super Science Initiative."

"Recent NASA missions supported by this agreement include the landings of Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, and the study of Saturn and its many moons during the Cassini-Huygens mission."

"Space science is vitally important in its own right, increasing our understanding of the universe. It also drives innovation across the economy, inspiring many everyday technologies we now take for granted, whether in medical diagnosis, data processing, industrial quality control, or digital photography."

"We look forward to the next 50 years of this great partnership."

The exchange of notes extends the Agreement on Space Vehicle Tracking and Communications Facilities for two years. A new long-term, strategic treaty will be developed during this extension to reflect changes in the space sector and further strengthen the Australia-US relationship.

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Rock layers are clues to how Mars dried out

Near the centre of a martian crater about the size of Connecticut, hundreds of exposed rock layers form a mound as tall as the Rockies and reveal a record of major environmental changes on Mars billions of years ago.

"Looking at the layers from the bottom to the top, from the oldest to the youngest, you see a sequence of changing rocks that resulted from changes in environmental conditions through time," said Ralph Milliken of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This thick sequence of rocks appears to be showing different steps in the drying-out of Mars."


The history told by the layers inside Gale Crater matches what has been proposed in recent years as the dominant planet-wide pattern for early Mars, according to a new report by geologists using instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



Using geological layers to understand stages in the evolution of a planet's climate has a precedent on Earth. A change about 1.8 billion years ago in the types of rock layers formed on Earth became a key to understanding a dramatic change in Earth's ancient atmosphere.

Rock layers are a time machine

Milliken and two co-authors report in Geophysical Research Letters that clay minerals, which form under very wet conditions, are concentrated near the bottom of the Gale Crater layers. Above that, sulphate minerals are intermixed with the clays.

Sulphates form in wet conditions and can be deposited when the water in which they are dissolved evaporates.

Higher still in the layers are sulphate-containing layers without detectable clays. And at the top is a thick formation of regularly spaced layers bearing no detectable water-related minerals.



Rock exposures with compositions like various layers of the Gale stack have been mapped elsewhere on Mars, and researchers, including Jean-Pierre Bibring of the University of Paris, have proposed a martian planetary chronology of clay-producing conditions followed by sulphate-producing conditions followed by dry conditions.
However, Gale is the first location where a single series of layers has been found to contain these clues in a clearly defined sequence from older rocks to younger rocks.

"If you could stand there, you would see this beautiful formation of martian sediments laid down in the past, a stratigraphic section that's more than twice the height of the Grand Canyon, though not as steep," said Bradley Thomson of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He and John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena are Milliken's co-authors on the paper.

NASA selected Gale Crater in 2008 as one of four finalist sites for the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, which is planned for launch in 2011. The finalist sites all have exposures of water-related minerals, and each has attributes that distinguish it from the others.

This new report is an example of how observations made for evaluating the landing-site candidates are providing valuable science results even before the rover mission launches.
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New way of finding big star explosions

For the first time, astronomers have found a supernova explosion with properties similar to a "gamma-ray burst", but without seeing any gamma rays from it.

The discovery, using the US National Science Foundation's Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, promises, the scientists say, to point the way toward locating many more examples of these mysterious explosions.

"We think that radio observations will soon be a more powerful tool for finding this kind of supernova in the nearby Universe than gamma-ray satellites," said Alicia Soderberg, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.

The telltale clue came when the radio observations showed material blasted from the supernova explosion, dubbed SN2009bb, at speeds approaching that of light. This characterised the supernova, first seen in March 2009, as the type thought to produce one kind of gamma-ray burst.

"It is remarkable that very low-energy radiation, radio waves, can signal a very high-energy event," said Roger Chevalier of the University of Virginia.
Explosive reaction

When the nuclear fusion reactions at the cores of very massive stars no longer can provide the energy needed to hold the core up against the weight of the rest of the star, the core collapses catastrophically into a superdense neutron star or black hole. The rest of the star's material is blasted into space in a supernova explosion.

For the past decade or so, astronomers have identified one particular type of such a "core-collapse supernova" as the cause of one kind of gamma-ray burst.

Not all supernovae of this type, however, produce gamma-ray bursts. "Only about one out of a hundred do this," according to Soderberg.

In the more-common type of such a supernova, the explosion blasts the star's material outward in a roughly-spherical pattern at speeds that, while fast, are only about 3 percent of the speed of light. In the supernovae that produce gamma-ray bursts, some, but not all, of the ejected material is accelerated to nearly the speed of light.

The superfast speeds in these rare blasts, astronomers say, are caused by an "engine" in the centre of the supernova explosion that resembles a scaled-down version of a "quasar". Material falling toward the core enters a swirling cloud surrounding the newly-formed neutron star or black hole. This cloud produces jets of material boosted at tremendous speeds from the poles of the cloud.

"This is the only way we know that a supernova explosion could accelerate material to such speeds," Soderberg said.

Until now, no such "engine-driven" supernova had been found any way other than by detecting gamma rays emitted by it.

"Discovering such a supernova by observing its radio emission, rather than through gamma rays, is a breakthrough. With the new capabilities of the Expanded VLA coming soon, we believe we'll find more in the future through radio observations than with gamma-ray satellites," Soderberg said.
More than one kind

Why didn't anyone see gamma rays from this explosion? "We know that the gamma-ray emission is beamed in such blasts, and this one may have been pointed away from Earth and thus not seen," Soderberg said. In that case, finding such blasts through radio observations will allow scientists to discover a much larger percentage of them in the future.

"Another possibility," Soderberg adds, "is that the gamma rays were 'smothered' as they tried to escape the star. This is perhaps the more exciting possibility since it implies that we can find and identify engine-driven supernovae that lack detectable gamma rays and thus go unseen by gamma-ray satellites."

One important question the scientists hope to answer is just what causes the difference between the "ordinary" and the "engine-driven" core-collapse supernovae.

"There must be some rare physical property that separates the stars that produce the 'engine-driven' blasts from their more-normal cousins," Soderberg said. "We'd like to find out what that property is."
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New Mars probe will look for life signs

The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA have invited scientists from across the world to propose instruments for their joint Mars mission, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.

Scheduled for launch in 2016, the spacecraft will focus on understanding the rarest constituents of the martian atmosphere, including the mysterious methane that could signal life on Mars.

Establishing whether life ever existed, or is still active on Mars today, is one of the outstanding scientific quests of our time. Both missions in the ExoMars programme will address this important goal.

ESA will build the Trace Gas Orbiter and NASA will launch it.

The priority for this mission is to map trace gases in the atmosphere of Mars, distinguishing individual chemical species down to concentrations of just a few parts per billion. Of these gases, one in particular attracts special attention: methane.

Discovered on Mars in 2003, it happens to be a possible 'biomarker', a gas that is readily produced by biological activity. Understanding whether the methane comes from life or from geological and volcanic processes takes precedence.

"The methane is the anchor point around which the science is to be constructed," says Vago.

Adding to the mystery is that methane was found to be concentrated in just three locations on Mars, and then disappeared much faster from the atmosphere than scientists were expecting.

This points to an unknown destruction mechanism much more powerful than any known on Earth. It may also indicate a much faster creation process to have produced such large quantities of the gas in the first place.

The space agencies issued an Announcement of Opportunity in January, inviting scientists to propose instruments to be carried on the mission. Once all proposals are in, they will be evaluated and the winning teams will be tasked with building the actual hardware.
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