MIT Conference Explores Interstellar Observations with TESS Exoplanet Telescope and Future Mission Prospects

The 1st TESS Science Conference being held the last week of SpaceMonth July 29 – August 2 at MIT in Cambridge MA. It will focus on data dedicated to exoplanets, stellar binaries, variable stars, Solar System asteroids and comets, extragalactic astronomy, and astroseismology (study of star interiors). The Scientific Organizing Committee includes (T-B) Jessie Christiansen from NExScI, Sara Seager from MIT, Suzanne Aigrain from University of Oxford, and Andrew Howard from Caltech. The MIT-led, NASA Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) in highly elliptical HEO is beginning its 2nd year in space and transitioning from surveying southern ecliptic hemisphere to northern ecliptic hemisphere. It searches for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400x larger than that covered by Kepler, and is expected to find more than 20,000 exoplanets. So far it has found nearly 900 potential exoplanets. While 200-400B are estimated to exist in Milky Way Galaxy, 4,016 exoplanets total have been confirmed from various missions to date. Some potentially habitable exoplanets have been found around stars Teegarden (12 LY away in Aries), K2-72 (227 LY in Aquarius) and Trappist-1 (39.6 LY in Aquarius). Trappist-1 is an ultra-cool red dwarf star, slightly larger and much more massive than Jupiter, and has a 7-planet system which is the most detected in any system. (Image Credits: NASA, JPL, Caltech, IPAC, MIT, Univ. of Oxford, Planetary Habitability Laboratory at UPR Arecibo)

MONDAY

 Jul 29 — Cornell University, Ithaca NY: Planetary Lunch Talk: Titan; by Paul Corlies, Graduate Researcher at Cornell University, 12:20.

Hayabusa2 Retrieves 2nd Sample from Interior of Ryugu, Advances Asteroid Science

Hayabusa2 successfully retrieves second sample from asteroid 162173 Ryugu, the first from the 900-meter asteroid interior. Previous Hayabusa mission from 2010 returned a tiny sample of less than 1 milligram. Hayabusa-2 could return at least 100 mg of fine-grained material, and several millimeter-sized chunks. The spacecraft has mass of 610 kg, four solar-electric ion thrusters which convert xenon propellant into plasma, and solar arrays which generate ~1.4 kilowatts. The newest sample is from a crater Hayabusa2 made using Small Carry-On Impactor (SCI), a 2-kg copper round launched at 2,000 meters per second. Operations are monitored by Deployable Camera DCAM3. Hayabusa2 has also deployed two hopping rovers MINERVA-II 1A and MINERVA-II 1B along with 10-kg MASCOT lander, which has operated for 17 hours on the surface. MINERVA-II 2, another hopping rover, is scheduled for launch later in Summer. Until the start of November, Hayabusa2 is planned to stay at Ryugu making further observations of its properties and changes. The Hayabusa2 samples are scheduled for Earth return in a special capsule by December 2020. 162173 Ryugu is a potentially hazardous Apollo-type asteroid, meaning an orbit that crosses Earth orbit. Study of a carbonaceous asteroid like Ryugu gives clues to the formation of planets, and can also help international efforts to protect Earth from future impacts. (Image Credits: JAXA)

 Jul 29 – Aug 2 — MIT, NASA, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge MA: TESS Science Conference I.

Continued from…

Jan 2019 – Sep 2020 — New Horizons, Kuiper Belt: Full data from spacecraft 7 instruments during KBO Ultima Thule flyby to be transmitted to Earth over this time period.

Apr 13 – Sep 2 — Smithsonian Institution, Museum of Flight, Multiple Locations: Destination Moon, traveling exhibition of historic Apollo 11 artifacts.

Jun 24 – Aug 23 — International Space University, ESA, Strasbourg, France: ISU 32nd Space Studies Program (SSP 2019).

 Jul 28-30 — Space Science Centre (ANGKASA), Institute of Climate Change of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Johor, Malaysia: IconSpace 2019: The 6th International Conference on Space Science and Communication: Advancing Space Science for Societal Sustainability.

Jul 28 – Aug 2 — Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS), Singapore: 16th Annual Meeting of AOGS.

TUESDAY

 Jul 30 — swissnex Network, San Francisco CA: Event: Swiss Touch – To the Moon and Beyond — 50th Anniversary of Humankind on the Moon; with Astronaut Claude Nicollier, Kimberly Ennico Smith, Jill Tarter, Eugene Tu, others.

 Jul 30 – Aug 1 — IEEE Computer Society and the Technical Committee on Software Engineering, Caltech, Pasadena CA: 7th International Conference on Space Mission Challenges for Informational Technology (SMC-IT).

Jul 30 — Moon: 4.5° N of Mercury, 18:00.