Observations | SilverScorpio.Com

50 Lessons Adds BTS Thought Leader Interviews to Curriculum

April 3, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Dan Parisi Shares Wisdom on Experiential Business Learning
SAN FRANCISCO–(Business Wire)–
BTS USA, the global leader in accelerating strategy alignment and execution, and
50 Lessons announce that 50 Lessons has selected BTS Executive Vice President
Dan Parisi as a featured business leader for their video library series. The
featured video segments will focus on three topics: the power of experiential
learning to align the workforce, what makes a successful chief learning officer,
and how learning delivery methods have evolved from basic lecture to behavioral
laboratory. The video segments will be available to all subscribers of the 50
Lessons Library in late spring.

“Dan combines great knowledge, passion and a great delivery style,” says 50
Lessons’ CEO, Matt Burr. “His observations and experience on effective learning
in business are a boost for executives, managers and entrepreneurs alike, or
indeed for anyone who wants to help get strategy across to employees.”

“The Power of Learning to Align the Workforce” focuses on the story of how a
global telecom company quickly and effectively mobilizes its talent around a new
strategic direction. The organization successfully built strategic business
alignment by deploying a customized business simulation program.

In “Successful CLO’s Understand the C-Suite Agenda”, Parisi shares what makes a
CLO a respected business advisor. The best CLOs have a seat at the senior
executive table, do all their work in the context of business problems and
talent needs, and bring their knowledge to bear on business issues such as time
to market, increased productivity, accelerating execution, and growing market
share.

In “How Learning Has Evolved”, Parisi outlines a brief history of adult learning
from lecture-based learning to case study to experiential learning. The latest
innovations, notes Parisi, use experiential learning and simulations to combine
business analytics and leadership skills, enabling business leaders to make
faster, better business decisions.

Parisi said, “50 Lessons recognized that BTS is the global leader in using
experiential learning and simulations to accelerate strategic alignment and
execution in high performing organizations. We believe that simulations and
experiential solutions are the most effective way to help organizations
understand, align and execute on strategies and business initiatives.”

Parisi`s lessons were filmed at the CLO Innovation Network meeting in Chicago in
November 2009. His lesson, “How Learning Has Evolved” will appear in Never Stop
Learning, volume twenty-four of the 50 Lessons – Harvard Business Press book
series, Lessons Learned, Straight Talk from the World`s Top Business Leaders.
Never Stop Learning will be available in August.

About 50 Lessons

50 Lessons is a digital media company that produces, owns, and distributes the
award-winning 50 Lessons library, the world’s pre-eminent collection of
multimedia insights from global business leaders. The library currently holds
over 1,000 videos featuring more than 200 of the world’s leading business
executives, including Michael Dell, Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO of Eastman Kodak, and
sports legends, Cathy Rigby and Peggy Fleming. 50 Lessons’ content is used in a
wide range of the world’s most successful learning products, including in
Harvard Business School Publishing’s “Manage Mentor.” Visit 50 Lessons at

http://www.50lessons.com.

About BTS

BTS USA is the global leader in accelerating strategy alignment and execution,
innovating how organizations learn, change and improve. We partner with our
clients to build commitment and capability to accelerate strategy execution and
improve business results. The unique BTS process offers fast strategic alignment
and rapid capability building through:

Business Simulations and experiential solutions – the most effective way to help
organizations understand, align and execute. In-depth customization to what is
relevant and actionable on the job. A results-focused approach that
comprehensively and efficiently secures and measures business impact. BTS adds
value to its clients through three practice areas: Strategic Alignment &
Business Acumen, Leadership & Management, and Sales Force Transformation.

BTS has more than 300 professionals serving over 400 clients, including 44 of
the US Fortune 100 companies and more than 25 of the Global Fortune 100 largest
corporations in the world. Select BTS clients include AT&T, Ericsson,
Kimberly-Clark, Nokia, Sony, Toyota, Unilever and Xerox. BTS serves its clients
from offices in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Scottsdale,
Stamford, Bangkok, Beijing, Bilbao, Brussels, Helsinki, Johannesburg, London,
Madrid, Melbourne, Mexico City, Oslo, Singapore, Stockholm, Sydney, and Tokyo.
For more information please visit www.bts.com.

Activa PR for BTS
Emma Rosen, 415-385-2843
emma@activapr.com
or
BTS USA
Kristina Rey, Director of Marketing, 203-391-5297
kristina.rey@bts.com

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Business Advisor, Business Alignment, Business Analytics, Business Leader, Business Simulation, C-Suite, clo, Dan Parisi, delivery methods, Delivery Style, Effective Learning, executive, Global Telecom, innovation, latest innovations, leadership skills, Manage Mentor, observations, San Francisco Business, Simulation Program, Strategy Alignment, Telecom Company, Thought Leader, Video Library Series, video segments

Image of different regions of Trifid Nebula captured by European Southern Observatory

August 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Munich, August 27 (ANI): A new image by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has captured the different regions of the Trifid Nebula, which is a rare combination of three nebula types, as seen in visible light.

This massive star factory is so named for the dark dust bands that trisect its glowing heart, revealing the fury of freshly formed stars and presaging more star birth.

Smoldering several thousand light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius (the Archer), the Trifid Nebula presents a compelling portrait of the early stages of a star’s life, from gestation to first light.

The heat and “winds” of newly ignited, volatile stars stir the Trifid’s gas and dust-filled cauldron.

In time, the dark tendrils of matter strewn throughout the area will themselves collapse and form new stars.

The French astronomer Charles Messier first observed the Trifid Nebula in June 1764, recording the hazy, glowing object as entry number 20 in his renowned catalogue.

Observations made about 60 years later by John Herschel of the dust lanes that appear to divide the cosmic cloud into three lobes inspired the English astronomer to coin the name “Trifid”.

Made with the Wide-Field Imager camera attached to the MPG/ESO 2.2-meter telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in northern Chile, the new image prominently displays the different regions of the Trifid Nebula as seen in visible light.

In the bluish patch to the upper left of the image, called a reflection nebula, gas scatters the light from nearby, Trifid-born stars.

The largest of these stars shines most brightly in the hot, blue portion of the visible spectrum.

This, along with the fact that dust grains and molecules scatter blue light more efficiently than red light, imbues this portion of the Trifid Nebula with an azure hue.

Below, in the round, pink-reddish area typical of an emission nebula, the gas at the Trifid’s core is heated by hundreds of scorching young stars until it emits the red signature light of hydrogen, the major component of the gas, just as hot neon gas glows red-orange in illuminated signs all over the world.

The gases and dust that crisscross the Trifid Nebula make up the third kind of nebula in this cosmic cloud, known as dark nebulae, courtesy of their light-obscuring effects.

Within these dark lanes, the remnants of previous star birth episodes continue to coalesce under gravity’s inexorable attraction.

The rising density, pressure and temperature inside these gaseous blobs will eventually trigger nuclear fusion, and yet more stars will form. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ANI, Archer, area, astronomer, attraction, August, Below, birth, Born Stars, camera, catalogue, cauldron, Charles Messier, cloud, coalesce, coin, combination, component, constellation, core, courtesy, Dark Dust, Dark Tendrils, density, dust, Dust Bands, dust grains, dust lanes, emission, Emission Nebula, english, English Astronomer, entry, ESO, European, european southern observatory, fact, factory, field, Field Imager, French Astronomer Charles, fury, Fusion, Gas, gestation, gravity, hazy, heart, heat, hue, hydrogen, image, imager, John Herschel, June, kind, la silla observatory, life, light, matter, meter, meter telescope, mpg, Munich, name, nebula, nebulae, Neon, northern Chile, number, observations, observatory, patch, portion, Portrait, pressure, reflection, Reflection Nebula, round, sagittarius, scatter, signature, Silla, Smoldering, southern, southern observatory eso, spectrum, Stages Of A Star, star, Telescope, temperature, time, Trifid, Trifid Nebula, Trifid-born, trisect, Visible Spectrum, wide, world

Online poll for NASA’s greatest hits begins

April 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, April 15 (ANI): NASA is inviting the public to vote online for the most important contribution the space agency has made to exploring Earth and improving the way we live on our home planet.

NASA is conducting the survey as part of its celebration of Earth Day, April 22. Voting began on April 14, and would close on April 21.

Poll results will be announced on NASA’s Web site on Earth Day.

A 2008 National Research Council study identified major accomplishments resulting from Earth observations made from space.

The report, “Earth Observations from Space: The First 50 Years of Scientific Achievements,” cataloged scientific discoveries and practical applications, including many that resulted from NASA missions, made possible from satellite observations.

NASA selected 10 candidates highlighted in the study for consideration as the greatest achievements about planet Earth.

The options include diagnosing Earth’s ozone layer, predicting food shortages and tracking ecosystems worldwide.

Visitors to the online polling site will be able to cast their votes for up to three candidate accomplishments.

Since the launch of the United States’ first satellite in January 1958, NASA has pioneered the exploration of our home planet from space.

With more than a dozen observation satellites circling the globe, NASA continues to advance the frontiers of scientific discovery about Earth, its climate and its future. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: achievements, agency, ANI, April, April 14, candidate, celebration, Circling The Globe, climate, consideration, contribution, Council, day, discovery, dozen, Earth, Earth Day, Earth Day April 22, Earth Observations, exploration, food, food shortages, globe, home, home planet, January, launch, layer, NASA, NASA missions, national, National Research Council, observation, Observation Satellites, observations, Online, ozone, Ozone Layer, part, planet, Planet Earth, poll, poll results, polling, practical applications, Public, report, Research, satellite, satellite observations, scientific, Scientific Discoveries, Scientific Discovery, site, space, space agency, study, survey, United States, voting, Washington, way, web, worldwide, Worldwide Visitors

Space rock detected ahead of collision with Earth

February 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Feb 20 (ANI): Scientists have, for the first time, detected a space rock ahead of a collision with Earth, watched it streak through the atmosphere, and then recovered pieces of it.

An analysis of the meteorites could shed light on conditions in the early solar system more than 4 billion years ago.

When the asteroid, called 2008 TC3, was discovered on 6 October last year, it was just 20 hours away from hitting Earth.

Though the warning period was short, it was the first time a space rock had been found before it impacted the planet.

Orbital calculations predicted the object would plunge into the atmosphere above Sudan at 0246 GMT on 7 October, and it arrived right on time.

Observations suggested it was no more than 5 meters across, too small to survive intact all the way to the ground and cause damage.

The brilliant fireball it made as it descended through the atmosphere was seen far in the distance by the crew of a KLM airliner, and was observed by various satellites, including a weather satellite called Meteosat-8.

Now, according to a report in New Scientist, a team of meteorite hunters has found fragments of the object.

The meteorites are a unique group in that they come from an object seen hurtling through space before its plunge into Earth’s atmosphere.

Students from the University of Khartoum found the first fragments, led by Dr Muawia Shaddad, using data provided by NASA to hone in on where fragments were likely to be found.

Lindley Johnson, head of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program office at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, DC, reported the find in Vienna, at a United Nations meeting discussing near-Earth object (NEO) impacts.

Donald Yeomans, who manages NASA’s efforts to find and track NEOs at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, confirmed that “quite a few” fragments have been found.

Before the fragments were found, meteorite expert Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario in Canada said that the asteroid was likely made of relatively weak material, given that 2008 TC3 broke up unusually quickly once it hit the atmosphere, exploding about 37 kilometers above ground.

According to researchers, the 2008 TC3 meteorites could be especially illuminating because the parent object was observed in space before the breakup, allowing scientists to calculate its former orbit around the Sun.

This provides precious information connecting the meteorites to their place of origin in the solar system. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: agency, airliner, Analysis, ANI, asteroid, atmosphere, breakup, California, Canada, collision, crew, damage, dc, distance, donald yeomans, Earth, expert, Feb, fireball, gmt, ground, group, head, headquarters, information, jet, johnson, jpl, khartoum, KLM, Laboratory, Lindley, London, material, meeting, meteorite, Meteosat, Muawia, NASA, near, neo, NEOs, New, object, observations, October, office, ontario, orbit, orbital, origin, parent, Pasadena, period, Peter Brown, place, planet, plunge, program, Propulsion, report, right, rock, satellite, scientist, Shaddad, space, streak, Sudan, Sun, system, team, time, united, University, Vienna, warning, Washington, way, weather, western, year

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee defends live coverage of Lok Sabha proceedings

January 7, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Jan.7 (ANI): Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee on Wednesday justified the live coverage of the proceedings of the Lok Sabha for public knowledge.

The Speaker said people had the right to know how their representatives act and behave inside the House.

“I think people have a right to know how their representatives act, behave and work inside the House,” said Somnath Chatterjee while stating that a section of the people think “different type of behaviour” of the MPs should not be shown on Lok Sabha TV.

The Speaker”s observations hold significance as they have come at a time when the recently-concluded session of Parliament had witnessed unruly scenes forcing the adjournment of the House on several occasions.

Addressing at a function held to inaugurate the Hindi website of the Lok Sabha, Chatterjee said: “Hindi was a major language used in Lok Sabha and 50 per cent of the people in India converse in Hindi, it was proper to have a separate Hindi website.”

The Speaker hoped that people would use the website to express their views on how the parliamentarians worked.

“I would not be here for long. But the feedback will be there on the website,” Somnath said in the wake of due General Elections this year and added that nobody else in the country represented people like Parliament. He said: “It is the most effective instrument of social changes.” (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: act, added, addressing, ANI, behave, behaviour, chatterjee, country, due, elections, feedback, forcing, function, held, hindi, hoped, house, inaugurate, India, instrument, jan, justified, knowledge, language, lok, mps, nobody, observations, occasions, parliament, Parliamentarians, people, proper, Representatives, sabha, scenes, section, session, several, shown, somnath, speaker, think, unruly, used, views, wake, website, witnessed, work

Black holes came before galaxies, say scientists

January 7, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

London, Jan 7 (ANI): In a new research, a team of scientists has claimed to have solved a cosmic chicken-ad-egg problem, by concluding that black holes came before galaxies.

According to a report in the Telegraph, this question has long preoccupied scientists, but new research focusing on the first billion years of the universe’s history, indicating that the black holes come first, helping to build galaxies by pulling material towards them.

“It looks like the black holes came first,” said Dr Chris Carilli, from the US National Radio Astronomy Observatory, who took part in the study. “The evidence is piling up,” he added.

Earlier studies had revealed an intriguing link between the masses of black holes and the central “bulges” of stars and gas in galaxies.

Generally, the black hole’s mass was seen to be about 1,000th that of the mass of the surrounding galactic bulge.

This indicated an “interactive relationship” between the black hole and the bulge. What was not clear was whether one grew before the other, or whether they grew together.

New radio telescope observations reaching back almost to the birth of the first galaxies may now have answered that question.

Radio waves received from these galaxies and travelling at the speed of light were emitted only about a billion years after the Big Bang which started the universe.

These young distant galaxies had much larger black holes in relation to their bulge mass than older and closer galaxies.

According to Fabian Walter of the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy (MPIfR) in Germany, “We finally have been able to measure black-hole and bulge masses in several galaxies seen as they were in the first billion years after the Big Bang, and the evidence suggests that the constant ratio seen nearby may not hold in the early Universe.”

“The black holes in these young galaxies are much more massive compared to the bulges than those seen in the nearby Universe,” he explained.

“The implication is that the black holes started growing first,” he added. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: according, added, ANI, answered, astronomy, bang, billion, birth, black, bulge, central, claimed, clear, compared, Earlier, evidence, fabian, focusing, galaxies, Germany, grew, growing, history, holes, implication, indicated, intriguing, larger, light, London, mass, massive, max-planck, nearby, observations, preoccupied, question, radio, Research, Scientists, several, stars, started, study, took, universe, waves, years, young

Milky Way has become a faster spinner, making it more massive

January 6, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 6 (ANI): In a new research, a team of scientists has determined that the Milky Way Galaxy is rotating about 100,000 miles per hour faster than previously understood, making it more massive with time.

According to Mark Reid, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, that increase in speed increases the Milky Way’s mass by 50 percent, bringing it even with the Andromeda Galaxy.

“No longer will we think of the Milky Way as the little sister of the Andromeda Galaxy in our Local Group family,” he said.

The larger mass, in turn, means a greater gravitational pull that increases the likelihood of collisions with the Andromeda galaxy or smaller nearby galaxies.

Our Solar System is about 28,000 light-years from the Milky Way’s center.

At that distance, the new observations indicate, our galaxy is moving at about 600,000 miles per hour in our Galactic orbit, up from the previous estimate of 500,000 miles per hour.

The scientists are using the National Science Foundation’s Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope to remake the map of the Milky Way.

Taking advantage of the VLBA’s unparalleled ability to make extremely detailed images, the team is conducting a long-term program to measure distances and motions in our Galaxy.

The scientists observed regions of prolific star formation across the Galaxy.

In areas within these regions, gas molecules are strengthening naturally-occuring radio emission in the same way that lasers strengthen light beams.

These areas, called cosmic masers, serve as bright landmarks for the sharp radio vision of the VLBA.

By observing these regions repeatedly at times when the Earth is at opposite sides of its orbit around the Sun, the astronomers can measure the slight apparent shift of the object’s position against the background of more-distant objects.

“The new VLBA observations of the Milky Way are producing highly-accurate direct measurements of distances and motions,” said Karl Menten of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, a member of the team.

The star-forming regions harboring the cosmic masers “define the spiral arms of the Galaxy,” according to Reid.

Measuring the distances to these regions thus provides a yardstick for mapping the Galaxy’s spiral structure.

“These direct measurements are revising our understanding of the structure and motions of our Galaxy,” Menten said. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: according, andromeda, ANI, areas, center, cosmic, direct, distances, formation, galaxy, Gas, highly-accurate, hour, increases, jan, light, likelihood, long-term, longer, map, masers, mass, measure, member, menten, miles, milky, motions, object, observations, orbit, per, previous, program, pull, radio, regions, reid, Scientists, serve, speed, spiral, star-forming, strengthen, structure, Sun, system, team, think, vlba

Immune molecule may reduce severity of multiple sclerosis

January 5, 2009 By Rajiv Gupta Leave a Comment

Washington, Jan 5 (ANI): Experiments on mice conducted at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have shown that an immune molecule called CXCL1 may help decreases the severity of multiple sclerosis-like disease.

Led by Dr. Cedric Raine, the study explored the expression of CXCL1 when it interacts with myelin-producing cells, and found that the severity of the disease is reduced in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS).

MS is an autoimmune disease, which attacks the central nervous system, resulting in demyelination of neurons. Myelin-producing cells in the central nervous system are severely depleted in lesions in patients with MS.

Although the role of CXCL1 in MS has not been previously explored, it’s known that myelin-producing cells express immune receptors and respond to the immune molecule CXCL1.

For the study, the researchers examined the effects of CXCL1 specifically expressed in the nervous system in a mouse model of MS.

They found that severity of disease was decreased, and remyelination in the mice was more pronounced.

Based on their observations, the researchers came to the conclusion that CXCL1 might ay play a neuroprotective role in CNS autoimmune demyelination.

The researchers are currently planning to find out how CXCL1 mediates protection in MS.

“Exploration of these pathways affords novel therapeutic avenues to enhance the limited remyelination typically seen in MS,” Science Daily quoted Raine as saying. (ANI)

Filed Under: Educational News, Health News Tagged With: albert, although, ANI, autoimmune, based, called, cells, central, conclusion, currently, cxcl1, decreases, demyelination, disease, enhance, examined, explored, Express, found, immune, jan, limited, medicine, mice, model, molecule, mouse, ms, multiple, myelin-producing, nervous, observations, patients, planning, previously, protection, quoted, raine, receptors, remyelination, researchers, resulting, role, sclerosis, severity, shown, study, system, therapeutic, typically

Study casts light on toxicity mechanism behind Parkinson”s disease

January 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, January 2 (ANI): Scientists at Emory University School of Medicine have announced the identification of a mechanism behind the development of clumps of aggregated proteins inside cells, a hallmark of Parkinson”s and other neurodegenerative diseases.

The researchers say that the build up of these clumps, also known as Lewy bodies, may be prevented by targeting a survival circuit called MEF2D, which is sensitive to the main component of Lewy bodies, a protein called alpha-synuclein.

Writing about their study in the journal Science, they have revealed that in cell cultures and animal models of Parkinson”s, an accumulation of alpha-synuclein interferes with the cell”s recycling of MEF2D, leading to cell death.

The team have found that MEF2D is especially abundant in the brains of people with Parkinson”s.

“We”ve identified what could be an important pathway for controlling cell loss and survival in Parkinson”s disease,” says senior author Dr. Zixu Mao, associate professor of pharmacology at Emory University School of Medicine.

He says that future studies may lead to the identification of effective drugs to regulate MEF2D, allowing brain cells to survive toxic stresses that impair protein recycling.

While most Parkinson’s cases do not have any obvious genetic cause, some inherited forms of the disease may be linked to mutations in the gene for alpha-synuclein or triplications of the gene, which cause the brain to produce either a toxic form of alpha-synuclein or more alpha-synuclein than normal.

“Somehow it”s toxic, but alpha-synuclein isn”t part of the cell”s machinery of death and survival,” Mao says.

During their study, Mao and his colleagues found that mice that artificially overproduce alpha-synuclein had elevated levels of apparently inactive MEF2D in their brains.

The researchers also observed that MEF2D protein levels were higher in the brains of Parkinson”s patients than in controls.

Based on their observations, they came to the conclusion that following the influence of alpha-synuclein on MEF2D may be a way to connect the various genetic and environmental risk factors for Parkinson”s.

“It may be that various stresses impact MEF2D in different ways. We think this work provides an explanation that ties several important observations together,” he says. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: alpha-synuclein, ANI, based, bodies, brains, called, cell, clumps, conclusion, controls, death, disease, emory, form, found, gene, genetic, hallmark, identification, important, lead, levels, lewy, loss, machinery, mao, medicine, mef2d, normal, observations, overproduce, parkinson, pathway, patients, people, protein, provides, recycling, researchers, school, stresses, study, survival, targeting, ties, toxic, University, various, we''ve, zixu

Hurricane-sized whirlpools spotted on the Sun

October 7, 2008 By admin Leave a Comment

London, Oct 7: Hurricane-sized whirlpools have been spotted spiralling on the surface of the Sun, confirming theories about how material convects in the Sun’s roiling outer layers.

The scalding soup of charged particles, or plasma, in the outer 30 percent of the Sun is thought to rise and fall in churning cells, like macaroni bobbing in a pot of boiling water.

After the hot material rises, it releases energy and falls downwards. Because it already has some sideways motion, this cooler plasma should spiral into the Sun as it falls – like water running down a bathtub drain.

But, observations over the past two decades have failed to spot these small whirlpools, which require a very high resolution to detect.

So, Jose Bonet of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain and colleagues went looking for the patterns using the Swedish 1-m Solar Telescope, which can observe details as small as 90 kilometers across.

According to a report in New Scientist, the team tracked bright spots produced by moving plasma. The spots showed a swirling pattern about the size of a hurricane on Earth.

After further observation, the team found 138 of these whirlpools, each of which survived for only 5 minutes before disappearing. (ANI)

Filed Under: Technology News Tagged With: 5 minutes before disappearing, Astrofísica, cooler plasma, material rises, observations, releases energy, Science News, Spain, sun whirlpools, surface of the Sun, Swedish, the team found 138 of these whirlpools, urvived for only 5 minutes, whirlpools, whirlpools spotted

NASA spacecraft all set explore the dynamic interactions in outer solar system

October 7, 2008 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Oct 7: The first NASA spacecraft to image and map the dynamic interactions taking place where the hot solar wind slams into the cold expanse of space in the outer solar system, is ready for launch on October 19.

The two-year mission will begin from the Kwajalein Atoll, a part of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

Called the Interstellar Boundary Explorer or IBEX, the spacecraft will conduct extremely high-altitude orbits above Earth to investigate and capture images of processes taking place at the farthest reaches of the solar system.

Known as the interstellar boundary, this region marks where the solar system meets interstellar space.

“The interstellar boundary regions are critical because they shield us from the vast majority of dangerous galactic cosmic rays, which otherwise would penetrate into Earth’s orbit and make human spaceflight much more dangerous,” said David J. McComas, IBEX principal investigator and senior executive director of the Space Science and Engineering Division at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.

The story of the outer solar system began to unfold when the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecrafts left the inner solar system and headed out toward the boundary between our solar system and interstellar space.

“The Voyager spacecraft are making fascinating observations of the local conditions at two points beyond the termination shock that show totally unexpected results and challenge many of our notions about this important region,” said McComas.

Other spacecraft have continued the exploration of the interstellar boundary region.

Recently, a pair of NASA sun-focused satellites, the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory mission, detected a higher-energy version of the particles IBEX will observe in the heliosphere.

The heliosphere is an area that contains the solar wind. It stretches from the sun to a distance several times the orbit of Pluto.

IBEX is poised to thoroughly map this interstellar boundary region of the solar system.

The images will allow scientists to understand the global interaction between our sun and the galaxy for the very first time.

IBEX will be launched aboard a Pegasus rocket dropped from under the wing of an L-1011 aircraft flying over the Pacific Ocean. The Pegasus will carry the spacecraft approximately 130 miles above Earth and place it in orbit. (ANI)

Filed Under: Technology News Tagged With: ANI, David J. McComas, Earth, first NASA, galaxy for the very first time, IBEX will be launched aboard, Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands, NASA spacecraft, observations, October, orbit, Pacific Ocean, Pegasus rocket, place it in orbit, ready for launch, solar system, solar system meets interstellar space, Solar Terrestrial Relations, sun-focused satellites, two-year mission, Voyager spacecraft, Washington