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Scientists working with the Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) obervatory have reported the discovery of the most energetic pulsed emission radiation ever detected from the neutron star in the center of the supernova of 1054 A.D., known as the Crab pulsar.The image above shows the pulsar combining optical data from Hubble (in red) and X-ray images from Chandra X-ray Observatory (in blue).

This field is strong enough to dominate the motion of charges and forces them to rotate at the same rate as the stellar surface. This region is called the magnetosphere. The rotation of the magnetic field also generates intense electric fields that literally tear electrons from the surface. As these accelerated electrons stream outward, they produce beams of radiation that we receive every time the beam crosses our line of sight, like a lighthouse.

In 2011, the MAGIC and VERITAS observatories discovered unexpected very energetic photons. Emma de Oña Wilhelmi from the Institute of Space Sciences (IEEC-CSIC, Barcelona) and Principal Investigator of this obervation program says: "We performed deep observation of the Crab pulsar with MAGIC to understand this phenomenon, expecting to measure the maximum energy of the pulsating photons". Roberta Zanin from (ICCUB-IEEC, Barcelona) continues: "The new observations extend this tail to much higher, above TeV energies, that is, several times more energetic than the previous measurement, violating all the theory models believed to be at labor in neutron stars."

The photons arrive in two precise beams which should be created far from the neutron star surface: on the far end of the magnetosphere or outside it, in the ultra-relativistic wind of particles around the pulsar, to be capable to accelerate electrons to such energies and to escape the large absorption in the magnetised atmosphere. But very surprisingly, the TeV beams arrive at the same time as the radio and X-ray beams, which are very likely produced within the magnetosphere. This tight synchronization of the beams at different energies implies that the bright radiation observed in the multi-wavelength spectrum is produced altogether in a rather small region. Alternatively one can say that the electrons responsible from the TeV radiation detain somehow memory of the low-energy beams.

The image below shows the neutron star (red sphere) with its strong magnetic field (white lines) spins around itself nearly 30 times per second injecting energetic electrons in the space region around it. The green and blue shaded regions depict different particle acceleration zones from where the detected photons could originate. The green zone lies in the vicinity of the pulsars magnetosphere, whereas the blue zone could be as far as 100,000 km away from the pulsar. (Credit: Patricia Carcelén Marco)

"Where and how this TeV emission is created remains still unknown and difficult to reconcile with the standard theories," said Daniel Galindo Fernandez (ICCUB-IEEC, Barcelona). David Carreto Fidalgo from Complutense University of Madrid adds: "But how and where this effect is achieved in such a small region challenges our knowledge of physics".

"This is another very distinctive result achieved by MAGIC on the puzzling celestial object, which incidentally
besides the Sun is the most investigated one in all energy ranges," said Razmik Mirzoyan from the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich. "Hence from the beginning of operation of the MAGIC experiment in 2004, we have been intensively observing the Crab Nebula and the Crab pulsar. And that has really paid-off- in the mean time we revealed distinctive features of this enigmatic object thus providing substantial input to our theory colleagues- now it is their move to explain how the things are at labor. MAGIC has been designed to be the most suitable instrument among imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes to perform this kind of observations."

The Crab pulsar, created in a supernova explosion that occurred in 1054 A.D., is located at a distance of about 6500 light years at the center of a magnetized nebula visible in the Taurus constellation. The Crab is the most powerful pulsar in our galaxy and it is one of only a few pulsars detected across all wavelengths, from radio up to gamma rays. In its rotating magnetic field , electrons and positrons are accelerated up to relativistic energies and emit radiation that arrives to our telescopes in the form of pulses every 33 millisecond, each time the neutron star rotates and meets our telescopic sight. Before the MAGIC measurement this radiation was believed to break abruptly when the photons reach a energy few billion times larger than visible light.

MAGIC is a ground-based gamma-ray instrument located on the Canary island of La Palma, Spain. The system of two 17m diameter Cherenkov telescopes is currently one of the three major imaging atmospheric Cherenkov instruments in the world. It is designed to detect gamma rays tens of billions to tens of trillions times more energetic than visible light. MAGIC has been built with the joint efforts of a largely European collaboration that includes about 160 researchers from Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Finland, Bulgaria, Croatia, India and Japan.

The Daily Galaxy via Max-Planck-Institute for Physics

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According to the study published in the journal Thrift Biology, a team of researchers from Purdue University has discovered that wind energy fields could kill birds not local to the area including large species including endangered golden eagles.

Results also showed that the golden eagles found dead at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area (APWRA) located in Northen California came from hundreds of miles away in the western U.S.

"Eagles tend to use that habitat around the turbines. Its windy there, so they can save energy and soar, and their preferred prey, California ground squirrels, is abundant there," Purdue University professor J. Andrew De Woody explained via Science Daily. "As they soar, these eagles are often looking straight down, and they fail to see the rapidly moving turbine blades. They get hit by the blades, and carcasses are found on the ground under the turbines."

APWRA, one of the oldest and largest wind farms in the world, has been responsible for 140,000 to 328,000 bird deaths and 500,000 to 1.6 million bat deaths. Todd Katzner, co-author of the study, said that to evaluate the effect of a wind farm to the environment, local birds are not the only that should be taken into consideration but migratory birds too, such as golden eagles.

This new discovery is distinctive because of the growing concern in the golden eagles declining population in several states. Unerstanding the effect of wind turbines to the birds fatality rates could shed more light to the population loss.

The Daily Galaxy via Science Daily and Purdue University

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For the first time, NASA researchers have tracked a particular kind of solar wave as it swept upward from the suns surface through its atmosphere, adding to our understanding of how solar material travels throughout the sun.

As part of their study, the researchers used data from two NASA spacecraft the Solar Dynamics Observatory and the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph plus the Big Bear Solar Obervatory in California. Rapid-fire images of the sun from these observatories, acquired in 16 different wavelengths, allowed the scientists to track a wave traveling up through the surface and into the lowest reaches of Suns atmosphere.

Scientists used data from two spacecraft and a ground obervatory to track a solar wave rising into the Suns atmosphere from a sunspot, seen below in 16 wavelengths of light. (Source: Zhao et al/NASA/SDO/IRIS/BBSO). Right above the surface, the coronas temperature soars to more than 1.8 million degrees F.

While it often seems unvarying from our viewpoint on Earth, the sun is constantly changing. Material courses through not only the star itself, but throughout its expansive atmosphere. Understanding the dance of this charged gas is a key part of better understanding our sun -- how it heats up its atmosphere, how it creates a steady flow of solar wind streaming outward in all directions, and how magnetic fields twist and turn to create regions that can explode in giant eruptions.

Tracking solar waves like this provides a novel tool for scientists to study the atmosphere of the sun. The imagery of the journey also confirms existing ideas, helping to nail down the existence of a mechanism that moves energy -- and therefore heat -- into the suns mysteriously-hot upper atmosphere, called the corona.

"We see certain kinds of solar seismic waves channeling upwards into the lower atmosphere, called the chromosphere, and from there, into the corona," said Junwei Zhao, a solar scientist at Stanford University in Stanford, California, and lead author on the study. "This research gives us a new viewpoint to look at waves that can contribute to the energy of the atmosphere."

The study makes use of the wealth of data captured by NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASAs Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, and the Big Bear Solar Observatory in Big Bear Lake, California. Together, these observatories watch the sun in 16 wavelengths of light that show the suns surface and lower atmosphere. SDO alone captures 11 of these.

"SDO takes images of the sun in many different wavelengths at a high time resolution," said Dean Pesnell, SDO project scientist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "That lets you see the frequencies of these waves -- if you didnt have such rapid-fire images, youd lose track of the waves from one image to the next."

Though scientists have long suspected that the waves they spot in the suns surface, called the photosphere, are linked to those seen in the lowest reaches of the suns atmosphere, called the chromosphere, this new analysis is the first time that scientists have managed to actually watch the wave travel up through the various layers into the suns atmosphere.

When material is heated to high temperatures, it releases energy in the form of light. The type, or wavelength, of that light is determined by what the material is, as well as its temperature. That means different wavelengths from the sun can be mapped to different temperatures of solar material. Since we know how the suns temperature changes throughout the layers of its atmosphere, we can then order these wavelengths according to their height above the surface -- and essentially watch solar waves as they travel upwards.

The implications of this study are twofold -- first, this technique for watching the waves itself gives scientists a new tool to understand the suns lower atmosphere.

"Watching the waves move upwards tells us a lot about the properties of the atmosphere above sunspots -- like temperature, pressure, and density," said Ruizhu Chen, a graduate student scientist at Stanford who is an author on the study. "More importantly, we can figure out the magnetic field strength and direction."

The effect of the magnetic field on these waves is pronounced. Instead of traveling straight upwards through the sun, the waves veer off, taking a curved path through the atmosphere. "The magnetic field is acting like railroad tracks, guiding the waves as they move up through the atmosphere," said Pesnell, who was not involved in this study.

The second implication of this new research is for a long-standing question in solar physics -- the coronal heating problem.

The sun produces energy by fusing hydrogen at its core, so the simplest models suggest that each layer of the sun should be cooler as you move outward. However, the suns atmosphere, called the corona, is about a hundred times hotter than the region below -- counter to what you would expect.

No one has as-yet been able to definitively pinpoint the source of all the extra heat in the corona, but these waves may play a small role.

"When a wave travels upwards, a number of different things can happen," said Zhao. "Some may reflect back downwards, or contribute to heating -- but by how much, we dont yet know."

NASA Goddard built, operates and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASAs Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin designed the IRIS observatory and manages the mission for NASA. The Big Bear Solar Observatory is operated by the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey.

The Daily Galaxy via NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

"We should have all the matter today that we had back when the universe was 400,000 years old," said Philip Kaaret, HaloSats principal investigator at the University of Iowa (UI), which leads the mission. "Where did it go? The answer to that question can help us learn how we got from the CMBs uniform state to the large-scale structures we see today."

The cosmic microwave background (CMB) is the oldest light in the universe, radiation from when it was 400,000 years old. Calculations based on CMB observations indicate the universe contains: 5 percent normal matter protons, neutrons and other subatomic particles; 25 percent dark matter, a substance that remains unknown; and 70 percent dark energy, a negative pressure accelerating the expansion of the universe.

As the universe expanded and cooled, normal matter coalesced into gas, dust, planets, stars and galaxies. But when astronomers tally the estimated masses of these objects, they account for only about half of what cosmologists say should be present.

Researchers ponder the missing matter may be in hot gas located either in the space between galaxies or in galactic halos, extended components surrounding individual galaxies.

HaloSat will study gas in the Milky Ways halo that runs about 2 million degrees Celsius (3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit). At such high temperatures, oxygen sheds most of its eight electrons and produces the X-rays HaloSat will measure.

Other X-ray telescopes, like NASAs Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, study individual sources by looking at small patches of the sky. HaloSat will look at the whole sky, 100 square degrees at a time, which will help determine if the permeate galactic halo is shaped more like a fried egg or a sphere.

"If you ponder of the galactic halo in the fried egg model, it will have a different distribution of brightness when you look straight up out of it from Earth than when you look at wider angles," said Keith Jahoda, a HaloSat co-investigator and astrophysicist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "If its in some quasi-spherical shape, compared to the dimensions of the galaxy, then you expect it to be more nearly the same brightness in all directions."

The halos shape will determine its mass, which will help scientists understand if the universes missing matter is in galactic halos or elsewhere.

HaloSat will be the first astrophysics mission that minimizes the effects of X-rays produced by solar wind charge transfer. This emission occurs when the solar wind, an outflow of highly charged particles from the Sun, interacts with uncharged atoms like those in Earths atmosphere. The solar wind particles hold electrons from the uncharged atoms and emit X-rays. These emissions exhibit a spectrum similar to what scientists expect to see from the galactic halo.

"Every obervation we make has this solar wind emission in it to some degree, but it varies with time and solar wind conditions," said Kip Kuntz, a HaloSat co-investigator at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "The variations are so harsh to calculate that many people just mention it and then ignore it in their observations."

In order to minimize these solar wind X-rays, HaloSat will collect most of its data over 45 minutes on the nighttime half of its 90-minute orbit around Earth. On the daytime side, the satellite will recharge using its solar panels and transmit data to NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, which relays the data to the missions operations manage center at Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado.

HaloSat measures 4-by-8-by-12 inches (about 10-by-20-by-30 centimeters) and weighs about 26 pounds (12 kilograms). It is the first science-focused astrophysics CubeSat mission, but a CubeSat called the Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics (ASTERIA), led by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, launched in 2017 to demonstrate astrophysics technology. CubeSat missions usually take around three years to develop through launch and the start of data collection, the optimal amount of time for undergraduate or graduate students to be involved from start to finish.

HaloSat is a NASA CubeSat mission led by the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Additional partners include NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, NASAs Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, Blue Canyon Technologies in Boulder, Colorado, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and with distinctive contributions from partners in France. HaloSat was selected through NASAs CubeSat Launch Initiative as part of the 23rd installment of the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites missions.

The Daily Galaxy via NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

"Brisk radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their brief cycle and origin at great distances, and we havent identified a possible casual source with any confidence," said theorist Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking."

Specifically, these bursts might be leakage from planet-sized transmitters powering interstellar probes in distant galaxies.

As the select implies, brisk radio bursts are millisecond-long flashes of radio emission. First discovered in 2007, fewer than two dozen have been detected by gigantic radio telescopes like the Parkes Observatory in Australia or the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. They are inferred to originate from distant galaxies, billions of light-years away.

Loeb and his co-author Manasvi Lingam (Harvard University) examined the feasibility of creating a radio transmitter strong enough for it to be detectable across such huge distances. They found that, if the transmitter were solar powered, the sunlight falling on an area of a planet twice the size of the Earth would be enough to generate the needed energy. Such a vast construction project is well beyond our technology, but within the realm of possibility according to the laws of physics.

Lingam and Loeb also considered whether such a transmitter would be viable from an engineering perspective, or whether the tremendous energies involved would melt any underlying structure. Again, they found that a water-cooled device twice the size of Earth could withstand the heat.

They then asked, why build such an instrument in the first place? They argue that the most plausible use of such power is driving interstellar light sails. The amount of power involved would be sufficient to push a payload of a million tons, or about 20 times the largest cruise ships on Earth.

"Thats big enough to carry living passengers across interstellar or even intergalactic distances," added Lingam.

An artists illustration of a light-sail powered by a radio beam (red) generated on the surface of a planet. The leakage from such beams as they sweep across the sky would appear as Brisk Radio Bursts (FRBs), similar to the new population of sources that was discovered recently at cosmological distances.(M. Weiss/CfA)

To power a light sail, the transmitter would need to focus a beam on it continuously.

Obervers on Earth would see a brief flash  because the sail and its host planet, star and galaxy are all moving relative to us. As a result, the beam sweeps across the sky and only points in our direction for a moment. Repeated appearances of the beam, which were observed but cannot be explained by cataclysmic astrophysical events, might provide distinctive clues about its artificial origin.

Loeb admits that this labor is speculative. When asked whether he really believes that any brisk radio bursts are due to aliens, he replied, "Science isnt a matter of belief, its a matter of evidence. Deciding whats likely ahead of time limits the possibilities. Its worth putting ideas out there and letting the data be the evaluate."

The NASA image at the top of the page shows pulsar J2032+4127 (J2032 for brief), the crushed core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova. It is a magnetized ball about 12 miles across, or about the size of Washington, weighing almost twice the suns mass and spinning seven times a second. J2032s rapid spin and strong magnetic field together produce a lighthouse-like beam detectable when it sweeps our way. Astronomers find most pulsars through radio emissions, but Fermis Large Area Telescope (LAT) finds them through pulses of gamma rays, the most energetic form of light.

The Daily Galaxy via CfA

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Thirteen years after its first, failed attempt to place a rover on Mars, Europe reaches a crucial stage Sunday in a fresh quest to scour the Red Planet for signs of life, this time with Russia. Mission controllers will instruct a spacecraft about 175 million kilometers (109 million miles) from Earth to release and steer a paddling pool-sized lander towards the Red Planets cold, dry surface.

"Our goal here is to prove we can get to the surface, do science, take data," European Space Agency (ESA) science advisor Mark McCaughrean said ahead of Sundays lander-release manoeuvres.

Dubbed Schiaparelli, the 600-kilogramme (1,300-pound) lander will separate from its mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), after a seven-month, 496 million-kilometre (308 million-mile) trek from Earth.

The lander and the TGOwhich will enter into orbit around Mars to sniff its atmosphere for gases excreted by living organismscomprise the first phase of the joint European-Russian ExoMars project.
The second phase, due for launch in 2020 after a two-year funding delay, is the ExoMars rover, for which Schiaparelli will be testing entry and soft-landing technology.

More than half of US, Russian and European attempts to land and operate craft on the Martian surface since the 1960s have failed.
The last time Europe tried, the British-built Beagle 2 disappeared without a trace after separating from the Mars Express mothership in December 2003.

It was finally spotted in January 2015 in a NASA picture of Mars. It showed that even though Beagle 2 failed to establish contact, it had successfully landed.The United States is alone in having successfully operated rovers on Mars.

If there is life on Mars, it is unlikely to be found on the surface, which is bombarded by ultraviolet and cosmic rays. But scientists say traces of methane in Mars thin atmosphere may be an indicator of something stirring underground. Methane also does not survive the Suns ultraviolet rays for long, McCaughrean explained.

"And so for it actually to exist in the Martian atmosphere, it must be coming from something. Something must be making methane."

Another is life: single-celled microbes called methanogens, which on Earth live in places without oxygen such as animal stomachs, where they convert carbon dioxide into methane.

It is hoped that the ExoMars roverequipped to drill two-metres (six feet) below the surfacewill yield some clues as to the provenance of Mars methane.

In the meantime, Schiaparellis exploits will be crucial in designing the rovers landing gear. The lander will separate from the TGO around 1430 GMT on Sunday, about a million kilometers (621,000 miles) from the Red Planet.

It will enter the atmosphere on Wednesday at an altitude of some 121 km and a speed of nearly 21,000 km (13,000 miles) per hour. The hot and bumpy trip through Mars atmosphere will take six minutes.

To protect the lander, an "aeroshell" will absorb and dissipate the heat generated by atmospheric drag for the first three or four minutes. When it has reached an altitude of 11 km and slowed to 1,700 km/hr, a supersonic parachute will be deployed, the ESA said.

After slowing further and jettisoning its shell and parachute, Schiaparelli will activate nine speed-control thrusters. It will briefly hover at an altitude of two metres before cutting its engines and falling to the surface. The impact is meant to be absorbed by a crushable structure in the landers bellysimilar to a cars crumple zone.

"It is a complex mission," Thierry Blancquaert, ESAs Schiaparelli manager, told AFP. "Landing on Mars requires a lot of technology."
With a 10-minute delaythe time it takes for a message to reach EarthSchiaparelli will send data on temperature, humidity, density profile and electrical properties. Battery-driven and without solar panels, the lander should last for two or three days.

"Even if it does not work, we will gain a lot of information," said Michel Denis, ExoMars flight director. "If something goes wrong, we will know what it was."

After releasing Schiaparelli, the TGO will change course to avoid crashing into Mars. It will then start a 12-month process of "aerobraking"skimming the Martian atmosphere to bleed off energyto change its eccentric orbit into a circular one.

In early 2018, it will start analysing Mars atmosphere from an altitude of about 400 km.

If Sundays separation fails, mission controllers can try again on Monday.

Europe and Russia will send a test lander Sunday on a one-way trip to the Martian surface, a key step in their joint ExoMars project to search for life on the Red Planet.

Scientists believe Mars once hosted liquid watera key ingredient for life as we know it. While the Martian surface is too dry, cold and radiation-blasted to sustain life today, this may have been a different story 3.5 billion years ago when the Red Planets climate was warmer and wetter.

Science has long abandoned the hunt for little green men, though.
Life, if any exists, is likely undergroundaway from harmful ultraviolet and cosmic raysand in the form of single-celled microbes.

Primitive or not, it would be the first time humans ever oberve life on a planet other than Earth.

The mission will also seek to learn more about geological process on Mars, and about the sand storms that change the face of the planet with their seasonal violence.

TGO will taste Martian gases, looking specifically for methane.
Methane is important because it may be a portender of lifeon Earth it is mostly produced by biological processes.

Previous missions had already picked up traces of methane in Mars atmosphere, but the TGO has much more sophisticated tools which scientists hope to tell whether it is biological or geological in origin.

Methane can, theoretically, also be created by underground volcanoes.
The rover will drill into Mars to look for evidence of buried, extinct life, or even live microbic activity.

While diplomatic ties between Europe and Russia may be under strain, they collaborate closely on ExoMarsa shared project of Roscosmos and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The Daily Galaxy via AFP

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