Mission update, September 2006

FUSE satellite solves 30-year old deuterium mystery ... and finds another

In the 1970s, NASA's Copernicus satellite found deuterium distribution in the Milky Way galaxy to be patchy and there was no explanation as to why deuterium levels vary from one place to another. A theory was put forward in 2003 that new data from NASA's FUSE satellite strongly supports. Deuterium, compared to hydrogen, seems to bind preferentially to interstellar dust grains, changing from an easily detectable gaseous form to an unobservable solid form. But the FUSE team has found far more deuterium elsewhere than expected. This is the new mystery. More...

Mission update, March 2006

Canadian-built cameras help NASA's ultraviolet satellite return to operations

FUSE had a near-death experience in December 2004 when a third of four onboard reaction wheels stopped spinning, depriving the satellite of stability and fine-pointing capacity. FUSE now operates using onboard magnetometers and its Canadian-built Fine Error Sensor cameras to measure drift rates after slews. Such functions were never intended for these components in the original design, but the satellite now operates at original efficiency levels. More...

A space telescope seeks to discover what happened in the first minutes following the Big Bang

Astronomers have been observing the Universe for centuries. In the past, they could only study visible light with the naked eye. With increasingly sophisticated telescopes, they could observe a much broader portion of the electromagnetic spectrum-beyond what the human eye can see. This spectrum includes everything from X-rays and radio waves to infrared and ultraviolet radiation.  These other wavelengths reveal a lot about the universe. Starting from this principle, a number of international partners, including Canada, France, and the United States, have joined forces to create the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) Telescope. Their aim? To discover our cosmic origins.

Whirlpool Galaxy  (Photo: Hubble Space Telescope, NASA and the European Space Agency)

With its high sensitivity and great powers of resolution, unequalled at the time of its design, FUSE is providing Canadian astronomers with new perspectives. They can now explore many unanswered questions: What were the conditions like in the first few minutes after the Big Bang? How are the chemical elements dispersed throughout galaxies, and how does this affect the way galaxies evolve? What are the properties of interstellar gas clouds out of which stars and our solar system form?

FUSE is orbiting 775 km above Earth. Its ground receiving station is located in Puerto Rico. One orbit takes 100 minutes.

The FUSE science team is addressing these questions by studying deuterium, an extremely rare gas. This heavy form of hydrogen was a direct product of the Big Bang. Astronomers believe that traces of deuterium in the universe are decreasing over time, but they don't know how fast, and how much deuterium has already disappeared.

Magellanic Clouds  (Photo: Hubble Space Telescope, ESA, NASA)

FUSE being prepared for launch	Canada's Lead Scientist is John Hutchings of the National Research Council of Canada's the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics. The mission's Principal Investigator is Warren Moos of Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.	FUSE, a NASA satellite constructed in cooperation with France and Canada as part of the Origins program, was launched on June 24, 1999, from Cape Canaveral.

FUSE ready to be launched at Cape Canaveral.

FUSE is looking for traces of deuterium near the Sun and in the gas clouds of the Milky Way and distant galaxies. By measuring the amount of deuterium in interstellar clouds relative to known quantities of hydrogen and other chemical elements, astronomers will be able to estimate how much deuterium has been destroyed since the Big Bang.

FUSE mission logo

Canada's contribution to the FUSE mission is crucial. We supplied the fine error sensors (FES)-basically the "eyes" of the spacecraft. This technology provides the highly accurate images of stars that serve as reference points to direct and stabilize the satellite platform. With them, FUSE makes extremely sharp scientific observations. In 2003, the FUSE mission was extended so we can receive more novel and fascinating data!

FUSE is an orbiting telescope jointly run by NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, and the Centre national d'études spatiales, in Toulouse, France. Canada contributed the Fine Error Sensor camera system for tracking the telescope; it was built by COM DEV with technical advice and design work from the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics in Victoria, B.C. FUSE partners also include Honeywell Technical Services Inc., the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Orbital Sciences Corporation.