[Launch Alert] Vandenberg AFB Launch Schedule
Launch Alert
launch-alert at mailman.qth.net
Sun Jan 15 15:30:09 EST 2012
LAUNCH ALERT
Brian Webb
Ventura County, California
launch-alert-editor at earthlink.net
www.spacearchive.info
2012 January 15 (Sunday) 12:01 PST
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VANDENBERG AFB LAUNCH SCHEDULE
As of 2012 January 14
Launch
Time/Window
Date (PST/PDT) Vehicle Pad/Silo
-------- ----------------- ------------- --------
FEB 25 To be announced Minuteman III ---
The vehicle will probably send an unarmed warhead on a ballistic
trajectory to the central Pacific. The Defense Department will release
the launch window and other details a few days in advance
MAR 29 To be announced Delta IV SLC-6
Vehicle will launch the classified NROL-25 payload for the U.S.
National Reconnaissance Office
AUG To be announced Atlas V SLC-3E
Vehicle will launch the classified NROL-36 payload for the U.S.
National Reconnaissance Office
The above schedule is a composite of unclassified information
approved for public release from government, industry, and other
sources. It represents the Editor's best effort to produce a schedule,
but may disagree with other sources. Details on military launches are
withheld until they are approved for public release. For official
information regarding Vandenberg AFB activities, go to
http://www.vandenberg.af.mil.
All launch dates and times are given in Pacific Time using a 24-hour
format similar to military time (midnight = 00:00, 1:00 p.m. = 13:00,
11:00 p.m. = 23:00, etc.).
The dates and times in this schedule may not agree with those on other
online launch schedules, including the official Vandenberg AFB
schedule because different sources were used, the information was
interpreted differently, and the schedules were updated at different
times.
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KEEPING AN EYE ON THE UNIVERSE
University of Arizona News Release
2012 January 13
Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology and the
University of Arizona have released the largest data set ever
collected that documents the brightening and dimming of stars and
other celestial objects - 200 million in total.
The University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey keeps a watchful eye
on asteroids that might cross the Earth's path. A byproduct of that
effort is the largest database compiling the brightnesses of 200
million objects in the universe, including supernovae and stars torn
up by super-massive black holes.
The night sky is filled with objects such as asteroids that dash
across the sky and others - such as exploding stars and variable
stars - that flash, dim, and brighten. Studying such phenomena can
help astronomers better understand the evolution of stars, massive
black holes in the centers of galaxies, and the structure of the Milky
Way.
These types of objects also were essential for the recent discovery of
dark energy - the mysterious energy that dominates the expansion of
the universe - that earned last year's Nobel Prize.
Using images obtained by the UA's asteroid-hunting Catalina Sky
Survey, the Catalina Real-Time Transient Survey, or CRTS, lets
CalTech astronomers systematically scan the heavens for these dynamic
objects, resulting in an unprecedented data set that will allow
scientists worldwide to pursue new research.
"Exploring variable objects and transient phenomena like stellar
explosions is one of the most vibrant and growing research areas in
astrophysics," said S. George Djorgovski, professor of astronomy at
Caltech and principal investigator on the CRTS. "In many cases, this
yields unique information needed to understand these objects."
The new data set is based on observations taken with the 0.7-meter
telescope on Mt. Bigelow in Arizona. The observations were part of the
Catalina Sky Survey, a search for Near-Earth Objects, or NEOs -
asteroids that may pose a threat to Earth - conducted by astronomers
at the UA.
By repeatedly taking pictures of large swaths of the sky and comparing
these images to previous ones, the CRTS is able to monitor the
brightness of about half-billion objects, allowing it to search for
those that dramatically brighten or dim. In this way, the CRTS team
identified tens of thousands of variables, maximizing the science that
can be gleaned from the original data.
The new data set contains the so-called brightness histories of a
total of 200 million stars and other objects, incorporating more than
20 billion independent measurements.
"This set of objects is an order of magnitude larger than the largest
previously available data sets of their kind," said Andrew Drake, a
staff scientist at Caltech and lead author on a poster presented at
the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin on Jan. 12.
"It will enable many interesting studies by the entire astronomical
community."
One of the unique features of the survey, Drake said, is that it
emphasizes an open-data philosophy. "We discover transient events and
publish them electronically in real time, so that anyone can follow
them and make additional discoveries."
"It is a good example of scientific-data sharing and reuse,"
Djorgovski added. "We hope to set an example of how data-intensive
science should be done in the 21st century."
The data set includes more than 1,000 exploding stars called
supernovae, including many unusual and novel types, as well as
hundreds of so-called cataclysmic variables, pairs of stars in which
one spills matter onto another, called a white dwarf; tens of
thousands of other variable stars; and dwarf novae, which are binary
stars that dramatically change in brightness.
"We take hundreds of images every night from each of our telescopes as
we search for hazardous asteroids," said Edward Beshore, principal
investigator of the UA's asteroid-hunting CSS. "As far back as 2005,
we were asking if these data could be useful to the community of
astronomers. We are delighted that we could forge this partnership. In
my estimation, it has been a great success and is a superb example of
finding ways to get greater value from taxpayers' investments in basic
science."
The team said it soon plans to release additional data taken with a
1.5-meter telescope on Mt. Lemmon in Arizona and a 0.5-meter telescope
in Siding Spring in Australia.
In addition to Djorgovski, Drake and Beshore, the team includes staff
scientist Ashish Mahabal, computational scientist Matthew Graham,
postdoctoral scholar Ciro Donalek and research scientist Roy Williams
from Caltech.
Researchers from other institutions include Steve Larson, Andrea
Boattini, Alex Gibbs, Al Grauer, Rik Hill and Richard Kowalski from
the UA; Mauricio Catelan from Universidad Catholica in Chile; Eric
Christensen from the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii; and Jose Prieto
from Princeton University.
The Caltech research is supported by the National Science Foundation.
The work done at the UA is supported by NASA.
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TIME FORMAT
All times in this newsletter are given in Pacific Time using a 24-hour
format based on military time. Under this system, regular time is
expressed as follows:
24-hour
Regular Time Format
--------------------- -------
12:00 a.m. (midnight) 00:00
6:00 a.m. 06:00
12:00 p.m. (noon) 12:00
6:00 p.m. 18:00
No distinction is made between Pacific Standard Time and Pacific
Daylight Time.
For assistance in converting military time to regular time, go to:
www.spacearchive.info/military.htm
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