Space Hubble's Little Sombrero

         European Space Agency Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Galaxies can take many shapes and be oriented any way relative to us in the sky. This can make it hard to figure out their actual morphology, as a galaxy can look very different from different viewpoints. A special case is when we are lucky enough to observe a spiral galaxy directly from its edge, providing us with a spectacular view like the one seen in this picture of the week.

This is NGC 7814, also known as the “Little Sombrero.” Its larger namesake, the Sombrero Galaxy, is another stunning example of an edge-on galaxy — in fact, the “Little Sombrero” is about the same size as its bright namesake at about 60,000 light-years across, but as it lies farther away, and so appears smaller in the sky.

NGC 7814 has a bright central bulge and a bright halo of glowing gas extending outwards into space. The dusty spiral arms appear as dark streaks. They consist of dusty material that absorbs and blocks light from the galactic center behind it. The field of view of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image would be very impressive even without NGC 7814 in front; nearly all the objects seen in this image are galaxies as well. 

Source: Nasa

Green light for European Extremely Large Telescope construction

This artist’s impression shows the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in its enclosure. The E-ELT will be a 39-metre aperture optical and infrared telescope sited on Cerro Armazones in the Chilean Atacama Desert, 20 kilometres from ESO’s Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal. It will be the world’s largest “eye on the sky”. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada

At a recent meeting ESO's main governing body, the Council* gave the green light for the construction of the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) in two phases. Spending of around one billion euros has been authorised for the first phase, which will cover the construction costs of a fully working telescope with a suite of powerful instruments and first light targeted in ten years time. It will enable tremendous scientific discoveries in the fields of exoplanets, the stellar composition of nearby galaxies and the deep Universe. The largest ESO contract ever, for the telescope dome and main structure, will be placed within the next year.

The E-ELT will be a 39-metre aperture optical and infrared telescope sited on Cerro Armazones in the Chilean Atacama Desert, 20 kilometres from ESO's Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal. It will be the world's largest "eye on the sky."

"The decision taken by Council means that the telescope can now be built, and that major industrial construction work for the E-ELT is now funded and can proceed according to plan. There is already a lot of progress in Chile on the summit of Armazones and the next few years will be very exciting," said Tim de Zeeuw, ESO's Director General.

The construction of the E-ELT was approved by ESO's Council in June 2012 under the condition that contracts with a value larger than 2 million euros could only be awarded once the total cost of the telescope (1083 million euros at 2012 prices) was funded to a 90% level. An exception was granted for the civil works at the site, which started with the groundbreaking ceremony in June 2014 and are making good progress.

For the time being, 10% of the overall project costs have been shifted to a second phase. With the accession of Poland to ESO, the current funding commitments to the E-ELT have now reached more than 90% of the total cost of the first phase that will bring a fully working E-ELT. Additional commitments from upcoming Member State Brazil are expected in the coming years.

To prevent the project from slipping, the ESO Council has decided that construction of the first phase of the 39-metre telescope can now proceed. This funded work includes the contract for the telescope's dome and main structure -- the largest in ESO's history -- which will be awarded in late 2015, and leads to the construction of a fully working E-ELT.

Telescope components that are not yet funded include parts of the adaptive optics system, some of the instrument work, the innermost five rings of segments of the telescope's main mirror (210 mirror segments) and a spare set of primary mirror segments needed for more efficient telescope operation in the future. The construction of these components, whose postponement does not reduce the extraordinary scientific achievements the telescope will already be able to accomplish at the end of phase one, will be approved as additional funding becomes available, including that expected from the upcoming Member State Brazil.

"The funds that are now committed will allow the construction of a fully working E-ELT that will be the most powerful of all the extremely large telescope projects currently planned, with superior light collecting area and instrumentation. It will allow the initial characterisation of Earth-mass exoplanets, the study of the resolved stellar populations in nearby galaxies as well as ultra-sensitive observations of the deep Universe," concludes Tim de Zeeuw.

*The decision needed ten positive votes (out of fourteen). Eleven positive votes were obtained. Three out of the fourteen votes are ad referendum votes, which means that they are to be considered as provisionally positive and are subject to confirmation by the authorities in these three Member States, before the next Council meeting.

Source: European Southern Observatory - ESO

U.S. releases enhanced shuttle land elevation data

Shaded relief images of deeply eroded volcanic terrain in northeast Tanzania demonstrate the improved nature of the highest-resolution SRTM data now being released. The image at left has data samples spaced every 90 meters (295 feet); the image at right has samples spaced every 30 meters (98 feet). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

High-resolution topographic data generated from NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000, previously only available for the United States, will be released globally over the next year, the White House announced today. The announcement was made at the United Nations Heads of State Climate Summit in New York.

This initial public release of topographic data for Africa will help empower local authorities to better plan for the impacts of severe environmental changes such as drought, glacial retreat, inland flooding, landslides and coastal storm surges. Datasets covering the remaining continents will be made available within one year, with the next release of data focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Lower-resolution SRTM topographic data having 90-meter (295-foot) pixels were released publicly in 2003 for many parts of the world, providing a global standard for many applications. The new data increase the detail to 30-meter (98-foot) pixel spacing, now revealing the full resolution of the world's landforms as originally measured by SRTM.

"The public availability of enhanced global SRTM topographic data will greatly benefit international efforts to better understand natural processes that shape our planet, prepare for and respond to natural hazards, and anticipate and prepare for the impacts of global change," said NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan. "NASA is proud to have played a critical role in creating these data that will benefit society through open data sharing."

SRTM was a joint project of NASA, the German and Italian space agencies, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. It was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The newly released 30-meter topographic data products will be publicly distributed by the U.S.  

Geological Survey (USGS) along with the 90-meter data. These data are being made available via a user-friendly interface on USGS's Earth Explorer website.
SRTM flew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour in February 2000, mapping Earth's topography between 56 degrees south and 60 degrees north of the equator. During the 11-day mission, SRTM used an imaging radar to map the surface of Earth numerous times from different perspectives. The combination of these radar data were processed at JPL to produce a global topographic map created by bouncing radar signals off Earth's surface and back to the shuttle.

Topographic data benefit a wide variety of activities, from aviation safety to civil engineering projects. Topography also strongly influences many natural processes, such as the distribution of plant communities and the associated animals that depend upon them, weather and rainfall patterns, and the flow and storage of surface water. The data aid in better understanding, predicting and responding to flooding from severe storms and the threats of coastal inundation associated with storm surge, tsunamis and sea-level rise.

Multiple training workshops on SRTM data are planned for users in Africa. The SERVIR program, a joint venture by NASA and the U.S. Agency for International Development, is planning workshops in Eastern and Southern Africa with the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development, and in West Africa with key environmental organizations. 

The Secure World Foundation is partnering with NASA, USGS and other members of the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites to offer online training and regional workshops to further enable users to take advantage of these data resources. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

Source: NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Better regulations needed for deep-sea biology

Deep-sea biology. Credit: Image courtesy of Radboud University Nijmegen

Although we know relatively little about the deep sea, we do extract raw materials for electronics and medicines from it. Biologist Erik Dücker describes the history of deep-sea biology in his thesis. He also gives some pointers on policy and on how to protect this remarkable but rather inaccessible area. He will receive his PhD at Radboud University on 23 September.

Deep-sea biology involves doing research below a depth of one thousand metres. 'The upper thousand metres and the seabed are familiar areas, since they are relatively easy to research', Dücker explains, 'but we are very much in the dark, literally and metaphorically, about the area in between. Deep-sea research is extremely expensive and complicated. Just one expedition day costs $30,000. However, the field biologists that do go down to that depth discover new species on every expedition. So the prospects for new knowledge are good.'

Harvesting manganese nodules from the deep sea
Such prospects make it essential to have a clear policy. Industries like deep-sea mining will do anything to obtain licences to exploit the area, while the consequences of mining remain underexplored. For example, they want to harvest manganese nodules from the seabed. These 'lumps' have taken millions of years to grow and contain traces of the valuable rare-earth metals used to produce electronic appliances like iPhones. Inactive hydrothermal vents -- cracks in the Earth's crust -- contain such metals too.

Policy on rare-earth metals
At present, 95% of rare-earth metals come from China. Buyers (mainly Western countries) are therefore looking for alternative sources. Many have set their sights on the deep sea. However, 'harvesting manganese nodules is anything but sustainable. They are not replaceable because nodule formation is the slowest geological process we know. In addition, harvesting is technically difficult and expensive, so for a long time it was thought to be impossible. Nevertheless, experts expect this harvesting to happen on a larger scale within the next ten years, so we quickly need to agree on ways of doing this properly.'

Double role for deep-sea biologists
Dücker hopes his thesis will make policymakers realise that they not only have to protect the deep sea but also the deep-sea biologists. 'There are few deep-sea biologists, so they often have a double role. Governments as well as companies and environmental protectionists ask them to do research and to gather information. They have a heavy responsibility to deal fairly with conflicting interests and to remain autonomous.'

Source:  Radboud University Nijmegen

Experts call for urgent defense of deep ocean

This is fangtooth, Anoplogaster cornuta, one of numerous deep-sea creatures. Credit: Danté Fenolio, Ph.D. Manager of Conservation and Research San Antonio Zoo

A university of Southampton oceanographer is working with experts from around the globe to warn against lasting damage to the deep-ocean, caused by fishing, oil and gas development, industrial-scale mining, waste disposal and land-based pollution.

The world's deep-ocean spans more than half the planet and holds vast quantities of untapped energy resources, precious metals and minerals. But as advancements in technology enable greater access to these treasures of the deep, experts are urging caution, highlighting the potentially irreversible damage that extracting such materials can cause.

Writing in the research journal Science, the University of Southampton's Dr Maria Baker and co-authors call for a balance to be struck between the wise use of resources and maintenance of the deep ocean's delicate ecological balance.

The deep-ocean, below 200 meters, extends across national and international authorities and is managed separately by individual sectors. This means an area protected against trawler fishing, for example, could still be considered for mining operations and vice versa. The paper suggests this approach is not sufficient to ensure a balanced, sustainable use of resources and calls for further collaboration to manage to the cumulative effects of these activities.

"Currently, governance of our deep-ocean is fragmented," Dr Baker says, "We need to achieve integrated thinking and communication across all deep-sea stakeholders and across all jurisdictions -- this is key to delivering the best possible solutions for future deep-ocean resource use and long-term environmental protection."

Long term and possibly irreversible damage has already been caused to the deep-ocean by human actions. One fifth of the continental slope (an area of 4.4 million km2) has been trawled at least once and often multiple times by the fishing industry, leading to habitat loss and removal of slow to reproduce species. According to the paper, the underwater environment has also served as an international dumping ground for radioactive waste, sewage and toxic chemicals.

Deep-ocean mining is an emerging industry and the International Seabed Authority has already developed regulations for mining exploration of the international seabed. In addition, many nations are in the process of leasing offshore mining.

Dr Baker said: "We require transparency and flexibility within all areas of governance to make this work. Management should be a dynamic process whereby strategies will evolve as we learn more about our deep-ocean ecosystems and their response and resilience to exploitation. We should not hesitate -- we need to move forward at once. Future generations depend upon our actions."

The recommendations in this paper arose during an inaugural meeting of the Deep-ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI). According to Dr Lisa Levin, one of DOSI's founders, "The Initiative is designed to bring natural and social scientists, regulators, the private sector and civil society together to provide guidance on environmental management of the deep-ocean. We humans don't have a great track record with stewardship of land and our coastal ocean. Hopefully, we can do a better job with the deep half of the planet."

The paper is part of ELI's broader efforts to support sustainable management of the deep-ocean, including its Gulf of Mexico Program to support the public's role in restoration in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster of 2010.

The J.M. Kaplan Fund and the International Network for Scientific Investigation of deep-sea ecosystems (INDEEP) through a grant from Foundation Total have supported development of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative.

Source:  University of Southampton