NEWSNOTES

Getting a Feel for Braille

Perihelion distance (AU)

1.4

1.2

1.0

0.8

In a plan both daring and daunting, NASAs Deep

Space 1 flew past minor planet 9969 Braille on July
29th at 4:46 Universal Time. The ion-propelled spacecraft used an autonomous navigation system intended
to maneuver it to within about 15 kilometers of the asteroid the closest interplanetary flyby ever attempted. Disaster was narrowly averted just 16 hours before
the encounter when an emergency electronic shutdown
occurred onboard. Marc Rayman (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), the missions chief engineer, lauded his teams
heroic recovery of the spacecraft during the crisis.
Final commands were beamed up just 4 minutes before
the spacecraft wheeled out of contact with Earth to
close in on its target.
But hours later, as DS1 began to send back results, it
became obvious that
something had gone awry.
Orbital Evolution
Instead of seeing crisp
of 9969 Braille
images of the asteroids
surface, waiting scientists
saw star-specked black
sky. Flight controllers
speculate that the asteroid
proved too faint to be
tracked by DS1s camera
during the crucial final
20,000
Present +20,000
hour of the approach. But
Time (years)

they dont yet know how close the spacecraft came to

its target (the guess is 26 km) or where it was looking
when it zipped by at 1512 km per second.
Scientists may have been disappointed by not getting close-ups of Braille, but they are thrilled with the
spacecrafts high-quality spectra of the asteroid. A
dozen near-infrared signatures, acquired 17 minutes
after the problematic flyby, show that Braille is a close
spectroscopic match for the large, basalt-covered asteroid 4 Vesta. Its astounding and very surprising, exclaims Robert M. Nelson (JPL), who heads the science
team. Vesta lies deep in the asteroid belt, and planetary
astronomers have long wondered how basaltic meteorites (presumably blasted from Vestas surface) manage to reach Earth. The similarity of Earth-approaching Braille to Vesta hints that the former may have
been knocked from the latter or from an even larger precursor. Over time Braille then migrated into an
orbit susceptible to the gravitational influence of
Jupiter and was eventually flung in Earths general direction. A picture may be worth a thousand words,
notes Nelson, but in this case a spectrum is worth a
thousand pictures.
That sentiment is especially true for Julys encounter,
since the spacecraft returned only two images showing
any surface detail at all. As suspected, Braille is a very
Above left: Asteroid 9969 Braille is not a threat to us now (red
cross), but in roughly 4,000 years it will become an Earthcrossing object. Courtesy Gerhard J. Hahn (DLR/Institute of
Space Sensor Technology and Planetary Exploration).

T + 914 s

T + 932 s

Composite

Swallowed-Up Solar Systems?

Two astronomers at the Space Telescope Science Institute see the
signs of bygone planets and substellar brown dwarfs in the spectra
of numerous red-giant stars. Inspired by studies of planetary-nebula
evolution, Lionel Siess and Mario Livio assessed how a stars atmosphere would change if it swallowed up a massive planet or brown
dwarf. Siess and Livio conclude that the newly gained material could
fuel additional nuclear fusion at the base of the aged stars convective zone, measurably enhancing its atmospheric lithium content.
Between 4 and 8 percent of G- and K-type giants have unusually
high lithium abundances in their spectra, the scientists report in the
April 21st Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The implication that a like percentage of Sun-like stars is accompanied
by substantial planets is supported by two independent lines of
evidence: radial-velocity surveys (S&T: March 1998, page 30) and
studies of planetary nebulae (S&T: November 1997, page 20).

28

October 1999 Sky & Telescope

Left: Deep Space 1s Miniature Integrated Camera Spectrometer (MICAS) recorded two images of asteroid 9969 Braille
from a distance of 14,500 kilometers, about 914 and 932 seconds after passing by at close range. The pair have been
combined into the slightly sharper composite view. The Sun
is illuminating Braille from the bottom. Note the irregular,
elongated shape. Courtesy NASA/JPL/Caltech.

irregular, elongated body, 2.2 by 1.0 km in size. The

vague outlines hint that Braille might be a loose assemblage of two or more large chunks. DS1s plasma detector, which worked flawlessly despite the pointing problems, recorded no unusual ion or electron populations
in the asteroids vicinity.
As the first undertaking of NASAs New Millennium
program, DS1 was built primarily to test 12 cuttingedge technologies, including autonavigation and a
propulsion system powered by xenon ions. All of those
test objectives have been met, but the project team
hopes to gain an extension of the mission beyond its
planned conclusion on September 18th. Toward that
end DS1s ion engine will be firing almost continuously
throughout August, September, and October. The resulting gradual course change will allow flybys of the
enigmatic comet-turned-asteroid 4015 Wilson-Harrington in January 2001 and of the effusive Comet 19P/
Borrelly in nine months later.

1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

51 km
Terraces

Floor

Terraces

Lunar
Prospector

6.3

1.2 km
4.8 km

Lunar Prospectors Flashy Finale

Throughout its 18 12-month mission,
NASAs Lunar Prospector spacecraft was a
constant demonstration of substance over
style. The craft cost just $63 million to
build and launch into lunar orbit, yet its
five instruments provided much new data
about the Moons composition, internal
structure, and magnetic fields. In particular, results from its neutron spectrometer
led project scientists to conclude, circumstantially, that up to 300 million tons of
water ice may lie hidden in the polar
shadows (S&T: September 1998, page 48,
and December 1998, page 32).
Even though Lunar Prospector had
enough fuel to operate for another eight
months, the mission came to a spectacular close in the wee hours of July 31st.
Dutifully responding to radioed commands, the spacecraft fired its engines to
drop from orbit and slammed into an
unnamed, 51-kilometer-wide crater near
the Moons south pole. The end came at
9:52 Universal Time, 570 days into the
mission. Orbital geometry dictated that
the crash occur as Lunar Prospector
traveled over the Moons far side and just

S
5
7.

90E

90W

out of view from Earth. I think weve

hit, announced flight director Alan
Binder (Lunar Research Institute) when
the spacecrafts radio signal failed to
reappear. The only question is where.
The flashy finale was the brainchild of
aeronautical engineer David B. Goldstein
(University of Texas). He reasoned that
crashing the 160-kilogram spacecraft at
1.7 km per second into a permanently
shadowed crater floor would propel dust
and water vapor skyward as an expanding cloud that might be detectable from
Earth. If the crater floor contains 2 percent ice, as the neutron data suggest,
Goldstein calculated that up to 18 kg of
ice might be vaporized. Once exposed to
space, the hot gas would expand and
disperse quickly. Most of it would soon
be dissociated by sunlight into hydrogen
and hydroxyl (OH), which have strong
spectral signatures.
But seeing clear evidence for water
was always considered a long shot. As
Goldstein and his team noted in the
June 15th issue of Geophysical Research
Letters, This is, admittedly, a high-risk
experiment for which
only a positive result has
definite meaning. The
odds of success were not
helped by unfavorable
Earth-Moon geometry, as
observers contended with
a dazzling gibbous disk
and a poor libration that
tipped the south polar
area 3 away from Earth.
The telescopes considered most likely to detect

South
pole

50 km
180

No debris cloud was evident to ground-based

telescopes when Lunar Prospector ended its
mission as a cosmic projectile. The lack of a
visible plume strengthens the case that the
spacecraft did indeed hit within the 4.8-kmdeep target crater. Courtesy NASA/Ames Research Center.

water were in orbit: the Hubble Space

Telescope looked for OH radicals at the
ultraviolet wavelength of 3085
angstroms, and the Submillimeter Wave
Astronomy Satellite searched for neutral
water molecules at 538 microns. Ironically, the impact was timed so HST
could watch it but this meant that
SWAS would be on the far side of Earth
and unable to see the Moon until 30
minutes after the crash. Edwin S. Barker
(University of Texas), who coordinated
the observations, reports that neither
satellite recorded anything obvious,
though it may be weeks before the data
can be assessed fully. Moreover, although more than 20 ground-based observatories from Hawaii to the Canary
Islands monitored the July 31st event,
none of them reported seeing the crafts
short-lived dust pyre.
Adding to the missions dramatic end,
Lunar Prospector carried ashes from astronomer-geologist Eugene Shoemaker.
After his death in 1997, Carolyn C.
Porco (University of Arizona) quietly
arranged for a 1-ounce polycarbonate
vial containing some of Shoemakers
cremated remains to be carried aboard
the spacecraft. The vial was expected to
pulverize on impact. I was watching the
Moon when Gene arrived, Porco says. I
had a very warm sense that Now everythings right with the cosmos.
Astronomers tasked with naming
lunar features have recommended that
the target crater be named Shoemaker,
and the International Astronomical
Union is now considering that proposal.
Protocol stipulates that feature names be
assigned at least three years after a persons death, but members of the IAUs
Working Group for Planetary System
Nomenclature may opt to waive that
rule and adopt the influential scientists
name immediately.

If Lunar Prospector crashed as planned, it struck the floor of an unnamed

crater (87.7 S, 42.1 E) at a shallow angle. This radar map, acquired using the
Goldstone 70-meter radar dish in California, shows details in the floors of
craters near the pole that are actually in perpetual shadow; blank dark areas
including the impact site cannot be seen from Earth. Courtesy Jean-Luc
Margot (NAIC) and David Goldstein (University of Texas).

1999 Sky Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.

Sky & Telescope October 1999

29