# Presentation: 569366

## NASA Program UpdatePresented to theAAACDr. Anne L. KinneyDirector, Universe DivisionOctober 11, 2005

## Slide 2

- Anne Kinney

- Oct 11, 2005

**Notes:**
Spitzer and Hubble Team Up To Find 'Big Baby' Galaxies in the Newborn Universe  For Release: September 27, 2005
This image demonstrates how data from two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, are used to identify one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. This galaxy is unusually massive for its youthful age of 800 million years. (After the Big Bang, the Milky Way by comparison, is approximately 13 billion years old.)
[Left] - The galaxy, named HUDF-JD2, was pinpointed among approximately 10,000 others in a small area of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. This is the deepest images of the universe ever made at optical & near-IR waelengths.
[Upper Right] - A blow-up of one small area of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field is used to identify where the distant galaxy is located (inside green circle). This indicates that the galaxy's visible light has been absorbed by traveling billions of light-years through intervening hydrogen.
[Center Right] - The galaxy was detected using Hubble's near IR camera and multi-object spectrometer. But at IR wavelengths it is very faint and red.
[Bottom Right] - The Spitzer IR array camera, easily detects the galaxy at longer IR wavelengths. The instrument is sensitive to the light from older, redder stars which should make up most of the mass in a galaxy. The brightness of the IR galaxy suggests that it is quite massive.---
   This came as a surprise to astronomers. The earliest galaxies in the universe are commonly thought to have been much smaller associations of stars that gradually merged to build large galaxies like our Milky Way.  "This galaxy, HUDF-JD2, appears to have 'bulked up' amazingly quickly, within the first few 100 million years after the big bang. It made ~8 times more mass in stars than are found in our own Milky Way today, and then, just as suddenly, it stopped forming new stars," said Dr. Bahram Mobasher of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, and the ESA, Paris.
   The galaxy was pinpointed among ~10,000 others in a small patch of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF). The galaxy is believed to be about as far away as the most distant known galaxies. It represents an era when the universe was only 800 million yrs old. That is about 5% of the universe's age of 14 billion yrs.  Scientists studying the HUDF found this galaxy in HST’s IR images. They expected it to be young & small, like other known galaxies at similar distances. Instead, they found evidence the galaxy is remarkably mature & much more massive. Its stars appear to have been in place for a long time.
   Hubble's optical-light Ultra Deep Field image is the deepest image ever taken, yet this galaxy was not evident. This indicates much of the galaxy's optical light has been absorbed by traveling billions of light-years through intervening hydrogen gas. The galaxy was detected using HST’s near-IR camera and multi-object spectrometer. It was also detected by an IR camera on the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the European Southern Observatory. At those longer IR wavelengths, it is very faint & red.
   The big surprise is how much brighter the galaxy is in longer-wavelength IR images from Spitzer, which is sensitive to the light from older, redder stars, which should make up most of the mass in a galaxy. The IR brightness of the galaxy suggests it is massive. "This would be quite a big galaxy even today," said Dr. Mark Dickinson of the NOAO, Tucson, Ariz. "At a time when the universe was only 800 million years old, it's positively gigantic."
   Spitzer observations were also independently reported by Dr. Laurence Eyles from the Univ. of Exeter in the United Kingdom and Dr. Haojing Yan of the Spitzer Science Center, Pasadena, Calif. They also revealed evidence for mature stars in more ordinary, less massive galaxies at similar distances, when the universe was less than 1 billion years old.
   The new observations reported by Mobasher extend this notion of surprisingly mature "baby galaxies" to an object which is perhaps 10 times more massive, & which seemed to form its stars even earlier in the history of the universe. Mobasher's team estimated the distance to this galaxy by combining info provided by the HST, Spitzer, & VLT observations. The relative brightness of the galaxy at different wavelengths is influenced by the expanding universe & allows astronomers to estimate its distance. They can also get an idea of the make-up of the galaxy in terms of the mass and age of its stars.
   While astronomers generally believe most galaxies were built piecewise by mergers of smaller galaxies, the discovery of this object suggests at least a few galaxies formed quickly long ago. For such a large galaxy, this would have been a tremendously explosive event of star birth.

## Slide 3

- Anne Kinney

- Oct 11, 2005

**Notes:**
Tempel 1's Secret Ingredients Revealed   Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/C. Lisse (Johns Hopkins Univ./Univ. of Maryland)
   This graph shows the two spectra acquired by Spitzer (middle) & after (bottom) it observed Deep Impact smash into comet Tempel 1. Above them is a past spectrum of comet Hale-Bopp, which illustrates the extra detail seen by Spitzer in Tempel 1.  Spectra are light from objects spread out into various wavelengths like a rainbow. Their bumps and dips, or features, help astronomers identify the components of faraway objects, like comets.
   Spitzer's pre-impact spectrum reveals chemicals in comet Tempel 1's coma, of evaporating gas & trailing dust. The post-impact spectrum indicates the composition of the ejecta thrown out by Deep Impact's probe. The ejected material greatly outshines the faint coma.   Comparing the post-impact spectrum with that from Hale-Bopp demonstrates its richness & complexity. This complexity is a result of Deep Impact's excavation of Tempel 1's insides.
   Though the post-impact spectrum is still being analyzed, it shows that Tempel 1's ejecta contain the following chemicals: smectite clay; iron-containing compounds; carbonates, the minerals in seashells; crystallized silicates, such as the green olivine minerals found on beaches and in the gemstone peridot; and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are carbon-containing compounds found in car exhaust and on burnt toast.
   Astronomers were most surprised to see clay, carbonates, and crystallized silicates because these chemicals are thought have formed in warm environments, possibly near the Sun, but away from the chilly outer neighborhood of comets. How did these compounds get inside comets? One possibility is that materials in our early solar system mixed together before being sorted out into individual bodies.

NASA's Spitzer and Deep Impact Build Recipe for Comet Soup    For Release: September 7, 2005
   When Deep Impact smashed into comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, it released the ingredients of our solar system's primordial "soup." Now, astronomers using data from Spitzer & Deep Impact have analyzed that soup & begun to come up with a recipe for what makes planets, comets, & other bodies in our solar system.
   "The Deep Impact experiment worked," said Dr. Carey Lisse of Johns Hopkins University's APL, Laurel, Md. "We are assembling a list of comet ingredients that will be used by other scientists for years to come." Lisse is the team leader for Spitzer's observations of Tempel 1. He presented his findings this week at the 37th annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences in Cambridge, England.
   Spitzer watched the Deep Impact encounter from its lofty perch in space. It trained its IR spectrograph on comet Tempel 1, observing closely the cloud of material that was ejected when Deep Impact's probe plunged below the comet's surface. Astronomers are still studying the Spitzer data, but so far they have spotted the signatures of a handful of ingredients, essentially the meat of comet soup.
   These solid ingredients include many standard comet components, such as silicates, or sand. And like any good recipe, there are also surprise ingredients, such as clay and chemicals in seashells called carbonates. These compounds were unexpected because they are thought to require liquid water to form.  "How did clay & carbonates form in frozen comets?" asked Lisse. "We don't know, but their presence may imply that the primordial solar system was thoroughly mixed together, allowing material formed near the Sun where water is liquid, & frozen material from out by Uranus & Neptune, to be included in the same body."
   Also found were chemicals never seen before in comets, such as iron-bearing compounds and aromatic hydrocarbons, found in barbecue pits and automobile exhaust on Earth. The silicates spotted by Spitzer are crystallized grains even smaller than sand, like crushed gems. One of these silicates is a mineral called olivine, found on the glimmering shores of Hawaii's Green Sands Beach.
   Planets, comets, and asteroids were all born out of a thick soup of chemicals that surrounded our young Sun about 4.5 billion years ago. Because comets formed in the outer, chilly regions of our solar system, some of this early planetary material is still frozen inside them.
   Having this new grocery list of comet ingredients means theoreticians can begin testing their models of planet formation. By plugging the chemicals into their formulas, they can assess what kinds of planets come out the other end.
   "Now, we can stop guessing at what's inside comets," said Dr. Mike A'Hearn, principal investigator for the Deep Impact mission, University of Maryland, College Park. "This information is invaluable for piecing together how our own planets as well as other distant worlds may have formed."

## Tycho’s Remnant

- NASA/ CXC/ Rutgers/ J. Warren & J. Hughes et al.

- Chandra X-ray Observatory

- Anne Kinney

- Oct 11, 2005

**Notes:**
Tycho's Remnant Provides Shocking Evidence for Cosmic Rays
   In 1572, the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe observed and studied the explosion of a star that became known as Tycho's supernova. More than 4 centuries later, Chandra's image of the supernova remnant shows an expanding bubble of multimillion degree debris (green & red) inside a more rapidly moving shell of extremely high energy electrons (filamentary blue).
   The supersonic expansion (about 6 million miles per hr) of the stellar debris has created 2 X-ray emitting shock waves - 1 moving outward into the interstellar gas, & another moving back into the debris. These shock waves produce sudden, large changes in pressure & temperature, like an extreme version of sonic booms produced by the supersonic motion of airplanes.  According to the standard theory, the outward-moving shock wave should be about 2 light yrs ahead of the stellar debris. What Chandra found instead is that the stellar debris has kept pace with the outer shock & is only about half a light year behind.
   The most likely explanation for this behavior is that a large fraction of the energy of the outward-moving shock wave is going into the acceleration of atomic nuclei to speeds approaching the speed of light. The Chandra observations provide the strongest evidence yet that nuclei are indeed accelerated & that the energy contained in the hi-speed nuclei in Tycho's remnant is ~100 times that observed in hi-speed electrons.
   This finding is important for understanding the origin of cosmic rays, the hi-energy nuclei which pervade the Galaxy & constantly bombard the Earth. Since their discovery in the early yrs of the 20th century, many sources of cosmic rays have been proposed, including flares on the sun & similar events on other stars, pulsars, black hole accretion disks, & the prime suspect - supernova shock waves. Chandra's observations of Tycho's supernova remnant strengthen the case for this explanation.
Credit  NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J.Warren & J.Hughes et al.
Scale  Image is 10.5 arcmin across.     Distance Estimate  About 7,500 light years
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 00h 25m 17s | Dec +64° 08' 37"
Constellation  Cassiopeia
Observation Dates  29 Apr 2003             Observation Time  41 hours
Color Code  Energy: Red 0.95-1.26 keV, Green 1.63-2.26 keV, Blue 4.1-6.1 keV
Instrument  ACIS                  Release Date  September 22, 2005

## Significant Events

- Suzaku (Astro-E2) XRS instrument lost.
- JWST mirror machining mishap on primary mirror. Mishap understood.
- Hubble successfully transitioned to 2-gyro mode on 8-28-05.
- GP-B cryogen exhausted on 9-29-05.
- GLAST final tower shipped from INFN.
- Keck Interferometric nulling of starlight has been achieved at 10 microns, with 1% residual leakage.
- Beyond Einstein event at NASM on 9-14-05.
- Astrophysics Theory Program and Beyond Einstein Foundation Science Peer Reviews held 9/20-22 in CA.
- Universe Working Group meeting held 9-15-05.
- Three scientists recently detailed to the Division: Dr. Doug Hudgins (Ames, LDP), Dr. David Leisawitz (GSFC, Spitzer PS), Dr. Chryssa Kouveliotou (Marshall, LDP).
- The Natl Scientific Balloon Facility in Palestine, TX, a major recovery site for Columbia debris was renamed the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility.

- Anne Kinney

- Oct 11, 2005

## Suzaku Loss of Instrument

**X-Ray Spectrometer (XRS) **

- Five anomalous events (“helium puffs”) were seen in the XRS detector system beginning Jul 29, culminating in the loss of the instrument on Aug 8.
- A joint NASA/JAXA Mishap Investigation Board (MIB) was pursued.  JAXA prefers separate Boards.
- Go-ahead given for NASA Mishap Investigation Board to proceed Sep 7.
- NASA MIB has been convened.
- Chair is Walt Brooks from ARC.
- Inaugural telecon occurred Sep 16.
- First meeting of full Board scheduled for Sep 27-29 at GSFC.
- JAXA has convened their own Mishap Investigation Committee; met Sep 14 in Tokyo with NASA observer present.
- The NASA and JAXA committees will work closely together.
- Astro-E2/Suzaku mission continues with instruments XIS (X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer) and HXD (Hard X-ray Detector), with reduced MO&DA funding.
- New Cycle 1 observing program will be selected; ROSES amendment in preparation by Smale/Hertz with a due date of Jan 6, 2006.

- Anne Kinney

- Oct 11, 2005

##  Universe Division

** ****Universe Division**
**Developmental Missions Status**

- Anne Kinney

- Oct 11, 2005

##  Universe Division

** ****Universe Division**
**Operating Missions Status**

- Anne Kinney

- Oct 11, 2005

## Science Updates

**SWIFT:** 	Newest Observatory Detects Gamma Rays	February 15, 2005 *
**Hubble:** 	Heaviest Stars in the Galaxy 	March 9, 2005
**Spitzer:** 	Spitzer Marks New Age of Planetary Science	March 22, 2005 *
**Spitzer:**	Asteroid Belt Around Mature, Sun-like Star	April 20, 2005
**Chandra:**	Catches X-ray Super-flares	May 10, 2005
**Hubble:**	Chases Unruly Planet	June 22, 2005
**Swift:**	Most Distant Explosion Detected	September 12, 2005
**Swift/HETE-2:**   Origin of Short Gamma-ray Bursts	October 5, 2005 *

- *  Televised events

- Anne Kinney

- Oct 11, 2005

**Notes:**
Hubble: Heaviest Stars - Mar 9, 05 (Donald Figer)
   - HST observes the Arches cluster which is a rich, nearby star cluster with massive stars.
   - Sets upper limit of 150 solar masses for stars that form in our galaxy.
Spitzer: Marks new age - Mar 22, 05 (David Charbonneau and Drake Deming)
   - Spitzer first to directly see light from an extrasolar planet.
   - IR detection -> planets bright in IR relative to their “suns”
Spitzer: Asteroid belt - Apr 20, 05 (Charles Beichman)
   - First evidence for an asteroid belt around a star like our Sun.
   - This is the rubble of planet formation.
Chandra: X-ray super flares - May 10, 05  (team led by Eric Feigelson)
   - Observation of Orion Nebula.   These are young stars.
   - X-ray super flares torched our young solar system at the time that planets were forming.
Hubble: Unruly planet - Jun 22, 05  (team led by Paul Kalas)
   - Warped dust ring around nearby star suggests it is being gravitationally “tugged” by unseen planet.
Swift: Most distant explosion detected - Sep 12, 05  (?)
   - Most distant gamma-ray burst ever seen.
   - Ground-based observations find redshift of ~6.2 - burst occurred ~900 million years after the Big Bang.
   - Death of an early massive star.

## Future Events

- WISE Confirmation Review on Oct 14, 2005.
- Chandra’s Six Years of Science - Cambridge, MA, Nov 2-4, 2005.
- Spitzer’s second annual science symposium “Infrared Diagnostics of Galaxy Evolution” -  Pasadena, CA, Nov 14-16, 2005.
- SOFIA replan PMC - Oct.

- Anne Kinney

- Oct 11, 2005