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High Energy Astrophysics Upcoming Dates & Deadlines
Other Significant High-Energy Astrophysics Events in the
Near-Future
Significant High-Energy Astrophysics Events in the
Recent Past (Last 5 Years)
Chronology of High-Energy
Astrophysics and General Astronomy
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.
Summary of Deadlines
2009 February 6 - April 08:
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
D.8 Fermi Guest Investigator - Cycle 2 01/23/2009 03/06/2009
D.3 Astronomy and Physics Research and Analysis 02/13/2009 03/27/2009
E.8 & E.9 Education and Public Outreach 03/11/2009 04/08/2009
Supplemental Awards^
^ Announced in Amendment 33 of ROSES-2008
2009 February 20: Due Date for proposals for the 7th Announcement of Opportunity for INTEGRAL
First Half of 2009: Projected Release Date by NASA and
DOE of their
Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) Solicitation
2009 March 17: Deadline for the Chandra Cycle 11 Call for Proposals
2009 April 9: Deadline for proposals for the Science Education and Public Outreach Forums
opportunity
2009 May 1 - 2010 April 30:
Upcoming ROSES-2009 Deadlines
Full Details of Deadlines
-
2009 February 6 - April 08
- 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
April 8, 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
D.8 Fermi Guest Investigator - Cycle 2** 01/23/2009 03/06/2009
D.3 Astronomy and Physics Research and Analysis 02/13/2009 03/27/2009
E.8 & E.9 Education and Public Outreach 03/11/2009 04/08/2009
Supplemental Awards^
**ROSES-08 Amendment 30, entitled New proposal opportunity for Fermi
Guest Investigator - Cycle 2 was posted on the NASA research opportunity
homepage on or about November 14, 2008. This amendment replaces the
placeholder text in ROSES-2008 Appendix D.8
entitled "Fermi Guest Investigator - Cycle 2" (previously entitled GLAST Guest
Investigator - Cycle 2) with the final text. The Fermi Guest Investigator (GI)
program solicits proposals for basic research relevant to the Fermi mission.
The primary goal of this mission is to perform 20 MeV to >300 GeV gamma-ray
measurements over the entire celestial sphere, with sensitivity a factor of 30
or more greater than that obtained by earlier space missions. A secondary goal
includes the study of transient gamma-ray sources with energies extending from
10 keV up to 300 GeV.
The Fermi GI program is intended to encourage scientific participation by
providing funding to carry out investigations using Fermi data, to conduct
correlative observations at other wavelengths, to develop data analysis
techniques applicable to the Fermi data, and to carry out theoretical
investigations in support of Fermi observations.
Further information about this program element is available from Dr. Ilana M.
Harrus, Astrophysics Division, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters,
Washington, DC 20546-0001; Telephone: (202) 358-1250; E-mail:
Ilana.M.Harrus@nasa.gov.
^ROSES-08 Amendment 33, entitled Additional proposal opportunity
for ROSES Education and Public Outreach supplemental awards, was posted on
the NASA research opportunity homepage on or about December 16, 2008.
This amendment announces an additional proposal opportunity for Education and
Public Outreach supplemental awards. Principal Investigators (PIs) of selected
Science Mission Directorate (SMD) research investigations may propose for
Education or Outreach awards as supplements to their research award. Two
different pathways are offered: $15K education pathway proposals and $10K
outreach pathway proposals.
These proposal opportunities are described in Appendix E.8: Supplemental
Outreach Awards for ROSES Investigators and Appendix E.9: Supplemental
Education Awards for ROSES Investigators. The text in Appendix E.8 and
Appendix E.9 has also been revised and clarified in response to questions
submitted by the community. Questions concerning the Supplemental
Education/Outreach Awards for ROSES Investigators may be addressed to
Dr. Larry P. Cooper, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters,
Washington, DC 20546-0001; Tel: 202-358-1531; E-mail: larry.p.cooper@nasa.gov.
-
2009 February 20 at 14:00 CET
- Due date for proposals for the
7th Announcement of Opportunity for INTEGRAL observations to be
carried out in the period from 2009 mid-October to 2010 December.
-
First Half of 2009
- Projected release date by NASA and the Department of Energy (DOE) of their
Joint Dark Energy Mission (JDEM) solicitation.
Questions or comments about this Community Announcement on the JDEM AO may be
addressed to the NASA JDEM Program Scientist: Dr. Richard Griffiths, Science
Mission Directorate (SMD), National Aeronautics and Space Administration,
Washington, DC 20546-0001; E-mail: Richard.E.Griffiths@nasa.gov.
-
2009 March 17 at 6:00pm EDT
- Deadline for the Chandra
Cycle 11 Call for Proposals.
-
2009 April 9
- Proposal Due date for proposals for
Science Education and Public Outreach Forums
On January 2, 2009, the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD), is releasing a
Cooperative Agreement Notice (NNH09ZDA004C) soliciting proposals for Science
Education and Public Outreach Forums to collaborate with SMD in execution of
its Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) program. The objective of the effort
is to increase the overall coherence of the SMD E/PO program leading to more
effective, sustainable, and efficient utilization of SMD science discoveries
and learning experiences.
It is anticipated that there will be a total of four awards with one Science
Education and Public Outreach Forum (SEPOF) being individually affiliated with
each of the four SMD Science Divisions: Astrophysics, Earth Science,
Heliophysics, and Planetary Science. The areas to be addressed by this
Cooperative Agreement include, but are not limited to, the following areas of
collaboration:
* E/PO Community Engagement and Development;
* Division E/PO Product and Project Activity Analysis; and
* SEPOF Coordination Committee Service.
Proposals should clearly articulate an approach to the overall objective and
to these areas of activity that extends the value of SMD investments in E/PO
and contributes to NASA's education and outreach efforts. NASA anticipates
making $3.5 M per year available for this selection. Awards will be for 5
years duration. Participation is open to all categories of domestic
organizations, including industry, educational institutions, not-for-profit
organizations, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, NASA
Centers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other Government agencies.
Upon its release date, this Cooperative Agreement Notice will be available
electronically from
http://nspires.nasaprs.com/ (select "Solicitations" then select
"Open Solicitations" then select " NNH09ZDA004C"). Notices of Intent (NOIs)
are due February 11, 2009, and proposals are due April 9, 2009. Additional
programmatic information can be obtained from: Dr. Larry P. Cooper, E/PO
Program Officer, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington,
DC 20546; Tel: (202) 358-1531; email: Larry.P.Cooper@nasa.gov.
-
2009 May 1 - 2010 April 30
- Deadlines for proposals for the program elements of the
RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN SPACE
AND EARTH SCIENCES (ROSES) 2009 program
NNH09ZDA001N, entitled "Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences -
2009 (ROSES-2009)," will be available on or about February 13, 2009, by
opening the NASA Research Opportunities homepage at http://nspires.nasaprs.com/
and then linking through the menu listings "Solicitations" to "Open
Solicitations." This NASA Research Announcement (NRA) 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 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 (maximum of five years) periods.
Organizations of every type, domestic and foreign, Government and private,
for profit and not-for-profit, may submit proposals 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 1, 2009, and continue
through April 30, 2009. Electronically submitted Notices of Intent to
propose are requested for most program elements, with the first such
due date being March 13, 2009. 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 be
registered with Grants.gov in addition to being registered with NSPIRES.
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 regardless of submission system. 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. Max Bernstein, Lead
for Research, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington,
DC 20546-0001; E-mail: sara@nasa.gov; Telephone: 202-358-0879.
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.
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.
- 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 (no earlier than)
- Projected launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the
STS-125 mission to
repair and expand the capabilities of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST).
This is the fifth and final servicing mission to HST and should enable it
to continue operations through 2013, and potentially even longer.
- 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).
- March 2010 (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
In reverse chronological order, i.e., the most recent come first
- 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.
- 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: Wednesday, 14-Jan-2009 15:40:23 EST
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