nevrfail:

Ice prospecting robotic rover books a ticket for the Moon

While the Moon may or may not contain life forms, precious metals or even green cheese, recent satellite missions have indicated that it does nonetheless contain something that could prove quite valuable – water ice. NASA has estimated that at least 650 million tons (600 million tonnes) of the stuff could be deposited in craters near the Moon’s north pole alone. If mined, it could conceivably serve as a source of life support for future lunar bases, or it could be used to produce fuel for spacecraft stopping at a “lunar gas station.” Before any mining can happen, however, we need to learn more about the ice. That’s why NASA has contracted Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technology to determine if its Polaris rover robot could be used for ice prospecting. Read More www.neverfail.co

ginnysgirl:

Earth From Mars by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

romeitoiumono:

…don’t ever forget that!

And don’t say “I’ll never be good”. You can become better! and one day you’ll wake up and you’ll find out how good you actually became.

?Neil deGrasse Tyson?

npr:

fromageetalpinisme:

Space shuttle flying over DC this morning.

The Space Shuttle taken from the roof of the NPR headquarters. -Savy

ikenbot:

The Tale Continues..

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

The brightly reflective moon Enceladus appears before Saturn’s rings while the larger moon Titan looms in the distance.

Jets of water ice and vapor emanating from the south pole of Enceladus (hinting at subsurface sea rich in organics), and liquid hydrocarbons ponding on the surface on the surface of Titan make these two of the most fascinating moons in the Saturnian system. See A Tale of Two Moons to learn more about these fascinating moons.

This gimballing rig was designed to test astronauts’ ability to right a tumbling aircraft. It’s formally called MASTIF or Multiple Axis Space Test Inertia Facility and it’s pictured operating in the Altitude Wind Tunnel at the (then) Lewis Research Center.

It was designed as part of the Mercury program.

NEW HORIZONS: SLEEPING AT 34,000 MILES PER HOUR

It’s sleeping, and only about the size of a piano. Yet it’s careening to the edge of our Solar System at an awesome 34,000 miles per hour. It’s the New Horizons spacecraft, covering nearly a million kilometers a day, on a historic voyage to Pluto — ‘asleep’ in a state of hibernation to conserve energy.

In fact — besides setting the record for the fastest launch speed of a man-made object (36,373 mph) — New Horizons is breaking a new record every second. Since December 2nd, 2011, it’s been the closest spacecraft to approach Pluto (when it passed a previous mark set by Voyager 1 in January 1986). So every moment it travels, it sets a new mark for nearest approach.

<full article>

moderation:

Is This Proof of Life on Mars?

—

The Curiosity rover is currently on its way to Mars, scheduled to make a dramatic landing within Gale Crater in mid-August and begin its hunt for the geologic signatures of a watery, life-friendly past. Solid evidence that large volumes of water existed on Mars at some point would be a major step forward in the search for life on the Red Planet.

But… has it already been found? Some scientists say yes.

Researchers from universities in Los Angeles, California, Tempe, Arizona and Siena, Italy have published a paper in the International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences (IJASS) citing the results of their work with data obtained by NASA’s Viking mission.

The team’s paper can be found here.

(via universetoday)

angwe:

(via APOD: 2012 April 6 – Venus and the Sisters)

Venus here is in conjunction with the Pleiades. The diffraction spikes are from the shape of the aperture of the lens used for the shot.

Image Credit & Copyright: Fred Espenak (Bifrost Astronomical Observatory)

Also, the observatory is named “Bifrost”. I wonder if it’s on a rainbow bridge.

Hubble Peers Deeply into the Eagle Nebula

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has once more turned its attention towards the magnificent Eagle Nebula (Messier 16). This picture shows the northwestern part of the region, well away from the centre, and features some very bright young stars that formed from the same cloud of material. These energetic toddlers are part of an open cluster and emit ultraviolet radiation that causes the surrounding nebula to glow.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

beyond-the-horizons:

Io: Moon Over Jupiter 

http://apod.nasa.gov

the-star-stuff:

What Space Looks Like to Kids

It’s great to see how the kids pictured out the “Space.” Don’t forget to view the whole gallery here. 

Images: Space Foundation

Early NACA human computers at work

by Euclid vanderKroew

The women of the Computer Department at NACA [National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics] High-Speed Flight Research Station are shown busy with test flight calculations.

The computers under the direction of Roxanah Yancey were responsible for accurate calculations on the research test flights made at the Station. There were no mechanical computers at the station in 1949, but data was reduced by human computers.

Shown in this photograph starting at the left are: Geraldine Mayer and Mary (Tut) Hedgepeth with Friden calculators on the their desks; Emily Stephens conferring with engineer John Mayer; Gertrude (Trudy) Valentine is working on an oscillograph recording reducing the data from a flight. Across the desk is Dorothy Clift Hughes using a slide rule to complete data calculations. Roxanah Yancey completes the picture as she fills out engineering requests for further data.

This image was captured on 1 October 1949.

Image Credit: NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (NASA-DFRC) [Source]

ennieox:

_{Images from Mars Odyssey}

On 7 April 2001, Mars Odyssey was launched as part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program.

It has mapped the amount and distribution of chemical elements and minerals that make up the martian surface, monitored atmospheric and landing conditions on Mars, as well as served as a communications relay with other robotic explorers.

itsfullofstars:

Villain in disguise: Jupiter’s role in impacts on Earth

Jupiter is often credited for shielding Earth from catastrophic asteroid and comet impacts. But new simulations of the influence of gas giant planets in solar systems casts doubt on Jupiter’s reputation as Earth’s protector.

Keep reading.

spacettf:

Panoramic Rings by oursolarsystem on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
Date: 12 Dec 2004

Saturn’s most prominent feature, its dazzling ring system, takes center stage in this stunning natural color mosaic which reveals the color and diversity present in this wonder of the solar system. Gaps, gravitational resonances and wave patterns are all present, and the delicate color variations across the system are clearly visible.

This mosaic of six images covers a distance of approximately 62,000 km along the ring plane, from a radius of 74,565 km to 136,780 km (46,333 to 84,991 miles) from the planet’s center.

This view is from Cassini’s vantage point beneath the ring plane. The rings are tilted away from Cassini at an angle of about 4 degrees.

Images taken using red, green and blue spectral filters were used to create this natural color mosaic. The images were acquired using the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 12, 2004, at a distance of approximately 1.8 million km (1.1 million miles). The image scale is 10.5 km (6.5 miles) per pixel.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

via gizmodo.com
The Texas tornadoes were insanely powerful, tossing flatbed trucks…

Planet Mercury Even Weirder Than We Thought

By Adam Mann, Wired Science

New data suggests that Mercury has undergone much more dynamic processes than previously believed and that its core is unlike any of the other rocky planets in our solar system.

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft, which has been in orbit around the solar system’s smallest and innermost planet for just over a year, has beamed back plenty of surprises for scientists here on Earth.

“I thought the surface of Mercury would turn out to be complex and the interior simple,” said planetary scientist Maria Zuber of MIT, who is a member of the MESSENGER team and co-author of two new papers on the planet that appear March 21 in Science. “Instead, our data has been such a surprise that we kept thinking we were interpreting it wrong.”

Mercury’s tiny size and heavily cratered surface suggested that the planet cooled into an inert lump soon after its formation 4.5 billion years ago. The two new papers show that the planet had active geologic and tectonic processes occurring until at least the planet’s middle age, around 2 billion years ago.

Here, Wired takes a look at some of the weirdest new findings of what is turning out to be a strange little world.

Read More at  Wired Science

theatlantic:

“If the Dinosaurs Had a Space Program They’d Still Be Here”: NASA Astronaut does Reddit AMA 

Being an astronaut isn’t what it used to be. At least not in the case of NASA space-traveler Ron Garan. Garan is an astronaut 2.0 — not a distant hero but a connected one, putting modern social media to use in telling his story about what it’s like to travel in Earth’s orbit. While circling the Earth last year, Garan, or @Astro_Ron as we call him here at The Atlantic, tweeted pictures of his five-month adventure on the International Space Station, keeping his tens of thousands of Twitter followers up to date on the views outside his space-station window. Now, in another social-media foray, Garan took to Reddit yesterday, in a late-night “ask me anything” session, which has garnered more than 4,000 comments.

Read more.

thisistheverge:

‘The Idea Factory’: How Bell Labs invented the future | The Verge

Last fall, in an essay titled “Innovation Starvation,” sci-fi novelist Neal Stephenson lamented the decline of the American space program. He recalled the awe and wonder he felt growing up, sitting in front of grainy black-and-white images of the Gemini missions. And he explained the great disappointment he felt at witnessing the final Space Shuttle launch. To him, NASA’s move away from manned space exploration represented something larger, what he called “our far broader inability as a society to execute on the big stuff.” Raised on mid-twentieth century techno-optimism, he grew up with big expectations for the future: space stations and vacations on Mars. Not only had those dreams failed to materialize, he said, but no one seemed to be dreaming them anymore. Read on!

Jonathan Haidt on the moral roots of liberals and conservatives

Psychologist Jonathan Haidt studies the five moral values that form the basis of our political choices, whether we’re left, right or center. In this eye-opening talk, he pinpoints the moral values that liberals and conservatives tend to honor most.

Jonathan Haidt studies how — and why — we evolved to be moral. By understanding more about our moral roots, his hope is that we can learn to be civil and open-minded. His new book is “The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion.”

Fotini Markopoulou tells us that our best theories ulimately fail. How is quantum graviity different? Find out in this talk from Perimeter Institute’s Quantum to Cosmos: Ideas for the Future Festival in Waterloo, ON.

ikenbot:

Dazzling City Lights of Dubai Seen From Space

A bustling metropolis in the heart of the United Arab Emirates lights up the night in this photo taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station.

The city of Dubai is the largest metropolitan area in the emirate of the same name. The region’s uniquely shaped island developments, framed by a bright lattice of orange lights, are clearly visible in this nighttime image taken from space.

Dubai is a popular photographic target for astronauts aboard the International Space Station because of the artificial archipelagos located just offshore in the Persian Gulf, NASA officials said in a statement. These attention-grabbing features were intentionally built so that the full design is only visible from a vantage point looking straight down, such as an airplane or an orbiting outpost in space.

The cluster of lights at the bottom right is the Palm Jumeira complex, which is still under development. The palm tree-shaped artificial archipelago consists of a crescent breakwater surrounding a trunk and 16 fronds.

Read Full Image Description

March 7, 2012 – Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson speaking at the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation hearing on Priorities, Plans and Progress of the Nation’s Space Program.

jtotheizzoe:

NASA’s Plan to Use Ion Thrusters to Lift Space Astronomy out of the Fog

Although space telescopes like the Hubble have great advantages over terrestrial installations (no light pollution, no pesky clouds), they still have to deal with some orbital obfuscation.

The inner planets of the solar system exist in a disk-shaped dust cloud made up of comet debris and various remnants of ancient collisions. This reflects light, and can interfere with deep-space telescopes. NASA is hoping to use these futuristic ion drive motors (called NEXT) to power future telescopes into orbits outside the dust.

This one’s been running for 40,000 hours straight. Welcome to the future.

(via NASA)

From my good friend and brother in science, Brandon Fibbs, this video, which  combines my favorite Kirk monologue and an inspiring montage of NASA images.

He says:

A tribute to the brave men and women of NASA — past, present and future — who daily exemplify Capt. Kirk’s bold exhortation: “Risk is our business!” No great objective is achieved without stumbles and sacrifice. A brief, selective look at where NASA has been and where it might be going. This video was inspired after attending William Shatner’s one-man Broadway show, “Shatner’s World,” in which I was struck by the virility of this particular speech.

ikenbot:

Saturn’s Icy Moon Dione Has Oxygen Atmosphere

A NASA spacecraft circling Saturn has discovered a wispy oxygen atmosphere on the ringed planet’s icy moon Dione, but you wouldn’t want to live there. For one thing, you wouldn’t be able to breathe — Dione’s atmosphere is 5 trillion times less dense than the air at Earth’s surface, scientists say.

Dione’s atmosphere was detected by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which spotted an ultra-thin layer of oxygen ions so sparse that it is equivalent to conditions 300 miles (480 kilometers) above Earth. On Dione, there is one oxygen ion for every 2,550 cubic feet (90,000 cubic meters), but it’s still enough to qualify as an atmosphere, Cassini mission scientists announced Friday (March 2).

“We now know that Dione, in addition to Saturn’s rings and the moon Rhea, is a source of oxygen molecules,” Cassini team member Robert Tokar of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, who led the new study, said in a statement. “This shows that molecular oxygen is actually common in the Saturn system and reinforces that it can come from a process that doesn’t involve life.”

Dione is one of Saturn’s smaller moons and is about 698 miles (1,123 km) wide. It orbits Saturn once every 2.7 days at a distance of about 234,000 miles (377,400 km) — roughly the same as that between Earth and its moon, according to a NASA description.

“Use them together. Use them in peace.”

maury-it:

A ‘Blue Tongue’ on Mercury (NASA, MESSENGER, 05/16/11) (di NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center)

Strange Fireballs Light Up February Skies

A strange breed of fireball is streaking through the skies this month, and NASA is urging folks on the ground to take notice.

February’s fireballs — a term that describes meteors that appear brighter in the sky than Venus — aren’t more numerous than normal, but their appearance and trajectory are odd, experts say.

“These fireballs are particularly slow and penetrating,” meteor expert Peter Brown, a physics professor at the University of Western Ontario, said in a statement. “They hit the top of the atmosphere moving slower than 15 kilometers per second [33,500 mph], decelerate rapidly and make it to within 50 kilometers [31 miles] of Earth’s surface.”

[Read the full article here]

You know when your parents tell you that you should get an education because “if you want to be an athlete and get hurt, then you’ll have something to fall back on”? It’s true. Leland was an NCAA Division I Academic All American who was drafted by the Detroit Lions in 1986, and ended his career a short time later during training camp in Dallas.

Mr. Melvin began working in the Fiber Optic Sensors group of the Nondestructive Evaluation Sciences Branch at NASA Langley Research Center in 1989, where he conducted research in the area of physical measurements for the development of advanced instrumentation for Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE). His responsibilities included using optical fiber sensors to measure strain, temperature, and chemical damage in both composite and metallic structures. Additional projects included developing optical interferometric techniques for quantitative determination of damage in aerospace structures and materials. In 1994, Mr. Melvin was selected to lead the Vehicle Health Monitoring (VHM) team for the cooperative Lockheed/NASA X-33 Reuseable Launch Vehicle (RLV) program. The team developed distributed fiber optic strain, temperature and hydrogen sensors for the reduction of vehicle operational costs and to monitor composite liquid oxygen tank and cryogenic insulation performance. In 1996, Mr. Melvin codesigned and monitored construction of an optical NDE facility capable of producing in-line fiber optic Bragg grating strain sensors at rates in excess of 1000 per hour. This facility will provide a means for performing advanced sensor and laser research for development of aerospace and civil health monitoring systems.

He’s also been into space. Twice. A veteran of two space flights, STS-122 in 2008, and STS-129 in 2009, Leland Melvin has logged over 565 hours in space.

He is currently the Associate Administrator inn the Office of Education at NASA.

He’s been a tremendous inspiration to me personally, and a man I’m proud to know.

moderation:

Planetary Landscapes

Sunset on Mars Sunset colors on Mars appear opposite of those typically seen on Earth. The central blue glow appears when the Martian atmosphere scatters the sunlight, the same phenomenon that makes the Earth’s sky blue. Powdery dust suspended in the atmosphere gives the rest of the sky a copper color. The Sun appears only about two-thirds the size that it does on the Earth.

(via New York Times)

Sheep in Wolf-Rayet’s Clothing: New Image of Planetary Nebula Hen 3-1333

A new image from the NASA Hubble Space Telescope shows planetary nebula Hen 3-1333. Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets — they actually represent the death throes of mid-sized stars like the sun. As they puff out their outer layers, large, irregular globes of glowing gas expand around them, which appeared planet-like through the small telescopes that were used by their first discoverers. The star at the heart of Hen 3-1333 is thought to have a mass of around 60% that of the sun, but unlike the sun, its apparent brightness varies substantially over time. Astronomers believe this variability is caused by a disc of dust which lies almost edge-on when viewed from Earth, which periodically obscures the star… [Read the full article here]

scienceisbeauty:

This is the first-ever map of the surface of an exoplanet, or a planet beyond our solar system. The map, which shows temperature variations across the cloudy tops of a gas giant called HD 189733b, is made from infrared data taken by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Hotter temperatures are represented in brighter colors.

Source: First Map of an Exoplanet Atmosphere, Spitzer Space Telescope

thiscircularparade:

Godspeed, John Glenn – Photographs from Friendship 7?s Historic Mission

akio:

(via Remembering Roger Boisjoly: He Tried To Stop Shuttle Challenger Launch : The Two-Way : NPR)

Roger Boisjoly was a booster rocket engineer at NASA contractor Morton Thiokol in Utah in January, 1986, when he and four colleagues became embroiled in the fatal decision to launch the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Boisjoly was also one of two confidential sources quoted by NPR three weeks later in the first detailed report about the Challenger launch decision, and the stiff resistance by Boisjoly and other Thiokol engineers.

The experience both haunted and inspired Boisjoly in the decades that followed. We learned this weekend from this story in The New York Times that Boisjoly died last month in Utah at age 73.

roguesquid:

RogueSquid says: “NASA has confirmed that the unbalanced climate is in fact from Humans (Anthropogenic) causes. The diagram I quickly put together is to represent the heat from the sun; the large arrows are what we are taking IN for heat, and the little arrows represent what our Ozone is releasing. Unfortunately, we are taking IN more heat than we are letting go. With our over abundance of CO₂ we are making it harder for the extra heat we DON’T need to leave, which is causing global warming. (:p Sorry for the silly diagram)”

mothernaturenetwork:

Mars-bound penny will keep things in perspective for Rover
The penny is intended to act as a scaling tool for any pictures that the Curiosity rover takes on the Red Planet.

Stylin’ fuel efficient airplanes of the future…
Image: Courtesy of NASA.

Stylin’ fuel efficient airplanes of the future…
Image: Courtesy of NASA.

Stylin’ fuel efficient airplanes of the future…
Image: Courtesy of NASA.

abluegirl:

NASA’s GRAIL mission has beamed back its first video of the far side of the moon. The imagery was taken on Jan. 19 by the MoonKAM aboard the mission’s ‘Ebb’ spacecraft.

discoverynews:

We’re Living in a Space Cloud

A NASA robotic probe sampling particles flowing into our solar system from the galactic neighborhood shows we’re living in a cloud — and likely to stay that way for hundreds or even thousands of years.

keep reading

ikenbot:

This Is NASA’s Cancer-Sniffing Cellphone Sensor

What if you could use your phone to test the air for toxins? What if you could monitor your health simply by blowing on it? Sounds amazing, right? Nanosensor technology developed by NASA Ames is going to make that a reality.

Jing Li, a scientist at NASA Ames, has been working for years on what will be the greatest phone accessory of all time. It’s a small chip (about the size of a postage stamp) that houses 32 nanosensor bars. Each bar is composed of a different nano-structure material. Because each sensor bar is unique it can respond to different chemicals in different ways, enabling it to not only differentiate between them, but also to monitor their relative levels, in real time.

In its current state (which is looking mighty close to production-ready), it’s housed in a small case that attaches to a smartphone. For legal reasons they wouldn’t say which smartphone it’s built to attach to, but you can probably guess. Eventually, it will be built to attach to many other popular models. The idea is to develop a low-cost version so that consumers can afford to have them for health and safety applications. But let’s back up a second.

This nanosensor technology was originally developed by NASA Ames for space applications. This is NASA, after all. The first usage was monitoring for fuel leaks around launch vehicles. They’ve been on the International Space Station since 2008, monitoring air-quality and checking for formaldehyde in the air. Future applications could include taking samples on asteroids and Mars missions. So that’s where it started, but the Department of Homeland Security is now funding this project in order to bring it back down to earth—and to consumers.

The most exciting potential use, though, is how it could diagnose and monitor people with medical conditions. For example, for diabetes patients there is a direct correlation between the level of acetone in their breath and the level of sugar in their blood. The nanosensor could be used as a completely non-invasive diagnosis and measurement method. Just breathe on your phone. No more pricking your finger a million times a day. We have a pretty serious aversion to the word revolutionary here, but this thing fits the bill.

Full article

unknownskywalker:

Spitzer Discovers Largest Ring Around Saturn

NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn –?? by far the largest of the giant planet’s many rings.

The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from the main ring plane. The bulk of its material starts about six million kilometers away from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers. One of Saturn’s farthest moons, Phoebe, circles within the newfound ring, and is likely the source of its material.

Saturn’s newest halo is thick, too –?? its vertical height is about 20 times the diameter of the planet. It would take about one billion Earths stacked together to fill the ring. The ring itself is tenuous, made up of a thin array of ice and dust particles. Spitzer’s infrared eyes were able to spot the glow of the band’s cool dust.

The ring would be difficult to see with visible-light telescopes. Its particles are diffuse and may even extend beyond the bulk of the ring material all the way in to Saturn and all the way out to interplanetary space. The relatively small numbers of particles in the ring wouldn’t reflect much visible light, especially out at Saturn where sunlight is weak.

Spitzer was able to sense the glow of the cool dust, which is only about 80 Kelvin (minus 316 degrees Fahrenheit). Cool objects shine with infrared, or thermal radiation; for example, even a cup of ice cream is blazing with infrared light. By focusing on the glow of the ring’s cool dust, Spitzer made it easy to find.

crookedindifference:

Sam, the Rhesus monkey, after his ride in the Little Joe-2 (LJ-2) spacecraft

A U.S. Navy destroyer safely recovered Sam after he experienced three minutes of weightlessness during the flight. Animals were often used during test flights for Project Mercury to help determine the effects of spaceflight and weightlessness on humans. LJ-2 was one in a series of flights that led up to the human orbital flights of NASA’s Project Mercury program. The Little Joe rocket booster was developed as a cheaper, smaller, and more functional alternative to the Redstone rockets. Little Joe could be produced at one-fifth the cost of Redstone rockets and still have enough power to carry a capsule payload. Seven unmanned Little Joe rockets were launched from Wallops Island, Virginia from August 1959 to April 1961.

Sam does not look amused. In fact Sam looks mad ABOUT it.

publicdomainthing:

First View of Earth from Moon

This photo was transmitted to Earth by the United States Lunar Orbiter I and received at the NASA tracking station at Robledo De Chavela near Madrid, Spain. This crescent of the Earth was photographed August 23, 1966 at 16:35 GMT when the spacecraft was on its 16th orbit and just about to pass behind the Moon. 

NASA

cwnl:

The Infrared Sky

Credit: DIRBE Team, COBE, NASA 

Three major sources contribute to the far-infrared sky: our Solar System, our Galaxy, and our Universe. The above image, in representative colors, is a projection of the entire infrared sky created from years of observations by the robot spacecraft COBE.

Our Solar System is evidenced most prominently by the S-shaped blue sash called zodiacal light, created by small pieces of rock and dust orbiting between the Sun and Jupiter. Our Galaxy is evidenced by the bright band of light that crossed the middle of the image, created mostly by dust that laces the disk of our Milky Way.

goodnumberone:

NASA’s LRO Camera Team Releases High Resolution Global Topographic Map of Moon by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

thegrazing:

Running from the Sun: Massive solar flares not expected to cause disruptions…or so says NOAA & the CSA

The planet will continue being bombarded by radiation from a solar storm Wednesday, but it shouldn’t cause any immediate problems for cellphone users or air travellers in Canada.

A Canadian Space Agency expert in solar-terrestrial sciences says the impact from the solar flares is actually quite mild — for now.

Some space weather observers describe it as the strongest in more than six years, but John Manuel says it’s currently at the bottom end of the scale.

He says there is a possibility of communication disruption in the Arctic and the solar flares may have a “weak” impact on some power grids.

But Manuel says it won’t be anything like 1989 when a solar flare caused a massive power blackout in Quebec.

He says the current solar flare-ups may lead to more spectacular northern lights in the Northwest Territories, and Edmonton and Winnipeg will probably enjoy some as well.

He adds cities further south, such as Toronto and Montreal, might also get lucky.

But he also says the sun is going to become even more active in the next year or so, with a peak in activity expected in 2013.

Manuel says this storm erupted about three days ago.

This is now the largest solar radiation storm since October 2003 (the Halloween Storms).

Earlier, scientists stated it was the largest since May 2005, but that changed after further measurements, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Centre in Colorado said.

The solar flare occurred at about 11 p.m. ET Sunday and will hit Earth with three different effects at three different times. The biggest issue is radiation, according to the NOAA.

The radiation is mostly a concern for satellite disruptions and astronauts in space. It can cause communication problems for polar-travelling airplanes, said space weather centre physicist Doug Biesecker.

Strongest since 2005

Radiation from Sunday’s flare arrived at Earth an hour later. Levels are considered strong but other storms have been more severe. There are two higher levels of radiation on NOAA’s storm scale — severe and extreme — Biesecker said. Still, this storm is the strongest for radiation since May 2005.

The radiation in the form of protons — came flying out of the sun at 150 million km/h.

“The whole volume of space between here and Jupiter is just filled with protons and you just don’t get rid of them like that,” Biesecker said. That’s why the effects will stick around for a couple days.

NASA’s flight surgeons and solar experts examined the solar flare’s expected effects and decided that the six astronauts on the International Space Station do not have to do anything to protect themselves from the radiation, spokesman Rob Navias said.

A solar eruption is followed by a one-two-three punch, said Antti Pulkkinen, a physicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland and Catholic University.

First comes electromagnetic radiation, followed by radiation in the form of protons.

Plasma from sun itself

Then, finally the coronal mass ejection — that’s the plasma from the sun itself — hits. Usually that travels at about 1.6 or 3.2 million km/h but this storm is particularly speedy and is shooting out at 6.4 million km/h, Biesecker said.

It’s the plasma that causes much of the noticeable problems on Earth, such as electrical grid outages. In 1989, a solar storm caused a massive blackout in Quebec. It can also pull the northern lights farther south.

But this coronal mass ejection seems likely to be only moderate, with a chance for becoming strong, Biesecker said. The worst of the storm is likely to go north of Earth.

For the past several years the sun had been quiet, almost too quiet. Part of that was the normal calm part of the sun’s 11-year cycle of activity. Last year, scientists started to speculate that the sun was going into an unusually quiet cycle that seems to happen maybe once a century or so.

Now that super-quiet cycle does not seem as likely, Biesecker said.

Scientists watching the sun with a new NASA satellite launched in 2010 — during the sun’s quiet period — are excited.

“We haven’t had anything like this for a number of years,” Pulkkinen said. “It’s kind of special.”

——

Sure it won’t cause any problems that’s why my dinning room table light is flickering like a strobe light at a Dub Step show. We gave the press a spin we should be good until the grid falls down.

thisistheverge:

NASA’s 64-megapixel photo of Earth | The Verge

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics looks so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’” – Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut, People magazine, 8 April 1974. 

the-lives-of-stars:

Opportunity Rover Spots Greeley Haven on Mars 

Where on Mars should you spend the winter? As winter approached in the southern hemisphere of Mars last November, the Opportunity rover had just this problem — it needed a place to go. The reduced amount of sunlight impacting Opportunity’s solar panels combined with the extra power needed to keep equipment warm could drain Opportunity’s batteries. Therefore Opportunity was instructed to climb onto the 15 degree incline of Greeley’s Haven, shown as the rocky slope ahead. The incline increased power input as Opportunity’s solar panels now have greater exposure to sunlight, while also giving the rolling robot some interesting landscape to explore. Visible in the distance, beyond Greeley Haven, lies expansive Endeavour Crater, the ancient impact basin that Opportunity will continue exploring as the Martian winter concludes in a few months, if it survives.

spaceloev:

Due to Curiosity’s weight, an inventive new landing approach had to be devised. Engineers at JPL came up with the sky crane, using a tether to lower the rover from a rocket hovering platform.

kamikea replied to your photo
can beards grow in space?
  Yep, apparently NASA tried…

the-star-stuff:

Huge Solar Eruption Sparks Strongest Radiation Storm in 7 Years

This SDO image (AIA 193) shows an M9-class solar flare erupting on the Sun’s northeastern hemisphere at 03:49 UT on Jan. 23, 2012… just 4 days after a previous strong CME that sparked aurora around the world on the 22nd. More geomagnetic activity is expected for the 24th.

CREDIT: NASA/SDO and the AIA Consortium/Edited by J. Major 

alchymista:

First Subliming Planet Forshadows Mercury’s Fate

A rocky exoplanet about the size of Mercury appears to be evaporating before our eyes. If confirmed, this would be the first time a rocky planet has been found turning to gas, demonstrating just how wacky alien planets can be. The provocative suggestion may also foreshadow the fate of Mercury.

“My first reaction was disbelief,” says Dan Fabrycky of the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved in the new analysis. After playing with the data himself, however, he has come around – though he is still cautious. “After turning it over in my mind a few days, I cannot come up with a more natural theoretical explanation,” he says.

The evaporation was inferred from observations by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. These show that a star called KIC 12557548, which is slightly smaller than the sun, is dimming every 15.685 hours precisely. That suggests an orbiting companion is transiting, or passing in front of the star. Unlike other transits seen by Kepler, though, the dimming in this system varies wildly from one pass to another.

The best explanation is a rocky planet about the size of Mercury that is subliming – turning directly to a gas – due to the intense radiation from its star, conclude a team led by Saul Rappaport of Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

scinerds:

Mars Rocks Fell on Morocco, Scientists Say
? One rock weighs more than two pounds
By Greg Wilson on NBC New York

Rocks that fell from the sky and landed in Morocco last summer came from Mars, scientists have confirmed. The meteorite chunks, including one that weighed more than two pounds, rained down in North Africa last July. A special committee of meteorite experts, including some NASA scientists, studied the rocks and determined their origin.

It is only the fifth time in history that experts have been able to confirm by chemical analysis that rocks landing on Earth came from the red planet. Astronomers believe something smashed into Mars millions of years ago and kicked up rock fragments that have been hurtling through the solar system ever since. The landscape in parts of Morocco so resembles that of Mars that rovers destined for the red planet are tested there.

the-star-stuff:

Rendezvous in Space

The sister missions, Gemini VI-A and VII, performed the first rendezvous in space between two manned spacecraft. They came within a foot of one another and could have docked, had they been equipped with the right rigging. The image above is a view of Gemini VII from the VI-A spacecraft.

Image: NASA/JSC/Arizona State University

jasonmcclellan:

On Saturn Moon Titan, Weather Report Brings Chance of Methane Rain

mothernaturenetwork:

This image from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer shows the spiraling arms of the Andromeda galaxy as it whirls cosmic dust away from its center.
8 awesome images from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

…the rings are always redder on the other galaxy.

jtotheizzoe:

NASA iPad Visualization Explorer

In addition to hurtling people and expensive equipment into space, NASA does a ton of basic scientific research to help us learn more about this rock we call Earth. And much of that research gets turned into amazing visualizations, because stuff is always easier to learn when you make it look cool.

Now you can explore them via an iPad app. For free! Check out the NASA iPad Visualization Explorer for a constantly updated collection of interactive imagery beamed straight from their fleet of research spacecraft right to your hands.

(via Chart Porn, image at top is of ocean surface currents off the East Coast of the U.S. as captured by NASA satellites)

itsfullofstars:

Fastest Rotating Star Found in Neighboring Galaxy

From NASA today:

This artist’s concept pictures the fastest rotating star found to date. The massive, bright young star, called VFTS 102, rotates at a million miles per hour, or 100 times faster than our sun does. Centrifugal forces from this dizzying spin rate have flattened the star into an oblate shape and spun off a disk of hot plasma, seen edge on in this view from a hypothetical planet. The star may have “spun up” by accreting material from a binary companion star. The rapidly evolving companion later exploded as a supernova. The whirling star lies 160,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

Source. Via @spacefuture.

spacettf:

NASA Satellites See Santa’s North Pole by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
All was well at the North Pole this summer, when Santa and his elves were busily making toys and taking orders for this Christmas. NASA’s Terra satellite was able to piece together a number of images it took to give us a complete look at the
North Pole, which is usually very difficult to see by satellites, so Santa can keep his exact location secret.

On June 30, 2011 the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Terra satellite made multiple passes over the Arctic from its orbit in space, capturing a true-color image of the summer lands and sea-ice near the North Pole on each pass. Individual images were then pieced together to create a large mosaic of the area, which gives a broader view that would not be possible with individual images.

In this mosaic of the Arctic, the polar ice cap appears blue-white, while the ice covering land appears bright white. The ice of Greenland, in the lower left (southwest), is especially bright. Clouds also appear bright white, and can be difficult to separate from ice in true-color images. Most of the clouds in this image appear in billowing swirls, while ice tends to be smoother. This can only be confirmed in the false-color images that were also generated by MODIS that same day.

The North Pole is found northeast off the coast of Greenland, in the middle of the ice-covered Arctic Ocean and roughly near the center of this image. This is the northernmost point on Earth. From the North Pole, all directions are south. Santa will be leaving from here on the night of the 24th and circling the globe.

Credit: NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team
>

jtotheizzoe:

abluegirl:

The Top 10 Science Stories of 2011:

1. The Japan Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis
2. Technology Fuels the Arab Spring
3. Faster-Than-Light Neutrinos?
4. Record-Setting Extreme Weather
5. A Hint of Higgs
6. The End of the Space Shuttle Program
7. The Death of Steve Jobs
8. Gene Therapy Makes a Comeback
9. The Sun Sets on Solyndra
10. IBM’s Watson Computer Wins on Jeopardy!

Do you agree? What are some of your favorite science stories of the year?

scinerds:

On this day 43 years ago, Apollo 8 was en route to the moon on the first human flight to lunar orbit. Three days later, on Dec. 24, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders became the first people to see the moon’s far side, did a memorable reading from Genesis and took this famous Earth-rise photo.

mothernaturenetwork:

2 Earth-size alien planets discovered
Rocky planets are unusually close to their sun, leaving scientists to wonder how the two planets got there.

…it’s a trap!

expose-the-light:

Astronaut Tests SAFER Backpack

Astronaut Mark Lee tests the new backpack called Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue (SAFER), a system designed for use in the event a crew member becomes untethered while conducting an EVA. The Lidar-In-Space Technology Experiment (LITE) is shown in the foreground. The LITE payload employs lidar, which stands for light detection and ranging, a type of optical radar using laser pulses instead of radio waves to study Earth’s atmosphere. Unprecedented views were obtained of cloud structures, storm systems, dust clouds, pollutants, forest burning, and surface reflectance. The STS-64 mission marked the first untethered U.S. EVA in 10 years, and was launched on September 9, 1994, aboard the Space Shuttle Orbiter Discovery. 

Image Credit: NASA

ladahiae:

Photo credit: NASA / Michael König

Okay…last time, kids.

2012 Apocalypse Fears Unfounded, NASA Says

Science ruining things? Or science calming people down? Forget the junk “information” underlying Dec. 21, 2012, the world has no imminent threat coinciding with the date NASA specialists say.

Aside from that date marking next year’s winter solstice, the longest night of that year, nothing else interesting is expected. All in all, “sleep well on Dec. 21 of next year,” said astronomer Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object program office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., at a public talk yesterday (Dec. about rumors of a 2012 apocalypse. “What’s so special about Dec. 12 of next year?” Yeomans asked. “A lot of people think it’s the end of the Maya calendar.” [10 Failed Doomsday Predictions]

The Mayans

The ancient Mayan calendar was, like the modern Gregorian calendar, 365 days long. In addition to the year, the ancient Maya measured time in longer periods, with a short-count and a long-count calendar, just as we measure time in decades, centuries and millennia.

“The short-count was 52 of our years, and the long-count was 5,125 years long. This long-count calendar is coming to an end on Dec. 21,” Yeomans said.”Of course, a new calendar would start on Dec. 22. It would be like saying that our calendar ends Dec. 31, and that’s the end of time, the end of days, that’s it, no regard for how a new cycle would begin. The Maya never predicted the end of the world occurred at that time.” Although there are those who believe Dec. 21, 2012 will bring about a new age of enlightenment, many, many others fear a catastrophe. “I Googled ‘2012 disasters,’ and you know how many hits I got? 35 million hits,” Yeomans said. “A lot of people are concerned about Dec. 21, 2012.”

Death from Planet X

One concern is over how, from Earth’s point of view, the sun will cross in front of the plane of our galaxy on Dec. 21. However, the sun routinely does this twice a year without fanfare, Yeomans said. Another fear is that a planet dubbed “Nibiru” or “Planet X” is supposedly headed toward Earth. Yeomans noted that well-known UFO aficionado Nancy Leider, who describes herself as being in contact with aliens from the star system Zeta Reticuli, first said Nibiru would cause widespread disaster in May 2003, only to later change her prediction to Dec. 21, 2012. “There’s no evidence whatsoever that Nibiru exists,” Yeomans said. Notions that it might be hiding behind the sun are unfounded, as “it can’t hide behind the sun forever, and we would’ve seen it years ago,” Yeomans said. While believers in Nibiru claim that astronomers and NASA are engaged in a conspiracy to cover up Nibiru to prevent panic, “there’s no way on Earth to keep astronomers quiet about anything,” Yeomans joked.

Planetary conga line

There are also claims that gravitational effects from planets lining up with each other in 2012 will somehow affect Earth. “But there is no planetary alignment on Dec. 21, 2012,” Yeomans said.

Even if there were a planetary alignment then, it would not cause problems. The only bodies that have significant gravitational effects on Earth are the moon and the sun, effects we see as the tides. The tidal effects induced by the other bodies in our solar system are negligible, and we have experienced them for millions of years without troubles.

Pole dancing

The Earth has two kinds of poles — its geographical poles, which mark the planet’s axis of rotation, and its magnetic poles, which are associated with the planet’s magnetic field that makes our compasses point toward north. Some fear that either or both of these poles will flip in 2012.

However, the geographical poles cannot flip because the moon stabilizes our planet’s spin. The magnetic poles do flip sometimes, but on time scales of about 500,000 years. These shifts are not sudden, but take place very gradually over thousands of years, “and there’s no evidence of a flip on Dec. 21, 2012,” Yeomans said. “Even if it did flip, it would not cause any real problems, other than us having to change our compasses from north to south.”

nasasapod:

An Unusual Vein of Deposited Rock on Mars
Image Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission, NASA, JPL, Cornell; Image Processing: Kenneth Kremer, Marco Di Lorenzo

Explanation: What could create this unusual vein of rock on Mars? A leading hypothesis is that this thin rock layer dubbed “Homestake” was deposited by a running liquid — like most mineral veins are here on Earth. And the running liquid of choice is water. Therefore, this mineral streak — rich in calcium and sulfur — is the latest in the growing body of evidence that part of Mars had a watery past. This, in turn, increases the speculation that Mars was once hospitable to life. Pictured above is a vista taken near the western rim of Endeavour Crater by the Opportunity rover currently exploring Mars. The inset image shows a close up of the recently discovered mineral vein.

nationalpost:

Gary Clement’s Week in Review for Dec. 4 to 10, 2011

Peter Kent ‘cautiously optimistic’ about climate deal
New on the market: ‘Casa Kadafi’
EU pact fails to calm investors
Border deal challenge? Convincing Canadians their privacy won’t be invaded, U.S. ambassador says
U.S. drone penetrated 250 km into Islamic-republic airspace: Iran
NASA telescope finds first inhabitable ‘super-Earth’ planet outside our solar system

simonsaaays:

Robonaut 2 (R2) waits inside the electromagnetic interference chamber at Johnson Space Center following tests that ensure the robot’s electronic systems won’t cause problems for other important systems at the International Space Station. Humanoid robot R2 journeyed to the space station onboard the Space Shuttle Discovery during the STS-133 mission, conducting tests. NASA hopes to eventually build a robot helper suitable to assist humans in complex tasks in space or on Earth. (NASA)

lookhigh:

Night View of the Antenna at the Pioneer Station, Goldstone, Calif.

The Pioneer Station’s antenna was active from 1958 to 1981. It was designated a national monument by the Department of the Interior in 1985. (JPL) 

NYT: Search Resumes for Evidence of Life Out There

jtotheizzoe:

theweekmagazine:

Baseball! In space! Satoshi Furukawa, a Japanese astronaut stuck on the International Space Station, decided to field a game of baseball — all by himself.

When life locks you inside a zero-gravity metal box flying around the Earth at 17,000 mph, you get creative with your recreation.

Super hot alien planet could melt iron
The ‘super-Earth’ is too close to a blazing star that is 1.3 times more massive than the sun to be able to sustain life.

Science fiction thanks you, hot planet.

jtotheizzoe:

the-star-stuff:

Skywatcher Snaps Photos of Stranded Russian Mars Probe

CREDIT: Ralf Vandebergh 

A skywatcher has photographed a troubled Russian Mars probe that remains stuck in Earth orbit three weeks after its launch.

Astrophotographer and veteran satellite spotter Ralf Vandebergh tracked Russia’s Phobos-Grunt spacecraft as it passed over the southern Netherlands yesterday (Nov. 29). Using a 10-inch (25-centimeter) telescope and a video camera, he snapped a series of images at a range of about 170 miles (274 kilometers).

“It was bright in my tracking scope, I think it was clearly visible naked-eye as well with sun at -6 degrees,” Vandebergh told SPACE.com in an email. “Striking was a kind of reddish-yellowish color I saw in the tracking scope.”

Despite the distance, the photos capture the broad shape and structure of the probe. (read more)

Get your pics while you can, skywatchers. Russia has gone silent on news of the doomed spacecraft, with no updates since Nov. 24. Yesterday marked another failure to contact the satellite and try and raise its orbit, according to ESA.

It’s now about 200 miles above Earth, falling a bit more each day, and it poses a significant re-entry risk for early 2012. NASA’s debris-monitors won’t know exactly when to expect it to fall until later, but its cargo of several tons of toxic rocket fuel should put everyone on high alert.

inothernews:

crookedindifference:

Apollo 12

Beautiful photos.  Stunning.

scienceisbeauty:

There are 22,000 pieces of useless space junk that are big enough to be tracked from earth. In addition to those, there are more than 100,000 pieces of stuff bigger than 1 cm. That might not seem big, but when it’s moving at hundreds or thousands of miles per hour, it can certainly do some damage. The European Space Operations Centre released the above image, of what space will look like if we curb the problem vs. if we continue on our current path.

Source: Our Junk Problem, The Science of Space, Temple University

You can always tell an industry that the US is in the lead of…

torgothegreat:

Shuttle Plume Shadow Points to the Moon

In early 2001 during a launch of Atlantis, the Sun, Earth, Moon, and rocket were all properly aligned for this photogenic coincidence. First, for the space shuttle’s plume to cast a long shadow, the time of day must be either near sunrise or sunset. Only then will the shadow be its longest and extend all the way to the horizon. Finally, during a Full Moon, the Sun and Moon are on opposite sides of the sky. Just after sunset, for example, the Sun is slightly below the horizon, and, in the other direction, the Moon is slightly above the horizon. Therefore, as Atlantis blasted off, just after sunset, its shadow projected away from the Sun toward the opposite horizon, where the Full Moon just happened to be.

Image Credit: Pat McCracken, NASA

(via NASA)

spacetimecontinumm:

Explanation: Can a planet be as large as the star that it orbits?

Recent observations have discovered that nearby Van Biesbroeck’s star might have just such a large planet.

Although VB 10 lies only about 20 light years away, it is a small red dwarf star so dim, at 17th magnitude, that a telescope is needed to see it. Illustration

Credit: JPL-Caltech, NASA

global-culture:

From an alternate Universe:  Nixon’s speech after Apollo 11 astronauts become stranded on the moon.

Meanwhile, in this Universe: NASA outlines goals for future manned exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, as Stephen Hawking has concluded humankind survival depends on outer space exploration.

spacettf:

Satellite Looks at Thanksgiving Travel in North America by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
November 23, 2011

Thursday, November 24 is Thanksgiving in the U.S. and millions of people are traveling to be with family members on the holiday. NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite keeps an eye on the weather, and NASA’s GOES Project at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Md. provided an image to show travelers where they may need an umbrella or snow boots.

In an image from November 22, when many people started traveling for Thanksgiving, cloud cover draped over the U.S. East coast from a cold front that stretches from New England south into the Gulf of Mexico. Today, Nov. 23, that cold front still lingers although it has moved further east and rain can be expected from New England south through Washington, D.C., the Carolinas, Georgia, northwestern Florida and Alabama. The front will continue to push east and bring sunshine to most of these areas on Thanksgiving day.

Clear skies and high pressure lie behind the front and sunshine is abundant from Minnesota to Texas. The high pressure center now located over Missouri and Arkansas will bring clear skies to the east coast on Thanksgiving day. Another area of high pressure sits to the west, and is centered over the four corners region (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona) bringing clear skies there today. Sunshine and clear skies also extend into the upper Midwest today and hold through Thanksgiving Day.

Meanwhile, snow is in the forecast for other parts of the U.S. In the Pacific Northwest, the Cascade mountain range through Washington State, Oregon and northern California can expect some heavy snow. Snow is forecast for the Umpqua and Fremont National Forests in southwestern Oregon, and in the Klamath National Forest in northern California.

The east coast is not without winter weather, however. Heavy snow is also possible through most of Maine and northern New Hampshire and northern Vermont. Travelers in those areas should allow extra time for safe travels.

The oceans are not without interesting weather during this week of holiday travel. In the central Atlantic Ocean lies the remnants of a low pressure area called System 99L that at one time had the chance to become a tropical depression before it was absorbed by a frontal system. In the eastern Pacific at the bottom left corned of the image is record-breaking late season Hurricane Kenneth, west of Mexico. Kenneth was a major hurricane (Category 3) yesterday and is now weakening as it heads away from Mexico.

Rob Gutro
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

zeezeescorner:

Watch a time lapse video of our planet from space: The Journey Home From the International Space Station. It is absolutely breath taking. I love this so much I’m sharing it all over the place.

Ron Garan, the space-tweeting NASA astronaut who returned in September from five-and-a-half-months aboard the International Space Station (ISS), released a video on Monday that he says “is about as close as we can come to show what astronauts see in space”…

To make the video, Garan and [astronaut Mike] Fossum set DSLR cameras to take one picture about every three seconds. Garan says that even though the ISS is traveling at a speed of 17,500 mph, time-lapse photography gives the impression that the space station is traveling even faster.

Music by Peter Gabriel.

Via The Huffington Post.

intranaut:

High, wispy clouds cover a large portion of Mars, seen in this, the first true-colour image of Mars generated with the OSIRIS orange (red), green and blue color filters. The image was acquired by an instrument on the ESA’s Rosetta probe on Feb. 24, 2007 from a distance of about 240,000 km. Image resolution is about 5 km/pixel. (Credits: ESA © 2007 MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA)

intranaut:

Mars’ northern orange sky and horizon, seen by NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander. The lander’s solar panel and Robotic Arm with a sample in the scoop are also visible. The image was taken by the lander’s Surface Stereo Imager looking west during Phoenix’s Sol 16 (June 10, 2008), or the 16th Martian day after landing. The image was taken just before the sample was delivered to the Optical Microscope. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Texas A&M University)

the-star-stuff:

Why Is It So Hard to Go to Mars?

As NASA prepares to launch its huge new Curiosity rover toward Mars on Saturday (Nov. 26), the current travails of a robotic Russian probe stranded around Earth offer an uncomfortable truth: Getting to the Red Planet is tough.

Russia’s Phobos-Grunt probe, which launched Nov. 8 on a mission aimed at the Martian moon Phobos, remains stuck in low-Earth orbit, and the chances of salvaging the craft appear slim. If Phobos-Grunt can’t be saved, it will be the 19th straight Russian Mars mission that failed to achieve its mission goals in full.

But Russia isn’t alone in its Red Planet difficulties; other space agencies, including those of Japan, the United States and Europe, have felt the sting of Mars failure in the last dozen years or so.

Scientists and engineers working on Curiosity’s $2.5 billion mission, which is officially known as the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), acknowledge that success is not guaranteed. But they say they’ve prepared as well as they can, and they’re confident things will go well.

(via APOD: 2011 November 20 – W5: Pillars of Star Formation)

A bit of Heart for your Monday. W5 is a star-forming region in Cassiopeia, popularly known as the Heart Nebula (IC 1848) whose partner in star formation in the sky is the Soul Nebula (IC 1805).

This is a shot from the Spitzer Space Telescope in infrared. (Hey, did you know that Spitzer circles the Sun, compared to Hubble, Chandra, and Swift which are all orbiting Earth?)

The red is dust, while the green and white are gas. The image makes fairly clear how older stars in the middle of the nebula create stellar winds that blow out against the surrounding gas, causing it to compress and eventually form new stars. The whole process continues to repeat until the gas and dust necessary for star formation has all been compressed or blown away.

Image Credit & Copyright: Lori Allen, Xavier Koenig (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) et al., JPL-Caltech, NASA

unexplainedthings:

The science team that oversees the imaging system on board NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has released the highest resolution near-global topographic map of the moon ever created.

This new topographic map, from Arizona State University in Tempe, shows the surface shape and features over nearly the entire moon with a pixel scale close to 100 meters (328 feet). A single measure of elevation (one pixel) is about the size of two football fields placed side-by-side.

Although the moon is our closest neighbor, knowledge of its morphology is still limited. Due to instrumental limitations of previous missions, a global map of the moon’s topography at high resolution has not existed until now. With the LRO Wide Angle Camera and the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument, scientists can now accurately portray the shape of the entire moon at high resolution.

“Our new topographic view of the moon provides the dataset that lunar scientists have waited for since the Apollo era,” says Mark Robinson, Principal Investigator of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) from Arizona State University in Tempe. “We can now determine slopes of all major geologic terrains on the moon at 100 meter scale. Determine how the crust has deformed, better understand impact crater mechanics, investigate the nature of volcanic features, and better plan future robotic and human missions to the moon.”

Called the Global Lunar DTM 100 m topographic model (GLD100), this map was created based on data acquired by LRO’s WAC, which is part of the LROC imaging system. The LROC imaging system consists of two Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs) to provide high-resolution images, and the WAC to provide 100-meter resolution images in seven color bands over a 57-kilometer (35-mile) swath.

The WAC is a relatively small instrument, easily fitting into the palm of one’s hand; however, despite its diminutive size it maps nearly the entire moon every month. Each month the moon’s lighting has changed so the WAC is continuously building up a record of how different rocks reflect light under different conditions, and adding to the LROC library of stereo observations.

The LROC (WAC) has a pixel scale of about 75 meters (246 feet), and at the average altitude of 50 km (31 miles) a WAC image swath is 70 km (43 miles) wide across the ground-track. Since the equatorial distance between orbits is about 30 km (18 miles) there is complete overlap all the way around the moon in one month. The orbit-to-orbit WAC overlap provides a strong stereo effect. Using digital photogrammetric techniques, a terrain model can be computed from the stereo overlap.

The near-global topographic map was constructed from 69,000 WAC stereo models and covers the latitude range 79°S to 79°N, 98.2% of the entire lunar surface. Due to persistent shadows near the poles it is not possible to create a complete stereo based map at the highest latitudes. However, another instrument onboard LRO called LOLA excels at mapping topography at the poles. Since LOLA ranges to the surface with its own lasers, and the LRO orbits converge at the poles, a very high resolution topographic model is possible, and can be used to fill in the WAC “hole at the pole.” The WAC topography was produced by LROC team members at the German Aerospace Center.

“Collecting the data and creating the new topographic map was a huge collaborative effort between the LRO project, the LOLA team, the LROC team at ASU and in Germany at the DLR,” says Robinson. “I could not be more pleased with the quality of the map – it’s phenomenal! The richness of detail should inspire lunar geologists around the world for years to come.”

Shaded relief images can be created from the GLD100 by illuminating the “surface” (in this case the shape model) from a given Sun direction and elevation above the horizon. To convey an absolute sense of height the resulting grayscale pixels are painted with colors that represent the altitude. Visualizations like these allow scientists to view the surface from very different perspectives, providing a powerful tool for interpreting the geologic processes that have shaped the moon.

The LRO spacecraft is managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Future versions

The current model incorporates the first year of stereo imaging; there is another year of data that can be added to the solution. These additional stereo images will not only improve the sharpness (resolution) of the model but also fill in very small gaps that exist in the current map. Also the LROC team has made small improvements to the camera distortion model and the LOLA team has improved our knowledge of the spacecraft position over time. These next generation steps will further improve the accuracy of the next version of the LROC GLD100 topographic model of the moon.

› Related story and imagery from Arizona State University

cwnl:

Moon May Outshine Leonid Meteor Shower Peak Tonight

If you or any other skywatchers were planning on checking out tonight’s Leonid meteor shower peak (Peak is when meteors are most visible), you might want to take up complaints with the moon.

The Leonid meteor shower peaks tonight (Nov. 17), but bright moonlight is threatening to wash out this year’s light display.

The annual Leonid meteor shower is expected to reach peak activity tonight at approximately 10:40 p.m. EST (0340 GMT on Nov. 18), but a luminous third quarter moon could outshine even the brightest meteors, said Bill Cooke, head of the Meteoroid Environments Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

“The moon is going to be a major interference, but we could see a rate of about 20 per hour,”

Full Article: Moon Threatens Leonid Meteor Shower

For More on Skywatching/Stargazing: November 2011 Skywatching Events:

A meteor shower, a partial solar eclipse and some planet sightings are just some of the amazing things in the night sky this month. Check out the most tantalizing skywatching targets for November 2011

moderation:

Update of Jupiter’s Europa: Massive Lake Verified Beneath Ice-Shrouded Surface

—

Data from a NASA planetary mission have provided scientists evidence of what appears to be a body of liquid water, equal in volume to the North American Great Lakes, beneath the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon, Europa. 

The data suggest there is significant exchange between Europa’s icy shell and the ocean beneath. This information could bolster arguments that Europa’s global subsurface ocean represents a potential habitat for life elsewhere in our solar system. The findings are published in the scientific journal Nature.

“The data open up some compelling possibilities,” said Mary Voytek, director of NASA’s Astrobiology Program at agency headquarters in Washington. “However, scientists worldwide will want to take a close look at this analysis and review the data before we can fully appreciate the implication of these results.”  

(via dailygalaxy)

jtotheizzoe:

New Look at Europa Points to Huge Under-Ice Lakes of Liquid Water

Europa, a moon orbiting Jupiter, has long been known to have plenty of water. It’s covered with a massive ocean of water, it just lies beneath 20 km of ice.

A new analysis of erupting volcanoes points to areas where water could pool as close as 3 km to the surface, making it even more likely to harbor some form of life!

So how would we get there? Stop what you are doing and let adventurer Bill Stone tell you about his plans to send robotic submarine probes to Europa to drill through the ice and collect life. Uh-maz-ing.

(via ScienceNOW)

cwnl:

Huge Lake Could Increase Chance of Life on Jupiter Moon

The icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa may contain a body of water the size of the Great Lakes sitting just 1.8 miles below the surface. If confirmed, the findings could heat up the prospects of finding alien life on the chilly moon.

Deep underneath its frozen exterior, Europa is known to house a vast ocean, with two to three times the volume of Earth’s oceans. And researchers have previously speculated that small amounts of water might exist near the moon’s surface in pores or cracks.

“Now we’ve found evidence that there are giant liquid lakes perched inside the ice shell,” said planetary scientist Britney Schmidt from the University of Texas at Austin and lead author on the paper, which appears in Nature on Nov. 17.

Looking at data from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft — which orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003 — Schmidt and her team identified a region called Thera Macula that sits 1,300 feet lower than the surrounding surface.

A hypothetical visitor to Europa standing on the edge of Thera Macula would look down at a choppy, brownish field of ice full of knobs and spires, and see tall icebergs trapped here and there. Extrapolating from analogous situations occurring in Greenland or Antarctic ice, the researchers developed a model to account for the chaotic frozen terrain.

Plumes of water heated from below would form salty brine that could gather into a lens-shaped subsurface lake. This would cause fractures in the brittle exterior, collapsing the surface ice and bringing it down to mix with the water below. “This would be evidence that there is water below you,” said Schmidt.

Sulfates from Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io as well as other chemicals such as oxygen and hydrogen peroxide are present on the Europan surface. These would get stirred into the salty lake sitting beneath Europa’s shell.

“This creates a potential source of energy for life to tap,” said geophysicist Don Blankenship, also of the University of Texas and another author of the recent paper. Such findings are exciting to astrobiologists and others searching for life in the solar system beyond Earth.

Full Article

the-star-stuff:

That Streak in the Sky? Astronaut Trash

OurAmazingPlanet StaffDate: 14 November 2011 Time: 12:41 PM ET

From NASA’s Earth Observatory:

Have you ever wondered how the astronauts and cosmonauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) take out the trash? Several times a year, robotic spacecraft carrying a variety of items—including food, water, fuel, oxygen, medical supplies, replacement parts, and research materials—are launched from Earth to dock with the ISS. These spacecraft are built andlaunched by ISS international partners in Russia, Japan, and the Europe. After the cargo has been transferred to the ISS, the spacecraft is refilled with refuse, and then undocked and de-orbited—essentially using the Earth’s atmosphere as an incinerator for both the spent spacecraft and the refuse.

This astronaut photograph highlights the reentry plasma trail of one such spacecraft, the ISS Progress 42P supply vehicle (Russian designation M-10M). The Progress is based on the Soyuz design, and can fly autonomously or under remote control from the space station. Progress 42P docked at the ISS on April 29, 2011, and was undocked and de-orbited on October 29, 2011. Astronauts on the ISS took a time lapse sequence of the event; the image above is part of that sequence. (read more)

humongous-bighead:

The Eye of God (Hubble Space Telescope Photo) – NASA

alidasun:

Print work from NASA aerospace architect and designer Evan Twyford, who (like any red-blooded twenty-something worth his salt) has succumbed to the nocturnal fate of DJ/producer.

You can see one of the vehicles Evan’s worked on featured on Top Gear.

nerdygirlknits:

Voyager 2 Completes Switch to Backup Thruster Set

NASA’s Voyager 2 has successfully switched to the backup set of thrusters that controls the roll of the spacecraft. Deep Space Network personnel sent commands to the spacecraft to make the change on Nov. 4 and received confirmation today that the switch has been made.

The change allows engineers to reduce the amount of power that the 34-year-old spacecraft needs to operate by turning off the heater that keeps the fuel to the primary thrusters warm. Although the rate of energy generated by Voyager 2’s nuclear power source continues to decline, by reducing its power requirements, engineers expect the spacecraft can continue to operate for another decade.

Read more >

scipsy:

Stormy clouds of Star Birth

cwnl:

1998 Leonid Fireball

This Leonid fireball, photographed through light clouds, eerily flashed across the skies of Monteromano, Italy on November 17, 1998.

Credit & Copyright: Lorenzo Lovato

the-star-stuff:

NASA Robotic Rocket Plane To Survey Martian Surface

(Published: 11.24.2009)

The plane, repetitively named ARES (not to be confused with NASA’s shuttle replacement, also named ARES), would fly to Mars in a regular rocket. Once it reaches the fourth rock from the Sun, it would pop out of the capsule, deploy its wings, and fire the rockets for an hour-long flight through the Martian sky. During that flight, ARES would cover about 373 miles, which is a little less than 100 times the area covered by the Spirit rover over the last five years.

Any aircraft flying on Mars would need some serious horsepower. The Martian atmosphere is 169 times thinner than the air here on Earth, so generating lift over ARES’s wings may prove tricky. NASA has already devoted five years to initial design, but still has a long, long way to go before this thing takes flight. Of course, when the end product is a Martian rocket plane, the wait is worth it.

spacettf:

Satellite View of Earth on 11.11.11 by NASA Goddard Photo and Video on Flickr.

Via Flickr:
NOAA’s GOES-13 satellite captured this image on Nov. 111, 2011 at 23:45 UTC of North and South America. The GOES-13 cloud images are overlaid on a true-color NASA/MODIS map by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Today a NASA crew is landing on an “asteroid“—about 60 feet (18 meters) under the sea.

In reality, members of the space agency’s NEEMO 15 mission will test ways humans might one day visit asteroids by spending 13 days at an underwater laboratory in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Divers—including the one above using an anchored tether—have been preparing for the mission for months at the Aquarius Reef Base, a NOAA-owned site 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) off Key Largo (map).

Since 2001 crews with NEEMO (for NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations) have completed 14 missions at Aquarius, mostly training astronauts for work on space shuttles and the International Space Station. The mission starting today is only the second that was primarily designed to test new equipment and operational concepts for deeper space exploration.

Specifically, NEEMO 15 aims to help astronauts figure out how to move around on and collect samples from near-Earth asteroids, many of which are relatively small compared with the moon or Mars and so would have almost zero gravity.

The project doesn’t aim to test the actual anchors asteroid-walkers might use, since that technology is still in early stages of development. Instead, NEEMO 15 will evaluate different anchoring setups and how well people interact with them.

The “sea floor itself is being used in most cases to represent the surface of an asteroid,” Steve Chappell, the deputy mission manager for NEEMO 15, said via email. In some places, fiberglass “rock walls” stand in for harder surfaces.