In many fields of applied science, such as geology, there are often tensions and disagreements between scientists who specialize in analyses of problems using mathematical models to describe sets of collected data, and those that rely on on-the-ground observations and empirical analyses.

One common source of these disagreements arises from applications of geophysics - studies of variations in gravity or Earth's magnetic field - that use models that are strictly (from a mathematical point of view) non-unique.

For example, using theories derived from Isaac Newton's studies of gravitational attraction, a geophysicist who measures local variations in gravitational acceleration that are produced by contrasts in the density of rocks below Earth's surface can calculate an infinite set of mathematically valid sources (with different shapes, depths, and contrasts in density) that would explain the measured gravity difference (or anomaly).

This theoretical non-uniqueness leads many geologists to conclude that such geophysical information is of limited value, given the infinite number of possible correct answers to those numerical problems.

In the December 2011 issue of GSA Today, Richard Saltus and Richard Blakely, two U.S. Geological Survey scientists with extensive experience using gravity and magnetic field models to help improve the understanding of a number of geological problems, present several excellent examples of unique interpretations that can be made from "non-unique" models.

Their motivation for this article is to improve communication among various geologists regarding the ability (and limitations of) gravity and magnetic field data to yield important information about the subsurface geology of an area or region.

This communication barrier is an important issue, because a great deal of our understanding of the geology of Earth and the planets is primarily derived from these types of geophysical measurements.

More practically, geophysical tools such as gravity and magnetic field measurements are used in mineral and hydrocarbon exploration, so the utilization of these methods can aid economic development by locating subsurface mineral resources more efficiently that other techniques (such as drilling and excavating).

In their article, Saltus and Blakely advocate a holistic approach to geological studies. By combining other observations - such as the surface location of a fault or the likely density contrast between a set of different rock units based on their composition - the infinite array of theoretical solutions to some of these potential-field geophysical models can be narrowed down to a few, or even one, best interpretation(s).

They present a number of examples where this approach can successfully solve important geological issues - one of the best is an analysis of magnetic anomaly data from the Puget Sound area that allows a detailed image of the active Seattle Fault zone to be constructed.

Unique geologic insights from "non-unique" gravity and magnetic interpretation Richard W. Saltus, U.S. Geological Survey. Pages 4-10, doi: 10.1130/G136A.1

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:19 AEST Paris (ESA) Nov 16, 2011 - Sensors destined for ESA's LISA Pathfinder mission in 2014 have far exceeded expectations, paving the way for a mission to detect one of the most elusive forces permeating through space - gravity waves.

The Optical Metrology Subsystem underwent its first full tests under space-like temperature and vacuum conditions using an almost complete version of the spacecraft.

The results exceeded the precision required to detect the enigmatic ripples in the fabric of space and time predicted by Albert Einstein - and did it by two to three times.

In space, LISA Pathfinder will measure the distance between two free-floating gold-platinum cubes using lasers. In the ground tests currently being performed by the team in Ottobrunn, Germany, these cubes are replaced by separate mirrors.

In addition to measuring the distance between the cubes, it also measures their angles with respect to the laser beams - and the tests show an accuracy of 10 billionths of a degree.

"This is equivalent to the angle subtended by an astronaut's footprint on the Moon!" notes Paul McNamara, Project Scientist for the LISA Pathfinder mission.

Under perfect conditions in space, the free-floating cubes would be expected to exactly copy each other's motions exactly.

However, according to Einstein's theory of General Relativity, if a gravitational wave were to pass through space, possibly caused by an event as catastrophic as the collision of two black holes, then a minuscule distortion in the fabric of space itself would be detectable.

The accuracy required to detect such a subtle change is phenomenal: around a hundredth the size of an atom - a picometre.

The requirement set for the instrument was around 6 picometres, measured over 1000 seconds, which the team initially bettered in 2010. During the latest testing, a staggering 2 picometre accuracy was obtained, far exceeding the best performance for an instrument of this type.

"The whole team has worked extremely hard to make this measurement possible," said Dr McNamara.

"When LISA Pathfinder is launched and we're in the quiet environment of space some 1.5 million km from Earth, we expect that performance will be even better."

The instrument team from Astrium GmbH, the Albert Einstein Institute and ESA are testing the Optical Metrology Subsystem during LISA Pathfinder thermal vacuum tests in Ottobrunn by spacecraft prime contractor Astrium (UK) Ltd.

LISA Pathfinder is expected to be launched in mid-2014 to demonstrate the technologies and endurance in space for a New Gravitational wave Observatory mission, one of the candidates for ESA's next flagship mission, planned for a launch early in the next decade, aiming to find this final piece in Einstein's cosmic puzzle.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:19 AEST Jerusalem, Israel (SPX) Oct 04, 2011 - Einstein wrote about them, and we're still looking for them - gravitational waves, which are small ripples in the fabric of space-time, that many consider to be the sounds of our universe.

Just as sound complements vision in our daily life, gravitational waves will complement our view of the universe taken by standard telescopes.

Albert Einstein predicted gravitational waves in 1918. Today, almost 100 years later, advanced gravitational wave detectors are being constructed in the US, Europe, Japan and Australia to search for them. While any motion produces gravitational waves, a signal loud enough to be detected requires the motion of huge masses at extreme velocities.

The prime candidate sources are mergers of two neutron stars: two bodies, each with a mass comparable to the mass of our sun, spiraling around each other and merging at a velocity close to the speed of light.

Such events are rare, and take place once per hundreds of thousands of years per galaxy. Hence, to detect a signal within our lifetime the detectors must be sensitive enough to detect signals out to distances of a billion light years away from Earth. This poses an immense technological challenge. At such distances, the gravitational waves signal would sound like a faint knock on our door when a TV set is turned on and a phone rings at the same time.

Competing noise sources are numerous, ranging from seismic noise produce by tiny quakes or even a distant ocean wave. How can we know that we have detected a gravitational wave from space rather than a falling tree or a rambling truck?

Therefore, astronomers have been looking for years for a potential electromagnetic light signal that would accompany or follow the gravitational waves. This signal would allow us to "look through the peephole" after hearing the faint knock on the door, and verify that indeed "someone" is there.

In their new article just published in Nature, Prof. Tsvi Piran, Schwarzmann University Professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Dr. Ehud Nakar from Tel Aviv University describe having found just that.

They noticed that surrounding interstellar material would slow debris ejected at velocities close to the speed of light during the merger two neutron stars. Heat generated during this process would be radiated away as radio waves. The resulting strong radio flare would last a few months and would be detectable with current radio telescopes from a billion light years away.

Search after such a radio signal would certainly take place following a future detection, or even a tentative detection of gravitational waves. However, even before the advanced gravitational wave detectors become operational, as expected in 2015, radio astronomers are geared to looking for these unique flares.

Nakar and Piran point out in their article that an unidentified radio transient observed in 1987 by Bower et al., has all the characteristics of such a radio flare and may in fact have been the first direct detection of a neutron star binary merger in this way.

Dr. Nakar's research was supported by an International Reintegration Grant from the European Union and a grant from the Israeli Science Foundation and an Alon Fellowship. Prof. Piran's research was supported by an Advanced European Research Council grant and by the High Energy Astrophysics Center of the Israeli Science Foundation.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:19 AEST Greenbelt MD (SPX) Oct 04, 2011 - The Microgravity Science Glovebox team has reason to celebrate. On Sept. 13 at 7:45 p.m. CDT, the science facility hit 10,000 hours of operation, orbiting high above us on board the International Space Station.

The glovebox, also known as MSG, launched to the station during Expedition 5 on June 5, 2002, on space shuttle Endeavour. It is located in the U.S. laboratory, and allows crew members to participate in the assembly and operation of investigations in space similar to laboratories here on Earth.

"Because the work area is sealed and at negative pressure, astronauts can manipulate experiment hardware and samples without the risk of small parts, particulates, fluids or gasses escaping into the open," said Ginger Flores, the glovebox project manager at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

"This facility offers a 9-cubic-foot work area accessible to the crew through glove ports and to ground-based scientists through real-time data links and video."

The glovebox can conduct a wide range of microgravity research, including fluid physics, combustion science, materials science, biotechnology, fundamental physics, and other investigations seeking to understand the role of gravity in basic physical and chemical interactions.

Once the crew sets up an experiment, the operations can often be done remotely from the ground, greatly increasing the productive use of the laboratory.

"This milestone is the perfect occasion to reflect on the success of the glovebox facility and the contributions of the team to a wide array of science experiments performed on station over the past nine years of glovebox operations," said Flores. "It is such a unique experience to work with payload developers from the beginning of design, to integrate and test their hardware right here at Marshall, and then support our astronauts as they operate that same experiment in space."

At the celebrated 10,000-hour mark, the glovebox was conducting the Capillary Channel Flow, or CCF, investigation.

"This experiment is a collaboration between NASA and the German Aerospace Center, and is designed to study critical velocities in open capillary flow under microgravity aboard the station," said Sharon Manley, investigation payload integration manager of the study.

"One of the many possible applications of the experiment results is propellant management. The goal of this investigation is to enable design of spacecraft tanks that can supply gas-free propellant to spacecraft thrusters - directly through capillary vanes - greatly cutting cost and weight, while improving reliability."

The current design of spacecraft fuel tanks relies on additional reservoirs to prevent the ingestion of gas into the engines during firing. This research is needed to update these current models, which do not sufficiently predict the maximum flow rate achievable through the capillary vanes, eliminating the need to overdesign tanks.

"The glovebox has proven to be an extremely flexible multiuser facility," said Dr. Mark Weislogel, principal investigator for CCF at Portland State University in Oregon and designer of a set of capillary channels.

"An open volume with essential levels of containment free up the investigator teams to design and construct either hand-operated or automated experiments of a wide range of sizes. The variety of experiments that can be performed is vast. The support from the MSG team is 24-7!"

The variety of the 23 investigations performed using the MSG include the Shear History Extensional Rheology Experiment, known as SHERE, which researched the effect of preshearing on the stress and strain response of a polymer fluid being stretched in microgravity.

Conducted in 2008-2009 with follow-on studies in 2011-2012, this experiment was important for understanding containerless processing, an essential operation for fabrication of parts using elastomeric materials on future exploration missions.

From 2007 to 2010, scientists used the glovebox to burn spacecraft materials as part of the Smoke and Aerosol Measurement Experiment, or SAME. This study measured smoke properties of particles from spacecraft fire smoke to provide data to support requirements for detection of smoke in space and to find ways to improve detectors in the future.

Additionally, a series of investigations studying complex fluids that are important for brake systems and robotics has been housed in the MSG. Named InSPACE - short for Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions - the experiments studied the particle dynamics of magnetorheological fluids - fluids that change properties in response to magnetic fields.

"Reaching 10,000 operational hours for the MSG facility is a tremendous achievement," said Ed Bermea, MSG facility operations lead in the Engineering Directorate at the Marshall Center.

"The entire team is a close-knit group, and the continual cooperation and hard work between the project office and the engineering disciplines is a large part of why this facility has operated well for so long. This operations team has shown extreme dedication through long hours, weekends and holidays. I am proud to be part of it."

The glovebox was developed by the European Space Agency and is managed by the Marshall Center. The three payloads, SHERE, SAME and InSPACE, are managed by NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:19 AEST Houston TX (SPX) Sep 14, 2011 - NASA is offering undergraduate students the opportunity to test an experiment in microgravity as part of the agency's Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program. The program is accepting proposals for two different flight experiences in 2012.

Teams interested in conducting student-driven research should submit a letter of intent by Sept. 14.

This step is optional, but serves as an introductory notice that a team plans to submit a proposal for the competition. Proposals for student-driven experiments are due Oct. 26, and selected teams will be announced Dec. 7. The actual flight experience will take place in June 2012.

The initiative, managed by the Education Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, provides future scientists and engineers an opportunity to design, build and fly an experiment aboard a microgravity aircraft.

The aircraft is a modified jet that flies approximately 30 roller-coaster-like climbs and dips to simulate micro- and hyper-gravity. The overall experience includes scientific research, hands-on experimental design, test operations and public outreach activities.

"This program leverages NASA's unique resources and allows students to determine what it takes to be a real world scientist or engineer," said Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program Manager Doug Goforth.

NASA personnel also have indentified student opportunities related to ongoing systems engineering projects that are pertinent to future agency research and missions.

Students interested in working on these projects are encouraged to apply for the Systems Engineering Educational Discovery (SEED) flight week opportunity. Proposals are due by Oct. 26, and selected teams will be announced Nov. 30. The SEED flight week will take place in April 2012.

All applicants for these programs must be U.S. citizens. Full-time students must be at least 18 years old. Selected teams may invite an accredited journalist to fly with them to document the experience.

For more information about the Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program, or the application process, or to submit a proposal, email jsc-reducedgravity@nasa.gov.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:19 AEST Hannover, Germany (SPX) Sep 14, 2011 - Measuring at the limits of the laws of nature - this is the challenge which researchers repeatedly take up in their search for gravitational waves. The interferometers they use here measure with such sensitivity that a particular quantum phenomenon of light - shot noise - limits the measuring accuracy.

With the "squeezed light" method scientists from the Max Planck Society and the Leibniz University Hannover likewise use quantum physics in a countermove in order to remove the interfering effect.

The new type of laser light improves the measuring accuracy of the gravitational wave detector GEO600 by around 50 percent and thus increases its effective sensitivity.

Some 50 years after the development of the first lasers, the technology of "squeezed light" can be used to generate a completely new quality of laser light. The light from a squeezed laser radiates much more calmly than light from a conventional laser source.

"Thanks to the squeezed laser, we were able to increase the measuring sensitivity of GEO600 to 150%," says Hartmut Grote, who heads the detector operation.

"The new light source fulfils all requirements as expected." In future, this technology could be used to even double the measuring accuracy. In the search for the almost undetectable gravitational waves, this increase in sensitivity is an important step to their direct detection.

The GEO600 experiment at the QUEST (Center for Quantum Engineering and Space-Time Research) Cluster of Excellence is part of the international LIGO Virgo Collaboration (LVCon) and is putting the researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Sub-Institute Hanover, Albert Einstein Institute/AEI) and from the Institute for Gravitational Physics at the Leibniz University Hannover on the track of gravitational waves.

Einstein predicted these oscillations in space-time around a hundred years ago in his General Theory of Relativity. They arise during turbulent cosmic events such as supernova explosions, for example.

Gravitational waves are scarcely noticeable on Earth, however. One reason is that the interaction between matter and space is very weak. Changes to the structure of space-time which occur in our immediate astronomical vicinity as a result of the movements of relatively low-mass objects, such as moons or planets, are way below what is measurable.

Turbulent supernova explosions which violently shake space-time occur at a great distance, in contrast. The gravitational waves generated in the process are considerably attenuated when they reach Earth.

The relative measuring path in a gravitational wave detector would change by only around a thousandth of a proton diameter if a supernova occurred within our Milky Way. With GEO600, the scientists are meanwhile able to measure such differences in length.

Laser light with constant intensity
In order to be able to make such accurate measurements, the physicists must rely on metrology techniques that are as free from interferences as possible. One of the effects which has caused interference so far is the so-called shot noise. Their quantum nature means the photons rain down at irregular intervals onto the photodiode in the detector.

This is evident in the signal as fluctuating background brightness. An oscillation of space-time which causes a similarly weak change in the brightness like the shot noise, can thus only be recognised with difficulty.

Roman Schnabel and his research group in Hannover have now developed a special light source with which the disturbing shot noise can be curbed. When integrated into GEO600, the squeezed light laser assists the gravitational wave detector to a new measuring sensitivity. This makes the GEO600 the first detector whose signal beam is smoothed with the new type of laser light.

The Heisenberg uncertainty principle states that the intensity and colour of a laser beam cannot simultaneously be defined with arbitrary accuracy. For example, the more exact the intensity (to be more precise: the amplitude) is specified, the more uncertain the colour becomes (to be more precise: the phase).

The quantum physicists utilise this effect to minimise the shot noise in the GEO600 experiment. After all, the shot noise is actually nothing more than an uncertainty of the laser intensity. They improve the laser light so that its intensity is very accurately defined, i.e. exhibits almost no fluctuations. The experts also call this process "squeezing".

In this experiment, it is of no consequence that the light colour becomes more imprecise, i.e. slightly more "colourful", since this parameter is not included in the measurement data.

"We now feed the squeezed light into the interferometer, in addition to our normal laser light," explains Schnabel. "If the two light fields then superimpose, the resulting laser beam has a much more uniform intensity, compared to the original signal beam.

"We thus smooth out the irregularities caused by quantum physical effects in the detector signal," Schnabel continues.

The squeezed light laser has been undergoing a longer test phase since April last year at GEO600 and is now being used in the search for gravitational waves. The application of squeezed light technology has thus passed the acid test. The American colleagues within the LVC plan to soon test a squeezed laser on the LIGO detectors.

This is the first time this technology has been used outside of a test laboratory anywhere in the world. The results will be published in the specialist journal Nature Physics, online on 11th September 2011.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:19 AEST Munich, Germany (SPX) Aug 08, 2011 - Scientists operating Europe's gravitational wave observatories have combined efforts this summer to search for gravitational waves. This groundbreaking research is being taken forward in Europe while similar US-based detectors undergo major upgrade work.

Cataclysmic cosmic events such as supernovae, colliding neutron stars and black holes, as well as more familiar objects such as rotating neutron stars (pulsars) are expected to emit gravitational waves - oscillations in the fabric of space-time predicted by Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. The detection of such waves would revolutionize our understanding of the Universe.

Europe's two ground-based gravitational wave detectors GEO600 (a German/UK collaboration) and Virgo (a collaboration between Italy, France, the Netherlands, Poland and Hungary) have started a joint observation program that will continue over the summer, ending in September 2011.

These detectors work by measuring tiny changes (less than the diameter of a proton), caused by a passing gravitational wave, in the lengths (hundreds or thousands of meters) of two joined arms lying in a horizontal L-shaped configuration. Laser beams are sent down the arms and are reflected from mirrors, suspended under vacuum at the ends of the arms, to a central photodetector. The periodic stretching and shrinking of the arms is then recorded as interference patterns.

"Listening" for gravitational waves benefits enormously from simultaneously deploying two or more such laser interferometers located at different points on the Earth's surface.

In this way, any extraneous, terrestrially generated noise mimicking a genuine gravitational wave signal can be eliminated, since it is unlikely to have the same characteristics at the different locations while the gravitational wave signal would remain the same.

Moreover, just as our brains can work out the direction of a sound source from the difference in signals received by our two ears, detectors in separate locations can help reconstruct the position in the sky of a gravitational wave source. (With two detectors, the most likely sky position lies in a circle; in the case of three or more detectors, it can be pinned down to few spot locations).

"If you compare GEO600 and Virgo, you can see that both detectors have similar sensitivities at high frequencies, at around 600Hz and above", says Dr. Hartmut Grote, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute/AEI) and the Leibniz University in Hannover, Germany.

"That makes it very interesting for us to search this band for possible gravitational waves associated with supernovae or gamma-ray bursts that are observed with conventional telescopes."

Gamma-ray bursts - the most luminous transient events in the Universe - may result from the collapse of a supermassive star core into neutron star or black hole. These phenomena are expected to generate strong gravitational radiation, and so provide ideal references for gravitational wave searches.

The expected frequencies depend on the mass of the objects and may extend up to the kHz band. However, given the weakness of the expected gravitational wave signal, the likelihood of detecting such an event is low. How often such events can be detected therefore depends strongly on the sensitivity of the detectors.

Thanks to its excellent sensitivity at low frequencies (below 100 Hz), Virgo will also search for signals from isolated pulsars such as Vela, the remnant of a massive supernova explosion that emits regular pulses of electromagnetic radiation, from gamma-rays to radio waves. The gravitational wave signal frequency should be at around 22Hz.

In addition, the program will test new technology that will be used in the next (second) generation of gravitational wave observatories.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:19 AEST Tucson AZ (SPX) Jul 14, 2011 - Two undergraduate student teams from the University of Arizona will conduct experiments in zero gravity this week as part of NASA's Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program. The teams are among 14 from universities across the nation whose projects were selected by NASA.

The highly competitive reduced gravity program was created in 1995 to give undergraduate students the opportunity to propose, design, build and test science experiments aboard NASA's zero-g aircraft. The UA is the only school this year to send two teams to fly with the reduced gravity program.

NASA created its reduced gravity program in 1959. Since then, the KC-135 zero-g aircraft has served as a flying laboratory for research in fluid physics, combustion, material science and life science and for astronaut training. The plane also was used to film weightless sequences for the motion picture "Apollo 13."

Reduced gravity, also known as microgravity or zero g, is about 1-millionth the force of gravity that we feel on Earth. It is not considered to be complete weightlessness because anything in the vicinity of a massive object like a planet is still minutely affected by the object's gravitational pull.

From Ellington airfield, the zero-g aircraft will fly a series of parabolic arcs over the Gulf of Mexico, fluctuating between about 24,000 and 16,000 feet above sea level. Once the plane turns downward from the top of its arc, passengers experience about 20-25 seconds of microgravity, or near-complete weightlessness, while in freefall over the Earth's surface.

The experience inside the zero-g aircraft is identical to what astronauts feel while in orbit because orbital bodies are also in freefall - but are moving at sufficient speed consistently to miss the planet.

The plane will complete 34 parabolic arcs, giving the passengers a total of more than 15 minutes of weightlessness before returning to Ellington airfield.

Every summer, selected teams travel to NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston for orientation, physiological training and to prepare their payloads for flight. The students will have the chance to test their experiments twice, with half the team members flying with the payload one day and half the members flying the next day.

At Ellington airfield, teams are known by their school names: Florida, for the University of Florida at Gainsville, California for the University of California at San Diego, Colorado for the University of Colorado at Boulder.

The presence of two teams from the UA immediately generated some confusion - not aided by the fact that both teams' leaders are named Kyle - and necessitated the creation of individual team names. One of the UA teams, from the UA's Students for the Exploration and Development of Space, or SEDS, got its name from its project, called ANalysis of Gravitational Effects on Liquid lenses, or ANGEL.

"Susan Brew, who is the Space Grant coordinator at the UA, told me this program existed, and I told people it would be a good idea for us to write a proposal," said Kyle Stephens, who leads the ANGEL team.

The team will test optical lenses created by the interface of two different liquids. The team hopes to show that by varying the density of the liquids, the shape of the lenses may be altered subtly, thus allowing their focus to be changed. Since the mechanical components of glass lenses must be moved relative to each other to change their focus, using liquid lenses could present a simpler way to adjust the focus of lenses in space.

The UA's Roger Angel is the team's faculty advisor. "We should also thank the UA's LOFT group, especially Bob Parks and Margaret Dominguez," said Kevin Newman, a member of the ANGEL team.

Team ANGEL will fly its experiment on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The team also is blogging about its experience.

The second UA team is known at Ellington airfield by the rather surprising name of the NASA Air Club for Men. "Our official name was really dumb," said Rine, team leader for the NASA Air Club, when asked about the origin of the team's name. "So we figured if we're going to have a dumb name we might as well have a really dumb one. It's not accurate," he added.

"But it is entertaining," said Alexandria Stanton, one of three female members of the team.

The team will replicate the famous Miller experiment, which was originally conducted in 1953 and demonstrated the formation of amino acids from gases in the Earth's early atmosphere that is believed to have led to the development of life on Earth. The experiment has never been done in zero gravity, and the team hopes to show that amino acids also can form in conditions of changing gravity, such as a comet or asteroid experiences while traveling through space.

If the team is able to demonstrate the formation of amino acids in microgravity, it would constitute a step toward verifying the hypothesis that life could form from organic products on a comet or asteroid in space.

The UA's John Pollard is the team's faculty advisor. Materials for the experiment were donated by the department of chemistry and the departments of physics and atmospheric sciences at the UA. "We had really generous support from Dr. Betterton's lab and Dr. Hall's lab at the UA," said Stanton. The NASA Air Club will fly its experiment on Thursday and Friday.

The UA teams are funded almost entirely by NASA's Reduced Gravity and Space Grant programs, and to a lesser extent by other sources. "Such as our parents," added Nathan Mogk, a member of the ANGEL team who with team member Sarah Meschberger drove 18 hours overnight from Tucson to Houston with their team's payload.

Team profile: ANGEL
+ Kyle Stephens, 22, leads the ANGEL team. Stephens is a senior majoring in optical sciences and engineering and plans to get a master's degree in optics and work on space telescope systems or space optics.

+ Sean Gellenbeck, 20, is a junior majoring in aerospace engineering. Gellenbeck plans to study astronautical engineering, or spaceship design, at graduate school.

+ Sara Meschberger, 20, is a senior double majoring in communications and linguistics. Meschberger, who says her life revolves around space sciences, would like to work for a private space company or organization.

+ Nathan Mogk, 21, is a senior double majoring in material science and engineering and mathematics. Mogk plans to obtain a master's degree in systems engineering and to design spacecraft.

+ Kevin Newman, 23, recently graduated from the UA with a degree in optical sciences and engineering. Newman currently is program coordinator for the NASA Ames Academy for Space Exploration at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The future? "Going to grad school," said Newman.

+ Victoria Blute, 24, recently graduated from the UA with bachelor's degrees in journalism and French. Blute, who was NASA Space Grant intern at the Arizona Daily Star, is team journalist for the ANGEL team. Team profile: The NASA Air Club for Men

+ Kyle Rine, 26, is team leader for the NASA Air Club. Rine is a senior double majoring in mathematics and physics. Rine was a NASA Space Grant intern advisor this past year and also runs the atmospheric science laboratory at the UA.

+ Michael Iuzzolino, 24, is a junior majoring in aerospace engineering and mathematics. Iuzzolino was a NASA Space Grant intern this past year doing high-altitude weather balloon research. Iuzzolino plans to work on nanotechnology research and space propulsion systems.

+ Jana Pence, 21, is a junior majoring in physics. Pence was a NASA Space Grant intern this past year in the Betterton lab at the UA and plans to pursue a master's degree in atmospheric sciences.

+ Alexandria Stanton, 18, is a senior at the UA majoring in chemistry. Stanton was a NASA Space Grant intern this past year in the Hall lab at the UA conducting research on polymer chemistry. She is interested in studying a combination of physical chemistry and polymer chemistry.

+ Shelley Littin, 20, is a senior majoring in organismal biology. Littin is a NASA Space Grant intern in science writing at University Communications at the UA and is interested in pursuing biological research. This feature is the first in a three-part series on UA students' involvement in zero gravity experiments.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:19 AEST London, UK (SPX) May 30, 2011 - Direct evidence of the existence of gravitational waves is something that has long eluded researchers, however new research has suggested that adding just one of the proposed detectors in Japan, Australia and India will drastically increase the expected rate of detection.

In a study published, Friday, 27 May, in IOP Publishing's journal Classical and Quantum Gravity, Professor Bernard Schutz, of the Albert Einstein Institute, Germany, demonstrated that an additional detector would more than double the detection rate of gravitational waves and could double the amount of sky being covered.

It was estimated last year that by 2016 the existing network of four detectors would be able to detect, on average, 40 neutron-star merger events per year by monitoring the gravitational waves they produce. Using a computer analysis, this study showed that by performing optimal coherent data analysis, the network could theoretically detect 160 events per year.

The positioning of the current network actually makes such a large increase in detection rate unlikely; however Schutz has shown that using any of the three additional locations would change this dramatically.

The addition of all three new detectors would enable the detection of around 370 events a year, which could increase to 500 events after a few years of operation.

These detectors are most likely to encounter 'short bursts' of gravitational waves that arise from two stars or two black holes orbiting each other. The sheer acceleration of these types of events cause a distortion in space time - known as a gravitational wave - that spreads outwards like ripples moving across a lake.

Professor Schutz said, "The improvements brought about by new detectors are much bigger than the proportionate extra investment required. Even moving an existing LIGO detector to Australia brings two to four times the number of good-quality detections and also dramatically improves the direction information for the events."

"The new detector in Japan, approved last year, would add extra sensitivity and reliability and greatly improve sky coverage. Not only would we be more certain than ever of making detections, we would begin to be able to study neutron stars and gamma ray bursts with information obtainable in no other way."

Einstein's theory of general relativity describes how objects with mass bend and curve space-time. One can imagine holding out a taut bed sheet and placing a football in the centre - the bed sheet will curve around the football, readily representing how space-time gets curved by objects with mass.

Just like the ripples moving across a lake, the distortion in space-time, caused by accelerating objects, gradually decreases in strength, so by the time they finally reach Earth they are very hard to detect.

Professor Schutz continued, "In my mind, detecting gravitational waves opens up a new way of investigating the universe. We expect frequent detections of gravitational waves from merging black holes, whose waves will carry an unmistakable signature. Since gravitational waves are the only radiation emitted by black holes, we will for the first time have a direct observation of a black hole."

"Beyond that, gravitational waves have great penetrating power, so they will allow us to see directly to the centre of the systems responsible for supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts, and a wealth of other systems so far hidden from view."

At the moment, there are four detectors, currently being updated, that have the necessary sensitivity to measure gravitational waves. Three of these detectors exist as part of the LIGO project - two in Hanford, Washington, and one in Livingston, Louisiana, - whilst another detector exists in Cascina, Italy, as part of the VIRGO project.

Funding has begun for an additional detector located in Japan whilst there are further proposals for developing detectors in Australia and India. It has also been proposed to move one of the Hanford detectors to Australia.

A jointly owned British-German detector, located near Hanover, Germany, called GEO600 will begin observations for gravitational waves this summer, until the LIGO and VIRGO detectors become fully operational again.

]]> Tue, 21 FEB 2012 08:48:19 AEST Pasadena CA (JPL) May 20, 2011 - NASA's two Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (Grail) spacecraft have completed all assembly and testing prior to shipment to Florida.

As seen in the photo, taken April 29, technicians installed lifting brackets prior to hoisting the 200-kilogram (440- pound) Grail-A spacecraft out of a vacuum chamber at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.

Along with its twin Grail-B, the Grail-A spacecraft underwent an 11-day-long test that simulated many of the flight activities they will perform during the mission, all while being exposed to the vacuum and extreme hot and cold that simulate space.

The Grail mission is scheduled for launch late this summer. The Grail-A and Grail-B spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around Earth's moon for several months to measure its gravity field in unprecedented detail.

The mission will also answer longstanding questions about the moon and provide scientists with a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.

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