A DYING STAR

FROM:  NASA
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been on the forefront of research into the lives of stars like our sun. At the ends of their lives, these stars run out of nuclear fuel in a phase that is called the preplanetary or protoplanetary nebula stage. This Hubble image of the Egg Nebula shows one of the best views to date of this brief, but dramatic, phase in a star’s life. During the preplanetary nebula phase, the hot remains of an aging star in the center of the nebula heat it up, excite the gas and make it glow over several thousand years. The short lifespan of preplanetary nebulae means there are relatively few of them in existence at any one time. Moreover, they are very dim, requiring powerful telescopes to be seen. This combination of rarity and faintness means they were only discovered comparatively recently. The Egg Nebula, the first to be discovered, was first spotted less than 40 years ago, and many aspects of this class of object remain shrouded in mystery. At the center of this image, and hidden in a thick cloud of dust, is the nebula’s central star. While scientists can’t see the star directly, four searchlight beams of light coming from it shine out through the nebula. Researchers hypothesize that ring-shaped holes in the thick cocoon of dust, carved by jets coming from the star, let the beams of light emerge through the otherwise opaque cloud. The precise mechanism by which stellar jets produce these holes is not known, but one explanation is that a binary star system, rather than a single star, exists at the center of the nebula. The onion-like layered structure of the more diffuse cloud surrounding the central cocoon is caused by periodic bursts of material being ejected from the dying star. The bursts typically occur every few hundred years. This image is produced from exposures in visible and infrared light from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA

PENNSYLVANIA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS HELP AT SPECIAL OLYMPICS EVENT

FROM:  AMERICAN FORCES PRESS SERVICE

Pennsylvania Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Shawn Rouvre, a human resources sergeant from New Cumberland, Pa., congratulates 15-year-old Jocelyn Nava from Steelton, Pa., as she finishes first in a 400-meter run during the Special Olympics Area M Games at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., April 19, 2012. Army photo by Sgt. Amber Fluck  


Face of Defense: Guard Members Aid Special Olympics Event
109th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment Courtesy Article
GRANTHAM, Pa., April 27, 2012 - More than a dozen Pennsylvania Army National Guard members from 1st Battalion, 108th Field Artillery, based in Carlisle, Pa., volunteered to help athletes at the 2012 Special Olympics Area M Games at Messiah College here.


The April 19th event saw record-breaking attendance with more than 1,100 athletes, onlookers and volunteers for a day of fun and friendly competition. Soldiers came from as far away as Philadelphia to serve as line judges, time recorders, track security and presenters.


"To be given a ribbon or cheered on by their military heroes, it can't get any better than that," said Kay Straw, director of the Special Olympics Area M.
This year's presenters were Army Sgt. 1st Class Francis Manley and Army Staff Sgt. Timothy Corcoran, both from Philadelphia, and members of Battery C, 1st Battalion, 108th Field Artillery.


Manley estimates he and Corcoran awarded ribbons to nearly 100 athletes who competed in events such as the 50, 100 and 200-meter dashes, as well as the 100-meter walk and the 400-meter run. Other presenters awarded ribbons for the softball throw, wheelchair races and the standing and running long jumps.
For Manley, talking with the athletes while awarding their ribbons made the biggest impact.


"When that soldier pins that ribbon on the chest of our athlete, you can see their chest go out; when he shakes their hands or gives them a pat on the back and says, 'good job,' you can see the pride come across the face of that athlete," Straw of the Special Olympics said.
Army Staff Sgt. James Shirley, with 1st Battalion, 108th Field Artillery, knows that feeling of admiration well. Shirley, a native of Carlisle, Pa., has volunteered with the Special Olympics for three years, including serving as a buddy to a fellow soldier's autistic son.
Seeing the joy on the athletes' faces -- no matter how well they did – is what brings him back year-after-year.


Other soldiers echoed those sentiments. Despite a world full of competition, Special Olympics athletes seem genuinely happy to be competing with very little interest in whether they win awards, ribbons or trophies. One soldier said the athlete coming in last often receives the biggest applause.


It was Army Staff Sgt. Shawn Rouvre and Army Sgt. Andrew Bankert who greeted athletes crossing the finish line.


"I was a motivator," said Rouvre, a human resources noncommissioned officer who gave high-fives to the athletes. "When you see how excited they are [after finishing the race], it is an amazing experience."


Rouvre, from New Cumberland, Pa., is a third year volunteer who especially likes seeing the same athletes each year.


"I like seeing the kids growing up," he said. "They often remember us from prior years."

NASA'S WISE CATCHES AGING STAR ERUPTING WITH DUST

FROM:  NASA
A United Launch Alliance Delta II (Delta 347) rocket with NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, satellite  poised for launch at Space Launch Complex-2 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.  WISE  scans the entire sky in infrared light, picking up the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images. Credit:  NASA.


WASHINGTON -- Images from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) reveal an old star in the throes of a fiery outburst and praying the cosmos with dust. The findings offer a rare, real-time look at the process by which stars like our sun seed the universe with building blocks for other stars, planets and even life.

The star, catalogued as WISE J180956.27–330500.2, was discovered in images taken during the WISE survey in 2010, the most detailed infrared survey to date of the entire celestial sky. It stood out from other objects because it glowed rightly with infrared light.

 When compared to images taken more than 20 years ago, astronomers found the star was 100 times brighter. "We were not searching specifically for this phenomenon, but because  WISE scanned the whole sky, we can find such unique objects," said

Poshak Gandhi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), lead author of a new paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Results indicate the star recently exploded with copious amounts of fresh dust, equivalent in mass to our planet Earth. The star is heating the dust and causing it to glow with infrared light. "Observing this period of explosive change while it is actually ongoing is very rare," said co-author Issei Yamamura of JAXA. "These  just eruptions probably occur only once every 10,000 years in the lives of old stars, and they are thought to last less than a few hundred years each time. It's the blink of an eye in cosmological terms."

The aging star is in the "red giant" phase of its life. Our own sun will expand into a red giant in about 5 billion years. When a star begins to run out of fuel, it cools and expands. As the star puffs up, it sheds layers of gas that cool and congeal into tiny dust particles. This is one of the main ways dust is recycled in our universe, making its way from older stars to newborn solar systems. The other way, in which the heaviest of elements are made, is through the deathly explosions, or supernovae, of the most massive stars. "It's an intriguing glimpse into the cosmic recycling program," said Bill Danchi, WISE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Evolved stars, which this one appears to be, contribute about 50 percent of the particles that make up humans."

Astronomers know of one other star currently pumping out massive amounts of dust. Called Sakurai's Object, this star is farther along in the aging process than the one discovered recently by WISE. After Poshak and his team discovered the unusual, dusty star with WISE, they went back to look for it in previous infrared all-sky surveys. The object was not seen at all by the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), which flew in 1983, but shows up brightly in images taken as part of the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) in 1998.

Poshak and his colleagues calculated the star appears to have brightened dramatically since 1983. The WISE data show the dust has continued to evolve over time, with the star now hidden behind a very thick veil. The team plans to follow up with space and ground-based telescopes to confirm its nature and to better understand how older stars recycle dust back into the cosmos.  

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., manages and operates WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The spacecraft was put into hibernation mode after it scanned the entire sky twice, completing its main objectives. The principal investigator for WISE, Edward Wright, is at the University of California, Los Angeles. The mission was selected competitively under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the agency's Goddard Space Flight

Center in Greenbelt, Md . The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah. The spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

The IRAS mission was a collaborative effort between NASA (JPL), the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The MASS mission was a joint effort between Caltech, the University of Massachusetts and NASA (JPL). Data are archived at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. 

NATIONAL EXPRESS AND PETERMANN TO SELL OFF SCHOOL BUS CONTRACTS TO RESOLVE ANTITRUST CONCERNS

FROM:  U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE ANTITRUST
Divestitures Will Ensure Continued Competition for School Bus Contracts
WASHINGTON — In order to resolve antitrust concerns, National Express Corporation and Petermann Partners Inc. will divest several school bus contracts and associated assets in the states of Washington and Texas in order to proceed with their proposed merger, the Department of Justice announced today. National Express and Petermann contract with school districts throughout the United States to provide school bus services.

The parties have agreed to sell eight school bus transportation contracts in the states of Texas and Washington to Student Transportation of America Inc. (STA). The divested assets include transportation contracts in the school districts of Battle Ground and Hockinson in Washington and the school districts of Bastrop, Boyd, Eagle Mountain-Saginaw, Leander, Manor and Terrell, as well as Dallas-based KIPP Truth Academy, in Texas.

“The sale of the assets will help ensure continued competition for school bus contracts, which will benefit taxpayers in Texas and Washington,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Joseph Wayland in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

The parties have committed to completing the divestitures within 30 days, or to have a court monitor the divestitures at that time. The school boards and entities whose contracts are being divested are in the process of approving the transfer of the contracts.

The Antitrust Division conducted its investigation working closely with the Washington and Texas State Attorney Generals’ offices, which simultaneously conducted their own investigations.

National Express Corporation, a subsidiary of National Express Group PLC of the United Kingdom, is based in Warrenville, Ill. It has revenues of more than $700 million. Petermann Partners, headquartered in Cincinnati, has revenues of approximately $150 million.

THE" BORN FREE" SEA LION

FROM:  U.S. AIR FORCE
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- An adult California Sea Lion is ready to be released into the wild by members of the Santa Barbara Marine Mammal Center at a remote beach here, Tuesday, April 24, 2012. The Santa Barbara Marine Mammal Center rescues, rehabilitates and releases trapped and endangered marine mammals along California’s Central Coast. (U.S. Air Force photo/Jerry E. Clemens Jr.)

Rescued marine mammals released on Vandenberg beaches
by Staff Sgt. Erica Picariello
30th Space Wing Public Affairs

4/26/2012 - VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Two rescued and rehabilitated marine mammals were released on one of Vandenberg's remote beaches April 24.

A California Sea lion and a weaned Northern California Elephant Seal, referred to as a "weaner," were rescued in different locations off of California's central coast by members of the Santa Barbara Marine Mammal Center, but released near Vandenberg's Delta Mariner Dock.

"These mammals are found along California's Central Coast by beachgoers who assume they're in distress or dying and try to help them but end up doing more bad than good," said Peter Howorth, Santa Barbara Maine Mammal Center director. "The problem in public areas is that people won't leave [marine mammals] alone. Much of the time it's not that they need help it's that they just need to be kept away from people and dogs."

The female sea lion was found on El Capitan State Beach state park and had an injured flipper and the male "weaner" elephant seal was found in Santa Barbara. The sea lion was a resident of SBMMC for nearly a month while the uninjured elephant seal just needed a check-up and safe place to shed its baby skin.
"The elephant seals are born in the winter and they're weaned within three to four weeks of birth at which time they weigh 240 to 450 pounds," Howorth said. "As soon as they're weaned, the mom leaves them on the beach and the baby elephant seal doesn't eat and goes through a catastrophic molt. They lose the fur with the skin attached. It demands a lot of energy and they lose a lot of weight as a consequence. If you see them at the beginning of the molt it looks like they've got leprosy because there are bits of skin falling off with the skin attached. It's all perfectly normal and there is a new coat underneath that old one."

Some people see patches of the weaner's skin falling-off and take action to rescue the molting seals, but the best thing for these weaners is to provide them with privacy.

"People think, 'oh gosh, it's a marine mammal so it must stay wet!' But it's just trying to stay dry and shed its skin," Howorth said. "They don't want to be doused in water. They basically get constantly harassed so our policy is to pick them up as quickly as possible, check them out and then release them onto remote areas on the central coast where they can finish their molt in peace."

According to Howorth, one of the best places is on Vandenberg.

"Vandenberg provides one of the last unoccupied and pristine beaches for these mammals to finish molting or to find their way back to the beach that they were born," Howorth said.

SBMMC, a non-profit organization, not only rehabilitates and releases marine life on Vandenberg property, but also rescues mammals in need from Vandy's 42-miles of coastline.
"We're required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act to monitor our sensitive wildlife populations, and specifically to determine if Vandenberg space and missile launches as well as aircraft activity causes any negative impacts to the some marine life, seal and sea lion population," said Rhys Evans, 30th Civil Engineer Squadron natural resources lead. "Occasionally there are seals or sea lions in need of medical attention on Vandenberg shores and we call SBMMC for assistance. There has been at least once case this year."

This partnership with SBMMC also helps Vandenberg remain mission ready.

"We count seals before and after space launches, we use computers to determine if launches cause sonic booms either on the mainland or on the Northern Channel Islands which is subject to more significant regulation because much of the NCI are a national park and some portions are designated wilderness areas," Evans said. "We have both legal requirements and cooperative agreements on several levels with state and federal regulatory agencies, and they require us to monitor effects, potential effects and perceived effects of military operations. The SBMMC is not a regulator, but a cooperating non-profit organization, and their willingness to help us achieve some of our mandated goals is both voluntary and very much appreciated."

Allowing marine mammals to be released at Vandenberg may not be mandated, but is Non-Negotiable for some.

"We allow the marine mammals to be released here because it's the right thing to do and it doesn't expend significant government resources," Evans said. "The mammals will quite often leave the area within minutes, but it's nice to release them away from a lot of people, noise, pets... where they can have their best chance at recovery."

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER CHARGED IN ALLEGED DEBT CONVERSION WRAP AROUND SCHEME

FROM:  U.S. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION 
The SEC alleges that Christel S. Scucci and her mother Karen S. Beach, who live in Florida, used alter ego companies (Protégé Enterprises LLC and Capital Edge Enterprises LLC) to make more than $1.5 million from selling approximately 3.3 billion shares of purportedly unrestricted stock that they acquired in so-called debt conversion “wrap around” transactions. They were able to sell most of this stock only because Florida-based attorney Cameron H. Linton issued baseless legal opinions for them stating that the stock could be issued without restrictive legends and that their re-sales were exempt from the registration requirements of the federal securities laws.

“This case shines a spotlight on unlawful profiting from transactions designed to circumvent the registration requirements of the federal securities laws,” said Stephen L. Cohen, an Associate Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. “This should alert transfer agents, securities attorneys and other industry gatekeepers to closely scrutinize efforts to lift restrictive legends by ‘tacking’ onto delinquent debt through wrap around agreements.”

According to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Orlando, Fla., this scheme involving the illegal use of wrap around agreements lasted from January 2010 to October 2011. Under the wrap around agreements, affiliates or others purportedly owed money by certain microcap issuers for more than one year assigned from the issuers to Protégé or Capital Edge the right to collect the debts. The wrap around agreements also purported to amend the initial debt agreements thereby allowing Protégé and Capital Edge to convert the money owed to them by the issuers into shares of the issuers’ common stock at a deep discount (usually 50 percent) to the prevailing market price. Protégé and Capital Edge almost always elected to receive stock from the issuers shortly after execution of the wrap around agreements. None of the transactions were registered with the SEC.

The SEC alleges that Protégé and Capital Edge paid Linton to write attorney opinion letters for them stating that their sales of the stock acquired under these wrap around agreements lawfully could be issued to them without a restrictive legend and immediately sold to the public. Protégé and Capital Edge regularly sold the stock into the public market, often for large profits, merely days or weeks after they acquired the shares through the wrap around conversions.

According to the SEC’s complaint, Linton’s legal opinion letters lacked any basis. The premise of Linton’s opinion letters was that – through the wrap around agreements and debt conversion – Protégé and Capital Edge were able to “tack” the period that had elapsed from the initiation of the original debt at least one year earlier to claim a registration exemption relying on Securities Act Rule 144(d)(3)(ii). When Linton wrote the opinion letters, he lacked an understanding of the applicable legal principles and failed to substantiate the factual predicate for his opinions. Furthermore, in mid-2010, Linton became aware of an injunction issued in a separate SEC enforcement action (SEC v. K&L International Enterprises) in which two of his letters were used in a similar scheme. Without Linton’s opinion letters, Protégé and Capital Edge couldn’t have acquired most of the stock without a restrictive legend and quickly turn around and sell it publicly.

The SEC’s complaint alleges that Protégé, Capital Edge, Scucci and Beach violated Section 5 of the Securities Act. The complaint further alleges that Linton violated, or aided and abetted the violation of, Section 5 of the Securities Act. The SEC seeks disgorgement, penalties, injunctions, and penny stock bars against the defendants.

The SEC’s case was investigated by Daniel Rubenstein and Adam Eisner under the supervision of C. Joshua Felker, an Assistant Director in the Division of Enforcement. Kenneth Guido will lead the SEC’s litigation.

SECRETARY OF STATE CLINTON EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER UKRAINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS

FROM:  U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Treatment of Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
Press Statement Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State Washington, DC
May 1, 2012
The United States is deeply concerned by the treatment of former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other imprisoned members of her former government. The photographs of Mrs. Tymoshenko released by the Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman further call into question the conditions of her confinement. We urge the Ukrainian authorities to ensure that Mrs. Tymoshenko receives immediate medical assistance in an appropriate facility and request that the U.S. Ambassador be given access to her. We continue to call for her release, the release of other members of her former government and the restoration of their full civil and political rights

Panetta, Clinton joint press briefing

Panetta, Clinton joint press briefing

J-2X ENGINE READY FOR SECOND TEST SERIES

FROM:  NASA

WASHINGTON -- The next-generation engine that will help carry humans 
deeper into space than ever is back, bigger and better. The J-2X 
engine is currently on the A-2 Test Stand at NASA's Stennis Space 
Center in Mississippi for an extensive round of tests to build on 
last year's successful test firings. The engine will provide 
upper-stage power for NASA's evolved Space Launch System (SLS), a new 
heavy-lift rocket capable of missions to deep space. 

"We're making steady and tangible progress on our new heavy-lift 
rocket that will launch astronauts on journeys to destinations 
farther in our solar system," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, 
who recently visited Stennis and saw the J-2X in its test stand. "As 
we continue test firings of the J-2X engine and a myriad of other 
work to open the next great chapter of exploration, we're 
demonstrating our commitment right now to America's continued 
leadership in space." 

The space agency conducted an initial round of sea-level tests on the 
first developmental engine last year. This second test series will 
simulate high-altitude conditions where the atmospheric pressure is 
low. The SLS will use J-2X engines on the second stage of flight 
after the first stage is jettisoned. 

"The first round of testing helped us get to know the engine, how it 
operates and its basic performance characteristics," said Tom Byrd, 
J-2X engine lead in the SLS Liquid Engines Office at NASA's Marshall 
Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "Now, we're looking forward 
to testing J-2X in the SLS flight configuration, collecting nozzle 
data and continuing to learn about the performance of the engine 
itself." 

NASA has worked closely with the J-2X prime contractor, Pratt and 
Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., to prepare the J-2X 
engine, dubbed E10001for its second round of tests. 

The J-2X engine nozzle is different from the nozzle used on the space 
shuttle main engine for the last 30 years of space missions. While 
the space shuttle main engine nozzle was hydrogen cooled to save 
weight, the J-2X hydrogen-cooled nozzle is shorter and attached to a 
lightweight, passively cooled nozzle extension. 

A total of 16 tests are scheduled, tentatively beginning this 
Wednesday. They are expected to conclude by the end of this year. 

In its first round of testing, the J-2X engine reached 100 percent 
power in just four tests and achieved a full flight-duration firing 
of 500 seconds in its eighth test, faster than any other U.S. engine. 
The engine was fired a total of 10 times for a cumulative 1,040 
seconds of testing various aspects of performance. 

The J-2X is a redesign of the heritage J-2 engine that helped send 
astronauts to the moon during the Apollo Program in the 1960s and 
1970s. In addition to testing the engine, NASA is conducting tests on 
the J-2X powerpack, which includes the gas generator, oxygen and fuel 
turbopumps, and related ducts and valves. Tests of the powerpack 
components are being conducted on the A-1 Test Stand at Stennis. 

The J-2X is being developed for NASA by Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne. 
It is the first new liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen rocket engine 
developed in 40 years that will be rated to carry humans into space. 

ALABAMA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO RIGGING BIDS AT REAL ESTATE FORECLOSURE AUCTIONS

FROM:  DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Friday, April 27, 2012
Alabama Real Estate Investor Agrees to Plead Guilty to Conspiracies to Rig Bids and Commit Mail Fraud for the Purchase of Real Estate at Public Foreclosure Auctions Agrees to Serve One Year in Prison

WASHINGTON – An Alabama real estate investor has agreed to plead guilty and to serve one year in prison for his role in conspiracies to rig bids and commit mail fraud at public real estate foreclosure auctions in southern Alabama, the Department of Justice announced today.  To date, as a result of the ongoing investigation, four individuals and one company have pleaded guilty.

Charges were filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile, Ala., against Steven J. Cox of Mobile.  Cox was charged with one count of bid rigging and one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud.  According to the plea agreement, which is subject to court approval, Cox has agreed to serve one year in prison, to pay a $10,000 criminal fine and to cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation.

According to court documents, Cox conspired with others not to bid against one another at public real estate foreclosure auctions in southern Alabama.  After a designated bidder bought a property at the public auctions, which typically take place at the county courthouse, the conspirators would generally hold a secret, second auction, at which each participant would bid the amount above the public auction price he or she was willing to pay.  The highest bidder at the secret, second auction won the property.

Cox was also charged with conspiring to use the U.S. mail to carry out a scheme to acquire title to rigged foreclosure properties sold at public auctions at artificially suppressed prices, to make and receive payoffs to co-conspirators and to cause financial institutions, homeowners and others with a legal interest in rigged foreclosure properties to receive less than the competitive price for the properties.  Cox participated in the bid-rigging and mail fraud conspiracies from as early as January 2004 until at least May 2010.
           
“The Antitrust Division continues to work with its law enforcement partners to ensure that real estate foreclosure auctions are fair and competitive,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division Sharis A. Pozen.  “The division will vigorously pursue those who engage in collusive schemes to eliminate competition in the marketplace.”

FBI Special Agent in Charge of the Mobile FBI Office Lewis M. Chapman recognized the perseverance of agents and prosecutors in this complex investigation.  Chapman stated, “This investigation sends the message that real estate fraud including antitrust violations will continue to be pursued in these tough economic times, no matter how intricate the scheme.”

Each violation of the Sherman Act carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine for individuals.  The maximum fine for a Sherman Act charge may be increased to twice the gain derived from the crime or twice the loss suffered by the victim if either amount is greater than the statutory maximum fine.  Each count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine in an amount equal to the greatest of $250,000, twice the gross gain the conspirators derived from the crime or twice the gross loss caused to the victims of the crime by the conspirators.

NASA'S CASSINI FINDS SATURN'S MOON PHOEBE HAS PLANET-LIKE QUALITIES

FROM:  NASA
WASHINGTON -- Data from NASA's Cassini mission reveal Saturn's moon
Phoebe has more planet-like qualities than previously thought.

Scientists had their first close-up look at Phoebe when Cassini began
exploring the Saturn system in 2004. Using data from multiple
spacecraft instruments and a computer model of the moon's chemistry,
geophysics and geology, scientists found Phoebe was a so-called
planetesimal, or remnant planetary building block. The findings
appear in the April issue of the Journal Icarus.

"Unlike primitive bodies such as comets, Phoebe appears to have
actively evolved for a time before it stalled out," said Julie
Castillo-Rogez, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "Objects like Phoebe are thought
to have condensed very quickly. Hence, they represent building blocks
of planets. They give scientists clues about what conditions were
like around the time of the birth of giant planets and their moons"

Cassini images suggest Phoebe originated in the far-off Kuiper Belt,
the region of ancient, icy, rocky bodies beyond Neptune's orbit. Data
show Phoebe was spherical and hot early in its history, and has
denser rock-rich material concentrated near its center. Its average
density is about the same as Pluto, another object in the Kuiper
Belt. Phoebe likely was captured by Saturn's gravity when it somehow
got close to the giant planet.

Saturn is surrounded by a cloud of irregular moons that circle the
planet in orbits tilted from Saturn's orbit around the sun, the
so-called equatorial plane. Phoebe is the largest of these irregular
moons and also has the distinction of orbiting backward in relation
to the other moons. By comparison, Saturn's large moons appear to
have formed from gas and dust around the planet's equatorial plane
and orbit in that same plane.

"By combining Cassini data with modeling techniques previously applied
to other solar system bodies, we've been able to go back in time and
clarify why Phoebe is so different from the rest of the Saturn
system," said Jonathan Lunine, a co-author on the study and a Cassini
team member at Cornell University.

Analyses suggest that Phoebe was born within the first 3 million years
of the birth of the solar system, which occurred 4.5 billion years
ago. The moon originally may have been porous but appears to have
collapsed in on itself as it warmed up. Phoebe developed a density 40
percent higher than the average inner Saturnian moon.

Objects of Phoebe's size have long been thought to form as
potato-shaped bodies and remain that way over their lifetimes. If
such an object formed early enough in the solar system's history, it
could have harbored the kinds of radioactive material that would
produce substantial heat over a short timescale. This would warm the
interior and reshape the moon.

"From Cassini images and models, we were able to see that Phoebe
started with a nearly spherical shape, rather than an irregular shape
later smoothed into a sphere by impacts," said co-author Peter
Thomas, a Cassini team member at Cornell.

Phoebe likely stayed warm for tens of millions of years before
freezing up. The study suggests the heat also would have enabled the
moon to host liquid water at one time. This could explain the
signature of water-rich material on Phoebe's surface previously
detected by Cassini.

The new study also is consistent with the idea that several hundred
million years after Phoebe cooled, the moon drifted toward the inner
solar system in a solar-system-wide rearrangement. Phoebe was large
enough to survive this turbulence.

More than 60 moons are known to orbit Saturn, varying drastically in
shape, size, surface age and origin. Scientists using both
ground-based observatories and Cassini's cameras continue to search
for others.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the
mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

WHAT IS AN ASTEROID REALLY LIKE ONCE YOU GET TO KNOW THEM

FROM: NASA

WASHINGTON -- Findings from NASA's Dawn spacecraft reveal new details 
about the giant asteroid Vesta, including its varied surface 
composition, sharp temperature changes and clues to its internal 
structure. The findings were presented today at the European 
Geosciences Union meeting in Vienna, Austria and will help scientists 
better understand the early solar system and processes that dominated 
its formation. 

Spacecraft images, taken 420 miles (680 kilometers) and 130 miles (210 
kilometers) above the surface of the asteroid, show a variety of 
surface mineral and rock patterns. Coded false-color images help 
scientists better understand Vesta's composition and enable them to 
identify material that was once molten below the asteroid's surface. 

Researchers also see breccias, which are rocks fused during impacts 
from space debris. Many of the materials seen by Dawn are composed of 
iron- and magnesium-rich minerals, which often are found in Earth's 
volcanic rocks. Images also reveal smooth pond-like deposits, which 
might have formed as fine dust created during impacts settled into 
low regions. 

"Dawn now enables us to study the variety of rock mixtures making up 
Vesta's surface in great detail," said Harald Hiesinger, a Dawn 
participating scientist at Münster University in Germany. "The images 
suggest an amazing variety of processes that paint Vesta's surface." 

At the Tarpeia crater near the south pole of the asteroid, Dawn 
revealed bands of minerals that appear as brilliant layers on the 
crater's steep slopes. The exposed layering allows scientists to see 
farther back into the geological history of the giant asteroid. 

The layers closer to the surface bear evidence of contamination from 
space rocks bombarding Vesta's surface. Layers below preserve more of 
their original characteristics. Frequent landslides on the slopes of 
the craters also have revealed other hidden mineral patterns. 

"These results from Dawn suggest Vesta's 'skin' is constantly 
renewing," said Maria Cristina De Sanctis, lead of the visible and 
infrared mapping spectrometer team based at Italy's National 
Institute for Astrophysics in Rome. 

Dawn has given scientists a near 3-D view into Vesta's internal 
structure. By making ultrasensitive measurements of the asteroid's 
gravitational tug on the spacecraft, Dawn can detect unusual 
densities within its outer layers. Data now show an anomalous area 
near Vesta's south pole, suggesting denser material from a lower 
layer of Vesta has been exposed by the impact that created a feature 
called the Rheasilvia basin. The lighter, younger layers coating 
other parts of Vesta's surface have been blasted away in the basin. 

Dawn obtained the highest-resolution surface temperature maps of any 
asteroid visited by a spacecraft. Data reveal temperatures can vary 
from as warm as -10 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 degrees Celsius) in the 
sunniest spots to as cold as -150 degrees Fahrenheit (-100 degrees 
Celsius) in the shadows. This is the lowest temperature measurable by 
Dawn. These findings show the surface responds quickly to 
illumination with no mitigating effect of an atmosphere. 

"After more than nine months at Vesta, Dawn's suite of instruments has 
enabled us to peel back the layers of mystery that have surrounded 
this giant asteroid since humankind first saw it as just a bright 
spot in the night sky," said Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal 
investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, 
Calif. "We are closing in on the giant asteroid's secrets." 

Launched in 2007, Dawn began its exploration of the approximately 
330-mile- (530-kilometer-) wide asteroid in mid-2011. The 
spacecraft's next assignment will be to study the dwarf planet Ceres 
in 2015. These two icons of the asteroid belt have been witness to 
much of our solar system's history. 

Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission 
Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's 
Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in 
Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission 
science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built 
the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute 
for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian 
National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the 
mission team.