Guest Observer Facilities & Science Centers Select One AGILE ASCA BeppoSAX COBE CGRO Chandra EUVE Fermi (formerly GLAST) GALEX HETE-2 INTEGRAL ROSAT RXTE Suzaku Swift WMAP XMM-Newton NASA Archives Select One ADS AstroGravS EOSDIS HORIZONS IRSA LAMBDA MAST Michelson NED NSSDC NStED PDS SDAC SPDF Spitzer Science Center HEASARC Tip: View all tips High Energy Astrophysics Upcoming Dates & Deadlines Other Significant High-Energy Astrophysics Events in the Future Significant High-Energy Astrophysics Events in the Recent Past (Last 5 Years) Chronology of High-Energy Astrophysics and General Astronomy Upcoming High Energy Astrophysics Proposal Deadlines The following list gives important upcoming deadlines for the submission of proposals to high-energy astrophysics and other astrophysics programs and/or missions which may be of interest to users of the HEASARC. Wherever possible links are included to the appropriate web sites giving further details. Please send information concerning any dates/deadlines that are not currently included and/or corrections to drake @ milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov. 2008 September 26 - 2009 March 27: Upcoming ROSES-2008 Deadlines Remaining deadlines of Particular Relevance to the High-Energy Astronomy Community include Appendix Program Element NOI/Step 1 Proposal Due Date Due Date E.7 Concept Studies for Human Tended 08/06/2008 10/08/2008 Suborbital Science D.6 Swift Guest Investigator - Cycle 5 08/20/2008** 10/15/2008** D.7 Suzaku Guest Observer - Cycle 4 10/10/2008 12/05/2008 D.3 Astronomy and Physics Research and Analysis 02/13/2009 03/27/2009 ** Revised deadlines from ROSES-08 Amendment 19, entitled "Revised text for Swift Guest Investigator - Cycle 5" which was released on July 18, 2008. 2008 October 10: XMM-Newton AO-8 Call for Proposals Deadline 2008 October 15 at 4:30pm EDT: Swift Cycle 5 Guest Investigator Program Proposals Deadline 2008 November 7: Projected Deadline for Applications to the NASA Astrophysics Division Einstein Fellowship Program 2008 December 5: Suzaku Cycle 4 Guest Observer Program Proposals Deadline Late 2008: Projected Release Date by NASA of its Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) Solicitation 2008 September 26 - 2009 March 27 Remaining deadlines for proposals for the program elements of the RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE AND EARTH SCIENCES (ROSES) 2008 This NASA Research Announcement or NRA (NNH08ZDA001N) solicits proposals for supporting basic and applied research and technology across a broad range of Earth and space science program elements relevant to one or more of the following NASA Research Programs: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Planetary Science, and Astrophysics. This ROSES NRA covers all aspects of basic and applied supporting research and technology in space and Earth sciences, including, but not limited to: theory, modeling, and analysis of NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) science data; aircraft, stratospheric balloon, and suborbital rocket investigations; development of experiment techniques suitable for future SMD space missions; development of concepts for future SMD space missions; development of advanced technologies relevant to SMD missions; development of techniques for and the laboratory analysis of both extraterrestrial samples returned by spacecraft, as well as terrestrial samples that support or otherwise help verify observations from SMD Earth system science missions; determination of atomic and composition parameters needed to analyze space data, as well as returned samples from the Earth or space; Earth surface observations and field campaigns that support SMD science missions; development of integrated Earth system models; development of systems for applying Earth science research data to societal needs; and development of applied information systems applicable to SMD objectives and data. Awards range from under $100K per year for focused, limited efforts (e.g., data analysis) to more than $1M per year for extensive activities (e.g., development of science experiment hardware). The funds available for awards in each program element offered in this NRA range from less than one to several million dollars, which allow selection from a few to as many as several dozen proposals depending on the program objectives and the submission of proposals of merit. Awards will be made as grants, cooperative agreements, contracts, and inter- or intra-agency transfers depending on the nature of the proposing organization and/or program requirements. The typical period of performance for an award is four years, although a few programs may specify shorter or longer periods. Participation is open to all categories of organizations, foreign and domestic, including educational institutions, industry, nonprofit organizations, NASA centers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other Government agencies, without restriction on number or teaming arrangements. Note that it is NASA policy that all investigations involving non-U.S. organizations will be conducted on the basis of no exchange of funds. Proposal due dates are scheduled starting on May 9, 2008, and continue through March 27, 2009. Electronically submitted Notices of Intent to propose are requested for most program elements, with the first such due date being March 14, 2008. Electronic submission of proposals is required by the respective due dates for each program element and must be submitted by an authorized official of the proposing organization. Electronic proposals may be submitted via the NASA proposal data system NSPIRES or via Grants.gov. Every organization that intends to submit a proposal in response to this NRA must be registered with NSPIRES; organizations that intend to submit proposals via Grants.gov must also be registered with Grants.gov. Such registration must identify the authorized organizational representative(s) who will submit the electronic proposal. All principal investigators and other participants (e.g. co-investigators) must be registered in NSPIRES. Potential proposers and proposing organizations are urged to access the system(s) well in advance of the proposal due date(s) of interest to familiarize themselves with its structure and enter the requested information. Further information about specific program elements may be obtained from the individual Program Officers listed in the Summary of Key Information for each program element in this NRA, while questions concerning general NRA policies and procedures may be directed to Dr. Yvonne Pendleton, Senior Advisor for Research and Analysis, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546-0001; E-mail: sara@nasa.gov; Telephone: 202-358-1182. ROSES-2008 Deadlines of Particular Relevance to the High-Energy Astronomy Community include Appendix Program Element NOI/Step 1 Proposal Due Date Due Date E.7 Concept Studies for Human Tended 08/06/2008 10/08/2008 Suborbital Science^ D.6 Swift Guest Investigator - Cycle 5 08/20/2008** 10/15/2008** D.7 Suzaku Guest Observer - Cycle 4 10/10/2008 12/05/2008 D.3 Astronomy and Physics Research and Analysis 02/13/2009 03/27/2009 ^Amendment 17 (Posted July 10, 2008): This amendment announces a new proposal opportunity in Appendix E.7 entitled "Concept Studies for Human Tended Suborbital Science". NASA recognizes the advancement of the commercial spaceflight industry and the potential for human-tended suborbital flight experiments enabled by this capability. The imminent emergence of human suborbital flight for commercial purposes offers an opportunity for a new mode of research for the scientific community: human-tended suborbital investigations for cases where having a human in-the-loop would increase the scientific return of flight experiments. NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is soliciting research investigation concept studies to inform the formulation phase of a possible new program to fly government-sponsored payloads and researchers on commercial suborbital systems with the intent of advancing SMD's science goals and objectives. This solicitation is for concept studies to identify areas of SMD-sponsored science that can benefit from the capabilities that these flights offer over traditional suborbital flights, to scope the range of investigation requirements and the distribution of community interest by research discipline, and to bring potential investigations to a greater level of flight readiness to support NASA's decision regarding whether to implement a pilot research program of suborbital flight operations in 2010-2011. Technical questions concerning this solicitation may be addressed to Dr. John Karcz, Code SS, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, CA 94035-1000; Telephone: 650-604-5174; Email: John.S.Karcz@nasa.gov. Programmatic questions concerning this solicitation may be addressed to Dr. Kelly Snook, Planetary Science Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546-0001; Telephone: (202) 358-2302; E-mail: kelly.snook@nasa.gov. ** Revised deadlines from ROSES-08 Amendment 19, entitled "Revised text for Swift Guest Investigator - Cycle 5" which was released on July 18, 2008. This amendment announces revised text for the program element in Appendix D.6 entitled `Swift Guest Investigator - Cycle 5'. The Swift Guest Investigator (GI) Program solicits proposals for basic research relevant to the Swift gamma-ray burst mission. The primary goal of this mission is to determine the origin of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and use these bursts to probe the early universe. Swift is also a valuable asset for obtaining multiwavelength images, spectra, and light curves on interesting targets of opportunity (TOOs) and other nontransient sources. Cycle 5 observations and funding will commence on or around April 1, 2009, and last approximately 12 months. In addition to correcting a few typographical errors, improving the explanatory language, and updating the contact information, the following changes have been made: (i) The Swift GI program is now using a two-phase proposal process; (ii) A new category of GI proposals, Fill-in targets, has been added; (iii) Reference to the Swift Key Projects has been removed; (iv) The limit on the maximum number of monitoring programs has been changed from 10 to 20 and the rules for carrying over time between GI Cycles have been clarified; and (v) Special consideration for correlative observations of high redshift GRBs has been added. On or about July 18, 2008, this Amendment to the NASA Research Announcement "Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2008" (NNH08ZDA001N) was posted on the NASA research opportunity homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/. Further information about the Swift Guest Investigator program is available from Dr. F. Rick Harnden, Astrophysics Division, Science Mission Directorate, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC 20546-0001; Telephone: (202) 358-3809; E-mail: fharnden@nasa.gov. 2008 October 10 at 12:00 UT Deadline for submission of proposals in response to the XMM-Newton Eighth Announcement of Opportunity (AO-8) released on August 26th, 2008. 2008 October 15 at 4:30pm EDT Deadline for submission of Swift Cycle 5 Guest Investigator Program proposals 2008 November 7 Projected Deadline for Applications to the NASA Astrophysics Division (AD) Einstein Fellowship Program. This program supercedes and merges the existing AD fellowhip programs, e.g., Fermi/GLAST, Chandra, etc. 2008 December 5 Deadline for submission of Suzaku Cycle 4 Guest Observer Program regular and key project proposals Late 2008 Projected release date by NASA of its Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) solicitation. Advance notice of upcoming deadlines for NASA Research Announcements and Announcements of Opportunity can be found by going to this NASA Research Opportunities Online Future Solicitations webpage. Other Significant High Energy Astrophysics Events in the Future The following dates should be considered provisional, with the degree of uncertainty increasing for the ones furthest in the future. For more frequently updated information about the dates of upcoming launches of science payloads from Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Vandenberg Air Force Base, check out NASA's Integrated Launch Schedule of Shuttle and Rocket Missions. 2008 October 1 50th anniversary of the start of operations of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in 5 facilities inherited from the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA) agency which it subsumed, together with space projects and appropriations from other space programs. These gave NASA 8,240 staff (8,000 from the NACA) and an annual budget of approximately $340 million. 2009 April (Subject to change) Projected launch of ASTROSAT, India's first multiwavelength astronomy satellite. Most astronomical objects in the known Universe emit radiation spanning the complete electromagnetic spectrum stretching from long wavelength radio emission to extremely short wavelength gamma rays. Hence for a detailed understanding of the physical processes that give rise to frequency-dependent, time-variable phenomena, it is essential to carrry out nearly simultaneous multi-frequency observations. Important areas requiring broad band coverage include studies of astrophysical objects ranging from the nearby solar system objects to distant stars, to objects at cosmological distances; timing studies of variables ranging from pulsations of the hot white dwarfs to active galactic nuclei (AGN) with time scales ranging from milliseconds to few hours to days. ASTROSAT is currently proposed as a multiwavelength astronomy mission on an IRS-class satellite to be placed into a near-Earth, equatorial orbit by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The 5 instruments onboard cover the UV(1000-3000 A), soft and hard x-ray regimes (0.3-8 keV; 2-100 keV). Science Objectives of ASTROSAT include: * Multiwavelength studies of cosmic sources * Monitoring the X-ray sky for new transients * All-sky survey in the hard X-ray and UV bands * Broadband spectroscopic studies of X-ray binaries, AGN, SNRs, clusters of galaxies and stellar coronae * Studies of periodic and non-periodic variability of X-ray sources * Monitoring intensity of known sources and detecting outbursts and luminosity variations 2009 May 15 Scheduled launch of space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-127 mission, which will carry (inter alia) the JAXA Monitor of All-Sky X-ray Image (MAXI) experiment for installation on the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module of the International Space Station (ISS). MAXI is an all-sky X-ray scanner, consists of X-ray slit cameras with high sensitivity, which will continuously monitor X-ray-emitting astronomical objects over a broad energy band (0.5 to 30 keV), i.e., it is an X-ray all-sky monitor. 2009 400th anniversary of Galileo's first telescopic observations, to be celebrated as the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009) by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Late 2009 (Subject to change) Projected launch of the European Space Agency's LISA Pathfinder mission. LISA Pathfinder will pave the way for a major ESA/NASA mission planned for the near future: LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna), aimed at detecting gravitational waves generated by very massive objects such as black holes. Detecting gravitational waves will tell us more about the way space and time are interconnected. The mission consists of placing two test-masses in a nearly perfect gravitational free-fall, and of controlling and measuring their motion with unprecedented accuracy. This is achieved through state-of-the-art technology comprising inertial sensors, a laser metrology system, a drag-free control system and an ultra-precise micro-propulsion system. All these technologies are essential not only for LISA; they also lie at the heart of any future space-based test of Einstein's General Relativity. 2010 (Subject to change) Projected launch of the Chinese National Space Administration (CNSA) Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT) satellite. This mission will perform the most sensitive all-sky survey to date in the hard X-ray (20 - 200 keV) energy band. It will also have soft and medium X-ray (1 - 30 keV) detectors for pointed observations of such objects as X-ray binary systems containing black holes or neutron stars, AGN, SNRs, soft gamma repeater (SGRs), and clusters of galaxies. August 2011 (Subject to change) Projected launch of NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission. NuSTAR is a pathfinder mission that will open the high energy X-ray sky for sensitive study for the first time. X-ray telescopes like Chandra and XMM-Newton have peered deep into the X-ray universe at low X-ray energy (X-ray energies less than 10 keV). By focusing X-rays at higher energy; up to 80 keV, NuSTAR will answer fundamental questions about the Universe: How are black holes distributed through the cosmos? How were the elements that compose our bodies and the Earth forged in the explosions of massive stars? What powers the most extreme active galaxies? Late 2011 (Subject to change) Projected launch of the Russian Space Agency's Spectrum X Gamma (Spektrum-Roentgen-Gamma, or SRG) orbital observatory. This totally reconfigured mission's present nominal science payload includes the following X-ray instruments: - extended Roentgen Survey with an Imaging Telescope Array (e-ROSITA): Germany - Astronomical Roentgen Telescope X-ray Concentrator (ART-XC): Russia - Lobster-eye Wide-Field Telescope (LWFT): UK, et al. - Spektr-RG X-ray Calorimeter (SXC): Netherlands, Japan, US, Germany The US contribution to the mission consists of the flight-spare microcalorimeter array developed for Suzaku (Astro-E2) and is funded through NASA's Astronomy and Physics Research & Analysis (APRA) program. High Energy Astrophysics Events in the Recent Past (Last 5 Years) In reverse chronological order, i.e., the most recent come first 2008 July 29 50th anniversary of the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, the law establishing NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, as the civilian space agency of the United States of America, signed on this date by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. 2008 June 11 at 12:05pm EDT Successful launch on a Delta II Heavy rocket of the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, formerly known as the Gamma-Ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). Fermi is NASA's next generation high-energy gamma-ray observatory designed for making observations of celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy band extending from 10 MeV to more than 100 GeV. It follows in the footsteps of the CGRO-EGRET experiment, which was operational between 1991-1999. The key scientific objectives of the Fermi mission are: 1. To understand the mechanisms of particle acceleration in AGNs, pulsars, and SNRs. This understanding is a key to solving the mysteries of the formation of jets, the extraction of rotational energy from spinning neutron stars, and the dynamics of shocks in SNRs. 2. To resolve the gamma-ray sky: unidentified sources and diffuse emission. Interstellar emission from the Milky Way and a large number of unidentified sources are prominent features of the gamma-ray sky. 3. To determine the high-energy behavior of gamma-ray bursts and transients. Variability has long been a powerful method to decipher the workings of objects in the Universe on all scales. Variability is a central feature of the gamma-ray sky. 4. To probe dark matter and the early Universe. Observations of gamma-ray AGN serve to probe supermassive black holes through jet formation and evolution studies, and provide constraints on the star-formation rate at early epochs through gg absorption over extragalactic distances. There are also the possibilities of observing monoenergetic gamma-ray "lines" above 30 GeV from supersymmetric dark matter interaction; detecting decays of relics from the very early Universe, such as cosmic strings or evaporating primordial black holes; or even using gamma-ray bursts to detect quantum gravity effects. 2008 May 25 Successful soft-landing on the northern plains of Mars of NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission. Once it is fully activated, Phoenix will literally dig into the soil and the subsurface water-ice and perform chemical analyses designed to help scientists better understand the past and present habitability of this unique environment for (hypothetical) Martian microbes. 2008 April 25, 05:12-08:00 UT The Swift satellite detects an unusually intense X-ray `superflare' from the single nearby M dwarf star EV Lacertae. Analysis confirms that this is the brightest stellar flare ever detected in the X-ray band, e.g., the peak X-ray flux is 3 x 10-8 erg s-1 cm-2 in the 0.3-10.0 keV energy band. This flare was bright enough in the hard X-ray band that it was also detected in the 20-70 keV energy band by the Konus S2 gamma-ray burst detector on NASA's Wind satellite. At its peak, this flare was brighter than the star's entire bolometric luminosity (see Osten et al. 2008, ATel, No. 1499 for more details). 2008 March 19 NASA's Swift satellite observes the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) optical afterglow yet detected. The afterglow of this GRB was bright enough to have been seen with the naked eye, reaching a maximum brightness between 5th and 6th magnitude. Spectra indicate that this object has a cosmological redshift of 0.94, meaning that it is 7.5 billion light years away, and that the explosion actually happened 7.5 billion years ago, i.e, 3 billion years before the Sun and solar system formed. 2008 March 19 Death of Arthur C. Clarke (1917 - 2008), noted science fiction writer and futurologist, who inspired many people all over the world with his prescient and elegant visions of humanity's and the universe's past, present and future, and the roles and limitations of technology: "Open the pod bay doors, HAL"... 2007 August 30 NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, launched in 1977, crosses the solar wind termination shock (multiple times) and enters the heliosheath region, the transition region between the region dominated by the solar wind (the "heliosphere") and the true interstellar medium. 2007 August 4 Successful launch on a Delta II rocket of NASA's Phoenix Mars Mission, a spacecraft that softly land on the northern plains of Mars on May 25th 2008.(q.v.) 2007 April 26 First low-altitude (up to 10,500 feet) test flight of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), a joint project of NASA and DLR (the German Aerospace Center). Normal operations for this Boeing 747SP-based telescope will be conducted at altitudes above 40,000 feet where the sky is much more transparent to IR radiation than at lower altitudes. The first SOFIA flight on which general astronomical observations will be made is currently expected to be in mid-2009. 2007 April 23 Successful launch of the AGILE (Astro-rivelatore Gamma a Immagini LEggero, or Light Astro Gamma Imaging Detector) mission on an Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-8 rocket. AGILE is an Italian Space Agency hard X-ray and gamma-ray mission which was conceived in part as a bridge between the EGRET gamma-ray detector on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO) and the Fermi (once called GLAST) mission. AGILE is planned as a three-year mission, with emphasis on quicklook analysis, alert, and rapid communication of results. The AGILE telescope (30 MeV - 50 GeV) uses a particle tracking device to measure the electron and positron resulting from the gamma-ray pair conversion process, together with a calorimeter to determine the energy. An anti-coincidence detector to separate the gamma rays from the background of cosmic ray charged particles found in space. Smaller than EGRET, improved technology gives it comparable on-axis sensitivity, a much wider field of view (about 3 sr, or one-fourth of the sky), better angular resolution (5 - 20 arcminutes for strong sources) and a much smaller deadtime (less than 1 millisecond). This combination of features will allow AGILE to expand on the EGRET discoveries significantly and set the scientific groundwork for the much larger NASA-led mission, Fermi. An AGILE Guest Observer Program will be open to the international community with strong emphasis on coordinated radio/optical/X-ray observations simultaneous with gamma-ray pointings. AGILE is ideal for detecting AGN flaring activity, gamma-ray bursts, pulsars, new transients, solar flares, and cosmic-ray interactions in the Galaxy. 2007 February 28 at 05:44 UT Closest approach to Jupiter of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. New Horizons received a velocity boost due to Jupiter's gravity to help speed it on its way to Pluto, which it is scheduled to encounter in July 2015. 2006 January 19 at 2 pm EST Successful launch of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft on its 9.5 year flight to Pluto and its moon Charon via Jupiter (from which it will get a velocity boost using the gravity assist from a close approach). New Horizons is the first spacecraft dedicated to explore Pluto, and may go on to explore even more distant Kuiper Belt Objects after flying by Pluto. 2005 December 16 The Swift satellite detects an unusually intense X-ray `superflare' from the binary system II Pegasi. Analysis confirms that this is one of the brightest stellar flares ever detected in the X-ray band, e.g., 100,000 times more X-ray luminous than the most intense solar flare yet seen, and the detection of X-rays up to an energy of 200 keV strongly favors a non-thermal model for the hard X-rays (see Osten et al. 2007, ApJ, 654, 1052). 2005 September 4 The Swift satellite detects an unusually long (200 seconds) gamma-ray burst (GRB 050904), which optical follow-up observations confirm is the most distant GRB ever detected, with a redshift of 6.29 which translates to a distance of 13.7 billion light years. As of this date, only one other object, a quasar with a redshift of 6.4, had been discovered at a greater redshift and/or distance than this Swift GRB. 2005 July 9 at 11:30pm EDT Successful launch of the Suzaku (formerly ASTRO-E2) X-Ray Observatory, a replacement for the ASTRO-E mission which suffered a launch failure on February 10 2000. Suzaku is Japan's fifth X-ray astronomy mission, and was developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) in collaboration with U.S. (NASA/GSFC, MIT) and other Japanese institutions. Suzaku covers the high energy range from 0.4 - 700 keV with three instruments, an X-ray micro-calorimeter (X-ray Spectrometer or XRS: this instrument unfortunately will not be able to carry out astronomical observations due to the loss of its helium cryogen), a quartet of X-ray CCDs (X-ray Imaging Spectrometer; XIS), and a Hard X-ray Detector (HXD). The latter two instruments will provide powerful tools to use the Universe as a laboratory for unraveling complex, high-energy processes and the behavior of matter under extreme conditions. Scientific issues that will be addressed include the fate of matter as it spirals into black holes, the nature of supermassive black holes found at the center of quasars, the 100 million degree gas that is flowing into giant clusters of galaxies, and the nature of supernova explosions that create the heavier elements, which ultimately form planets. 2005 July 4 at 1:52 am EDT Impact of NASA's Deep Impact impactor spacecraft with Comet Tempel 1 at a relative velocity of 10 km/s (23,000 mph), generating an intense flash of light, and starting a prolonged outburst of comet material. This event and its aftermath were observed by the nearby Deep Impact mothership, as well as a host of other ground- and space-based telescopes and observatories, including the Chandra, RXTE, and XMM-Newton X-ray observatories, and the Swift multi-wavelength suite of detectors. Analysis of all these datasets should yield unique and valuable information about the environment, interior composition and structure of this comet. Early results indicate that Tempel 1 was detected as an X-ray source by XMM-Newton and Chandra. The observed X-rays are likely the result of charge exchange between cool neutral material in the comet's coma and solar wind ions. 2005 May 9 at 5:03:23 GMT First accurate localization of a short gamma-ray burst, GRB 050509b, by instruments on NASA's Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission. This GRB lasted only 40 milliseconds, and was followed by a 5-minutes X-ray afterglow that was studied by Swift's X-Ray telescope. No associated optical afterglow was detected, either by Swift's Ultraviolet and Optical Telescope or by ground-based telescopes, but the location of this GRB on the outskirts of a 2.6 billion light years-distant elliptical galaxy suggests that it (and presumably other short GRBs) is the birth `scream' of a black hole as it forms from the merger of two neutron stars (or of two pre-existing black holes, or of a neutron star with a pre-existing black hole) in a close binary system. See Gehrels et al. 2005, astro-ph/0505630 for more details. 2004 November 20 at 12:16 pm EST Successful launch (from Cape Canaveral AFS on a Delta 7320 rocket) of the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, a NASA medium-class explorer (MIDEX) mission with participation of the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and the UK Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC). Swift is a three-telescope space observatory for studying gamma-ray bursts which has the unique ability to repoint its UV/optical, and X-ray telescopes to the position in the sky of a gamma-ray burst within about one minute of its occurrence. It is expected that Swift will detect more than 100 gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows per year. Swift will also survey the sky for black holes and other sources of cosmic gamma-rays: it is predicted that it will find 400 or so new supermassive black holes. 2004 July 1 Successful Saturn Orbit Insertion for the joint NASA-ESA-ASI mission Cassini-Huygens, marking the beginning of its primary 4-years mission of exploring Saturn, its moons (particularly Titan), and its ring system. 2004 April 20 at 12:57:24 pm EDT Successful launch (from Vandenberg AFB on a Delta 7920 rocket) of NASA's Relativity Mission, Gravity Probe-B (GP-B), a relativity gyroscope experiment to test two as yet unverified predictions of Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. The GP-B experiment will check, very precisely, tiny changes in the direction of spin of four gyroscopes contained in an Earth satellite orbiting at 400-mile altitude directly over the poles. So free are the gyroscopes from disturbance that they will provide an almost perfect space-time reference system. They will measure how space and time are warped by the presence of the Earth, and, more profoundly, how the Earth"s rotation drags space-time around with it. These effects, though small for the Earth, have far-reaching implications for the nature of matter and the structure of the Universe. 2003 August 25 at 1:36 am EDT Successful launch of NASA's Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) on a Delta 7920H rocket. SIRTF, renamed by NASA to the Spitzer Space Telescope on 2003 December 18, is the fourth (and last) of NASA's `Great Observatories', and is capable of imaging and spectroscopy in the infrared band from 3.6 to 160 microns. The other Great Observatories are (or were) the Hubble Space Telescope or HST (ultraviolet, optical and near-infrared bands), the Chandra X-Ray Observatory or CXO (soft X-ray band), and the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory or CGRO (hard X-ray and gamma-ray bands). [CGRO was deorbited in June 2000, notice]. For more information about these and related subjects, please check out: (1) the NASA Science Directorate list of Research Opportunities (2) the HEASARC list of Upcoming Meetings (including meetings in High Energy Astrophysics, Astronomy, and related WWW activities) (3) the HEASARC list of Previous AOs/NRAs for which the Accepted Targets and/or Proposals are Available (4) the NASA Science Directorate list of Future, Current & Past Science Missions (5) the NASA Shuttle and Rocket Missions Launch Schedule. Page Author: Stephen A. Drake (drake@milkyway.gsfc.nasa.gov) (301) 286-6962 Last Update: Sunday, 14-Sep-2008 10:34:12 EDT You are visitor number: 36624 since 1997 Jan 01 HEASARC Home | Observatories | Archive | Calibration | Software | Tools | Students/Teachers/Public Last modified: Sunday, 14-Sep-2008 10:34:12 EDT