Astronomy.com blog : spacecraft

NASA technology in your world

Karri Ferron — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:58:00 GMT

NASA recently released its 2009 edition of Spinoff, an annual publication that chronicles successfully commercialized NASA technology. It’s easy to get lost in the magazine or its Web counterpart.

The 2009 issue features 49 “spinoffs” in the areas of health and medicine; public safety; consumer, home, and recreation; environmental and agricultural resources; and more. I enjoyed many of them, but my favorites are the life rafts that use water to prevent the them from capsizing, the star-mapping tools used to track whale sharks, and the “anti-gravity” treadmill that now helps patients relearn to walk or run.

Also, in honor of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11’s lunar landing, the creators of the publication have also recapped how Apollo continues to provide tangible benefits to the lives of people in the United States and around the world.

Do you appreciate how NASA has given the technology it develops back to the public? Or do you think these commercialized products aren’t anything to write home about? Which 2009 spinoffs are your favorites?

Leaving Earth behind

Bill Andrews — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:03:00 GMT

The International Space Station may not inspire everyone with awe, but it has kept humanity consistently in space at all times for just over 9 years. NASA photo

I inadvertently let an anniversary slip by a few weeks ago. It wasn’t a major one (I’m not sleeping on the couch), but it was nifty enough that I wish I could have celebrated appropriately.

I refer, of course, to the ninth anniversary of the last day every human being was on Earth. On October 31, 2000, the first resident crew of the International Space Station (ISS) launched, and ever since at least two people have been in space at all times. It doesn’t quite break the continuously-off-the-Earth record (currently standing at 10 years, from 1989-1999, thanks to Russia’s Mir space station), but 9 years is still pretty impressive.

Just think: just more than 9 years ago might be the last time ever that all of humanity was located on a single planet. Sure, it’s not like the astronauts and cosmonauts traveled very far, and the ISS crew certainly can’t survive independently of Earth, but it’s still a first step for proving our species might not be tied to this planet forever.

To me, celebrating the last day of earthbound humanity is a little like celebrating Yuri’s Night on April 12, which commemorates Yuri Gagarin’s 1961 seminal flight into space. They both seem a little underwhelming as bases for celebration, until you think about how momentous they really were. In Yuri’s case, living beings possessed the ability to venture out of Earth’s grasp and return safely for the first time in billions of years. That’s just crazy! (Don’t even get me started on how unbelievable it is that there are people walking around who’ve actually set foot on the Moon.) Similarly, the last time all Homo sapiens were ever centrally located is a pretty shocking achievement for a species as fragile as us.

So next year (barring any unforeseen developments), I’ll definitely party for the decentralization of humanity’s big 1-0, and maybe you can join me. Maybe by then I’ll have figured out what an appropriate way to celebrate might be. Or a catchier name for the event.

Have any suggestions for the big party? Or do you think this is much ado about nothing, and mankind’s a long way off from real space travel?

Kids: Learn about Apollo 11 from the experts

Karri Ferron — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:25:00 GMT

Next week (November 16–20), NASA’s Digital Learning Network will host a series of videoconferences with NASA employees who had a special connection with Apollo 11 to let students hear firsthand accounts from people who made the lunar landing possible. The 1-hour programs will be held each day at 1 p.m. EST from a different NASA location and will be webcast to the public. The schedule will run as follows:

Monday: (from NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virgina) Explore the work of aerospace pioneer John Houbolt, and learn how a young engineer convinced his boss that lunar exploration would be possible only if something called “Lunar Orbit Rendezvous” was used as the passageway to the Moon.

Tuesday: (from NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama) Learn how a rocket taller than the Statue of Liberty was constructed and why it tipped the scale of the space race in favor of the United States.

Wednesday: (from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida) Discover America’s spaceport, where the Apollo 11 astronauts made their final preparations before counting down to launch on the fastest rocket in the world, the Saturn V.

Thursday: (from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston) Learn more about the home of the astronaut corps and take a peek inside NASA's Mission Control Center, the setting of communication with Apollo 11 astronauts.

Friday: (from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California) Discover how NASA may one day return to the Moon and explore the universe beyond with the Constellation Program.

Are we boldly going places?

Bill Andrews — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:55:00 GMT

NASA’s done a good job getting us into space, but should it work harder on convincing people why that’s a good idea? NASA photo

Chances are you’ll recognize the phrase, “To boldly go,” as part of the monologue introducing each episode of Star Trek. I’ve heard it called the most famous split infinitive in the English language, and whatever a person’s science knowledge or familiarity with Star Trek, they’ll usually recognize “To boldly go — where no one has gone before.”

Jeremy McCarter argues in “Rocket Men,” a story in the November 9 issue of Newsweek, that we need more of Star Trek’s ilk. He says a big factor in NASA’s past successes was the public’s general fascination with space, thanks to TV shows and popular books. He quotes from the book Rocket Men (2009) that “all three of rocketry's founding fathers read From the Earth to the Moon, and it changed the course of their lives.” To really get the population excited about space, he says, we need to show space once again as a backdrop for excitement, drama, and adventure, and not just the place where killer asteroids, aliens, and lousy movies come from.

Now, half the fun of the article was renewing my geek cred as McCarter listed off popular depictions of space. I agreed with almost all his characterizations, especially his praise for the underappreciated TV show Firefly and its movie sequel, Serenity. And while I can’t lay claim to having seen The Empire Strikes Back “several hundred” times, as he does, I once performed in a musical adaptation of it.

But, more than simply agreeing about classic sci-fi, I agreed with everything else McCarter said too. If we really want to go out and conquer the stars — or even just the nearest planets and their moons — we need a public that thinks it’s a good idea. Science and a sense of adventure have historically gone hand in hand, and if that isn’t clear to us anymore, someone has messed up. NASA does a pretty good job of keeping folks amused with its videos and tweets, but amusing is a long way from astounding, mesmerizing, or even just super cool.

I’m probably not an expert on super cool (see Star Wars musical reference, above), but I know Star Trek, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels, and Contact helped get me interested in space, and I’m definitely not the only one. NASA’s been going into space for a few decades now, but perhaps it’s time it start boldly going.

Did any movies, books, or TV shows inspire you to get into space? Do you think NASA’s doing a fine enough job right now, thank you very much? Or do you (impossibly) think Firefly wasn’t that good?

Approach of the robot armada!

Bill Andrews — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:23:00 GMT

In this artist’s illustration, an orbiter works together with blimps and rovers to explore an unfamiliar landscape. NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory photo

Wolfgang Fink has a dream straight out of science fiction: Instead of sending a paltry robot or two to distant planets, scientists should send multiple expendable robots. Robots that can talk to one another and adapt to unexpected events. Robots that can think.

Creepy as that might sound to some, it’s really just the next step in space exploration, according to Fink, visiting associate in physics at the California Institute of Technology and a professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

“This armada of robots,” Fink said, “will be our eyes, ears, arms and legs in space, in the air, and on the ground, capable of responding to their environment without us, to explore and embrace the unknown."

In particular, he thinks such a plan would be perfect for studying Saturn’s moon Titan, with its mysterious geological features and complex weather systems. (Of course, this armada also could work on any other body scientists wish to study, such as Mars or Venus.) Fink and his team are working on robots that would do the work of a field geologist or astronaut, and they’d be able to work alone or as part of a team. Current proposals already exist for these robots to explore Titan, calling specifically for a lunar orbiter, an air balloon, and several rovers.

"We are basically heading toward making robots that command other robots," said Fink. "It's sort of like commanding a small army of robots operating in space, in the air, and on the ground simultaneously."

Now, this is all pretty clever, and the fact that actual scientists can legitimately suggest such robots is just more proof that we’re living in the future. But to refer to such a futuristic concept (particularly reminiscent of a finger-twiddling robot in Isaac Asimov’s story “Catch That Rabbit”) with the anachronistic term “armada” is truly genius. I mean, can you think of anything catchier than “The robot armada”?

Ares I-X finally reaches T-minus-zero

Matt Quandt — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:42:00 GMT

Three days ago, Contributing Editor Mike Reynolds wrote his first in what will be a series of blogs about meteorites and meteorite collecting. While we talked with Mike about that first piece, we learned that he was going to attend the Ares I-X launch. In this entry, he shares what it was like to witness Wednesday’s successful test flight. Mike also took photos of the event, and we'll post those with this entry soon.

Ares I-X lifted off from Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center after a number of countdown starts and stops over 2 days. The flight appears to be a success, and we await the data from the myriad of probes on the rocket.

This is a big rocket! Going out to the pad the night before the first launch attempt October 27 underscored what everyone had been saying about Ares. Not only did the size surprise me at a height of 327.4 feet (100 meters), but the mock-up Orion and Escape Tower caught me off guard. Like most, I have seen illustrations and mock-ups of Orion. But at first glance at the pad Monday night, it looked like a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and escape tower!

I felt the frustrations of the Ares I-X launch team on both days. With a 4-hour launch window Tuesday, all felt optimistic a launch would happen. The Florida weather was, well, Florida weather: unpredictable. It was approaching 90° Fahrenheit and muggy. NASA had specific weather conditions for this mission that included flying through no clouds and maximum wind velocities. The no-cloud issue was due to the concern that as Ares I-X would pass through clouds, static electricity would build up and damage the instrumentation packages. The wind issue is a normal condition for launches; 20 knots maximum in the case of Ares I-X. Even though I enjoyed the breeze as I waited — and waited, and waited — I knew conditions were not right.

For the Tuesday launch attempt, a variety of problems came up. First the launch team was behind in pre-launch preparations. Weather dynamics came and went: green (go for launch) to red (no-go). Then there was the now-infamous tarp issue:

There is a series of probes mounted in the top of the rocket. To expose these probes for flight, the launch team would pull on a lanyard to remove a tarp at the top of Ares I-X. Note that the gantry did not go up to the top of the rocket. So when they pulled on the lanyard, the tarp became stuck! This caused another delay. By the time the tarp was finally free, the weather was green and go. At that point launch security “found” a cargo carrier ship in the splashdown zone. How was it allowed to get into that closed zone in the first place? So another delay. By the time the cargo carrier was out of the splashdown zone, the weather was red and no-go, and the Ares I-X launch attempt was scrubbed for the day.

On Wednesday, October 28, the Rotating Service Structure rollback was a little late. Weather was again an issue. The Ares I-X launch team kept pushing back the launch time. I thought we were in for a repeat of the previous day. Finally, all was a go, and Ares I-X screamed off the pad.

I didn’t know what exactly to expect, even though I’ve covered launches all the way back to 1975, including the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and Apollos 11 and 17.

I was surprised at how quickly Ares I-X pitched over — I thought something had gone wrong. Since this was a ballistic lob, there was no need for a straight up then pitch over. The flight was short and sweet, accompanied by a loud cheer from the press site. The launch was fairly noisy, as we’ve grown accustomed to with the shuttle. Separation of the Solid Rocket Booster (SRB) first stage was different than that of the shuttle because it separated from a mock-up second stage and Orion. The SRBs on the shuttle fall away from the External Tank.

The Ares I-X launch was spectacular. The question now is: Will this be Ares’ only launch?

Mad scientists’ revenge?

Bill Andrews — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:57:00 GMT

Stewart David Nozette, later arrested by the FBI for attempted espionage, worked on the LRO’s Mini-RF hardware. NASA Photo

We here at Astronomy magazine try to stay out of politics as much as we can because, after all, astronomy can be plenty controversial on its own — Pluto, anyone?. But sometimes, we just can’t help it. Take, for instance, the case of Stewart David Nozette (pictured at right), the former NASA scientist who was arrested October 19 for allegedly trying to sell government secrets.

This illustration shows NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) over the lunar surface, with the Mini-RF antenna attached to its Moon-facing panel. The scientist who worked on the Mini-RF, Stewart David Nozette, was arrested for attempted espionage on Monday. NASA Photo

Nozette worked on both the Chandrayaan-1 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter missions that made recent headlines with discoveries of water on the Moon. He also worked at some pretty high-level government organizations, including the Air Force's Phillips Laboratory (now a part of the Air Force Research Laboratory), the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (now called the Missile Defense Agency), the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. He even went to MIT, the most well-known villain-training school ever (and my alma mater).

Allegedly, Nozette tried selling secrets to an undercover FBI agent posing as an Israeli spy, for a grand total of $11,000. But at least that’s not all the money his alleged espionage may have gotten him — the FBI says he worked for an Israeli aerospace company that paid him $225,000 in the last 11 years. It doesn’t look particularly good for Nozette right now — if convicted he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Coming so fast after the October 9 arrest of a CERN physicist for suspected links with al-Qaeda, I wonder if we’re not seeing the rise of the real-life mad scientist. Usually, I’ve found, people think of scientists as one of two stereotypes: the absent-minded, stuffy, but generally harmless lab-coat wearer, and the evil genius who either wants to become immorally rich or rule the world. I’ve only met a few scientists who fits either description perfectly, but it seems Nozette might come close to the latter. Maybe he just got tired of being thought of as the former? Either way, I think we can all agree this probably is not the best way to dissuade the public of its stereotypical notions.

So what do you think? Happy that scientists are taking a stand and showing the world they’re not all harmless old eccentrics? Or horrified that a member of your favorite lunar mission might turn out to be a spy?

Behind the scenes of Hubble 3D IMAX movie

Bill Andrews — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:17:00 GMT

STS-125 astronauts Mike Massimino (lower left) and Mike Good (right, on arm) rehearse Hubble Space Telescope repairs in NASA’s NBL in this IMAX footage from Hubble 3D. NASA photo

Toni Myers is my kind of big-time Hollywood director. She’s worked on such famous space-themed IMAX movies as Space Station 3D, Destiny in Space, and 1985’s The Dream is Alive. I remember seeing Dream is Alive when I was just a kid, and it played no small role in my fascination with the skies. She’s also the director, writer, and editor of the upcoming IMAX movie Hubble 3D, due to be widely released in IMAX theaters March 19, 2010. Even though she’s still hard at work editing, I talked to Myers recently about NASA, movies, and the tyranny of deadlines. Here are some of the highlights, slightly edited for clarity.

Astronomy: What made you start making movies about space?

Myers: Well, at the time of the first IMAX space film, I was part of a team founded by Graeme Ferguson (the co-inventor of IMAX). When the IMAX projector was put in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Mike Collins, the director at that time [and an Apollo 11 astronaut] saw IMAX and said, “This is the medium. This is the only thing that can really convey what we experienced.”

Graeme heard that loud and clear. We’d made other films on other topics before, but once he heard [how Collins felt] we launched a campaign to try and get the IMAX camera into space. That was the start of actually making films in space, and it was really spearheaded by Graeme, who founded the unit.

IMAX camera operator Peter Kragh (left) films STS-125 astronauts Mike Good (foreground) and Mike Massimino (to the right inside the Hubble mock-up) as they rehearse Hubble repair activities at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab (NBL) in Houston, Texas. NASA photo

Astronomy: Have you ever wanted to branch out beyond space and try making other types of movies?

Myers: We do do other films, though we seem to specialize in airless environments. Our units have produced three 3-D underwater films. We make those in collaboration with a very wonderful cinematographer/director by the name of Howard Hall, and we first made one in 1994, Into the Deep. That’s an adventure of a different kind in a different direction. But we do seem to come back to space a lot. One thing just leads to another, and it is a topic of endless fascination. I’d love to go myself!

Astronomy: Speaking of going to space, you must work pretty closely with NASA to make these films. What’s that like?

Myers: The collaboration has been absolutely wonderful, right from the beginning. We supply the training and the cameras and the filmmaking expertise; NASA supplies the astronauts and the spacecraft. I think NASA could see right away how these films bring an experience that is only the privilege of a small sector of people to absolutely everybody, from the age of 3 to 103. Actually, I think the biggest fans of the films are the NASA engineers and crews because they’re seeing things in the film that they don’t get to see normally. There’s a level of detail that isn’t readily available anywhere else. Even when we saw the first footage come back for The Dream is Alive, all of us sat absolutely jaws-on-the-floor at seeing what the Earth looked like 6 stories high. It was absolutely like being there.

Astronomy: With your latest film, Hubble 3D, are you focusing on the science the Hubble Space Telescope has done, or the story of getting it to work, or something else entirely?

Myers: There will be some early material of its original deployment in space, and we’ll track the story a little bit about the flawed mirror and the first service mission. But the main mission that we’ll focus on is last May’s STS-125, which is the last service mission. We also plan several flights through Hubble data, which we’re animating in 3-D — for instance, one is from Earth right to the heart of the Orion Nebula. We basically want to allow people all over the world to see some splendid examples of how Hubble has changed our whole idea of what our universe is. But, it won’t be everything, that’s for sure!

Hopefully, as with some of the other films, we can inspire people to pursue a career in astronomy. An example of that – totally unexpected by us – is when Susan Helms was going to be one of the first permanent “inmates” of the International Space Station. She was interviewed on the Today show, and they asked her what had inspired her to become an astronaut, and she said, “The IMAX film The Dream is Alive.” We didn’t plan that one, believe me! You can’t begin to cover all the science there is on any given topic in 40 minutes. What you can do is really open people’s eyes as to what is out there. Our goal is to have people leaving the theater wanting to know more.

In this footage from the upcoming film Hubble 3D, Astronaut Andrew Feustel transfers the Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement unit from the telescope to its temporary stowage position in the space shuttle Atlantis cargo bay. NASA photo

Astronomy: Do you know what your next project might be?

Myers: I actually don’t. We were doing our last underwater film, Under the Sea 3D, in conjunction with this one, so the two films were going in parallel for about 18 months. I haven’t had a minute to think forward. I should, but I think my biggest challenge right now is getting this one finished. I’d love to do more space films, and there are lots of science films that are very interesting. But I really just have been so totally immersed in this I haven’t given it much thought.

Astronomy: Maybe a vacation’s in order?

Myers: Uh, yeah! That always looms as a nice thing, but then you start worrying, “Well I better get the next project going!” You know how it goes with deadlines.

Astronomy: A little too well, in fact. On that note, then, my last question: Anything else you’d like to add?

Myers: I’d like to say that the crew of the final repair mission (STS-125) was absolutely superb in terms of the work they did. They had an incredibly difficult mission in terms of the intricacies of what they had to do outside on their spacewalks, and I’m in awe of what they accomplished. Also, we wouldn’t be doing this film if it weren’t for Warner Brothers. Going into space was a new adventure for them, and I’m just so thrilled that they wanted to do it. So I do want to give them credit for agreeing to launch with us to the stars!

And finally, I just wanted to highlight the fact that I think the legacy of Hubble itself is absolutely astonishing. Every time I look at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and some of those gravitational lens photos and things, it’s just life altering, isn’t it? I think a lot of people haven’t had that experience, and I hope this film gives them a little bit of it.

Learn about the International Space Station with Buzz Lightyear

Karri Ferron — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:57:00 GMT

Last Friday, NASA and Disney Parks officially welcomed space ranger Buzz Lightyear back to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) with a ticker-tape parade at Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando (and, no, I’m not joking). The 12-inch action figure spent more than 15 months aboard the ISS, returning to Earth September 11. In addition to that celebration, NASA and Disney Parks are collaborating again to launch new efforts to help young students develop an interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

One effort is the Mission Patch Design Challenge. Students ages 6-12 can design a patch to commemorate Lightyear's mission and his accomplishment of being the longest-serving space ranger. They can download different patch patterns, pick their favorite, use a variety of real mission patches for inspiration, and submit their own creation by November 6. The student with the most creative mission patch and 100-word essay will win a tour of NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida and a trip to Walt Disney World Resort. NASA will fly the winning patch into space then present it to the contest winner.

Upon the conclusion of the Mission Patch Design Challenge, NASA will bring the Kids in Micro-g Experiment Challenge. In this challenge, students in the fifth through eighth grades get a "hands-on" opportunity to design an experiment or simple demonstration that could be performed both in the classroom and onboard the ISS. The winning experiments will have observably different results from when the experiment is performed in the "1-gravity" or "1-g" nominal environment on the Earth's surface compared to when it will be performed in "Micro-g" environment (one-millionth of 1-g) environment of the International Space Station (ISS). The 12 winning experiments will be performed by the end of the school year and videotaped for the winning schools.

Finally, NASA and Disney Parks are launching a new online game as part of the Space Ranger Education Series, which brings the series to a total of 6 educational games for young students and materials for educators to download and integrate into classroom curricula. In the newest game, "Putting It All Together," players can build the entire station using all of the real modules. As they find each piece, they learn its use on the ISS. It’s a neat addition to the series and might rival “Toys in Space” for my favorite game for young people.

What do you think of NASA’s efforts to bring fun science activities to young people? Two thumbs up, or not worth the effort? What activities do you help your kids, grandkids, nieces, or nephews participate in to encourage their scientific curiosity and improve their analytical skills?

Image credit: NASA

Division of Planetary Sciences meeting, Monday recap

Liz Kruesi — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:43:00 GMT

Monday was my first day at the 2009 Division of Planetary Sciences meeting in Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, I was off to a late start because of one of the worst migraines of my life. But I did get to the afternoon science sessions.

Editor's note: Liz is posting updates regularly from DPS09 to Twitter.com/AstronomyMag.

I spent the early afternoon at the Titan science session. Nine scientists talked about the saturnian satellite’s atmosphere and geological features. William Smythe of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory discussed his team’s deduction that transient features seen on Titan are likely patches of pure ammonia frost. These features are too close to the ground to be clouds, so they’re either ground fog or surface coating. When scientists look at the features’ spectral signatures, they most closely match ammonia.

Ralph Lorenz of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory discussed his team’s (and other groups’) observations of Titan’s brightness and how it changes over time. Lorenz summed up almost 40 years of observations (starting in the early 1970s). Various astronomers started observing Titan in 1972 and saw that it was brightening … but then it started darkening.

Since then, astronomers have determined that the northern hemisphere is some 20 percent darker than the southern. Seasonal changes could explain the observed brightness changes, but this doesn’t explain the full amplitude of brightness changes. Plus, the cycle isn’t perfectly symmetric, and right now Titan is darker than previously recorded. Why could this be? The Lorenz group thinks there is something going on with Titan’s haze layers, which could be affecting the observed brightness.

In the late afternoon I sat in on a session about rocky extrasolar planets. After quite a few technical problems, the program started. This session was filled with what to look for when trying to detect earthlike planets and life on those planets. A few talks focused on what our Earth looks like from a distance (this is data that the EPOXI mission was able to collect), and therefore what we should look for in similar planets.

Editor’s note: EPOXI is a combination of the names for two extended mission components: a search for extrasolar planets during the cruise to Hartley 2, called Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI).

Carolyn Crow of the University of Maryland talked about EPOXI observations of Earth and the Moon using seven spectral filters. Crow and colleagues compared those Earth observations with spectra of the other planets, and found that in low resolutions Earth is brighter than the others with certain filters.

Eliza Miller-Ricci of Harvard University discussed a possible way to directly image terrestrial planets. Back in November 2008, astronomers announced that they had directly imaged gas giant planets orbiting their stars in two systems. However, gas giant planets hold onto their initial heat (from formation) for longer than rocky planets, so astronomers have a better chance of finding a young gas giant planet than a rocky one. Miller-Ricci (and colleagues) recommended that, instead, astronomers might want to search for the afterglow of a young super-Earth collision. (As we know from the formation of Earth, a Mars-sized object initially slammed into the forming Earth. Such collisions are likely typical in young solar systems.)

The surfaces of these super-Earths will be hot initially (1,500 to 4,000 K) and cool in free space within about 100,000 years. However, if the object has a thick atmosphere, it takes 1 to 10 million years to cool. So maybe 10 percent of young stars have hot super-Earth afterglows at any given time.

There was a lot of information that came out of Monday’s sessions. Tuesday should be similar, with the addition of three major talks in the morning, given by three scientists awarded DPS prizes for their research.