Entries by HotTopicsJournalist

Image: COURTESY OF NASA/JPL-CALTECH/R. HURT 200x175

The Fourth of July last year had some extra fireworks. NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft sent a hefty projectile--more than 800 pounds--into the body of the comet known as Tempel 1. The collision delivered 19 gigajoules of energy--the equivalent of nearly five tons of explosive TNT--into the wandering comet and ejected a plume of its innermost secrets. Roughly 10 million kilograms of comet stuff (more than 22 million pounds) spread out into space, giving scientists a rare glimpse of the ingredients that go into making a comet. Now researchers observing with the Spitzer Space Telescope have revealed their findings: comets contain a mix of materials that formed under widely divergent conditions.

Read more at SCIENCE NEWS -Deep Impact Reveals Comet's Components

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Other Missions at 13:35

Paris - Europe's Venus Express satellite, which entered Venus orbit in April, has cleared its commissioning phase and is ready to begin formal operations despite the fact that one of its seven observing instruments is not functioning, the European Space Agency (ESA) said July 12.

Venus Express satellite
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The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS), which encountered problems in May, is stuck in "closed" position despite weeks of efforts to return the instrument to operations, ESA said.

"[A] series of activities and further in-orbit tests [will] be conducted in the next months, as well as a series of independent investigations, to examine the origin of the problem," ESA said in a July 12 statement on Venus Express' status. "In the meantime, other instruments will cover some of the PFS objectives."

The PFS is designed to measure Venus' surface and atmospheric temperature. Part of its mission is to hunt for volcanic activity on the planet.

Venus Express was launched in November 2005 and entered Venus orbit in April, after which it began adjusting its position to arrive at the highly elliptical orbit in which it will operate. The satellite will view Venus from distances of between 66,000 kilometers and 250 kilometers.

Credit: Space.com, Peter de Selding--Despite Balky Sensor, Venus Express Ready for Operations

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Other Missions at 13:32

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Houston - Two astronauts are set to step outside the International Space Station (ISS) today and make a critical repair to aid future construction of the orbital laboratory.

Spacewalkers Piers Sellers and Michael Fossum, who spent more than seven hours working outside the ISS Saturday, will once again don their U.S.-built spacesuits to restore the station’s mobile crane to full operations. The spacewalk was set to begin at 8:13 a.m. EDT (1213 GMT).

The primary task for Sellers and Fossum, both mission specialists for NASA’s STS-121 shuttle mission aboard Discovery, is to replace a reel-like power and data cable system that was severed late last year due to a still-unexplained glitch.

Known as a Trailing Umbilical System (TUS) Reel Assembly, the system transfers electricity, data and video to the space station’s railcar-like Mobile Transporter. The transporter itself is a critical movable platform for shifting the ISS robotic arm or massive station components along the orbital laboratory’s main truss.

“It’s mobile now, but it’s only dependable on one string,” Sellers told reporters Sunday during a space-to-ground video link. “And when we’re done tomorrow, it will have two strings and therefore be more reliable.”

More: Space.com - Spacewalkers to Make Critical Space Station Repairs

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Manned Missions at 16:56

Jerry Schaber

A "must read" Open File Report that is a comprehensive account of the USGS participation in the Apollo era, from its conception through the end of Project Apollo, has been completed by Gerald G. “Jerry” Schaber during the time he was with the U.S. Geological Survey, Branch of Astrogeology, working as a Scientist Emeritus. We talk with the man behind the book, who filled that significant gap of history with regard to the participation of the USGS.

Every story has a heart and a soul, and Jerry hands these rich gifts to the reader with respect and perspective. Now Jerry shares with us, the thinking behind the book.

Q. Tell us, how does it feel to have completed the open file report?

A. Well, it feels very good as you might expect. It was a long time in coming.

Q. How long did it take?

A. I started in 2000, encouraged by Wes Ward, Carolyn Shoemaker and other people at the time to do it. I finished in 2002, but it was in editing ever since.

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Astrogeology at 12:30

The Moon and Jupiter

(side by side in May 2006)

Photo credit: Jason A.C. Brock of Wichita Falls, Texas

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June 29, 2006: This drives astronomers crazy. Every summer, on the one night when millions of Americans are guaranteed to be outside at nightfall, necks craned upward watching the sky, almost no one pays attention to the heavens. It's all fireworks, fireworks, fireworks. Stars and planets don't stand a chance.

But this 4th of July is different.

At sunset, just as the fireworks are about to begin, the Moon and Jupiter will pop out of the twilight side-by-side: sky map. These are the brightest objects in the night sky, easily beaming through the flash and smoke of a fireworks display.

Sidewalk astronomers, deploy your telescopes! Here is a wonderful opportunity to show off Jupiter's moons, the Great Red Spot, lunar craters and mountain ranges, and the long creeping shadows at the Moon's day-night divide. Bonus: Point your telescope at blank sky and wait for some fireworks. A good starburst at 25x magnification can be very entertaining.

And don't forget to watch out for spaceships.

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Sky Watching at 13:56

Courtesy Brent Archinal (© 2006)

Brent reports that one can see generally the flare-up of the left (southern) part of the fire as it climbs up a huge cliff (~1,000-1,500 ft high), and also as fire streams down a narrow line from the top of the mountain just to the right of that same area. There are also a couple of photos of the (apparently) contract television crew that did a live report from there to a Phoenix station. That's why much of the foreground vegetation in all the photos is brightly lit.

There is some "astrogeology" here, Brent writes, as in the first two photos. The "star" just above the mountain to the left-center (almost in some of the flames) is Mercury, with the stars Castor and Pollux together above the mountain at right. Those images and later images also show two "stars" to the upper left, which are Saturn (brighter) and Mars.

Courtesy Brent Archinal (© 2006)

Courtesy Brent Archinal (© 2006)

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Flagstaff & Arizona at 16:16

Artist concept of 2003 UB313

(also known as the "10th" planet)

Credit: Robert Hurt (IPAC)

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The International Astronomical Union (IAU) will be meeting this August to hammer out the final definition of the word "planet." If approved, the definition will be announced in September.

Webster defines the word planet as: any of the seven celestial bodies sun, moon, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, and Saturn that in ancient belief have motions of their own among the fixed stars b (1) : any of the large bodies that revolve around the sun in the solar system (2) : a similar body associated with another star.

So one might ask, what's the big deal? Apparently it's UB313, an object roughly the size of Pluto that orbits the Sun beyond Neptune. The object's discoverer, Mike Brown of Caltech, has argued it should be called a planet. Some astronomers say if UB313 is a planet, then several similar bodies should gain the same status. The number of planets in our solar system could ultimately climb into the thousands as technology improves.

What will the definition be? Will they scratch Pluto from being a planet? What qualifiers will they use to rewrite this definiton? Will they look at mass? Some have wondered if they in fact would include orbit characteristics and formation scenarios? I suppose we won't know until the new committee that includes historians and educators, make their recommendation to the IAU in September. Mark your calenders.

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Odds and Ends at 15:25

On May 2, 2006, a baby crater was born on the Moon. NASA says it’s about 14 meters wide, 3 meters deep and precisely one month, eleven days old. What a baby!

NASA astronomers watched a meteoroid hit the Moon's Sea of Clouds (Mare Nubium) with 17 billion joules of kinetic energy.

Bill Cooke, the head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office in Huntsville, Alabama said that the impact created a bright fireball, which was video-recorded using a 10-inch telescope. Stuff hits the Moon all the time," said Cooke--but this is the best-ever recording of an explosion in progress."

Show me the impact and tell me the full story!

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Odds and Ends at 17:36

June 27 - June 30, 2006
Pasadena, California USA
Late Registration Deadline June 19

IPPW-4, the Fourth International Planetary Probe Workshop, is devoted to robotic exploration of planets with atmospheres through the use of entry probes, aerial platforms and the technologies of aeroassist. The workshop brings together planetary scientists, engineers and technologists with an interest in entry descent and flight in planetary and satellite atmospheres. This includes the major planets - Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune - with their bottomless atmospheric oceans and Mars, Venus and Saturn's moon Titan which have solid surfaces accessible to scientific investigation. The workshop will feature keynote addresses by leading researchers as well as invited and contributed papers.
The workshop will be preceded on June 25-26, 2006, by a two-day short course "In Situ Instruments for Planetary Probes and Aerial Platforms," designed to further the workshop goals.

More information: Fourth Annual International Planetary Probe Workshop

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Other EPO at 18:13

Saturn's moon Enceladus - an active, icy world with an unusually warm south pole - may have performed an unusual trick for a planetary body. New research shows Enceladus rolled over, literally, explaining why the moon's hottest spot is at the south pole.

Image right: This graphic illustrates the interior of Saturn's moon Enceladus. It shows warm, low-density material rising to the surface from within, in its icy shell (yellow) and/or its rocky core (red). Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute 200x200

Enceladus recently grabbed scientists' attention when the Cassini spacecraft observed icy jets and plumes indicating active geysers spewing from the tiny moon's south polar region.

"The mystery we set out to explain was how the hot spot could end up at the pole if it didn't start there," said Francis Nimmo, assistant professor of Earth sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz.

The researchers propose the reorientation of the moon was driven by warm, low-density material rising to the surface from within Enceladus. A similar process may have happened on Uranus' moon Miranda, they said. Their findings are in this week's journal Nature.

More on Enceladus. Credit: NASA

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Cassini at 17:44

Voyager 2 could pass beyond the outermost layer of our solar system, called the "termination shock," sometime within the next year. The milestone, which comes about a year after Voyager 1's crossing, comes earlier than expected and suggests to scientists that the edge of the shock is about one billion miles closer to the Sun in the southern region of the solar system than in the north.
This implies that the heliosphere, a spherical bubble of charged low-energy particles created by our Sun's solar wind, is irregularly shaped, bulging in the northern hemisphere and pressed inward in the south.
Scientists determined that Voyager 1 was approaching the termination shock when it began detecting charged particles that were being pushed back toward the Sun by charged particles coming from outside our solar system. This occurred when Voyager 1 was about 85 AU from the Sun.
One AU is the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 93 million miles.
In contrast, Voyager 2 began detecting returning particles while only 76 AU from the Sun.
"This tells us that the shock down where Voyager 2 is must be closer the sun than where Voyager 1 is," said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
The researchers think that the heliosphere's asymmetry might be due to a weak interstellar magnetic field pressing inward on the southern hemisphere.
"The [magnetic] field is only 1/100,000 of the field on the Earth's surface, but it's over such a large area and pushing on such a faint gas that it can actually push the shock about a billion miles in," Stone explained.

credit: Space.com, Ker Than

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Other Missions at 10:43

Earth. Our world is the poster child for solar-powered planets. Most flora and fauna on Earth – with some important exceptions such as the bacteria that live in deep rock – are ultimately animated by the roaring nuclear fusion taking place in the Sun’s heart. On Earth, it’s usually chlorophyll that converts this radiant energy into chemical compounds to energize our existence (or bulge our waistlines).

Venus. Despite the fact that Venus, our sister planet, has been described as purgatory personified, there are some researchers who still hold out hope for life there.

Mars. While Mars’ highly reactive and powder-dry landscape is practically guaranteed to be sterile, there is indirect evidence for watery aquifers a few hundred feet beneath the surface. If these liquid reservoirs exist, life may have found refuge within.

Titan. This large moon of Saturn, revealed in detail by NASA’s Cassini mission, and subject to shameless examination by the Huygens probe, is far too cold for liquid water. But its air is thick with hydrocarbons. David Grinspoon has suggested that the Sun’s weak ultraviolet light might rip apart some of these atmospheric compounds, producing acetylene. Falling into the liquid lakes of methane and ethane below, this gas (best known for firing blowtorches on Earth) could serve as a food for microscopic life. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? No.

The best known of tidally heated satellites are:

Europa. There’s good evidence, mostly from its changing magnetic field, that this ice-covered world orbiting Jupiter has an ocean lying 10 miles or so beneath its crusty exterior. At the bottom of this vast, cryptic sea, volcanic vents might be spewing nutrients and hot water into a cold, dark abyss, providing both the food and energy for simple life.

Ganymede and Callisto. Both of these jovian moons show magnetic field variations similar to those of Europa, suggesting that they, too, might be hiding large, watery oceans. Given their thicker ice skins, finding that life – if it exists – would be even more daunting than for Europa.

Enceladus. In the news recently, this Saturnian satellite seems to be a giant Slurpee – an icy moon that, thanks to tidal heating, is spouting geysers of water into space. An unexpected entry in the horse race of habitability, Enceladus is the first other world for which we have convincing evidence of liquid

Credit:Seth Shostak,SETI Institute. More: 8 Worlds where life might exist

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist at 11:49

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June is almost here and I've been thinking about the brides who will need a dress for their wedding, should they carry out their celebration in space. After all, life will go on there.

Eri Matsui designed these wedding dresses for a Space Couture Design Contest supported by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The dress to the left can be worn in gravity, and the one on the right in zero gravity; however, both will look exceptional under either condition.

Her design stimulates our dream that we may get married in space soon. Excuse me, I just remembered something. I had better call Eri Matsui. We're going to need a tuxedo to go with that.

Wedding dress for use in space [Seihin-World]

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Humorous at 10:24

American Scientist Online, 10 April 2006: The U.S. Geolgoical Survey, Branch of Astrogeology's Map-a-Planet was chosen for "Site of the Week," in American Scientist Online. American Scientist is a magazine of SIGMA XI, a scientific research society. Congratulations Patty Garcia, Lisa Gaddis, Chris Isbell, Janet Barrett, Deborah Soltesz, and Annie Bennett. Read what was reported by this web site, verbatim, below:

The U.S. Geological Survey goes far beyond its national ambit with this friendly, intuitive tool. Choosing from a growing array of datasets, visitors can create customized, browsable maps of Venus, Mars or any of six moons, including our own.

The interface offers three levels. The "easy" version assigns default values for size, resolution, format and projection; these values can be customized in the "intermediate" version via a simple control panel (choose a Mercator projection, for example, or assign a specific resolution). The advanced version provides full control of all variables. The completed maps can be panned, zoomed or resized, and are downloadable either directly via the user's browser or via ftp.

Though the interface is not as polished as that in Google's browsable maps of the moon and Mars, the USGS offering goes much farther afield, offering detailed views of Saturn's moon Rhea and Jupiter's Callisto, Europa, Io and Ganymede. It offers hours of fascinating exploration of a solar system that's at once strikingly alien and increasingly familiar.

View the original article on the American Scientist Online

Map-a-Planet was also recognized in the Resource section of the May 2006 issue of The Geological Society of America's online magazine, GSA Connection.

View the original issue of the GSA Connection

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Astrogeology at 13:25

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There is life on Mars,

even if,

it's just a mouse.

Posted by HotTopicsJournalist in Humorous at 08:53