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https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/stardust-discovers-potential-interstellar-space-particles | Stardust Discovers Potential Interstellar Space Particles | Seven microscopic dust particles collected during NASA's Stardust mission may be the first samples of contemporary interstellar dust. | Seven rare, microscopic interstellar dust particles that date to the beginnings of the solar system are among the samples collected by scientists who have been studying the payload from NASA's Stardust spacecraft since its return to Earth in 2006. If confirmed, these particles would be the first samples of contemporary interstellar dust.A team of scientists has been combing through the spacecraft's aerogel and aluminum foil dust collectors since Stardust returned in 2006.The seven particles probably came from outside our solar system, perhaps created in a supernova explosion millions of years ago and altered by exposure to the extreme space environment. The particles would be the first confirmed samples of contemporary interstellar dust.The research report appears in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Science. Twelve other papers about the particles will appear next week in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science."These are the most challenging objects we will ever have in the lab for study, and it is a triumph that we have made as much progress in their analysis as we have," said Michael Zolensky, curator of the Stardust laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston and coauthor of the Science paper.Stardust was launched in 1999 and returned to Earth on Jan. 15, 2006, at the Utah Test and Training Range, 80 miles west of Salt Lake City. The Stardust Sample Return Canister was transported to a curatorial facility at Johnson where the Stardust collectors remain preserved and protected for scientific study.Inside the canister, a tennis racket-like sample collector tray captured the particles in silica aerogel as the spacecraft flew within 149 miles (about 240 kilometers) of a comet in January 2004. An opposite side of the tray holds interstellar dust particles captured by the spacecraft during its seven-year, three-billion-mile journey.Scientists caution that additional tests must be done before they can say definitively that these are pieces of debris from interstellar space. But if they are, the particles could help explain the origin and evolution of interstellar dust.The particles are much more diverse in terms of chemical composition and structure than scientists expected. The smaller particles differ greatly from the larger ones and appear to have varying histories. Many of the larger particles have been described as having a fluffy structure, similar to a snowflake.Two particles, each only about two microns (thousandths of a millimeter) in diameter, were isolated after their tracks were discovered by a group of citizen scientists. These volunteers, who call themselves "Dusters," scanned more than a million images as part of a University of California, Berkeley, citizen-science project, which proved critical to finding these needles in a haystack.A third track, following the direction of the wind during flight, was left by a particle that apparently was moving so fast -- more than 10 miles per second (15 kilometers per second) -- that it vaporized. Volunteers identified tracks left by another 29 particles that were determined to have been kicked out of the spacecraft into the collectors.Four of the particles reported in Science were found in aluminum foils between tiles on the collector tray. Although the foils were not originally planned as dust collection surfaces, an international team led by physicist Rhonda Stroud of the Naval Research Laboratory searched the foils and identified four pits lined with material composed of elements that fit the profile of interstellar dust particles.Three of these four particles, just a few tenths of a micron across, contained sulfur compounds, which some astronomers have argued do not occur in interstellar dust. A preliminary examination team plans to continue analysis of the remaining 95 percent of the foils to possibly find enough particles to understand the variety and origins of interstellar dust.Supernovas, red giants and other evolved stars produce interstellar dust and generate heavy elements like carbon, nitrogen and oxygen necessary for life. Two particles, dubbed Orion and Hylabrook, will undergo further tests to determine their oxygen isotope quantities, which could provide even stronger evidence for their extrasolar origin.Scientists at Johnson have scanned half the panels at various depths and turned these scans into movies, which were then posted online, where the Dusters could access the footage to search for particle tracks.Once several Dusters tag a likely track, Andrew Westphal, lead author of the Science article, and his team verify the identifications. In the one million frames scanned so far, each a half-millimeter square, Dusters have found 69 tracks, while Westphal has found two. Thirty-one of these were extracted along with surrounding aerogel by scientists at Johnson and shipped to UC Berkeley to be analyzed.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Stardust mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operated the spacecraft.For information about the Stardust mission on the Web, visit:www.nasa.gov/stardustFor information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/home |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/synthetic-aperture-radar-instrument-shipped | Synthetic Aperture Radar Instrument Shipped | A synthetic aperture radar instrument, the highly sophisticated imaging radar that will be sent to Venus aboard the Magellan spacecraft, left Los Angeles Monday (April 18) for Denver aboard specially designed truck. | A synthetic aperture radar instrument, the highly sophisticated imaging radar that will be sent to Venus aboard the Magellan spacecraft, left Los Angeles Monday (April 18) for Denver aboard specially designed truck.The radar instrument, called SAR, enclosed in 5- feet by three-feet by one-foot black box, was loaded aboard the "air-ride van" at Hughes Aircraft Company's Space and Communications Group for the two day trip. The van has specially buffered shock absorbers to prevent the multi- million dollar instrument from being jostled.At the Martin Marietta Corp. plant in Denver, the SAR will be mated to the Magellan spacecraft in preparation for thermal vacuum tests.The instrument, which will be used to map 90 percent of the surface of Venus through its thick cover of carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid clouds, will be tested in an environment simulating the day and night conditions of Venus orbit at temperatures ranging from -25 (-13 F) to 65 (149 F).Martin Marietta is the prime contractor for the Magellan spacecraft, scheduled for launch in April, 1989. Hughes developed the synthetic aperture radar instrument. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Cal., manages the Magellan Project for NASA.The spacecraft will map the planet for one Venus day, 243 Earth days, during its primary mission at resolution of about 200 meters. Magellan will gather and return to Earth more data than all the other U.S. space missions combined.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-tracked-small-asteroid-before-it-broke-up-in-atmosphere | NASA Tracked Small Asteroid Before It Broke Up in Atmosphere | The object never posed any harm but was an ideal test case for NASA planetary defense teams to test their alert system. | When a lightning detector on a NOAA weather satellite
detected something that wasn't lightning last Saturday, a scientist at the Center
for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena,
California, did some detective work.Could a tiny, harmless object that broke up in the
atmosphere in a bright flash be connected to a just-received automated alert of
a potential near-Earth asteroid discovery? Although far below the size that
NASA is tasked to detect and track, the event presented an ideal opportunity for
NASA planetary defense teams to test their parts of the alert system.The outcome? The flow of alert data works, and the culprit
was identified: It was an asteroid. Now designated 2019 MO, the asteroid was only
about 16 feet (5 meters) in size and was detected at 9:45 UTC (2:45 a.m. PDT, 5:45
a.m. EDT) on Saturday, June 22, by the University of Hawaii's ATLAS survey
telescope on Maunaloa in Hawaii.When first spotted, 2019 MO was about 310,000 miles (500,000
kilometers) from Earth - farther out than the orbit of our Moon. This was roughly
the equivalent of spotting something the size of a gnat from a distance of 310
miles (500 kilometers).The initial four observations by ATLAS were submitted to
the NASA-funded Minor Planet Center (the worldwide data processing node for
asteroid observations) and immediately assessed by automated impact-analysis
software, called Scout, at JPL. Scout quickly identified a possible impact. The
observations were too few to provide certainty but did show the size would be far
too small to be of concern."Asteroids this size are far smaller than what we're
tasked to track," said Davide Farnocchia, a scientist at the Center for
Near Earth Object Studies, which operates Scout. "They're so small, they
would not survive passing through our atmosphere to cause damage to Earth's
surface. But this event shows how capable our search programs are, even for
objects of such small sizes."Scout works by processing sky-position measurements of
each potential new asteroid and rapidly computing the possible range of future
motion even before these objects have been confirmed as discoveries.The mystery was closer to being solved in the early evening
of June 22, when a NOAA-NASA weather satellite called GOES-16 carrying aGeostationary
Lightning Mapperreported a possible bolide - the bright flash of an
asteroid impacting Earth's atmosphere - over the Caribbean Sea. JPL's
Farnocchia recognized that the object Scout flagged earlier that day could have
caused that bolide, and he dug into the data. He computed a viable trajectory
that would fit the coordinates of both the flash captured by the lightning mapper
and the ATLAS observations of about 12 hours earlier.Farnocchia noted the data on the tiny, new asteroid were
not yet conclusive: The body had been spotted only four times in just under
half an hour, which was not enough information to determine where the object
came from or exactly where it was headed.Luckily, the NASA-fundedPan-STARRS 2survey telescope on Maui had imaged the part of the sky where the small
asteroid could have been visible a couple of hours before the ATLAS
observations. Using the potential orbit Farnocchia had calculated, Pan-STARRS scientists Robert Weryk
and Mark Huber, both at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, and
Marco Micheli at the European Space Agency located the asteroid in images that
had been taken just before the ATLAS observations.With
these additional observations, a more precise trajectory for the asteroid was
calculated and the puzzle was solved: The object that impacted the atmosphere
over the Caribbean was the asteroid detected by ATLAS just 12 hours earlier and
flagged by Scout.The
impact of Asteroid 2019 MO has now been confirmed by international infrasound
and other US Government sensors and added to theCNEOS Fireball Map.JPL hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS)
for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program in NASA's Planetary Defense
Coordination Office.More
information about CNEOS, asteroids and near-Earth objects can be found at:https://cneos.jpl.nasa.govFor
more information about NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefenseFor
asteroid and comet news and updates, followAsteroidWatchon
Twitter:twitter.com/AsteroidWatch |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassini-sees-precursors-to-aerosol-haze-on-titan | Cassini Sees Precursors to Aerosol Haze on Titan | Scientists have confirmed the presence of complex, ringed hydrocarbons in the upper atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. | Scientists working with data from NASA's Cassini mission have confirmed the presence of a population of complex hydrocarbons in the upper atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, that later evolve into the components that give the moon a distinctive orange-brown haze. The presence of these complex, ringed hydrocarbons, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), explains the origin of the aerosol particles found in the lowest haze layer that blankets Titan's surface. Scientists think these PAH compounds aggregate into larger particles as they drift downward."With the huge amount of methane in its atmosphere, Titan smog is like L.A. smog on steroids," said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "These new papers using Cassini data shed light on how the heavy, complex hydrocarbon molecules that make up Titan's smog came to form out of the simpler molecules in the atmosphere. Now that they have been identified, the longevity of Cassini's mission will make it possible to study their variation with Titan seasons."Of all the bodies in the solar system, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has the atmosphere most resembling that of Earth. Like that of our planet, Titan's atmosphere is largely composed of molecular nitrogen. Unlike Earth's atmosphere, however, Titan's contains only small traces of oxygen and water. Another molecule, methane, plays a similar role to that of water in Earth's atmosphere, and makes up about 2 percent of Titan's atmosphere. Scientists have speculated that the atmosphere of this moon may resemble that of our planet in its early days, before primitive living organisms enriched it with oxygen via photosynthesis.When sunlight or highly energetic particles from Saturn's magnetic bubble hit the layers of Titan's atmosphere above about 600 miles (1,000 kilometers), the nitrogen and methane molecules there are broken up. This results in the formation of massive positive ions and electrons, which trigger a chain of chemical reactions, producing a variety of hydrocarbons -- a wide range of which have been detected in Titan's atmosphere. These reactions eventually lead to the production of carbon-based aerosols, large aggregates of atoms and molecules that are found in the lower layers of the haze that enshrouds Titan, well below 300 miles (500 kilometers). The process is similar to Earth, where smog starts with sunlight breaking up hydrocarbons that are emitted into the air. The resulting pieces recombine to form more complex molecules.Aerosols in Titan's lower haze have been studied using data from the descent of the European Space Agency's Huygens probe, which reached the surface in 2005, but their origin remained unclear. New studies analyzing data from Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer (VIMS) gathered in July and August 2007 might solve the problem. One new study of Titan's upper atmosphere in the Astrophysical Journal describes the detection of the PAHs, which are large carbon-based molecules that form from the aggregation of smaller hydrocarbons."We can finally confirm that PAHs play a major role in the production of Titan's lower haze, and that the chemical reactions leading to the formation of the haze start high up in the atmosphere," said this paper's lead author Manuel Lopez-Puertas from the Astrophysics Institute of Andalucia in Granada, Spain. "This finding is surprising: we had long suspected that PAHs and aerosols were linked in Titan's atmosphere, but didn't expect we could prove this with current instruments."The team of scientists had been studying the emission from various molecules in Titan's atmosphere when they stumbled upon a peculiar feature in the data. One of the characteristic lines in the spectrum -- from methane emissions -- had a slightly anomalous shape, and the scientists suspected it was hiding something.Bianca Maria Dinelli from the Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (part of the National Research Council) in Bologna, Italy, was the lead author of a related paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. She and her colleagues conducted a painstaking investigation to identify the chemical species responsible for the anomaly. The additional signal was found only during daytime, so it clearly had something to do with solar irradiation."The central wavelength of this signal, about 3.28 microns, is typical for aromatic compounds -- hydrocarbon molecules in which the carbon atoms are bound in ring-like structures," said Dinelli.The scientists tested whether the unidentified emission could be produced by benzene, the simplest aromatic compound consisting of one ring only, which had been detected earlier in Titan's atmosphere. However, the relatively low abundances of benzene are not sufficient to explain the emission that had been observed.After they ruled out benzene, the scientists tried to reproduce the observed emission with the more complex PAHs. They checked their data against the NASA Ames PAH Infrared Spectral Data Base. And they were successful: the data can be explained as emission by a mixture of many different PAHs, which contain an average of 34 carbon atoms and about 10 rings each."PAHs are very efficient in absorbing ultraviolet radiation from the sun, redistributing the energy within the molecule and finally emitting it at infrared wavelengths," said co-author Alberto Adriani from the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology at Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Rome. He is part of the Cassini-VIMS co-investigators team and started this investigation. He manages the team that collected and processed VIMS data.These hydrocarbons also are peculiarly capable of sending out profuse amounts of infrared radiation even in the rarefied environment of Titan's upper atmosphere, where the collisions between molecules are not very frequent. The molecules are themselves an intermediate product, generated when radiation from the sun ionizes smaller molecules in the upper atmosphere of Titan that then coagulate and sink.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and Italy's ASI space agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington DC, USA. The visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/comet-elenin-poses-no-threat-to-earth | Comet Elenin Poses No Threat to Earth | Comet Elenin, like most comets, is harmless. NASA scientists share the facts about Elenin, which will pass at a safe 22 million miles from Earth in October. | Often, comets are portrayed as harbingers of gloom and doom in movies and on television, but most pose no threat to Earth. Comet Elenin, the latest comet to visit our inner solar system, is no exception. Elenin will pass about 22 million miles (35 million kilometers) from Earth during its closest approach on Oct. 16, 2011.Also known by its astronomical name C/2010 X1, the comet was first detected on Dec. 10, 2010 by Leonid Elenin, an observer in Lyubertsy, Russia, who made the discovery "remotely" using an observatory in New Mexico. At that time, Elenin was about 401 million miles (647 million kilometers) from Earth. Since its discovery, Comet Elenin has – as all comets do – closed the distance to Earth's vicinity as it makes its way closer to perihelion, its closest point to the sun.NASA scientists have taken time over the last several months to answer your questions. Compiled below are the some of the most popular questions, with answers from Don Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and David Morrison of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.Most Popular Questions About Comet EleninWhen will Comet Elenin come closest to the Earth and appear the brightest?Comet Elenin should be at its brightest shortly before the time of its closest approach to Earth on Oct. 16, 2011. At its closest point, it will be 22 million miles (35 million kilometers) from us.Will Comet Elenin come close to the Earth or between the Earth and the moon?Comet Elenin will not come closer to Earth than 22 million miles (35 million kilometers). That's more than 90 times the distance to the moon.Can this comet influence us from where it is, or where it will be in the future? Can this celestial object cause shifting of the tides or even tectonic plates here on Earth?There have been incorrect speculations on the Internet that alignments of comet Elenin with other celestial bodies could cause consequences for Earth and external forces could cause comet Elenin to come closer. "Any approximate alignments of comet Elenin with other celestial bodies are meaningless, and the comet will not encounter any dark bodies that could perturb its orbit, nor will it influence us in any way here on Earth," said Don Yeomans, a scientist at NASA JPL."Comet Elenin will not only be far away, it is also on the small side for comets," said Yeomans. "And comets are not the most densely-packed objects out there. They usually have the density of something akin to loosely packed icy dirt."So you've got a modest-sized icy dirtball that is getting no closer than 35 million kilometers [about 22 million miles)," said Yeomans. "It will have an immeasurably minuscule influence on our planet. By comparison, my subcompact automobile exerts a greater influence on the ocean's tides than comet Elenin ever will."I've heard about three days of darkness because of Comet Elenin. Will Elenin block out the sun for three days?"As seen from the Earth, comet Elenin will not cross the sun's face," says Yeomans.But even if it could cross the sun, which it can't, astrobiologist David Morrison notes that comet Elenin is about 2-3 miles (3-5 kilometers) wide, while the sun is roughly 865,000 miles (1,392,082 kilometers) across. How could such a small object block the sun, which is such a large object?Let's think about an eclipse of the sun, which happens when the moon appears between the Earth and the sun. The moon is about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) in diameter, and has the same apparent size as the sun when it is about 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away -- roughly 100 times its own diameter. For a comet with a diameter of about 2-3 miles (3-5 kilometers) to cover the sun it would have to be within 250 miles (400 kilometers), roughly the orbital altitude of the International Space Station. However, as stated above, this comet will come no closer to Earth than 22 million miles.I've heard there is a "brown dwarf" theory about Comet Elenin. Would its mass be enough to pull Comet Honda's trajectory a significant amount? Could this be used to determine the mass of Elenin?Morrison says that there is no 'brown dwarf theory' of this comet. "A comet is nothing like a brown dwarf. You are correct that the way astronomers measure the mass of one object is by its gravitational effect on another, but comets are far too small to have a measureable influence on anything."If we had a black or brown dwarf in our outer solar system, I guess no one could see it, right?"No, that's not correct," says Morrison. "If we had a brown dwarf star in the outer solar system, we could see it, detect its infrared energy and measure its perturbing effect on other objects. There is no brown dwarf in the solar system, otherwise we would have detected it. And there is no such thing as a black dwarf."Will Comet Elenin be visible to the naked eye when it's closer to us? I missed Hale-Bopp's passing, so I want to know if we'll actually be able to see something in the sky when Elenin passes.We don't know yet if Comet Elenin will be visible to the naked eye. Morrison says, "At the rate it is going, seeing the comet at its best in early October will require binoculars and a very dark sky. Unfortunately, Elenin is no substitute for seeing comet Hale-Bopp, which was the brightest comet of the past several decades.""This comet may not put on a great show. Just as certainly, it will not cause any disruptions here on Earth. But, there is a cause to marvel," said Yeomans. "This intrepid little traveler will offer astronomers a chance to study a relatively young comet that came here from well beyond our solar system's planetary region. After a short while, it will be headed back out again, and we will not see or hear from Elenin for thousands of years. That's pretty cool."This comet has been called 'wimpy' by NASA scientists. Why?"We're talking about how a comet looks as it safely flies past us," said Yeomans of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office. "Some cometary visitors arriving from beyond the planetary region – like Hale-Bopp in 1997 -- have really lit up the night sky where you can see them easily with the naked eye as they safely transit the inner-solar system. But Elenin is trending toward the other end of the spectrum. You'll probably need a good pair of binoculars, clear skies and a dark, secluded location to see it even on its brightest night."Why aren't you talking more about Comet Elenin? If these things are small and nothing to worry about, why has there been no public info on Comet Elenin?Comet Elenin hasn't received much press precisely because it is small and faint. Several new comets are discovered each year, and you don't normally hear about them either. The truth is that Elenin has received much more attention than it deserves due to a variety of Internet postings that are untrue. The information NASA has on Elenin is readily available on the Internet. (Seehttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-135) If this comet were any danger to anyone, you would certainly know about it. For more information, visit NASA's AsteroidWatch site athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch/.I've heard NASA has observed Elenin many times more than other comets. Is this true, and is NASA playing this comet down?NASA regularly detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing relatively close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and predicts their paths to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. For more information, visit the NASA-JPL Near Earth objects site athttp://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/.However, neither NASA nor JPL is in the business of actively observing Elenin or any other comet. Most of the posted observations are made by amateur astronomers around the world. Since Elenin has had so much publicity, it naturally has attracted more observers.I was looking at the orbital diagram of Comet Elenin on the JPL website, and I was wondering why the orbit shows some angles when zooming? If you pick any other comet, you can see that there are no angles or bends.Many people are trying to plot the orbit of the comet with the routine on the JPL website, without realizing that this is just a simple visualization tool. While the tool has been recently improved to show smoother trajectories near the sun, it is not a scientific program to generate an accurate orbit. Yeomans explains that the orbit plotter on the Near-Earth Object website is not meant to accurately depict the true motion of objects over long time intervals, nor is it accurate during close planetary encounters. For more accurate long-term plotting, Yeomans suggests using the JPL Horizons system instead:http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/horizons.cgi?find_body=1&body_group=sb&sstr=C/2010%20X1. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/enceladus-geysers-mask-the-length-of-saturns-day | Enceladus Geysers Mask the Length of Saturn's Day | In a David and Goliath story of Saturnian proportions,
the little moon Enceladus is weighing down giant Saturn's magnetic field
so much that the field is rotating slower than the planet. | Pasadena, Calif. -- In a David and Goliath story of Saturnian proportions,
the little moon Enceladus is weighing down giant Saturn's magnetic field
so much that the field is rotating slower than the planet. This phenomenon
makes it nearly impossible to measure the length of the Saturn day using
techniques that work at the other giant planets."No one could have predicted that the little moon Enceladus would have such
an influence on the radio technique that has been used for years to determine
the length of the Saturn day," said Dr. Don Gurnett of the University of Iowa,
Iowa City. Gurnett is the principal investigator on the radio and plasma wave
science experiment onboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The radio technique
measures the rotation of the planet by taking its radio pulse rate -- the rhythm
of natural radio signals from the planet.A new study of Cassini data reported this week in the online version of
the journal Science determined that Saturn's magnetic field lines, invisible lines
originating from the interior of a magnetized planet, are being forced to slip
relative to the rotation of the planet by the weight of electrically charged
particles originating from geysers spewing water vapor and ice from Enceladus.
These results are based on joint observations by two Cassini instruments-the radio
and plasma wave instrument and the magnetometer.The neutral gas particles ejected from the geysers on Enceladus form a donut-like
torus around Saturn. As these particles become electrically charged, they are
captured by Saturn's magnetic field, forming a disk of ionized gas, or plasma,
which surrounds the planet near the equator. The particles weigh down the magnetic
field so much that the rate of rotation of the plasma disk slows down slightly.
This slippage causes the radio period, controlled by the plasma disk rotation,
to be longer than the planet's actual rotation period.Scientists conclude the period Cassini has been measuring from radio emission is
not the length of the Saturn day, but rather the rotation period of the plasma disk.
At present, because of Saturn's cloud motion, no technique is known that can
accurately measure the planet's actual internal rotation.Finding out the length of Saturn's day has been a challenge because the gaseous
planet has no surface or fixed point to clock its rotation rate. Initially, the
approach was to use periodic regular radio signals, as has been done for Jupiter,
Uranus and Neptune.However, Saturn's radio period has turned out to be troubling in two ways. It seems
to be a pulsed signal rather than a rotating, lighthouse-like beam. Secondly, the
period seems to be slowly changing over months to years. The day measured by Cassini
is some six minutes longer than the day recorded by NASA's Voyager spacecraft in
the early 1980s, a change of nearly 1 percent."We have linked the pulsing radio signal to a rotating magnetic signal. Once each
rotation of Saturn's magnetic field, an asymmetry in the field triggers a burst of
radio waves," said Dr. David Southwood, co-author, Imperial College London, and
director of science at the European Space Agency. "We have then linked both signals
to material that has come from Enceladus."Based on the new observations, scientists now think there are two possible reasons for
the change in radio period. The first theory is that the geysers on Enceladus could
be more active now than in Voyagers' time. The second is that there may be seasonal
variations as Saturn orbits the sun once every 29 years."One would predict that when the geysers are very active, the particles load down
the magnetic field and increase the slippage of the plasma disk, thereby increasing
the radio emission period even more. If the geysers are less active, there would be
less of a load on the magnetic field, and therefore less slippage of the plasma disk,
and a shorter period," said Gurnett."The direct link between radio, magnetic field and deep planetary rotation has been
taken for granted up to now. Saturn is showing we need to think further," said Michele
Dougherty, principal investigator on Cassini's magnetometer instrument, Imperial College London.The Saturn radio emissions detected by Cassini have been converted into an audio
file available at:http://www.nasa.gov/cassiniandhttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency
and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's
Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed
and assembled at JPL. The radio and plasma wave science experiment team is based at
the University of Iowa, Iowa City. The magnetometer team is based at Imperial College London. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/orbiter-in-safe-mode-increases-communication-rate | Orbiter in Safe Mode Increases Communication Rate | Engineers for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project have stepped up the communication rate being received from the orbiter as an early step in the process of determining why the spacecraft spontaneously rebooted its computer on Aug. 26. | Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status ReportPASADENA, Calif. -- Engineers for NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter project have stepped up the communication rate being received from the orbiter as an early step in the process of determining why the spacecraft spontaneously rebooted its computer on Aug. 26.The latest reboot occurred at 5:42 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time (12:42 Universal Time) on Wednesday, Aug. 26.Data received from the orbiter indicate that this reboot had a different signature from reboots in February and June of this year.Three new pieces of information are available to guide the investigation. This latest reboot affected some memory locations that had not been affected by the earlier ones. Also, unlike those earlier reboots, this event occurred while the spacecraft was using its backup, "B Side," main computer. In early August, the orbiter unexpectedly switched itself from the "A Side" main computer to the "B Side" computer. And finally, the decreasing intervals between the four safe-mode events this year are also providing clues to the problem.To help in identifying a root cause in case of a recurrence, engineers had programmed the spacecraft this month to frequently record engineering data onto non-volatile memory. That large amount of data now being received could give an improved record of spacecraft events leading up to the latest reboot.The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter currently has normal power, temperatures and battery charge. It remains in proper sun-pointed attitude and in high-rate communication with Earth. Safe mode is a precautionary status that spacecraft are programmed to enter when they sense conditions for which they do not know a more specific response. While in this mode, a spacecraft suspends non-essential activities pending further instructions from ground controllers."The spacecraft is stable and our priority now is to carefully work our way to understanding this anomaly, with the intent of preventing recurrences," Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Jim Erickson, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said Friday.The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been investigating Mars with six science instruments since it reached that planet in 2006. It has returned more data than all other current and past Mars missions combined.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, managed the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission for NASA. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/citizen-scientists-find-new-world-with-nasa-telescope | Citizen Scientists Find New World with NASA Telescope | There are thousands of known exoplanets - planets orbiting stars other than our Sun - but citizen scientists have helped discover one that has a rare quality. | Using
data fromNASA's Kepler
space telescope, citizen scientists have discovered a planet roughly
twice the size of Earth located within its star's habitable zone, the range of
orbital distances where liquid water may exist on the planet's surface. The new
world, known as K2-288Bb, could be rocky or could be a gas-rich planet similar
to Neptune. Its size is rare among exoplanets - planets beyond our solar
system."It's
a very exciting discovery due to how it was found, its temperate orbit and because
planets of this size seem to be relatively uncommon," said Adina Feinstein,
a University of Chicago graduate student who discussed the discovery on Monday,
Jan. 7, at the 233rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.
She is also the lead author of a paper describing the new planet accepted for
publication byThe
Astronomical Journal.Located
226 light-years away in the constellation Taurus, the planet lies in a stellar
system known as K2-288, which contains a pair of dim, cool M-type stars
separated by about 5.1 billion miles (8.2 billion kilometers) - roughly six
times the distance between Saturn and the Sun. The brighter star is about half
as massive and large as the Sun, while its companion is about one-third the Sun's
mass and size. The new planet, K2-288Bb, orbits the smaller, dimmer star every
31.3 days.In
2017, Feinstein and Makennah Bristow, an undergraduate student at the
University of North Carolina Asheville, worked as interns with Joshua Schlieder,
an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
They searched Kepler data for evidence of transits, the regular dimming of a
star when an orbiting planet moves across the star's face.Examining
data fromthe fourth observing campaignof Kepler'sK2
mission, the team noticed two likely planetary transits in the system.
But scientists require a third transit before claiming the discovery of a candidate
planet, and there wasn't a third signal in the observations they reviewed.As
it turned out, though, the team wasn't actually analyzing all of the data.In
Kepler's K2 mode, which ran from 2014 to 2018, the spacecraft repositioned
itself to point at a new patch of sky at the start of each three-month
observing campaign. Astronomers were initially concerned that this
repositioning would cause systematic errors in measurements."Re-orienting
Kepler relative to the Sun caused miniscule changes in the shape of the
telescope and the temperature of the electronics, which inevitably affected
Kepler's sensitive measurements in the first days of each campaign," said
co-author Geert Barentsen, an astrophysicist at NASA's Ames Research Center in
California's Silicon Valley and the director of the guest observer office for
the Kepler and K2 missions.To
deal with this, early versions of the software that was used to prepare the
data for planet-finding analysis simply ignored the first few days of
observations - and that's where the third transit was hiding.As
scientists learned how to correct for these systematic errors, this trimming
step was eliminated - but the early K2 data Barstow studied had been clipped."We
eventually re-ran all data from the early campaigns through the modified
software and then re-ran the planet search to get a list of candidates, but
these candidates were never fully visually inspected," explained Schlieder,
a co-author of the paper. "Inspecting, or vetting, transits with the human
eye is crucial because noise and other astrophysical events can mimic transits."Instead,
the re-processed data were posted directly toExoplanet
Explorers, a project where the public searches Kepler's K2 observations
to locate new transiting planets. In May 2017, volunteers noticed the third
transit and began an excited discussion about what was then thought to be an
Earth-sized candidate in the system, which caught the attention of Feinstein
and her colleagues."That's
how we missed it - and it took the keen eyes of citizen scientists to make this
extremely valuable find and point us to it," Feinstein said.The
team began follow-up observations usingNASA's
Spitzer Space Telescope, the Keck II telescope at theW. M. Keck
ObservatoryandNASA's Infrared Telescope Facility(the latter two in Hawaii), and also examined data from ESA's (the European
Space Agency's)Gaia
mission.Estimated
to be about 1.9 times Earth's size, K2-288Bb is half the size of Neptune. This places
the planet within arecently
discovered category called the Fulton gap, or radius gap. Among
planets that orbit close to their stars, there's a curious dearth of worlds between
about 1.5 and two times Earth's size. This is likely the result of intense
starlight breaking up atmospheric molecules and eroding away the atmospheres of
some planets over time, leaving behind two populations. Since K2-288Bb's radius
places it in this gap, it may provide a case study of planetary evolution
within this size range.On
Oct. 30, 2018, Kepler ran out of fuel and ended its mission after nine years,
during which it discovered 2,600 confirmed planets around other stars - the
bulk of those now known - along with thousands of additional candidates
astronomers are working to confirm. And whileNASA's
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satelliteis the newest space-based
planet hunter, this new finding shows that more discoveries await scientists in
Kepler data.Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, managed
Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation
operated the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and
Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.For
more information about the Kepler and K2 missions, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/kepler |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jason-sets-sail-satellite-to-spot-seas-solaratmospheric-seesaw | Jason Sets Sail; Satellite to Spot Sea's Solar/Atmospheric Seesaw | The joint NASA/French Space Agency oceanography satellite Jason 1 successfully rode a Delta II rocket into orbit from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 2W at 7:07:36 a.m. PST today. | The joint NASA/French Space Agency oceanography satellite Jason 1 successfully rode a Delta II rocket into orbit from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 2W at 7:07:36 a.m. PST today.Jason 1 will join its orbiting cousin, the venerable Topex/Poseidon satellite, to continue observations of the global climate interaction occurring between the sea and the atmosphere as a result of stored solar energy. Instruments on the satellite will map variations in ocean surface topography to monitor world ocean circulation, study interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, improve climate predictions and observe events like El Nino. The mission is expected to last three years.At 55 minutes, 20 seconds into the mission -- or 8:02 a.m. PST -- the Jason 1 spacecraft separated from the Delta's second stage. Following separation, Jason's twin sets of solar arrays were unfolded and the satellite began its rotation toward the Sun. Ground controllers successfully acquired the spacecraft's signal from the Poker Flats, Alaska, tracking station at 8:41 a.m. PST. Initial telemetry reports received by the Jason team show the spacecraft to be in excellent health.The French Space Agency, Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), will handle satellite control and operations through the spacecraft's on-orbit checkout phase, expected to last approximately 30 to 50 days. The Toulouse Space Centre in Toulouse, France, is in charge of these operations. Routine operations will then transfer to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.Additional information is available on the Internet at:http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov, the JPL home page athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the U.S. portion of the mission for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, D.C. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-reconnaissance-orbiter-studies-comet-flyby | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Studies Comet Flyby | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has sent home more data about Mars than all other missions combined, is also now providing data about a comet that buzzed The Red Planet on October 19. | Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission Status ReportNASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has sent home more data about Mars than all other missions combined, is also now providing data about a comet that buzzed The Red Planet today (Oct. 19).The orbiter continues operating in good health after sheltering behind Mars during the half hour when high-velocity dust particles from comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring had the most chance of reaching the paths of Mars orbiters. It maintained radio communications with Earth throughout the comet's closest approach, at 11:27 a.m. PDT (2:27 p.m. EDT), and the peak dust-risk period centered about 100 minutes later."The spacecraft performed flawlessly throughout the comet flyby," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Dan Johnston of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "It maneuvered for the planned observations of the comet and emerged unscathed."Following the critical period of dust flux, the orbiter is communicating at 1.5 megabits per second with NASA's Deep Space Network. It remained on Side A of its two redundant computers, and all subsystems are working as expected.Downlink of data has begun from today's comet observations by three instruments on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The full downlink may take days. These instruments -- the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), the Compact Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), and the Context Camera (CTX) -- also observed the comet for days before the flyby and will continue to make observations of it in the next few days. The orbiter's other three instruments are being used to study possible effects of gas and dust in the comet's tail interacting with the atmosphere of Mars. These are the Mars Climate Sounder (MCS), the Mars Color Imager (MARCI) and the Mars Shallow Radar (SHARAD).Three NASA Mars orbiters, two Mars rovers and other assets on Earth and in space are studying comet Siding Spring. This comet is making its first visit this close to the sun from the outer solar system's Oort Cloud, so the concerted campaign of observations may yield fresh clues to our solar system's earliest days more than 4 billion years ago.Following the comet flyby, operators of NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) orbiter are assessing the status of that orbiter and operators for NASA's Mars Odyssey are anticipating resumption of communications.The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission met all its science goals for the two-year primary science phase ending in 2008. The spacecraft's overtime work since then has added to the science returns. The mission has provided more than 240 trillion bits of data about Mars, a volume equivalent to three-and-a-half months of nonstop, high-definition video. The data it acquired during the comet's closest approach to Mars are now being transmitted to Earth, but it will take many hours before downlink is complete and processing can start.Objectives of the observing program are to attempt to image the comet nucleus, to study its surrounding coma of dust and gas, and to search for signatures of that material interacting with the Mars atmosphere. Observations of the comet will continue for another day or so, as the comet and Mars separate, with the comet reaching its closest approach to the sun in about a week, on Oct. 25.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft and supports its operations. Lead organizations for the orbiters' six science instruments are University of Arizona, Tucson, for HiRISE; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, for CRISM; Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, for CTX and MARCI; Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, for SHARAD; and JPL for MCS.For more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/For more about comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, visit:http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-announces-2011-carl-sagan-fellows | NASA Announces 2011 Carl Sagan Fellows | NASA announces the 2011 Carl Sagan Fellowships, created to inspire the next generation of explorers seeking to learn more about planets, and possibly life, around other stars. | NASA has selected five potential discoverers as the recipients of the 2011 Carl Sagan Postdoctoral Fellowships, named after the late astronomer. The Carl Sagan Fellowship takes a theme-based approach, in which fellows will focus on compelling scientific questions, such as "Are there Earth-like planets orbiting other stars?"Sagan once said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known," which is in line with the Sagan Fellowship's primary goal: to discover and characterize planetary systems and Earth-like planets around other stars. Planets outside of our solar system are called exoplanets. The fellowship also aims to support outstanding recent postdoctoral scientists in conducting independent research broadly related to the science goals of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program.Previous Sagan Fellows have contributed significant discoveries in exoplanet exploration. including: the first characterizations of a super-Earth's atmosphere using a ground-based telescope; and the discovery of a massive disk of dust and gas encircling a giant young star, which could potentially answer the long-standing question of how massive stars are born."The Sagan Fellowship program seeks to identify the most highly qualified young researchers in the field of exoplanets. Nowhere is the dynamism of this young branch of astronomy demonstrated more dramatically than by the intellectual quality and enthusiasm of these five new Sagan Fellows," said Charles Beichman, executive director of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "These scientists are certain to be leaders of this exciting and rapidly growing field for many years to come."The program, created in 2008, awards selected postdoctoral scientists with annual stipends of approximately $64,500 for up to three years, plus an annual research budget of up to $16,000. Topics range from techniques for detecting the glow of a dim planet in the blinding glare of its host star, to searching for the crucial ingredients of life in other planetary systems.The 2011 Sagan Fellows are:-- David Kipping, who will work at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, to combine theory and observation to conduct a search for the moons of exoplanets.-- Bryce Croll, who will work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., to characterize the atmospheres of both large and small exoplanets using a variety of telescopes.-- Wladimir Lyra, who will work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to study planet-forming disks and exoplanet formation.-- Katie Morzinski, who will work at the University of Arizona, Tucson, to commission and employ high-contrast adaptive optics systems that will directly image Jupiter-like exoplanets.-- Sloane Wiktorowicz, who will work at the University of California, Santa Cruz to use a technique called optical polarimetry to directly detect exoplanets.NASA has two other astrophysics theme-based fellowship programs: the Einstein Fellowship Program, which supports research into the physics of the cosmos, and the Hubble Fellowship Program, which supports research into cosmic origins. The Sagan Fellowship Program is administered by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute as part of NASA's Exoplanet Exploration Program at JPL in Pasadena, Calif. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.A full description of the 2011 fellows and their projects, and other information about these programs is available at:http://nexsci.caltech.edu/sagan/2011postdocRecipients.shtml.More information about NASA's Astrophysics Division is at:http://nasascience.nasa.gov/astrophysics. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/asteroid-named-for-stardust-comet-mission-designer | Asteroid Named for Stardust Comet Mission Designer | An asteroid has been named in honor of Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Dr. Chen-Wan L.Yen, developer of the ingenious flight path through space for NASA's Stardust comet sample return mission. | An asteroid has been named in honor of Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Dr. Chen-Wan L.Yen, developer of the ingenious flight path through space for NASA's Stardust comet sample return mission.Asteroid "9249 Yen," formerly known to astronomers as "4606 P-L," was named in honor of Yen's crucial work in the development and application of mathematical techniques to optimize the interplanetary trajectories flown by NASA's robotic exploration spacecraft. The five kilometer- (three mile-) diameter asteroid resides in the so-called "main belt" of asteroids that populate a region between Mars and Jupiter."Chen-wan is a remarkable natural resource for NASA -- someone truly gifted in her ability to develop optimal spacecraft trajectories to the various bodies of the solar system," said Dr. Donald K. Yeomans, comet and asteroid expert and manager of JPL's Near-Earth Object Program Office. Her work in optimizing interplanetary trajectories has enabled NASA to send scientific spacecraft to destinations that might have remained out of reach with current launch vehicle capabilities, Yeomans said.Yen has also contributed to the success of interplanetary trajectories designed for the Cassini mission to Saturn, the Galileo mission to Jupiter and the Magellan mission to Venus. She is a member of JPL's Mission and Systems Architecture Section.Stardust was launched onto a perfect flight path on Feb. 6 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft is headed for an encounter with Comet Wild 2 in 2004. Stardust's mission is to collect a sample of material flying off the comet nucleus, and to collect interstellar particles flowing through our solar system. Stardust will fly back toward Earth in 2006 to drop off the samples in a parachute-equipped return capsule.Yen holds a Ph.D. in high-energy nuclear physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since joining JPL 27 years ago, she has specialized in optimizing spacecraft trajectories to various destinations in the solar system. She has designed many advanced interplanetary missions entailing complex gravity-assist flybys of other planets. She has suggested using flybys of Mars to send spacecraft on to study many bodies in the asteroid belt.A resident of Claremont, Calif., Yen is married and has two sons. Born in Taiwan, She enjoys playing the piano, hiking, and oil painting.JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/comet-pan-starrs-marches-across-the-sky | Comet Pan-STARRS Marches Across the Sky | Comet Pan-STARRS poses with a spiral galaxy in new snapshots from NASA's NEOWISE mission. | NASA's NEOWISE mission captured a series of pictures of comet C/2012 K1 -- also known as comet Pan-STARRS -- as it swept across our skies in May 2014.The comet is named after the astronomical survey project called the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System in Hawaii, which discovered the icy visitor in May 2012.Comet Pan-STARRS hails from the outer fringes of our solar system, from a vast and distant reservoir of comets called the Oort cloud.The comet is relatively close to us -- it was only about 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) from Earth when this picture was taken. It is seen passing a much more distant spiral galaxy, called NGC 3726, which is about 55 million light-years from Earth, or 2 trillion times farther away than the comet.Two tails can be seen lagging behind the head of the comet. The bigger tail is easy to see and is comprised of gas and smaller particles. A fainter, more southern tail, which is hard to spot in this image, may be comprised of larger, more dispersed grains of dust.Comet Pan-STARRS is on its way around the sun, with its closest approach to the sun occurring in late August. It was visible to viewers in the northern hemisphere through most of June. In the fall, after the comet swings back around the sun, it may be visible to southern hemisphere viewers using small telescopes.The image was made from data collected by the two infrared channels on board the NEOWISE spacecraft, with the longer-wavelength channel (centered at 4.5 microns) mapped to red and the shorter-wavelength channel (3.4 microns) mapped to cyan. The comet appears brighter in the longer wavelength band, suggesting that the comet may be producing significant quantities of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide.Originally called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the NEOWISE spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011 after its primary mission was completed. In September 2013, it was reactivated, renamed NEOWISE and assigned a new mission to assist NASA's efforts to identify the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. NEOWISE is also characterizing previously known asteroids and comets to better understand their sizes and compositions.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the NEOWISE mission for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observation Program of its Planetary Science Division in Washington. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.More information on NEOWISE is online at:http://www.nasa.gov/wisehttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise/ |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-announces-news-briefing-on-aquariussac-d-mission | NASA Announces News Briefing on Aquarius/Sac-D Mission | NASA will hold a news briefing on Tuesday, May 17, at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT), on the agency's next Earth-observing satellite mission, Aquarius/SAC-D, scheduled to launch on June 9. | PASADENA, Calif. – NASA will hold a news briefing on Tuesday, May 17, at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT), on the agency's next Earth-observing satellite mission, Aquarius/SAC-D, scheduled to launch on June 9.The event will be held at NASA Headquarters in Washington and will be broadcast live on NASA Television and streamed athttp://www.nasa.gov/ntv. In addition, the event will be carried live on Ustream, with a live chat box available, athttp://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2.Panelists will discuss the international spacecraft mission, a collaboration between NASA and Argentina's space agency, Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), with participation by Brazil, Canada, France and Italy. CONAE provided the SAC-D spacecraft.The mission's primary instrument, NASA's Aquarius, will make the agency's first space-based global measurements of the salinity of the ocean surface. Salinity measurements, a key missing variable in satellite observations of Earth, link ocean circulation, the global balance of freshwater and climate. Seven other SAC-D instruments, contributed by Argentina, Canada, France and Italy, will collect environmental data for a wide range of applications, including studies of natural hazards, air quality, land processes and epidemiology. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., jointly built the Aquarius instrument with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., and will manage Aquarius through the mission's commissioning phase and archive mission data.The panelists are:- Eric Lindstrom, Aquarius program scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington- Eric Ianson, Aquarius program executive, NASA Headquarters, Washington- Gary Lagerloef, Aquarius principal investigator, Earth & Space Research, Seattle- Amit Sen, Aquarius project manager, JPL- Daniel Caruso, Aquarius/SAC-D project manager, CONAE, Buenos AiresFor NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.For more information about Aquarius/SAC-D, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/aquariusandhttp://www.conae.gov.ar/eng/principal.html.More information about JPL is online at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov. Follow us via social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Details are at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/social.JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/from-the-field | From the Field | Take a group of strangers, put them in a harsh environment, and give them a challenging mission to accomplish -- scientists who do field research have much more experience with this than reality television producers ever will. | Click forFlash and HTMLversions of "Desert Dispatches."Take a group of strangers, put them in a harsh environment, and give them a challenging mission to accomplish -- scientists who do field research have much more experience with this than reality television producers ever will.JPL scientists have covered the globe from Antarctica to the Arctic Circle in their quest for knowledge about planet Earth and worlds beyond our own. Recently, JPL's Mark Helmlinger and four British students from Oxford University headed off into the Nevada desert to rendezvous with NASA's Earth-orbiting Terra satellite. Helmlinger will be filing regular field reports along the way, reporting on both the professional and personal challenges they'll confront.The purpose of their expedition is to help ensure that the measurements made by one of Terra's instruments, the Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer, are as accurate as possible. The spectroradiometer measures sunlight reflected off Earth's surface and from particles in the atmosphere, such as haze layers, dust, and clouds. Scientists use these measurements in a variety of different ways, but one of the most important is to study climate.Calibrating an instrument like the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer would be fairly simple if it were sitting in a laboratory. But since it is orbiting 700 kilometers (435 miles) above Earth's surface, the process is a bit more complicated.As part of the instrument calibration team, Helmlinger and his four summer helpers will make precise measurements on the ground of sunlight coming down and reflecting back up, while at the same time, directly above them, the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer makes its own measurements from space. Also at the same time, NASA's ER-2 aircraft will make similar observations of the identical target from its vantage point in the stratosphere with an airborne version of the spectroradiometer. Once all the data are collected and compared, they'll be used to calibrate the spaceborne instrument.The ChallengeFor their efforts to succeed, the calibration team will need several of what they call "golden days," those in which everything falls into place. "We have to have clear weather over the target, no haze and no clouds," says Helmlinger. "It also needs to be calm at the airfield, because the airplane can't take off or land in a cross-wind. We need to have airspace clearance, which can be an issue because of where our targets are located. All the instruments, both airborne and on the ground, must be working as well. That's a lot that needs to go right."The calibration exercises are planned for two different locations, Railroad Valley and Black Rock Desert. Both are large, dry lakebeds in Nevada about 480 kilometers (300 miles) apart. "They make big, bright calibration targets," says Helmlinger. Both sites are remote, and the local environment can be challenging. Helmlinger and his student assistants, whom he likes to call "Hellwinger's Irregulars," will be making the trip in a recreational vehicle crammed with a mountain of equipment. It will also serve as their home for the six weeks or so that they'll be spending in the desert. "Sometimes the journey itself is an adventure," says Helmlinger.Helmlinger and the Irregulars have a limited number of opportunities to get the data they need. If they miss one, they'll have to wait five to seven days for the satellite to come back to the same spot and try again. "That's why two dry lakebed, or playa, targets on two different orbits have been chosen," explains Helmlinger, "to increase the chances of success." If all goes well, they may finish everything up in a few weeks; if not, they could be out in the desert for much longer.The reward for all this effort is a better understanding of Earth's surface, atmosphere and climate. The "ground truth" data collected by the field experiments help researchers make the most of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer. It will also be used to help calibrate several other Earth-observing instruments, including JPL's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder flying on NASA's Aqua satellite.The calibration team's first attempt for a "golden day" was June 22, meaning Helmlinger and the Irregulars were in place in Railroad Valley with everything set up and ready to go by dawn. It's a long way from Pasadena and Oxford to the Nevada desert and from space to the desert floor. A lot can happen in between.Stay tuned.Media contact: Alan Buis (818) 354-0474Written by: Rosemary Sullivant |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-radar-watches-over-californias-aging-levees | NASA Radar Watches Over California's Aging Levees | NASA works with California's water managers to spot tiny signs of trouble in the Sacramento River delta levees, using a research radar. | One morning in 2008, research scientist Cathleen Jones of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., was flying over the San Andreas fault near San Francisco, testing a new radar instrument built at JPL. As the plane banked to make a turn, she looked down to see the Sacramento River delta, a patchwork of low-lying lands crisscrossed by levees.Jones was using an instrument that can measure tiny movements of the ground on the scale of less than half an inch (less than a centimeter). It's called the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR)."It struck me that this new instrument might be perfect for monitoring movement of levees," said Jones. Checking the scientific literature, she found that nothing like that had been attempted before in the delta. She reported her idea to water managers at the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). She didn't know it, but she was at the beginning of a long-lived initiative to refine NASA technology for use in safeguarding the delta levees.In the Sacramento River delta north of San Francisco Bay, islands, agricultural lands and communities below sea level are protected from surrounding water channels by more than 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) of dirt levees, many of which date back to the California Gold Rush. About two-thirds of all Californians and more than 4 million acres of irrigated farmland rely on the delta for water.If a levee gives way, the results can be disastrous. A single 2004 levee failure created $90 million of damage and threatened the water supply to Southern California. However, the first warning that a levee is developing a structural problem can be a tiny soil deformation -- too small to be noticed by a visual inspection.Remote sensing is a clear solution. The DWR managers had tried other remote sensing methods such as lidar, without complete satisfaction. They were immediately interested in the possibilities of UAVSAR. Joel Dudas, a senior water resources engineer with the DWR, said, "This technology has great possibility [as] an economic solution at a very precise scale."Supported by NASA's Applied Sciences Program, JPL and the DWR established a partnership in 2009 to begin a research project testing how UAVSAR technology could be applied for monitoring the delta levees. Since then, Jones and UAVSAR have flown a mission over the delta on NASA's C-20A scientific research aircraft every four to eight weeks. Each mission flies along nine overlapping flight lines that were designed to observe every levee in the 700-square-mile (1,800-square kilometer) delta from at least three directions in about three hours.Like all radars, UAVSAR shoots pulses of microwaves at the ground and records the signals that bounce back. By comparing the data from consecutive flights, Jones can measure the rate of upward or downward soil movement in the intervening time. The instrument is specifically designed to ignore larger-scale movements (such as airplane motion) and record tiny variations that other instruments cannot identify. The team has also developed a model to support the data processing. The model incorporates land use, soil type and other factors that affect subsidence rates, allowing researchers to put the data in a context that can help water resource managers find better ways to manage the delta.From the first year of operation, the research flights have proved that UAVSAR can locate areas of concern. That year, it detected a damaged levee that had been rammed by a ship. More recently, it spotted an area behind a levee where land was subsiding a few inches a year -- fast, but not observable by eye. The DWR added soil and continues to monitor the area.Dudas would like to study how this technology would perform if the delta went through a period of prolonged high water. "During high water we drive the levees, watching for leaks, but if there's a lot of vegetation or it's dark, we may not be able to see them. If we could fly this instrument during a flood, it would allow us to direct our emergency vehicles where they need to go.If this work saves even one levee failure, that's more than worth all the time and energy we've put into it."For more information on UAVSAR, visit:http://uavsar.jpl.nasa.gov |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-mars-images-no-evidence-of-ancient-ocean-shorelines | New Mars Images: No Evidence of Ancient Ocean Shorelines | Scientists studying high-resolution images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have concluded there is no evidence of shorelines that would have surrounded oceans that may have once existed on Mars. | Scientists studying high-resolution images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft have concluded there is no evidence of shorelines that would have surrounded oceans that may have once existed on Mars.One argument that such a body of water once existed was suggested by features in images from the NASA Viking missions taken in the 1970s, which were interpreted by a number of researchers as remnants of ancient coastlines. The images from Mars Global Surveyor, taken in 1998, have a resolution five to 10 times better than those that Viking provided. With this closer inspection, none of these features appears to have been formed by the action of water in a coastal environment."The ocean hypothesis is very important because the existence of large bodies of liquid water in the Martian past would have had a tremendous impact on ancient Martian climate and implications for the search for evidence of past life on the planet," said Dr. Kenneth Edgett, a staff scientist at Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, CA, the company that built and manages the camera onboard the spacecraft. "The newer images do not show any coastal landforms in areas where previous researchers -- working with lower resolution Viking images -- proposed there were shorelines."About 2 percent of the images were targeted to look in places that would test shorelines proposed by others in the scientific literature."Even on Earth, looking for ancient shorelines from the air or space is a challenge," said Dr. Michael Malin, principal investigator for the camera at Malin Space Science Systems. "Despite these difficulties, we believe these images of the proposed shorelines are of a high-enough resolution that they would have shown features indicative of a coastal environment had there been an ancient ocean on Mars."The paper containing these new conclusions was published in the October 1 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research Letters.One area that might have been a coastline is located northwest of the great volcano Olympus Mons. Researchers looking at Viking images have suggested that there might be a cliff separating the western margin of the Lycus Sulci uplands from the lower-elevation, smoother Amazonis plains. The proposed cliff looked like the kind that forms on Earth from erosion as waves break against a coastline.Three high-resolution images were taken of this proposed coastline. The uplands are roughly textured, while the flat plains appear smoother. The image shows that the contact between the two regions is clearly not a wave-cut cliff, nor are there any features that can be unambiguously identified as coastal landforms, according to Malin."While the suggestion that Mars at one time had oceans cannot be ruled out, the foundation for the 'ocean hypothesis' developed in the 1980s on the basis of suspected shorelines appears now to have been incorrect," Malin concluded. "However, it should be understood that there is significant other evidence of water on Mars in the past, both from Mars Global Surveyor and from previous missions. Today, the camera continues to acquire new high-resolution pictures, each one helping to search for clues to the very important question of the role of water in the evolution of Mars."More information and images about the Mars Global Surveyor mission is available athttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/andhttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov.Additional details about the paper and the new Mars images are athttp://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/grl_99_shorelines/.Mars Global Surveyor is the first in a long-term program of Mars exploration managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, which developed and operates the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-africa-mission-investigates-origin-development-of-hurricanes | NASA Africa Mission Investigates Origin, Development of Hurricanes | Scientists from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
universities and international agencies will study how winds and dust
conditions from Africa influence the birth of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. | Scientists from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
universities and international agencies will study how winds and dust
conditions from Africa influence the birth of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean.The field campaign, called NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses
2006, runs from Aug. 15 to mid-September in the Cape Verde Islands, 563
kilometers (350 miles) off the coast of Senegal in West Africa. This campaign
is a component of a much broader international project, called the African
Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses, aimed at improving the knowledge and
understanding of the West African Monsoon.Researchers will use satellite data, weather station information, computer
models and aircraft to provide scientists with better insight into all the
conditions that enhance the development of tropical cyclones, the general
name given to tropical depressions, storms and hurricanes. This research will
help hurricane forecasters better understand the behavior of these deadly storms."Scientists recognize the hurricane development process when they see it,
but our skill in forecasting which weak system will intensify into a major
cyclone is not great," said Dr. Edward Zipser, mission chief scientist, of
the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. "That is why NASA and its partners
place a high priority on obtaining high-quality data for weak disturbances,
as well as those already showing signs of intensification."For hurricanes to develop, specific environmental conditions must be present:
warm ocean water, high humidity and favorable atmospheric and upward spiraling
wind patterns off the ocean surface. Atlantic hurricanes usually start as weak
tropical disturbances off the West African coast and intensify into rotating
storms with weak winds, called tropical depressions. If the depressions reach
wind speeds of at least 63 kilometers (39 miles) per hour, they are
classified as tropical storms. Hurricanes have winds greater than 117
kilometers (73 miles) per hour.To study these environmental conditions, researchers will use NASA's DC-8
research aircraft as a platform for advanced atmospheric research instruments.
Remote and on-site sensing devices, including two from NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will allow scientists to target specific areas
in developing storms. Sensors on board the aircraft will measure cloud and particle
sizes and shapes, wind speed and direction, rainfall rates, atmospheric temperature,
pressure, and relative humidity. JPL's Airborne Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar
is a next-generation rain radar that will be used to better characterize
precipitation processes. JPL's High-Altitude Monolithic Microwave Integrated
Circuit Sounding Radiometer measures temperature and moisture content in the atmosphere.The campaign will use extensive data from NASA's fleet of Earth observing
satellites, including the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission, QuikScat, Aqua,
and the recently-launched CloudSat and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder
Satellite Observations, or Calipso. These advanced satellites will provide
unprecedented views into the vertical structure of the tropical systems, while
the field observations will help validate data from the new satellites. JPL manages
QuikScat, CloudSat and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (Airs) instrument on Aqua.During the field campaign, scientists hope to get a better understanding of the
role of the Saharan Air Layer and how its dry air, strong embedded winds and dust
influence cyclone development. The layer is a mass of very dry, often dusty air that
forms over the Sahara Desert during the late spring, summer, and early fall and
usually moves out over the tropical Atlantic Ocean.As part of looking at the Saharan Air Layer, scientists want to better understand
dust's effect on clouds. Some evidence indicates that dust makes it more difficult for
rain to form. Cloud models need to account for any such effect, so measurements of
cloud-droplet concentrations and size in clean ocean air and dusty air from the Sahara
need to be made.Researchers also will look at what happens to air currents as they move from land to
ocean waters. Information on clouds and moisture, heat, air movement, and precipitation
in an unstable atmosphere will be collected, analyzed and then simulated in computer
models. Understanding hurricane formation requires measurements from very small to
large scales, from microscopic dust and raindrops to cloud formations and air
currents spanning hundreds of kilometers.More on NASA's hurricane research is at:http://www.nasa.gov/hurricane. More on
Airborne Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar:http://trmm.jpl.nasa.gov/apr.html;
CloudSat:http://www.nasa.gov/cloudsat; QuikScat:http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/quikscat/index.cfm;
Airs:http://www-airs.jpl.nasa.gov/. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.Other media contacts: Ruth Marlaire, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.,
650-604-4709; Rob Gutro, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., 301-286-4044;
Chris Rink, Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., 757-864-6786; Steve Roy, Marshall
Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., 256-544-6535; National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, Carmeyia Gillis, 301-763-8000, ext. 7163; and Jana Goldman, 301-713-2483, ext. 181. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/successful-test-flights-for-mars-landing-technology | Successful Test Flights for Mars Landing Technology | The ADAPT test system can help a spacecraft divert its course and make a smooth, pinpoint landing. Two technology demonstration test flights were completed in California in 2014. | Fast Facts:› ADAPT test system can help a spacecraft divert its course and make a smooth, pinpoint landing› Two technology demonstration test flights were completed in CaliforniaIt's tricky to get a spacecraft to land exactly where you want. That's why the area where the Mars rover Curiosity team had targeted to land was an ellipse that may seem large, measuring 12 miles by 4 miles (20 by 7 kilometers).Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have been developing cutting-edge technologies that would enable spacecraft to land at a specific location on Mars -- or any other planetary body -- with more precision than ever before. In collaboration with Masten Space Systems in Mojave, California, they have recently tested these technologies on board a high-tech demonstration vehicle called the Autonomous Descent and Ascent Powered-flight Testbed (ADAPT).ADAPT is a test system built on Masten's XA-0.1B "Xombie" vertical-launch, vertical-landing reusable rocket. The Xombie platform provides a good approximation of Mars-like descent conditions through high-speed descent rates at low altitudes. Those conditions are difficult to achieve through conventional flight test platforms. Onboard this rocket, two sophisticated lander technologies were recently tested: Terrain Relative Navigation with a sensor called the Lander Vision System (LVS), and the Guidance for Fuel-Optimal Large Diverts (G-FOLD) algorithm."No previous Mars lander has used onboard surface imaging to achieve a safe and precise touchdown, but a future spacecraft could use LVS and G-FOLD to first autonomously determine its location and then optimally fly to its intended landing site," said Nikolas Trawny, ADAPT's principal investigator at JPL. "All of this happens on board, without human intervention, and in real time."ADAPT had two successful test flights, one on Dec. 4, 2014, and the second on Dec. 9. In both cases, the rocket reached a maximum altitude of 1,066 feet (325 meters) before beginning its descent.The terrain-relative navigation capability provided by LVS allows Xombie to precisely determine its position without requiring GPS. To do so, ADAPT first takes a series of pictures of the terrain below it during descent. These pictures are then compared to an image of the terrain stored onboard, allowing the vehicle to autonomously find its position relative to the landing site. The spacecraft can then use this information to correct its course to get as close to the targeted landing site as possible within its capability, and make a smooth, pinpoint landing.G-FOLD is an algorithm, developed at JPL and at the University of Texas at Austin, that calculates the optimal path to divert a spacecraft to a target landing site in real time. For the first time, G-FOLD allows onboard calculation of divert trajectories that obtain the maximum performance from every kilogram of propellant.The combination of LVS and G-FOLD allowed the Xombie rocket to begin to change the course of its descent at about 623 feet (190 meters) in the air on December 9. The rocket then flew the newly calculated course to successfully reach the target landing pad located 984 feet (300 meters) to the east."This represents a huge step forward in our future capabilities for safe and precise Mars landing, and demonstrates a highly effective approach for rapid, low-cost validation of new technologies for the entry, descent and landing of spacecraft," said Chad Edwards, chief technologist of the Mars Exploration Directorate at JPL. "This same technology has valuable applications to landing on the moon, asteroids and other space targets of interest."NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate is facilitating the tests via its Flight Opportunities Program managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the ADAPT project and funded the ADAPT payload development. The LVS prototype was designed, developed and tested by the Mars Technology Development program of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-orbiter-views-sites-of-fiction-films-mars-landings | NASA Orbiter Views Sites of Fiction Film's Mars Landings | Images from a NASA Mars orbiter's telescopic camera reveal details of regions on Mars that serve as the setting for the new Hollywood movie, "The Martian." | Images from a NASA Mars orbiter's telescopic camera reveal details of real regions on Mars where a new Hollywood movie, "The Martian," places future astronaut adventures.The novel of the same name used actual locations on Mars for the landing sites for its "Ares 3" and "Ares 4" missions. The landing sites for "Ares 3" is on a Martian plain named Acidalia Planitia. The base for the "Ares 4" mission was set inside a crater named Schiaparelli.Views of these two sites, and other locations pertinent to the fictional story, are in the latest weekly release of images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. They are available online at:http://uahirise.org/martianEach observation by HiRISE covers an area of several square miles and shows details as small as a desk. More than 39,000 of them have been taken since the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter reached Mars in 2006. They are available online for anyone to explore, from the comfort of home, at:http://hirise.lpl.arizona.eduThe HiRISE team has an online process through which anyone can register to submit suggestions for sites to be imaged on Mars, at:http://www.uahirise.org/hiwishHiRISE has provided important information used in selection landing sites for NASA's Curiosity Mars rover and other robotic missions. Its observations will be used during an Oct. 27-30 workshop in Houston for consideration of landing areas for real future human missions. More information about the workshop is online at:http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/explorationzone2015HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.For more information about the MRO, which has been studying Mars from orbit since 2006, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mro |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/more-data-from-mars-rover-spirits-first-month-now-online | More Data from Mars Rover Spirit's First Month Now Online | Millions of people have viewed pictures from NASA's Spirit on the Mars rovers home page and other Internet sites. Beginning today, a more complete set of science data from Spirit's first 30 martian days is posted on a site primarily for scientists and technical researchers, but also available to anyone who's interested. | Millions of people have viewed pictures from NASA's Spirit on the Mars rovers home page and other Internet sites. Beginning today, a more complete set of science data from Spirit's first 30 martian days is posted on a site primarily for scientists and technical researchers, but also available to anyone who's interested.The first installment of images, spectroscopic measurements, daily reports, and other information from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover project has been posted on NASA's Planetary Data System. It is available with a new "Analyst's Notebook" user interface at:http://pds-geosciences.wustl.edu/meran. Home page for the Planetary Data System ishttp://pds.jpl.nasa.gov. Images are also available from the system's Planetary Image Atlas, athttps://pds-imaging.jpl.nasa.gov/search/?fq=-ATLAS_THUMBNAIL_URL%3Abrwsnotavail.jpg&fq=ATLAS_MISSION_NAME%3A%22mars%20exploration%20rover%22&q=*%3A*. Data from Opportunity's first 30 martian days, or "sols," will be added Aug. 24, and data from later portions of both rovers' missions will be added in October."All the raw images and selected processed images and other information have been shared with the public since the rovers first reached Mars in January. This release adds other derived images and maps used for planning, all the non-image data from the spectrometers, daily operational reports and activity plans," said Dr. Ray Arvidson of Washington University, St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the twin rovers' science payload."The 'Analyst's Notebook' is designed to help you navigate through the data and understand the synergies," he said. "You can't deal with the Moessbauer spectrometer readings from a given sol without information about other observations that go with it.""We are proud to be releasing such a comprehensive set of data from the surface science mission of the twin rovers so quickly," said Dr. Jim Garvin, NASA's chief scientist for Mars. "It's a testament to the dedication and commitment of the science and engineering teams that this remarkable collection of information is now available to the entire world for interpretation, education, and to help guide NASA's new exploration focus," added Garvin.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA. Images and additional information about the project are available from JPL at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and from Cornell University, at http://athena.cornell.edu. The Planetary Photojournal, at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov, is another resource for easy public access to images of Mars and other worlds.Contact: Guy Webster (818) 354-6278 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/odyssey-orbiter-nears-martian-longevity-record | Odyssey Orbiter Nears Martian Longevity Record | By the middle of next week, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will have worked longer at Mars than any other spacecraft in history. | PASADENA, Calif. -- By the middle of next week, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will have worked longer at Mars than any other spacecraft in history.Odyssey entered orbit around Mars on Oct. 24, 2001. On Dec. 15, the 3,340th day since that arrival, it will pass the Martian career longevity record set by its predecessor, Mars Global Surveyor, which operated in orbit from Sept. 11, 1997, to Nov. 2, 2006.Odyssey made its most famous discovery -- evidence for copious water ice just below the dry surface of Mars -- during its first few months, and it finished its radiation-safety check for future astronauts before the end of its prime mission in 2004. The bonus years of extended missions since then have enabled many accomplishments that would not have been possible otherwise."The extra years have allowed us to build up the highest-resolution maps covering virtually the entire planet," said Odyssey Project Scientist Jeffrey Plaut of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.The maps are assemblages of images from the orbiter's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) camera, provided and operated by Arizona State University, Tempe. To mark the approach to the Mars longevity record, the camera team and NASA prepared a slide show of remarkable images, posted today athttp://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/odyssey/images/all-stars.html.The orbiter's longevity has given Odyssey scientists the opportunity to monitor seasonal changes on Mars year-to-year, such as the cycle of carbon-dioxide freezing out of the atmosphere in polar regions during each hemisphere's winter. "It is remarkable how consistent the patterns have been from year to year, and that's a comparison that wouldn't have been possible without our mission extensions," Plaut said.Odyssey's performance has boosted benefits from other missions, too. When NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, far exceeded their own expected lifetimes, Odyssey remained available as the rover's primary communication relay. Nearly all the science data from the rovers and NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has reached Earth via Odyssey relay. Odyssey also became the middle segment of continuous observation of Martian weather by a series of NASA orbiters: Mars Global Surveyor, Odyssey, and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which began its science mission in late 2006.A continuing partnership between JPL and Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, operates Odyssey."Hundreds of people who built the Odyssey spacecraft here, in addition to the much smaller crew operating it today, have great pride in seeing the spacecraft achieve this milestone," said Bob Berry, Odyssey program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.Odyssey's science triumphs began in early 2002 with detection of hydrogen just below the surface throughout the planet's high-latitude regions. Deduction that the hydrogen is in frozen water prompted the Phoenix mission, which confirmed that fact in 2008.Investigators at the University of Arizona, Tucson, have headed the operation of Odyssey's Gamma Ray Spectrometer suite of instruments, which detected the hydrogen and subsequently mapped the distribution of several other elements on Mars. Additional science partners are located at the Russian Aviation and Space Agency, which provided the suite's high-energy neutron detector, and at Los Alamos National Laboratories, New Mexico, which provided the neutron spectrometer.The mission's science goal of checking radiation levels around Mars to aid planning of future human missions was completed by the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment, developed at NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston.NASA has planned future work for Odyssey, in addition to having the orbiter continue its own science and its relay service for the Mars Exploration Rover mission. If required, controllers will adjust Odyssey's orbit so the spacecraft is in a favorable position for a communication relay role during the August 2012 landing of NASA's next Mars rover, Curiosity.Mars Odyssey, launched April 7, 2001, is managed by JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.For more about the Mars Odyssey mission, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-briefings-and-tv-coverage-schedule-for-phoenix-mars-landing | NASA Briefings and TV Coverage Schedule for Phoenix Mars Landing | NASA news briefings, live commentary and updates before and after the scheduled Sunday, May 25 arrival of the agency's Phoenix Mars Lander will be available on NASA Television and on the Web. | PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA news briefings, live commentary and updates before and after the scheduled Sunday, May 25 arrival of the agency's Phoenix Mars Lander will be available on NASA Television and on the Web.Entry, descent and landing begins at 4:46 p.m. PDT on May 25, when the flight team listens for radio signals indicating that Phoenix has entered the top of the Martian atmosphere. The spacecraft must perform a series of challenging transformations and activities during the seven minutes after it enters the atmosphere to slow it from 12,000 mph to 5 mph and a soft touchdown. The Phoenix team will be watching for radio signals confirming the landing at 4:53 p.m. More than half of previous international attempts to land on Mars have been unsuccessful. For a detailed schedule and landing timeline, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/phoenixThe deadline for U.S. journalists to request media credentials to cover the Phoenix mission from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is Tuesday, May 20. Foreign journalists requesting credentials must apply by Friday, May 16. Requests for media credentials must be made online at:https://eis.jpl.nasa.gov/media/index.htmlMedia wishing to cover the mission from the University of Arizona in Tucson, must apply online at:http://uanews.org/marsmediaBriefings on mission goals, challenges, status and final trajectory adjustments will originate from JPL on Thursday, May 22, at 11:30 a.m. and on Saturday and Sunday, May 25-26, at noon.On landing day, May 25, live landing commentary will air on NASA TV. A telecast of mission control -- without roll-in videos and interviews -- will run on NASA TV's Media Channel beginning at 3 p.m. Another telecast with commentary, interviews and videos will begin at 3:30 p.m. on NASA TV's Public Channel. For more information on NASA TV and this coverage schedule, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Breaking.htmlBoth telecasts will continue through landing and will resume at 6:30 p.m. during the period after landing when engineers anticipate the receipt of data and possible images confirming that Phoenix has opened its solar panels successfully.A news briefing at JPL will be held Sunday, May 25 at 9 p.m., following landing and the first possible downlink of images. Briefing updates at JPL also are scheduled on Monday, May 26 at 11 a.m. and on Tuesday, May 27 at 11 a.m.Daily news briefings will continue at 11 a.m. for several days following a successful landing. Mission control and the site for news briefings will then shift to the University of Arizona in Tucson after a determination that the spacecraft is in a safe condition for conducting science operations. The earliest possibility for moving the host site for mission news briefings to the University of Arizona's Space Operations Center is Wednesday, May 28. Mission briefings from Pasadena and Tucson will be carried on NASA TV unless preempted by other NASA events.For NASA TV streaming video, schedules, and downlink information, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/ntv |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/no-peep-from-phoenix-in-third-odyssey-listening-stint | No Peep from Phoenix in Third Odyssey Listening Stint | NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter heard no signal from the Phoenix Mars Lander when it listened from orbit while passing over Phoenix 60 times last week. | Mars Odyssey and Phoenix Status ReportPASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter heard no signal from the Phoenix Mars Lander when it listened from orbit while passing over Phoenix 60 times last week.Odyssey had also listened for a signal from Phoenix during periods in January and February. During the third campaign, April 5 through April 9, the sun stayed above the horizon continuously at the arctic site where Phoenix completed its mission in 2008.The solar-powered lander examined ice, soil and atmosphere at the site for two months longer than its planned three-month mission before succumbing to seasonal decline in sunlight. It was not designed to withstand winter conditions. However, in case it did, NASA has used Odyssey to listen for the signals that Phoenix would have transmitted if abundant spring sunshine revived the lander."In the unlikely event that Phoenix had survived the harsh Martian arctic winter and been able to achieve a power-positive state with the return of continuous sunshine, there is a very high likelihood that one or more of these 60 overflights would have overlapped with a transmission attempt by the lander," said Chad Edwards, chief telecommunications engineer for the Mars Exploration Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif."This was the last of our three planned Phoenix search campaigns. The Mars program will evaluate the results in hand to assess whether further action is warranted," Edwards said. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cultivating-a-planetary-garden-how-long-does-it-take | Cultivating a Planetary Garden: How Long Does it Take? | According to the most popular theory of planet formation, planets are akin to redwood trees, growing in size very gradually. | According to the most popular theory of planet formation, planets are akin to redwood trees, growing in size very gradually. Rocky planets like Earth develop over millions of years, followed by gas giants like Jupiter, which build upon rocky cores.But new evidence from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope suggests that some gas giants may sprout in less than one million years, more like planetary wildflowers than trees.The evidence comes in the form of gaps and holes. Planets are born out of flat disks of dust and gas that spin around young stars. As a burgeoning planet circles around its star, it is thought to cut through the disk, leaving an empty gap or doughnut-like hole.Spitzer is acquiring data on more and more of these disk clearings around stars that are surprisingly young. Though some of the clearings were seen before, Spitzer's highly sensitive infrared eyes are providing new, detailed information that indicates gas giant planets may be the cause. Because the stars are only about one million years old, relatively young in cosmic terms, the putative planets would have sprung up quickly."The results pose a challenge to existing theories of giant planet formation, especially those in which planets build up gradually over millions of years," said Dr. Nuria Calvet of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. "Studies like this one will ultimately help us better understand how our outer planets, as well as others in the universe, form."A new paper from Calvet and her team, appearing in the Sept. 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, presents further evidence for fast-track planets. They report the most detailed models yet of two known clearings around young stars – a gap in the disk of GM Aurigae, and a hole in the disk of DM Tauri. Last year, the team found similar results on a third clearing, a hole in the disk of an equally young star called CoKuTau4. That study was led by team member Dr. Dan Watson of the University of Rochester, N.Y.In all three cases, the Spitzer data reveal that the clearings have sculpted outer walls, a strong indicator that bodies are sweeping through the dust, leaving empty trails. The bodies would most likely be gas giants because rocky planets would be too small to produce the clearings. These observations were made with Spitzer's infrared spectrograph."Before we had only a fuzzy knowledge of the holes and the gap," said Calvet. "Spitzer's infrared spectrograph doesn't give us a picture, but provides detailed information about the structure of the clearings. The structure suggests that planets may be present."GM Aurigae, DM Tauri and CoKuTau4 are all sibling stars living in the same youthful stellar neighborhood in the Taurus constellation, 420 light-years from Earth. GM Aurigae is about the same size as our Sun, while the two siblings are smaller. If DM Tauri's hole existed in our own solar system, it would encompass Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars; CoKuTau4's hole would expand out to the orbit of Saturn, and GM Aurigae's gap would span the space between the orbits of Jupiter and Uranus."GM Aurigae is essentially a much younger version our Sun," said Watson. "Looking at it is like looking at baby pictures of our Sun and outer solar system."Future Spitzer observations of similarly young stars and their disks will help astronomers determine if planets are indeed making their way through the dust. Ultimately, this information will help astronomers better understand the roots of our own planetary garden.For artist's concepts and more information about Spitzer, visithttp://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer/index.shtml". |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-engineer-in-a-class-of-her-own | JPL Engineer in a Class of Her Own | Dr. Ayanna Howard, an electrical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been selected as one of the top 100 innovators by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review Magazine. | Dr. Ayanna Howard, an electrical engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been selected as one of the top 100 innovators by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review Magazine.The award was presented at the Emerging Technologies Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Technology Review Magazine chose 100 innovators 35 years or younger, who are making a dramatic impact on our world. They are all on the cutting edge of technology, computing, biotech and medicine.Howard is the only JPL engineer to hold this prestigious honor. "It's such an extreme honor and blessing to have my research acknowledged as part of the technological future," she said. "I just do what I love, and somehow the opportunities unfold."Howard sees a future where humans and machines work together to explore new terrain. Her expertise is in neural networks, robotics and machine vision. She joined JPL in 1991, where she has led research efforts on various projects. Currently, she is developing a software system that mimics the decisions humans make and allows rovers to safely navigate on the surface of Mars. Rovers could also use the software to assist in rescue operations in buildings shattered by earthquakes or bombs. Howard also leads a technology development effort to create an artificial intelligence toolkit for interactive learning.Howard received a bachelor's of science degree in computer engineering from Brown University, Providence, R.I., and her Master's and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She is actively involved in community service activities, talking with students around the world about the wonders of robotics, computers and technology. She also started the Pasadena Delta Academy, a mentoring program for at-risk girls that encourages careers in math and science. She lives in Altadena with her husband and one-year-old son. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix-lander-update-no-saturday-night-maneuver | Phoenix Lander Update: No Saturday Night Maneuver | Mission controllers for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander decided Saturday afternoon, May 24, to forgo the second-to-last opportunity for adjusting the spacecraft's flight path. | Mission controllers for NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander decided Saturday afternoon, May 24, to forgo the second-to-last opportunity for adjusting the spacecraft's flight path.Phoenix is so well on course for its Sunday-evening landing on an arctic Martian plain that the team decided it was not necessary to do a trajectory correction 21 hours before landing.However, the team left open the option of a correction maneuver eight hours before landing, if warranted by updated navigational information expected in the intervening hours.Sunday at 4:53 p.m. Pacific Time is the first possible time for confirmation that Phoenix has landed. The landing would have happened 15 minutes earlier on Mars, but the radio signals take 15 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth at the distance separating the two planets today.The following was posted Saturday, May 24 at 1 p.m.PDT.Highlights from Phoenix News Briefing at JPL -- Sat., May 24, Noon PDT- A decision will be made this afternoon, Sat., May 24, about whether to perform one more trajectory correction maneuver later tonight.- A dust cloud that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been tracking is moving across the landing area today. It is not expected to pose any hazard to the landing.- As of noon PDT today, Phoenix had 1.28 million miles left to travel out of its 422-million-mile flight from Earth to Mars.You can also follow landing events on the Phoenix landing blog atwww.nasa.gov/phoenixblog. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/results-of-heat-shield-testing | Results of Heat Shield Testing | A post-test inspection of the composite structure for a heat shield to be used on the Mars 2020 mission revealed that a fracture occurred during structural testing. | NASA Mars 2020 Mission Status ReportA post-test inspection of the
composite structure for a heat shield to be used on the Mars 2020 mission
revealed that a fracture occurred during structural testing. The mission team
is working to build a replacement heat shield structure. The situation will not
affect the mission's launch readiness date of July 17, 2020.Project management at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, is working with contractor
Lockheed Martin Space, Denver, to understand the cause of the fracture and
determine whether any design changes need to be incorporated into a
replacement.The
fracture, which occurred near the shield's outer edge and spans the
circumference of the component, was discovered on April 12, after the shield
completed a week-long test at the Lockheed Martin Space facility. The test was
designed to subject the heat shield to forces up to 20 percent greater than
those expected during entry into the Martian atmosphere. While the
fracture was unexpected, it represents why spaceflight hardware is tested in
advance so that design changes or fixes can be implemented prior to
launch.The heat shield is part of
the thermal protection system and aeroshell designed to encapsulate and protect the Mars 2020 rover and landing system from the
intense heat generated during descent into the Martian atmosphere. The
structure was originally tested in 2008 and wasone of two heat shields manufactured in support of the
Mars Science Laboratory mission, which successfully landed the Curiosity rover
on Mars in August 2012.The current heat shield will be
repaired in order to support the prelaunch spacecraft testing while a new heat
shield structure is readied for flight over the next year. Once the new
structure is complete and tested, the thermal protection tiles will then be
installed for flight, and the heatshield and other components of the aeroshell
will be delivered to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for final
spacecraft processing prior to launch.The Mars 2020 Project at JPL manages the Mars 2020 spacecraft
development for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-perseverance-mars-rover-extracts-first-oxygen-from-red-planet | NASA's Perseverance Mars Rover Extracts First Oxygen From Red Planet | The milestone, which the MOXIE instrument achieved by converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, points the way to future human exploration of the Red Planet. | The growing list of “firsts” for Perseverance, NASA’s newest six-wheeled robot on the Martian surface, includes converting some of the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into oxygen. A toaster-size, experimental instrument aboard Perseverance called the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) accomplished the task. The test took place April 20, the 60th Martian day, or sol, since the mission landed Feb. 18.While the technology demonstration is just getting started, it could pave the way for science fiction to become science fact – isolating and storing oxygen on Mars to help power rockets that could lift astronauts off the planet’s surface. Such devices also might one day provide breathable air for astronauts themselves. MOXIE is an exploration technology investigation – as is the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) weather station – and is sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER“This is a critical first step at converting carbon dioxide to oxygen on Mars,” said Jim Reuter, associate administrator STMD. “MOXIE has more work to do, but the results from this technology demonstration are full of promise as we move toward our goal of one day seeing humans on Mars. Oxygen isn’t just the stuff we breathe. Rocket propellant depends on oxygen, and future explorers will depend on producing propellant on Mars to make the trip home.”For rockets or astronauts, oxygen is key, said MOXIE’s principal investigator, Michael Hecht of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory.Your browser cannot play the provided video file(s).Illustration of the MOXIE instrument, depicting the elements within the instrument.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechTo burn its fuel, a rocket must have more oxygen by weight. To get four astronauts off the Martian surface on a future mission would require approximately 15,000 pounds (7 metric tons) of rocket fuel and 55,000 pounds (25 metric tons) of oxygen. In contrast, astronauts living and working on Mars would require far less oxygen to breathe. “The astronauts who spend a year on the surface will maybe use one metric ton between them,” Hecht said.Hauling 25 metric tons of oxygen from Earth to Mars would be an arduous task. Transporting a one-ton oxygen converter – a larger, more powerful descendant of MOXIE that could produce those 25 tons – would be far more economical and practical.Mars’ atmosphere is 96% carbon dioxide. MOXIE works by separating oxygen atoms from carbon dioxide molecules, which are made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. A waste product, carbon monoxide, is emitted into the Martian atmosphere.The conversion process requires high levels of heat to reach a temperature of approximately 1,470 degrees Fahrenheit (800 Celsius). To accommodate this, the MOXIE unit is made with heat-tolerant materials. These include 3D-printed nickel alloy parts, which heat and cool the gases flowing through it, and a lightweight aerogel that helps hold in the heat. A thin gold coating on the outside of MOXIE reflects infrared heat, keeping it from radiating outward and potentially damaging other parts of Perseverance.In this first operation, MOXIE’s oxygen production was quite modest – about 5 grams, equivalent to about 10 minutes’ worth of breathable oxygen for an astronaut. MOXIE is designed to generate up to 10 grams of oxygen per hour.This technology demonstration was designed to ensure the instrument survived the launch from Earth, a nearly seven-month journey through deep space, and touchdown with Perseverance on Feb. 18. MOXIE is expected to extract oxygen at least nine more times over the course of a Martian year (nearly two years on Earth).These oxygen-production runs will come in three phases. The first phase will check out and characterize the instrument’s function, while the second phase will run the instrument in varying atmospheric conditions, such as different times of day and seasons. In the third phase, Hecht said, “we’ll push the envelope” – trying new operating modes, or introducing “new wrinkles, such as a run where we compare operations at three or more different temperatures.”“MOXIE isn’t just the first instrument to produce oxygen on another world,” said Trudy Kortes, director oftechnology demonstrationswithin STMD. It’s the first technology of its kind that will help future missions “live off the land,” using elements of another world’s environment, also known asin-situ resource utilization.“It’s taking regolith, the substance you find on the ground, and putting it through a processing plant, making it into a large structure, or taking carbon dioxide – the bulk of the atmosphere – and converting it into oxygen,” she said. “This process allows us to convert these abundant materials into useable things: propellant, breathable air, or, combined with hydrogen, water.”More About PerseveranceA key objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars isastrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includesArtemismissions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more about Perseverance:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/andhttps://www.nasa.gov/perseverance |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/surveyor-i-lands-on-the-moon | Surveyor I Lands on the Moon | The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Surveyor I spacecraft made a perfect low-speed, three-point landing on the moon on June 1, 1966, after a 63-hour, 36-minute flight from Cape Kennedy. | The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Surveyor I spacecraft made a perfect low-speed, three-point landing on the moon on June 1, 1966, after a 63-hour, 36-minute flight from Cape Kennedy.During the following 12 days and 10 hours, before the sun set on Surveyor's landing site in the Ocean of Storms last Tuesday, the sps survey television camera scanned for transmission to Earth 10,338 high-resolution pictures of the lunar surface.With its camera shut down for the duration of the two-week-long lunar night, Surveyor is now periodiclly queried concerning its condition--voltages, temperatures and battery power capacity--by round-the-world stations of NASA's Deep Space Network.In a few days, the spacecraft will go deeper into "hibernation", conserving its stored electrical energy and expending only enough to keep itself warm in an effort to survive the long, cold night. The only systems which will function in this power-conservation fashion are the radio receivers to accept Earth commands at lunar dawn and thermal control heaters for the protection of temperature-sensitive electronics. The surface of the moon reaches a temperature of about 260 degrees F. below zero at lunar midnight.Designed and built for NASA by the Hughes Aircraft Company of Culver City, California, under technical direction of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Surveyor greatly exceeded its primary objectives by gathering surface data necessary to the Apollo manned lunar landing program.The first of seven lunar soft landing missions planned for 1966 and 1967, Surveyor I was designated an engineering test flight for demonstration of the Atlas-Centaur launch vehicle; mid-course and terminal maneuvers by the spacecraft; a radar-and-rocket-controlled soft landing; and maintenance of constant communications between the spacecraft and the Deep Space Network ground stations during the flight and after landing.Surveyor I lifted off Pad 36-A at Cape Kennedy within one second of its planned launch time--7:41:01 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time--on May 30.The perfect countdown was followed by a boost into space by the Atlas-Centaur that would have put the spacecraft on the moon within 250 miles of the aiming point. The precise launch made the requirement for a trajectory correction some 16 hours later one of minimum proportion. At the mid-course maneuver, the velocity change was 45 miles per hour, only a fraction of which was applied to the slight injection error.All launch vehicle and spacecraft events through Canopus acquisition occurred satisfactorily and at nominal times with the exception of the deployment of one of Surveyor's two low-gain omnidirectional antennas.Both antennas and the spacecraft's three landing legs were commanded by the Centaur programmer about 12 minutes after liftoff to extend from their folded launch position to the flight and landing position. Signal strength received from the transmitter connected to Antenna A indicated that it apparently had not deployed fully, if at all.Two-way communications lock--ground command capabilitity--was achieved by the Deep Space Net station in Johannesburg, South Africa, at liftoff plus 28 minutes, transferring control of the mission from the Eastern Test Range to the Space Flight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Commands were transmitted immediately to Surveyor to deploy the antenna in question, but telemetry and signal strength readings indicated no change.Although the minor faiure was not expected to jeopardize the mission--either from the standpoint of communications or the slight change in the spacecraft's center of gravity--the exact position of Antenna A remained undetermined throughout the flight, a concern in itself.(Later, however, after Surveyor I touched gently down on the moon, signal strength from the antenna had risen to normal, indicating that it was properly extended. Television pictures from Surveyor's camera of the both the antenna and its latching mechanism provided verification of this. It remains unknown whether the antenna deployed during retro fire or upon spacecraft contact with the lunar surface.)Surveyor's original aiming point was 3.25 degrees south of the lunar equator and 43.83 degrees W. Longitude in the southwest portion of the Ocean of Storms. In planning the mid-course maneuver, executed at 11:45 p.m. PDT May 30, the Surveyor space science analysis team selected a new target about one degree farther north in latitude. The new coordinates were 2.33 degrees South, 43.83 degrees West, a point scientists expected to be smooth enough for a safe landing. Tracking data throughout the remainder of the flight indicated Surveyor landed at 2.356 degrees South and 43.36 degrees West, about nine miles from the modified aiming point.The critical terminal descent began 31 minutes and 2000 miles from the moon at 10:46 p.m. PDT June 1 with roll and yaw maneuvers to align Surveyor's retro rocket with its approach direction, just five degrees from vertical.At 11:14 and 39 seconds, an altitude marking radar sensed the nearness of the moon--59.35 miles altitude--and started the automatic sequence that fired the spacecraft's main retro motor 10 seconds later.The 9000-pound-thrust solid propellant rocket ignited at two minutes and 46 seconds before touchdown when Surveyor I was 46.75 miles above the moon and traveling at a velocity of 5840 miles per hour.The 38-second main retro phase slowed the spacecraft to 267 miles an hour at 35,000 feet altitude. The rocket motor case was ejected at 31,000 feet, and three smaller rocket engines, which stabilized the spacecraft during main retro fire and earlier powered the mid-course maneuver, continued to slow the descent.Throttled by information from Surveyor's radar altimeter and doppler velocity sensor (RADVS), the verniers reduced the spacecraft's speed to 71.4 miles per hour at 1000 feet altitude and 2.8 miles an hour when they cut off about 10 feet above the surface.Surveyor free-fell the last 10 feet of the flight, its first leg touching the lunar surface at 11:17:35.651 p.m. PDT. Within 19 milliseconds it had three feet on the moon. Landing speed was about 7.5 miles per hour.Strain gauge readings from the three landing legs recorded a "second touchdown" less than one second later, indicating that the spacecraft bounced about four or five inches.Television pictures taken by Surveyor during the next several weeks showed that at least one of the three crushable blocks under its frame gouged the lunar surface as the shock absorbers compressed at touchdown. The aluminum honeycomb block made a "cookie cutter" imprint on the moon just below the spacecraft.After a series of engineering interrogations to confirm that all spacecraft system had indeed survived the landing, Surveyor I took the first of more than 10,000 pictures at 11:53 p.m. PDT June 1. The 200-scan-line, wide-angle (25degree field of view) picture showed a portion of the spacecraft framed against the surface of the moon.Thirteen additional 200-line pictures were transmitted to the Pioneer station of the Goldstone Space Communications Complex in California before the solar panel was positioned for power conversion and Surveyor's high-gain antenna was poined at the Earth for transmission of higher quality 600-line pictures.With the high-gain antenna so positioned and the ease with which it was maneuvered during the following days, the Surveyor camera never returned to the 200-line mode. Picture count at lunar sunset on June 14 was 200-line pictures, 14; 600-line pictures, 10,324.A scan conversion system at JPL made it possible to display Surveyor pictures in real time on conventional TV monitors at the Laboratory as they were relayed from the moon via microwave from Goldstone. During the night of June 1 and the morning hours of June 2 when Surveyor took its first 144 pictures, commercial television networks further relayed the live lunar program throughout the nation. The Early Bird satellite carried the pictures even further--to Europe.Nearly all the television pictures were commanded and recorded by the Goldstone station during communications periods that varied from 8 to 10 hours each day. A few picture sequences originated at the Deep Space Net station at Canberra, Australia, which, along with the Johannesburg station, served as prime monitors of engineering telemetry from Surveyor. The Madrid, Spain, station and the Mars Site (210-foot antenna) at Goldstone were backup stations during the mission.More than 82,000 ground commands to Surveyor were transmitted from the Goldstone station from May 30 to June 14. During its most productive session over Goldstone, last Friday, Surveyor took 1758 pictures of the moon and received and acted upon more than 12,000 commands. Six hours and 37 minutes of the 10-hour, 20-minute communications pass were devoted to picture transmission.Early in the mission, it was expected that the camera would necessarily be shut down for several days at lunar mid-day because of the extreme heat. However, at lunar high noon on June 7, as the moon's surface temperature approached 250 degrees F., the camera was shaded by the solar panel and the high-gain antenna and continued to operate within its thermal limits. The camera was de-activated June 8 and 9 when it was exposed to the sun.In addition to the lunar surface pictures taken by Surveyor's camera from its vantage point only four feet above the surface, the spacecraft performed a number of other postlanding operations. Moon's-eye views of the bright stars Sirius and Canopus were photographed by the camera in an effort to ascertain more closely the exact location of Surveyor on the lunar surface.On June 6, an attempt was made to photograph a portion of the Earth, but the planet was just out of view, above the elevation range of the tilting mirror of the camera.Several attempts were made to disturb the lunar surface or create a small dust cloud near one of the spacecraft's three landing feet by firing bursts of nitrogen gas from Surveyor's attitude control jets. No disturbance or dust was discernible in TV pictures taken during and after the firings.Because of the continuing excellent condition of the spacecraft after it had operated on the moon for more than a week, it became apparent that Surveyor had a strong chance of surviving the lunar night. This possibility was taken into account during formulation of plans for the spacecraft's opration on the final day of sunlight June 14.During the final Goldstone pass, the camera recorded another 523 pictures as the sun sank lower toward the horizon. Many of the pictures taken with the low sun behind the spacecraft showed perfect silhouettes of Surveyor shadowed against the moon's surface.At lunar sunset, 9:18 a.m. PDT June 14, the camera was commanded to point toward that portion of the horizon where the fireball disappeared and a number of pictures were taken of the solar corona, the sun's upper atmosphere.Surveyor I made its last picture at 9:37 a.m. PDT after night had fallen on the spacecraft's small segment of the Ocean of Storms. A single picture, taken in the camera's special "integrated mode" with a four-minute exposure time, portrayed Surveyor's footpad No. 2 lighted only by the sun's reflection off the Earth.When the camera was turned off for the 14-day-long lunar night, temperatures already were dropping rapidly on the spacecraft. The battery, however, was nearly fully charged with a capacity of 162 ampere hours. Maximum capacity of the battery is 165 hours. At touchdown on June 1, telemetry indicated 57 ampere hours.If Surveyor survives the night, it is expected that several days after dawn it will have "defrosted" to the point where a slow charge of the battery from the solar cells might spring the spacecraft back to life. The solar panel has been positioned so that the sun will not strike the power-converting cells, sending a sudden surge of current into the chilled electronics systems.With the radio receivers still operating, ground commands would slowly step the panel toward the sun for a slow and easy charge and possibly another lunar day of life for Surveyor I.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-finds-asian-glaciers-slowed-by-ice-loss | NASA Finds Asian Glaciers Slowed by Ice Loss | Asia's high mountain glaciers are flowing more slowly as they melt, affecting the water supply of the arid plains below the peaks. | A NASA-led, international study finds Asia's high mountain glaciers are flowing more slowly in response to widespread ice loss, affecting freshwater availability downstream in India, Pakistan and China. Researchers analyzed almost 2 million satellite images of the glaciers and found that 94 percent of the differences in flow rates could be explained by changes in ice thickness.For more than a decade, satellite data have documented that the glaciers were thinning as the melt rates on their top surfaces increased. However, "It has not been entirely clear how these glaciers are responding to this ice loss," said the lead author of the new study, Amaury Dehecq of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "The rate at which they will disappear in the future depends on how they adjust to a warming climate."Animation of satellite images revealing the flow of the Baltoro Glacier in the Karakoram Range, Pakistan. Credit: NASA/EO/Joshua StevensLarger viewAsia's mountain glaciers flow from the cold heights of the world's tallest mountains down to warmer climate zones, where they melt much faster, feeding major rivers such as the Indus and Yangtze. Scientists need to understand what is regulating the glaciers' flow speeds to project how glacial meltwater will contribute to the region's water resources and to sea level rise. Observing the glaciers from ground level is difficult because of their huge geographic expanse and inaccessibility, so the researchers turned to satellite images.Dehecq and his colleagues developed algorithms to analyze almost 2 million pairs of U.S. Geological Survey/NASA Landsat satellite images from 1985 to 2017. The algorithms enabled automatic feature tracking to measure the distance that distinctive spots on the glaciers, such as crevasses or patches of dirt, traveled between an earlier and a later image. "We do this millions of times and average through the noise (errors and random disturbances) to see changes in velocity on the order of 1 meter (3 feet) a year," said study coauthor Alex Gardner of JPL."What's surprising about this study is that the relationship between thinning and flow speed is so consistent," said coauthor Noel Gourmelen of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. In the few locations where glaciers have been stable or thickening rather than thinning, the study found that flow speeds also have been increasing slightly.The reason a glacier flows down a slope at all is because gravity pulls on its mass. The pull makes a glacier both slide on its base and deform, or "creep" - a slow movement caused by ice crystals slipping past one another under the pressure of the glacier's weight. As the glacier thins and loses mass, both sliding and creeping become more difficult, and the glacier's flow slows as a result.However, other factors also affect a glacier's rate of flow, such as whether water is lubricating the glacier's base so that it can slide more easily. Scientists were unsure of the relative importance of these different factors. The new study shows that ice thickness far outweighs any other factor in regulating flow speed over the long term.The study published this week in Nature Geoscience is titled "Twenty-first Century Glacier Slowdown Driven by Mass Loss in High Mountain Asia." Coauthors are from JPL; the Université Savoie Mont-Blanc in Annecy, France; the University of Edinburgh in Scotland; the Université de Strasbourg in France; the Université Grenoble Alpes in Grenoble, France; and the Université de Toulouse in France. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-takes-flight-to-study-californias-wildfire-burn-areas | NASA Takes Flight to Study California's Wildfire Burn Areas | While the agency's satellites image the wildfires from space, scientists are flying over burn areas, using smoke-penetrating technology to better understand the damage. | A NASA aircraft equipped with a powerful radar took to the skies this month, beginning a science campaign to learn more about several wildfiresthat have scorchedvast areas of California. The flights are being used to identify structures damaged in the fires while also mapping burn areas that may be at future risk of landslides and debris flows.They're part of the ongoing effort by NASA's Applied Sciences Disaster Program in the Earth Sciences Division, which utilizes NASA airborne and satellite instruments to generatemaps and other data productsthat partner agencies on the ground can utilize to track fire hotspots, map the extent of the burn areas, and even measure the height of smoke plumes that have drifted over California and neighboring states.Equipped with the Uninhabited Air Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) instrument, the C-20A jet began flights from NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center near Palmdale, California, on Sept. 3. This first flight surveyed the LNU Lightning Complex burn area northeast of San Francisco. A Sept. 9 flight focused on fires south of Monterey in Central California.Several of the areas have been systematically imaged by UAVSAR approximately every year beginning in 2009, with the two most recent data collections being in 2018 and 2019 as part of larger earthquake-fault monitoring studies. When images from those previous overflights are combined with the new images, the science team can produce what are called damage proxy maps to identify the areas most affected by the fires and plot the location of structures that may have burned.After vegetation is burned away, hillsides and valleys can become susceptible to landslides and debris flows during seasonal rains, often months later. By identifying the areas most at risk, scientists can better understand where such hazards may be greatest when the much-needed rains begin in California later this fall.The UAVSAR radar pod is mounted to the bottom of the aircraft and is flown repeatedly over an area to measure tiny changes (a few millimeters, or quarter inch) in surface height with extreme accuracy. The smoke-penetrating instrument is also highly effective at mapping burn scars because radar signals bounce off vegetation in a very different way than they do off freshly burned ground.What's more, UAVSAR airborne flights over burn areas produce observations that are 10 times higher in spatial resolution than satellites, and flights can be quickly arranged to collect data over vulnerable areas identified in satellite images."UAVSAR has proven to be an invaluable tool to detect tiny changes in the height of the land," said Yunling Lou, UAVSAR project manager at JPL. "But this radar can also make exquisite measurements of burn scars on any given day and provide daily repeated measurements if needed, which complements mapping efforts by NASA satellites."Accompanying the radar on the next set of UAVSAR wildfire flights will be a short wavelength infrared (SWIR) imager - an instrument that can see through dense smoke and identify active fires - and a visible camera, which are both part of the QUAKES-I (Quantifying Uncertainty and Kinematics of Earth Systems Imager) imaging suite. Scientists will be able to harness the data to generate detailed ground elevation maps in the fire burn areas."We want to use a combination of radar, SWIR, and visible imagery to understand where the wildfire is currently active, to map the burn area, and to understand what areas may have an elevated susceptibility of future landslides or debris flows," said Andrea Donnellan, a principal research scientist at JPL.These mark the first mapping flights with UAVSAR to support NASA's Disaster Program's data products as California continues to battle some of its worst wildfire seasons on record. These data products are prepared for agencies working on the ground in California, including the California National Guard, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), Governor's Office of Emergency Services, California Geological Survey, and Federal Emergency Management Agency. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/voyager-celebrates-20-year-old-valentine-to-solar-system | Voyager Celebrates 20-Year-Old Valentine to Solar System | On Feb. 14, 1990, NASA's Voyager 1 had sailed beyond the farthest planet in our solar system and snapped an image that was a parting valentine to our string of planets. | Twenty years ago on February 14, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft had sailed beyond the outermost planet in our solar system and turned its camera inward to snap a series of final images that would be its parting valentine to the string of planets it called home.Mercury was too close to the sun to see, Mars showed only a thin crescent of sunlight, and Pluto was too dim, but Voyager was able to capture cameos of Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Earth and Venus from its unique vantage point. These images, later arranged in a large-scale mosaic, make up the only family portrait of our planets arrayed about the sun.The Apollo missions in the 1960s and 70s had already altered our perspective of Earth by returning images of our home planet from the moon, but Voyager was providing a completely new perspective, said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena."It captured the Earth as a speck of light in the vastness of the solar system, which is our local neighborhood in the Milky Way galaxy, in a universe replete with galaxies," Stone said.In the years since the twin Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977, they had already sent back breathtaking, groundbreaking pictures of the gas giants Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. It took Voyager 1 more than 12 years to reach the place where it took the group portrait, 6 billion kilometers (almost 4 billion miles) away from the sun. The imaging team started snapping images of the outer planets first because they were worried that pointing the camera near the sun would blind it and prevent more picture-taking.Candy Hansen, a planetary scientist based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who worked with the Voyager imaging team at the time, remembers combing through the images and finally finding the image of Earth. She had seen so many pictures over the years that she could distinguish dust on the lens from the black dots imprinted on the lens for geometric correction.There was our planet, a bright speck sitting in a kind of spotlight of sunlight scattered by the camera. Hansen still gets chills thinking about it."I was struck by how special Earth was, as I saw it shining in a ray of sunlight," she said. "It also made me think about how vulnerable our tiny planet is."This was the image that inspired Carl Sagan, the the Voyager imaging team member who had suggested taking this portrait, to call our home planet "a pale blue dot."As he wrote in a book by that name, "That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. … There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world."After these images were taken, mission managers started powering down the cameras. The spacecraft weren't going to fly near anything else, and other instruments that were still collecting data needed power for the long journey to interstellar space that was ahead.The Voyagers are still transmitting data daily back to Earth. Voyager 1 is now nearly 17 billion kilometers (more than 10 billion miles) away from the sun. The spacecraft have continued on to the next leg of their interstellar mission, closing in on the boundary of the bubble created by the sun that envelops all the planets. Scientists eagerly await the time when the Voyagers will leave that bubble and enter interstellar space."We were marveling at the vastness of space when this portrait was taken, but 20 years later, we're still inside the bubble," Stone said. "Voyager 1 may leave the solar bubble in five more years, but the family portrait gives you a sense of the scale of our neighborhood and that there is a great deal beyond it yet to be discovered."The Voyagers were built by JPL, which continues to operate both spacecraft. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-evening-lectures-highlight-icy-and-fiery-space-destinations | JPL Evening Lectures Highlight Icy and Fiery Space Destinations | Three varied solar system locations--the Sun, Pluto and Jupiter's moon Europa--will be featured in two free public lectures on Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. in JPL's von Karman Auditorium, and on Friday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in The Forum at Pasadena City College. Seating is limited and will be on a first- come, first-served basis. | Three varied solar system locations--the Sun, Pluto and Jupiter's moon Europa--will be featured in two free public lectures on Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. in JPL's von Karman Auditorium, and on Friday, May 15 at 7 p.m. in The Forum at Pasadena City College. Seating is limited and will be on a first- come, first-served basis.The lectures, entitled "Ice & Fire: Traveling to Difficult Solar System Destinations," will feature the three planned missions of the Outer Planets/Solar Probe project. The three are Europa Orbiter, a mission to look for evidence of liquid oceans on Jupiter's icy moon, Europa; Solar Probe, which will travel closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft; and Pluto-Kuiper Express, which will fly by Pluto and its moon Charon, and possibly into the Kuiper Disk, the cold, dark outer fringes of our solar system. The three missions are tentatively scheduled for launch between 2003 and 2007The lectures will be presented by Robert Staehle, deputy manager for the Outer Planets/Solar Probe project. Staehle previously served as Ice and Fire Preprojects manager. His space exploration career began when his student experiment "Bacteria Aboard Skylab" flew on the first American space station. With his aeronautical and astronautical engineering background, Staehle worked on the Voyager mission and contributed to lunar and planetary exploration studies. He learned from a variety of industries how to cut mission development costs and lead time dramatically, knowledge well-suited to the goals of the Outer Planets/Solar Probe missions.Please note that the lectures on Deep Space 1, originally scheduled for May 14 and 15, have been rescheduled for August 20 at JPL and August 21 at PCC. The speaker will be Dr. Marc Rayman, chief mission engineer and deputy mission manager.This lecture is part of the von Karman Lecture Series sponsored monthly by the JPL Media Relations Office. A web site on the lecture series is located athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/lecture. For directions and other information, call the Media Relations Office at (818) 354-5011.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-mars-orbiter-images-may-show-1971-soviet-lander | NASA Mars Orbiter Images May Show 1971 Soviet Lander | Hardware from a spacecraft that the Soviet Union landed on Mars in 1971 might appear in images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. | Hardware from a spacecraft that the Soviet Union landed on Mars in 1971 might appear in images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.While following news about Mars and NASA's Curiosity rover, Russian citizen enthusiasts found four features in a five-year-old image from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that resemble four pieces of hardware from the Soviet Mars 3 mission: the parachute, heat shield, terminal retrorocket and lander. A follow-up image by the orbiter from last month shows the same features.The Mars 3 lander transmitted for several seconds after landing on Dec. 2, 1971, the first spacecraft to survive a Mars landing long enough to transmit anything.Images of the possible Mars 3 features, taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, are available athttp://uahirise.org/ESP_031036_1345andhttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA16920."Together, this set of features and their layout on the ground provide a remarkable match to what is expected from the Mars 3 landing, but alternative explanations for the features cannot be ruled out," said HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson. "Further analysis of the data and future images to better understand the three-dimensional shapes may help to confirm this interpretation."In 1971, the former Soviet Union launched the Mars 2 and Mars 3 missions to Mars. Each consisted of an orbiter plus a lander. Both orbiter missions succeeded, although the surface of Mars was obscured by a planet-encircling dust storm. The Mars 2 lander crashed. Mars 3 became the first successful soft landing on the Red Planet, but stopped transmitting after just 14.5 seconds for unknown reasons.The predicted landing site was at latitude 45 degrees south, longitude 202 degrees east, in Ptolemaeus Crater. HiRISE acquired a large image at this location in November 2007. This image contains 1.8 billion pixels of data, so about 2,500 typical computer screens would be needed to view the entire image at full resolution. Promising candidates for the hardware from Mars 3 were found on Dec. 31, 2012.Vitali Egorov from St. Petersburg, Russia, heads the largest Russian Internet community about Curiosity, athttp://vk.com/curiosity_live. His subscribers did the preliminary search for Mars 3 via crowdsourcing. Egorov modeled what Mars 3 hardware pieces should look like in a HiRISE image, and the group carefully searched the many small features in this large image, finding what appear to be viable candidates in the southern part of the scene. Each candidate has a size and shape consistent with the expected hardware, and they are arranged on the surface as expected from the entry, descent and landing sequence."I wanted to attract people's attention to the fact that Mars exploration today is available to practically anyone," Egorov said. "At the same time we were able to connect with the history of our country, which we were reminded of after many years through the images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter."An advisor to the group, Alexander Basilevsky, of Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry, Moscow, contacted McEwen suggesting a follow-up image. HiRISE acquired the follow-up on March 10, 2013. This image was targeted to cover some of the hardware candidates in color and to get a second look with different illumination angles. Meanwhile, Basilevsky and Erogov contacted Russian engineers and scientists who worked on Mars 3 for more information.The candidate parachute is the most distinctive feature in the images. It is an especially bright spot for this region, about 8.2 yards (7.5 meters) in diameter. The parachute would have a diameter of 12 yards (11 meters) if fully spread out over the surface, so this is consistent. In the second HiRISE image, the parachute appears to have brightened over much of its surface, probably due to its better illumination over the sloping surface, but it is also possible that the parachute brightened in the intervening years because dust was removed.The descent module, or retrorocket, was attached to the lander container by a chain, and the candidate feature has the right size and even shows a linear extension that could be a chain. Near the candidate descent module is a feature with the right size and shape to be the actual lander, with four open petals. The image of the candidate heat shield matches a shield-shaped object with the right size if partly buried.Philip J. Stooke from the University of West Ontario, Canada, suggested the direction of search and offered helpful advice. Arnold Selivanov (one of the creators of Mars 3) and Vladimir Molodtsov (an engineer at NPO Lavochkin, Moscow) helped with access to data archives.HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project and Curiosity are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been studying Mars from orbit since 2006, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/mro. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/chasing-oumuamua | Chasing 'Oumuamua | The interstellar object 'Oumuamua perplexed scientists in October 2017 as it whipped past Earth at an unusually high speed. | The interstellar object 'Oumuamua perplexed scientists in
October 2017 as it whipped past Earth at an unusually high speed. This
mysterious visitor is the first object ever seen in our solar system that is
known to have originated elsewhere.Scientists conclude that interstellar object 'Oumuamua must be very elongated because of its dramatic variations in brightness as it tumbled through space. They also conclude that vents on the surface must have emitted jets of gases, giving the object a slight boost in speed, which researchers detected by measuring the position of the object as it passed by in 2017. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechWhat we know-It came from outside the solar system--Because of its high speed (196,000 mph, or 87.3 kilometers per second) and
the trajectory it followed as it whipped around the Sun, scientists are
confident 'Oumuamua originated beyond our solar system. The object flew by
Earth so fast its speed couldn't be due to the influence of the Sun's gravity
alone, so it must have approached the solar system at an already high speed and
not interacted with any other planets. On its journey past our star, the object
came within a quarter of the distance between the Sun and Earth.-Its trajectory is hyperbolic --By tracking this object as it passed within view of telescopes, scientists can
see that this high-speed object won't be captured by our Sun's gravity. It
won't circle back around again on an elliptical path. Instead, it will follow
the shape of a hyperbola -- that is, it will keep on going out of the solar
system, and never come back.-It doesn't look like a comet, but it behaves like one --A
comet is a small icy body that, when heated by the Sun, develops a coma -- a
fuzzy atmosphere and tail made of volatile material vaporizing off the comet
body. At first, scientists assumed 'Oumuamua was a comet. But because 'Oumuamua
appears in telescope images as a single point of light without a coma,
scientists then concluded it was an asteroid. But when astronomers saw the
object was accelerating ever so slightly, they realized that a coma and jets
might not be visible to the telescopes used to observe it. The jetting of
volatile materials or "outgassing" would explain why 'Oumuamua was
accelerating in a subtle, unexpected way when only gravity from our solar system is
taken into account.-It must be elongated--While it is
impossible to take a close-up photo of 'Oumuamua, its dramatic variations in
brightness over time suggest it is highly elongated. By calculating what kind
of object could dim and brighten in this way, scientists realized the object
must be up to 10 times as long as it is wide. Currently, 'Oumuamua is estimated
to be about half a mile (800 meters) long. Astronomers had never seen a natural
object with such extreme proportions in the solar system before.-It tumbles through space-- The unusual brightness
variations also suggest the object does not rotate around just one axis.
Instead, it is tumbling -- not just end over end, but about a second axis at a
different period, too. A small object's rotation state can easily change,
especially if it is outgassing, so this tumbling behavior could have started
recently. The object appears to make a complete rotation every 7.3 hours.What we don't know-What does it look like?All that
astronomers have seen of 'Oumuamua is a single point of light. But because of
its trajectory and small-scale accelerations, it must be smaller than typical
objects from the Oort Cloud, the giant group of icy bodies that orbit the solar
system roughly 186 billion miles (300 billion kilometers) away from the Sun.
Oort Cloud objects formed in our own solar system, but were kicked out far
beyond the planets by the immense gravity of Jupiter. They travel slower than
'Oumuamua and will forever be bound by the gravity of our Sun. But besides its
elongated nature, scientists do not know what kinds of features 'Oumuamua has on
its surface, if any. An elongated shape would explain its rotation behavior,
but its exact appearance is unknown.-What is it made of?Comets from our
solar system have a lot of dust, but because none is visible coming off
'Oumuamua, scientists conclude it may not have very much at all. It is
impossible to know what materials make up 'Oumuamua, but it could have gases
such as carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide coming off the surface that are less
likely to produce a visible coma or tail.-Where did it come from?'Oumuamua came into our
solar system from another star system in the galaxy, but which one? Scientists
observe that its incoming speed was close to the average motion of stars near
our own, and since the speed of younger stars is more stable than older stars,
'Oumuamua may have come from a relatively young system. But this is still a
guess -- it is possible the object has been wandering around the galaxy for
billions of years.-What is it doing now?After January 2018, 'Oumuamua
was no longer visible to telescopes, even in space. But scientists continue to
analyze it and crack open more mysteries about this unique interstellar
visitor.Written by Elizabeth Landau |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/opportunity-heads-toward-spirit-point | Opportunity Heads Toward 'Spirit Point' | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is driving toward a destination informally named "Spirit Point" in honor of the rover's twin. | When NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity reaches the rim of a large crater it is approaching, its arrival will come with an inspiring reminder.This crater, Endeavour, became the rover's long-term destination nearly three years ago. Opportunity has driven about 11 miles (18 kilometers) since climbing out of Victoria crater in August 2008, with Endeavour crater beckoning to the southeast. The rover has about 2 miles (about 3 kilometers) to go before reaching the rim of Endeavour.Rover team members last week selected "Spirit Point" as the informal name for the site on the rim where Opportunity will arrive at Endeavour crater. The choice commemorates Opportunity's rover twin, Spirit, which has ended communication and finished its mission."Spirit achieved far more than we ever could have hoped when we designed her," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the rovers. "This name will be a reminder that we need to keep pushing as hard as we can to make new discoveries with Opportunity. The exploration of Spirit Point is the next major goal for us to strive for."Endeavour offers the setting for plenty of productive work by Opportunity. The crater is 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter -- more than 20 times wider than Victoria crater, which Opportunity examined for two years. Orbital observations indicate that the ridges along its western rim expose rock outcrops older than any Opportunity has seen so far. Spirit Point is at the southern tip of one of those ridges, "Cape York," on the western side of Endeavour.Opportunity and Spirit completed their three-month prime missions on Mars in April 2004. Both rovers continued for years of bonus, extended missions. Both have made important discoveries about wet environments on ancient Mars that may have been favorable for supporting microbial life.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. More information about the rovers is online at:http://www.nasa.gov/rovers. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/launch-of-sunbathing-spacecraft-to-be-webcast | Launch of Sunbathing Spacecraft to be Webcast | Web viewers can watch NASA's Genesis mission, set to catch a piece of the Sun and return it to Earth, launch July 30 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. | Web viewers can watch NASA's Genesis mission, set to catch a piece of the Sun and return it to Earth, launch July 30 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida.The Internet event, lasting two and a half hours, will begin at 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT).Genesis will capture a piece of the Sun -- a sample of the ions and elements in the solar wind -- and bring the samples back to Earth so that scientists can study the exact composition of the Sun and probe the solar system's origin. By studying the solar wind, scientists hope to find clues about the formation of the solar system as we know it today. The Genesis mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and the spacecraft was built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colo.In 2004, samples collected by Genesis will return to Earth in a spectacular helicopter capture. Specially trained helicopter pilots will catch the sample return capsule as it parachutes to the ground at Utah's Air Force Test and Training Range. The samples will then be analyzed to provide a "Rosetta Stone" of solar material for comparing the Sun's original ingredients to those of the planets and other solar system bodies. Information on the mission is available athttp://genesismission.jpl.nasa.gov/.Genesis is part of NASA's Discovery Program of competitively selected, low-cost solar system exploration missions with highly focused science goals. Chester Sasaki of JPL is project manager, and Dr. Donald Burnett of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena is the principal investigator. JPL is a division of Caltech. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/launch-date-set-for-nasas-prefire-mission-to-study-polar-energy-loss | Launch Date Set for NASA’s PREFIRE Mission to Study Polar Energy Loss | Data from the mission will improve our understanding of how the Arctic and Antarctic help to regulate Earth’s climate, the mechanisms of polar ice loss, and related issues of sea level rise and sea ice loss. | NASA and Rocket Lab are targeting no earlier than Wednesday, May 22, 2024, for the first of two launches of the agency’s PREFIRE (Polar Radiant Energy in the Far-InfraRed Experiment) mission to study heat loss to space in Earth’s polar regions. For the PREFIRE mission, two CubeSats will launch on two different flights aboard the company’s Electron rockets from Launch Complex 1 in Māhia, New Zealand. Each launch will carry one satellite.NASA’s PREFIRE mission will fill a gap in our understanding of how much of Earth’s heat is lost to space from the polar regions. By capturing measurements over the poles that can only be gathered from space, PREFIRE will enable researchers to systematically study the planet’s heat emissions in the far-infrared — with 10 times finer wavelength resolution than any previous sensor.The Arctic and Antarctic help regulate Earth’s climate by radiating heat initially absorbed at the tropics back into space. But for regions like the Arctic, the spectrum of 60% of the energy escaping to space hasn’t been systematically measured. Filling in this picture is important for understanding which parts of the polar environment are responsible for heat loss and why the Arctic has warmed more than 2.5 times faster than the rest of the planet. In addition to helping us understand how the poles serve as Earth’s thermostat, PREFIRE observations of this heat exchange can improve our understanding of the mechanisms of polar ice loss and related questions of sea level rise and sea ice loss.Never Miss a DiscoverySUBSCRIBE TO THE JPL NEWSLETTERThe instruments will fly on two identical CubeSats — one instrument per CubeSat — in asynchronous, near-polar orbits.NASA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison jointly developed the PREFIRE mission. The agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, located in Southern California, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and provided the spectrometers. Blue Canyon Technologies built the CubeSats, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will process the collected data.The launch, which Rocket Lab named “Ready, Aim, PREFIRE,” will be followed by a second CubeSat mission launch several weeks later. The second launch, which the company calls “PREFIRE and Ice,” will also lift off from New Zealand on an Electron rocket. NASA’s Launch Services Program selected Rocket Lab to launch both spacecraft as part of the agency’sVADR(Venture-class Acquisition of Dedicated and Rideshare) contract.Follow launch updates on NASA’sSmall Satellite Missions blog. To learn more about the PREFIRE mission, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/prefire/ |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-study-tracks-global-sources-transport-of-air-pollution | NASA Study Tracks Global Sources, Transport of Air Pollution | A NASA and university study of ozone and carbon monoxide pollution in Earth's
atmosphere is providing unique insights into the sources of these pollutants
and how they are transported around the world. | A NASA and university study of ozone and carbon monoxide pollution in Earth's
atmosphere is providing unique insights into the sources of these pollutants
and how they are transported around the world.For the first time, NASA and university researchers used simultaneous observations
of carbon monoxide and ozone from space to differentiate between ozone produced
from human activity and ozone produced from natural sources. Ozone is an important
pollutant and a major component of smog. At high quantities it is harmful to humans,
plants and entire ecosystems.The team, led by Dr. Daniel Jacob and Lin Zhang of Harvard University, Cambridge,
Mass., used global satellite observations to study regional sources of pollution
such as eastern China, the northeastern United States and South America. The team
also studied how ozone produced from those sources was transported across the globe.The observations of carbon monoxide and ozone were obtained from the Tropospheric
Emission Spectrometer instrument onboard NASA's Aura satellite. The instrument, built
and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., uses new methods to
measure ozone and carbon monoxide in the troposphere -- the part of Earth's atmosphere
between the surface and up to approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) altitude."Global measurements of ozone and carbon monoxide are critical to understanding how
air pollution impacts atmospheric chemistry, especially in the troposphere," said Zhang.
"We're gaining a new understanding of how these chemicals flow out from continents and
are transported around the globe. Plus, our study provides a critical test of the
atmospheric models used to understand and predict how pollution is transported on
intercontinental scales."While ozone in the upper atmosphere helps to protect Earth from the sun's radiation,
ozone near the surface is a harmful pollutant. Surface ozone can be produced from
the chemical byproducts of human activities such as automobile emissions. Once produced,
ozone can be transported not only on a regional scale - such as from California to Nevada,
but on an intercontinental scale - such as from Asia to North America. This transported
(imported) ozone can lead to an overall enhancement in pollution at the surface.
Attributing elevated ozone levels to human activity is complicated by natural sources
of ozone precursors, such as lightning.Carbon monoxide, however, is emitted into the atmosphere almost exclusively by incomplete
combustion and can generate ozone. It has a relatively long lifetime in the atmosphere
and hence is often used for identifying human-induced pollution."In the past, scientists relied exclusively on ground-based and aircraft instrument
readings," said Dr. Helen Worden, a member of the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer
instrument science team at JPL. "These observations were sparse and did not provide
the global perspective that this new instrument does. It is providing the first
long-term, 3-D satellite observations of global tropospheric ozone and carbon
monoxide measured together."Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer observations taken of the Northern Hemisphere
showed that ozone pollution can drift from Asian sources to western North America,
and from eastern North America to Europe. The team used these data to test the Goddard
Earth Observing System-Chem atmospheric chemistry computer model, which is one of the
primary tools used by scientists to study global-scale pollution. The consistency between
the instrument observations and model results indicates that the model can reliably
predict the impact of pollution produced in one country on another country.Launched July 15, 2004, Aura is the third and final major Earth Observing System satellite.
Aura carries four instruments: the Ozone Monitoring Instrument, built by the Netherlands
and Finland in collaboration with NASA; the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder, built
by the United Kingdom and the United States; and the Microwave Limb Sounder and
Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer, both built by JPL. Aura is managed by NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.Results of the study are published in the Sept. 21 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.For more information on Aura, visit:http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/. For more on the
Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer, see:http://tes.jpl.nasa.gov/.JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/astronomers-find-planet-hotter-than-most-stars | Astronomers Find Planet Hotter Than Most Stars | A newly discovered Jupiter-like world is so hot, it's being vaporized by its own star. | A newly discovered Jupiter-like world is so hot, it's being vaporized by its own star.With a dayside temperature of more than 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit (4,600 Kelvin), KELT-9b is a planet that is hotter than most stars. But its blue A-type star, called KELT-9, is even hotter -- in fact, it is probably unraveling the planet through evaporation."This is the hottest gas giant planet that has ever been discovered," said Scott Gaudi, astronomy professor at The Ohio State University in Columbus, who led a study on the topic. He worked on this study while on sabbatical at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. The unusual planet is described in the journal Nature and at a presentation at the American Astronomical Society summer meeting this week in Austin, Texas.KELT-9b is 2.8 times more massive than Jupiter, but only half as dense. Scientists would expect the planet to have a smaller radius, but the extreme radiation from its host star has caused the planet's atmosphere to puff up like a balloon.Because the planet is tidally locked to its star -- as the moon is to Earth -- one side of the planet is always facing toward the star, and one side is in perpetual darkness. Molecules such as water, carbon dioxide and methane can't form on the dayside because it is bombarded by too much ultraviolet radiation. The properties of the nightside are still mysterious -- molecules may be able to form there, but probably only temporarily."It's a planet by any of the typical definitions of mass, but its atmosphere is almost certainly unlike any other planet we've ever seen just because of the temperature of its dayside," Gaudi said.The KELT-9 star is only 300 million years old, which is young in star time. It is more than twice as large, and nearly twice as hot, as our sun. Given that the planet's atmosphere is constantly blasted with high levels of ultraviolet radiation, the planet may even be shedding a tail of evaporated planetary material like a comet."KELT-9 radiates so much ultraviolet radiation that it may completely evaporate the planet," said Keivan Stassun, a professor of physics and astronomy at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, who directed the study with Gaudi.But this scenario assumes the star doesn't grow to engulf the planet first."KELT-9 will swell to become a red giant star in a few hundred million years," said Stassun. "The long-term prospects for life, or real estate for that matter, on KELT-9b are not looking good."The planet is also unusual in that it orbits perpendicular to the spin axis of the star. That would be analogous to the planet orbiting perpendicular to the plane of our solar system. One "year" on this planet is less than two days.KELT-9b is nowhere close to habitable, but Gaudi said there's a good reason to study worlds that are unlivable in the extreme."As has been highlighted by the recent discoveries from the MEarth collaboration, the planet around Proxima Centauri, and the astonishing system discovered around TRAPPIST-1, the astronomical community is clearly focused on finding Earthlike planets around small, cooler stars like our sun. They are easy targets and there's a lot that can be learned about potentially habitable planets orbiting very low-mass stars in general. On the other hand, because KELT-9b's host star is bigger and hotter than the sun, it complements those efforts and provides a kind of touchstone for understanding how planetary systems form around hot, massive stars," Gaudi said.The KELT-9b planet was found using one of the two telescopes called KELT, or Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope. In late May and early June 2016, astronomers using the KELT-North telescope at Winer Observatory in Arizona noticed a tiny drop in the star's brightness -- only about half of one percent -- which indicated that a planet may have passed in front of the star. The brightness dipped once every 1.5 days, which means the planet completes a "yearly" circuit around its star every 1.5 days.Subsequent observations confirmed the signal to be due to a planet, and revealed it to be what astronomers call a "hot Jupiter" -- the kind of planet the KELT telescopes are designed to spot.Astronomers at Ohio State, Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Vanderbilt jointly operate two KELTs (one each in the northern and southern hemispheres) to fill a large gap in the available technologies for finding exoplanets. Other telescopes are designed to look at very faint stars in much smaller sections of the sky, and at very high resolution. The KELTs, in contrast, look at millions of very bright stars at once, over broad sections of sky, and at low resolution."This discovery is a testament to the discovery power of small telescopes, and the ability of citizen scientists to directly contribute to cutting-edge scientific research," said Joshua Pepper, astronomer and assistant professor of physics at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, who built the two KELT telescopes.The astronomers hope to take a closer look at KELT-9b with other telescopes -- including NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes, and eventually the James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in 2018. Observations with Hubble would enable them to see if the planet really does have a cometary tail, and allow them to determine how much longer that planet will survive its current hellish condition."Thanks to this planet's star-like heat, it is an exceptional target to observe at all wavelengths, from ultraviolet to infrared, in both transit and eclipse. Such observations will allow us to get as complete a view of its atmosphere as is possible for a planet outside our solar system," said Knicole Colon, paper co-author who was based at NASA Ames Research Center in California's Silicon Valley during the time of this study.The study was largely funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through an NSF CAREER Grant, NSF PAARE Grant and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Additional support came from NASA via the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Exoplanet Exploration Program; the Harvard Future Faculty Leaders Postdoctoral Fellowship; Theodore Dunham, Jr., Grant from the Fund for Astronomical Research; and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.For more information about exoplanets, visit:https://exoplanets.nasa.gov |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/earth-science-on-the-space-station-continues-to-grow | Earth Science on the Space Station Continues to Grow | The number of instruments on the International Space Station dedicated to observing Earth to increase our understanding of our home planet continues to grow. | The number of instruments on theInternational Space Stationdedicated to observing Earth to increase our understanding of our home planet continues to grow.Two new instruments are scheduled to make their way to the station Feb. 18on the SpaceX Dragon capsule.TheStratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) III instrumentwill monitor the condition of the ozone layer, which covers an area in the stratosphere 10 to 30 miles (16 to 48 kilometers) above Earth and protects the planet from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation. Its predecessors, SAGE I and SAGE II, which were mounted to satellites, helped scientists understand the causes and effects of the Antarctic ozone hole. The Montreal Protocol of 1987 led to an eventual ban on ozone-destroying gases and to the ozone layer's recovery; SAGE III, designed to operate for no less than three years, will allow scientists to continue monitoring its recovery.The Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS), first launched as an instrument on theTropical Rainfall Measuring Missionin 1997, records the time, energy output and location of lightning events around the world, day and night. From its perch on the ISS, the new LIS will improve coverage of lightning events over the oceans and also in the Northern Hemisphere during its summer months. Because lightning is both a factor and a gauge for a number of atmospheric processes, NASA as well as other agencies will use the new LIS lightning data for many applications, from weather forecasting to climate modeling and air quality studies.While SAGE III and LIS are the latest Earth science instruments slated for operation aboard the ISS, they are not the first or the last.For two years, beginning in September 2014, theRapid Scatterometer, or RapidScat, collected near-real-time data on ocean wind speed and direction. The instrument, built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, was designed as a low-cost replacement for JPL'sQuick Scatterometer, or QuikScat satellite, which experienced an age-related failure in 2009. In addition to addressing such questions as how changing winds affect sea surface temperatures during an El Niño season, RapidScat data were used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Navy for improved tracking of marine weather, leading to more optimal ship routing and hazard avoidance.TheCloud Aerosol Transport System(CATS) was mounted to the exterior of the space station in Jan. 2015 and is in the midst of a three-year mission to measure aerosols, such as dust plumes, wildfires and volcanic ash, around the world. Built to demonstrate a low-cost, streamlined approach to ISS science payloads, the laser instrument is providing data for air quality studies, climate models and hazard warning capabilities.Over the next several years, NASA is planning to send to the space station several more instruments trained toward Earth.TheTotal and Spectral solar Irradiance Sensor(TSIS-1) will measure total solar irradiance and spectral solar irradiance, or the total solar radiation at the top of Earth's atmosphere and the spectral distribution of that solar radiation, respectively. The data are critical for climate modeling and atmospheric studies. TSIS-1 will continue the work of NASA's Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment satellite, which has been taking those measurements since 2003.NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program is supporting the following instruments that are currently in development. The program is managed by NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.The JPL-built and managedOrbiting Carbon Observatory-3(OCO-3) instrument will monitor carbon dioxide distribution around the globe. Assembled with spare parts from the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 satellite, also built and managed by JPL, OCO-3 will provide insights into the role of carbon dioxide as it relates to growing urban areas and changes in fossil fuel combustion. The instrument will also measure the "glow" from growing plants (known as solar-induced fluorescence).Homing in on tropical and temperate forests is theGlobal Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation(GEDI). The lidar instrument will provide the first high-resolution observations of forest vertical structure in an effort to answer how much carbon is stored in these ecosystems and also what impacts deforestation and reforestation have on habitat diversity, the global carbon cycle and climate change.The JPL-built and managedECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment (ECOSTRESS)will also focus on vegetation by providing high-frequency, high-resolution measurements of plant temperature and plant water use. Among the data's numerous uses will be to indicate regions of plant heat and water stress and also improve drought forecasting for the benefit of farmers and water managers. Researchers will also use ECOSTRESS in concert with other data to calculate water use efficiency among plants and identify drought-resistant species and varieties.Also on the horizon is theClimate Absolute Radiance and Refractivity Observatory(CLARREO) Pathfinder mission comprising two instruments for measuring solar irradiance: a reflected solar spectrometer and an infrared spectrometer. CLARREO will collect highly accurate climate records to test climate projections in order to improve models.NASA collects data from space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. For more information about NASA's Earth science programs, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/earthKeep up with the International Space Station at:http://www.nasa.gov/station |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/speeding-bullet-star-leaves-enormous-streak-across-sky | Speeding-Bullet Star Leaves Enormous Streak Across Sky | NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has spotted an amazingly long comet-like tail behind a star streaking through space at supersonic speeds. | NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has spotted an amazingly long
comet-like tail behind a star streaking through space at
supersonic speeds. The star, named Mira after the Latin word for
"wonderful," has been a favorite of astronomers for about 400 years.
It is a fast-moving, older star called a red giant that sheds massive
amounts of surface material.The space-based Galaxy Evolution Explorer scanned the popular star
during its ongoing survey of the entire sky in ultraviolet light.
Astronomers then noticed what looked like a comet with a gargantuan tail.
In fact, material blowing off Mira is forming a wake 13 light-years long,
or about 20,000 times the average distance of Pluto from the sun.
Nothing like this has ever been seen before around a star."I was shocked when I first saw this completely unexpected, humongous tail
trailing behind a well-known star," said Christopher Martin of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. "It was amazing how
Mira's tail echoed on vast, interstellar scales the familiar phenomena of
a jet's contrail or a speedboat's turbulent wake." Martin is the principal
investigator for the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, and lead author of a Nature
paper appearing today about the discovery. To view the outlandish star, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/20070815/a.htmlAstronomers say Mira's tail offers a unique opportunity to study how stars
like our sun die and ultimately seed new solar systems. As Mira hurtles along,
its tail sheds carbon, oxygen and other important elements needed for new
stars, planets and possibly even life to form. This tail material, visible
now for the first time, has been released over the past 30,000 years."This is an utterly new phenomenon to us, and we are still in the process
of understanding the physics involved," said co-author Mark Seibert of the
Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Pasadena.
"We hope to be able to read Mira's tail like a ticker tape to learn about
the star's life."Billions of years ago, Mira was similar to our sun. Over time, it began to
swell into what's called a variable red giant - a pulsating, puffed-up star
that periodically grows bright enough to see with the naked eye. Mira will
eventually eject all of its remaining gas into space, forming a colorful
shell called a planetary nebula. The nebula will fade with time, leaving
only the burnt-out core of the original star, which will then be called
a white dwarf.Compared to other red giants, Mira is traveling unusually fast, possibly
due to gravitational boosts from other passing stars over time. It now plows
along at 130 kilometers per second, or 291,000 miles per hour. Racing along
with Mira is a small, distant companion thought to be a white dwarf. The pair,
also known as Mira A (the red giant) and Mira B, orbit slowly around each
other as they travel together in the constellation Cetus 350 light-years
from Earth.In addition to Mira's tail, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer also discovered a
bow shock, a type of buildup of hot gas, in front of the star, and two sinuous
streams of material coming out of the star's front and back. Astronomers think
hot gas in the bow shock is heating up the gas blowing off the star, causing
it to fluoresce with ultraviolet light. This glowing material then swirls around
behind the star, creating a turbulent, tail-like wake. The process is similar
to a speeding boat leaving a choppy wake, or a steam train producing a trail of smoke.The fact that Mira's tail only glows with ultraviolet light might explain why
other telescopes have missed it. The Galaxy Evolution Explorer is very sensitive
to ultraviolet light and also has an extremely wide field of view, allowing it
to scan the sky for unusual ultraviolet activity."It's amazing to discover such a startlingly large and important feature of
an object that has been known and studied for over 400 years," said James D.
Neill of Caltech. "This is exactly the kind of surprise that comes from a
survey mission like the Galaxy Evolution Explorer."Caltech leads the Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission and is responsible for
science operations and data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, also
in Pasadena, manages the mission and built the science instrument. Caltech
manages JPL for NASA. The mission was developed under NASA's Explorers Program
managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Researchers
sponsored by Yonsei University in South Korea and the Centre National d'Etudes
Spatiales (CNES) in France collaborated on this mission.Graphics and additional information about the Galaxy Evolution Explorer are
online athttp://www.nasa.gov/galexandhttp://www.galex.caltech.edu. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ten-thousandth-near-earth-object-unearthed-in-space | Ten Thousandth Near-Earth Object Unearthed in Space | The 10,000th near-Earth object, asteroid 2013 MZ5, was detected on June 18, 2013, by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope. | More than 10,000 asteroids and comets that can pass near Earth have now been discovered. The 10,000th near-Earth object, asteroid 2013 MZ5, was first detected on the night of June 18, 2013, by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope, located on the 10,000-foot (3,000-meter) summit of the Haleakala crater on Maui. Managed by the University of Hawaii, the PanSTARRS survey receives NASA funding.Ninety-eight percent of all near-Earth objects discovered were first detected by NASA-supported surveys."Finding 10,000 near-Earth objects is a significant milestone," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington. "But there are at least 10 times that many more to be found before we can be assured we will have found any and all that could impact and do significant harm to the citizens of Earth." During Johnson's decade-long tenure, 76 percent of the NEO discoveries have been made.Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids and comets that can approach the Earth's orbital distance to within about 28 million miles (45 million kilometers). They range in size from as small as a few feet to as large as 25 miles (41 kilometers) for the largest near-Earth asteroid, 1036 Ganymed.Asteroid 2013 MZ5 is approximately 1,000 feet (300 meters) across. Its orbit is well understood and will not approach close enough to Earth to be considered potentially hazardous."The first near-Earth object was discovered in 1898," said Don Yeomans, long-time manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Over the next hundred years, only about 500 had been found. But then, with the advent of NASA's NEO Observations program in 1998, we've been racking them up ever since. And with new, more capable systems coming on line, we are learning even more about where the NEOs are currently in our solar system, and where they will be in the future."Of the 10,000 discoveries, roughly 10 percent are larger than six-tenths of a mile (one kilometer) in size - roughly the size that could produce global consequences should one impact the Earth. However, the NASA NEOO program has found that none of these larger NEOs currently pose an impact threat and probably only a few dozen more of these large NEOs remain undiscovered.The vast majority of NEOs are smaller than one kilometer, with the number of objects of a particular size increasing as their sizes decrease. For example, there are expected to be about 15,000 NEOs that are about one-and-half football fields in size (460 feet, or 140 meters), and more than a million that are about one-third a football field in size (100 feet, or 30 meters). A NEO hitting Earth would need to be about 100 feet (30 meters) or larger to cause significant devastation in populated areas. Almost 30 percent of the 460-foot-sized NEOs have been found, but less than 1 percent of the 100-foot-sized NEOs have been detected.When it originated, the NASA-instituted Near-Earth Object Observations Program provided support to search programs run by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory (LINEAR); the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NEAT); the University of Arizona (Spacewatch, and later Catalina Sky Survey) and the Lowell Observatory (LONEOS). All these search teams report their observations to the Minor Planet Center, the central node where all observations from observatories worldwide are correlated with objects, and they are given unique designations and their orbits are calculated."When I began surveying for asteroids and comets in 1992, a near-Earth object discovery was a rare event," said Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center. "These days we average three NEO discoveries a day, and each month the Minor Planet Center receives hundreds of thousands of observations on asteroids, including those in the main-belt. The work done by the NASA surveys, and the other international professional and amateur astronomers, to discover and track NEOs is really remarkable."Within a dozen years, the program achieved its goal of discovering 90 percent of near-Earth objects larger than 3,300 feet (1 kilometer) in size. In December 2005, NASA was directed by Congress to extend the search to find and catalog 90 percent of the NEOs larger than 500 feet (140 meters) in size. When this goal is achieved, the risk of an unwarned future Earth impact will be reduced to a level of only one percent when compared to pre-survey risk levels. This reduces the risk to human populations, because once an NEO threat is known well in advance, the object could be deflected with current space technologies.Currently, the major NEO discovery teams are the Catalina Sky Survey, the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS survey and the LINEAR survey. The current discovery rate of NEOs is about 1,000 per year.NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program manages and funds the search for, study of and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. The Minor Planet Center is funded by NASA and hosted by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, MA. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at:http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/,http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatchand via Twitter athttp://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/strangers-in-the-night-ulysses-spacecraft-meets-a-comet | Strangers in the Night: Ulysses Spacecraft Meets a Comet | During an unplanned rendezvous, the Ulysses spacecraft found itself gliding though the immense tail of Comet Hyakutake, revealing that comet tails may be much, much longer than previously believed. | During an unplanned rendezvous, the Ulysses spacecraft found itself gliding though the immense tail of Comet Hyakutake, revealing that comet tails may be much, much longer than previously believed."The odds that Ulysses' flight path would intersect the comet tail were probably less likely than someone breaking the bank at Monte Carlo," said Dr. Edward Smith of NASA' s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, the Ulysses project scientist and a co-investigator for its magnetometer instrument. Before the unexpected encounter, Ulysses was hundreds of millions of kilometers away from Comet Hyakutake and far beyond the visible tail."This tail extends half a billion kilometers (more than 300 million miles). That's more than three times the distance from the Earth to the Sun," said Dr. Nathan Schwadron, of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, a member of one of two Ulysses teams that made the discovery independently of one another. Findings from both teams appear in the April 6 issue of the journal Nature."This makes it the longest comet tail ever recorded," said Dr. Geraint Jones from Imperial College, London, of the Ulysses magnetometer team.Comet Hyakutake, one of the brightest comets of the 20th century, made a dazzling nighttime appearance in the spring of 1996, when it made a close pass by the Sun. While Ulysses was cruising through space studying the solar wind on May 1, 1996, its data suddenly went wild for a few hours. For example, the solar wind seemed to almost disappear and was replaced by gases not normally found in the solar wind, and the magnetic field in the solar wind was distorted. Since Ulysses scientists were not looking for comets, they did not realize the significance of the data right away."The discovery was made quite by accident, a bit like finding a needle in a haystack when you weren't even looking for a needle in the first place," said Dr. George Gloeckler of the University of Maryland, principal investigator of the Ulysses solar-wind ion-composition spectrometer team. The instrument studies the content and electrical charge of ionized gases. While his team detected ions typically found in comets, the magnetometer team observed magnetic field directional changes like those associated with comet tails.Comets are of great interest, because they may be the frozen leftovers of the birth of our solar system. They could hold clues to the formation of Earth and life, since one theory holds that comets "seeded" Earth and other planets with the building blocks of life.Comets are made of dirty ice, and as they approach the Sun and heat up, they emit gas and dust, forming gas and dust tails. The gas slows the solar wind and the portion of the magnetic field near the comet. The parts of the magnetic field farther from the comet continue to travel rapidly past it. Magnetic fields can be stretched like rubber bands. The magnetic field is draped around the comet and stretches out behind it in a hairpin shape.Gloeckler is lead author of the Nature paper on the ion findings, along with Schwadron, and Drs. Lennard Fisk and Thomas Zurbuchen, also of the University of Michigan, and Dr. Johannes Geiss of the International Space Science Institute in Switzerland. The other Nature article, on the Ulysses magnetometer findings, was authored by Jones and Professor Andre Balogh of Imperial College and Dr. Timothy Horbury of Queen Mary and Westfield College, London.Jones at Imperial College looked more closely at the magnetic field data because of the publication of the unusual 1996 solar wind event in the Journal of Geophysical Research. It was authored by Dr. Peter Riley, formerly of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, and based on data from the Ulysses solar wind instrument. Jones and Horbury saw that the data looked like a cometary tail, and Jones searched until he found the tail's source -- Hyakutake. Gloeckler and his colleagues noticed the event independently and realized it was cometary material.Ulysses, launched in 1990, is a joint venture of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The spacecraft studies the Sun from a high-latitude orbit, mostly at right angles to the plane of orbiting planets. Ulysses studies the Sun's magnetic fields, solar winds and cosmic rays near the Sun's North and South Poles, away from the equator, where Earth orbits. Ulysses has no camera, but its ten sophisticated instruments can observe some phenomena not detectable by visible observations. Scientists now know that sensitive instruments, like those found on Ulysses, can detect comet tail particles that are not normally visible. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) manages Ulysses for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. More information on the Ulysses mission is available at:http://ulysses.jpl.nasa.govandhttp://helio.estec.esa.nl/ulysses/ |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/bright-areas-on-ceres-suggest-geologic-activity | Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity | Scientists have a better sense of how bright areas on Ceres formed and changed over time -- processes indicative of an active, evolving world. | If you could fly aboard NASA's Dawn spacecraft, the surface of dwarf planet Ceres would generally look quite dark, but with notable exceptions. These exceptions are the hundreds of bright areas that stand out in images Dawn has returned. Now, scientists have a better sense of how these reflective areas formed and changed over time -- processes indicative of an active, evolving world."The mysterious bright spots on Ceres, which have captivated both the Dawn science team and the public, reveal evidence of Ceres' past subsurface ocean, and indicate that, far from being a dead world, Ceres is surprisingly active. Geological processes created these bright areas and may still be changing the face of Ceres today," said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator of the Dawn mission, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Raymond and colleagues presented the latest results about the bright areas at the American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans on Tuesday, Dec. 12.View this post on InstagramA post shared by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (@nasajpl)Come see brand new tech that could help future astronauts breathe on Mars. Meet MOXIE:https://t.co/mC7Bm5UouOhttps://t.co/E0OHn2FrVH— NASA JPL (@NASAJPL)January 25, 2020Different Kinds of Bright AreasSince Dawn arrived in orbit at Ceres in March 2015, scientists have located more than 300 bright areas on Ceres. A new study in the journal Icarus, led by Nathan Stein, a doctoral researcher at Caltech in Pasadena, California, divides Ceres' features into four categories.The first group of bright spots contains the most reflective material on Ceres, which is found on crater floors. The most iconic examples are in Occator Crater, which hosts two prominent bright areas. Cerealia Facula, in the center of the crater, consists of bright material covering a 6-mile-wide (10-kilometer-wide) pit, within which sits a small dome. East of the center is a collection of slightly less reflective and more diffuse features called Vinalia Faculae. All the bright material in Occator Crater is made of salt-rich material, which was likely once mixed in water. Although Cerealia Facula is the brightest area on all of Ceres, it would resemble dirty snow to the human eye.› DOWNLOAD VIDEO The Bright Stuff: New NASA Dawn Findings at CeresMore commonly, in the second category, bright material is found on the rims of craters, streaking down toward the floors. Impacting bodies likely exposed bright material that was already in the subsurface or had formed in a previous impact event.Separately, in the third category, bright material can be found in the material ejected when craters were formed.The mountain Ahuna Mons gets its own fourth category -- the one instance on Ceres where bright material is unaffiliated with any impact crater. This likelycryovolcano, a volcano formed by the gradual accumulation of thick, slowly flowing icy materials, has prominent bright streaks on its flanks.Over hundreds of millions of years, bright material has mixed with the dark material that forms the bulk of Ceres' surface, as well as debris ejected during impacts. That means billions of years ago, when Ceres experienced more impacts, the dwarf planet's surface likely would have been peppered with thousands of bright areas."Previous research has shown that the bright material is made of salts, and we think subsurface fluid activity transported it to the surface to form some of the bright spots," Stein said.The Case of OccatorWhy do the different bright areas of Occator seem so distinct from one another? Lynnae Quick, a planetary geologist at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, has been delving into this question.The leading explanation for what happened at Occator is that it could have had, at least in the recent past, a reservoir of salty water beneath it. Vinalia Faculae, the diffuse bright regions to the northeast of the crater's central dome, could have formed from a fluid driven to the surface by a small amount of gas, similar to champagne surging out of its bottle when the cork is removed.In the case of the Vinalia Faculae, the dissolved gas could have been a volatile substance such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane or ammonia. Volatile-rich salty water could have been brought close to Ceres' surface through fractures that connected to the briny reservoir beneath Occator. The lower pressure at Ceres' surface would have caused the fluid to boil off as a vapor. Where fractures reached the surface, this vapor could escape energetically, carrying with it ice and salt particles and depositing them on the surface.Cerealia Facula must have formed in a somewhat different process, given that it is more elevated and brighter than Vinalia Faculae. The material at Cerealia may have been more like an icy lava, seeping up through the fractures and swelling into a dome. Intermittent phases of boiling, similar to what happened when Vinalia Faculae formed, may have occurred during this process, littering the surface with ice and salt particles that formed the Cerealia bright spot.Quick's analyses do not depend on the initial impact that formed Occator. However, the current thinking among Dawn scientists is that when a large body slammed into Ceres, excavating the 57-mile-wide (92-kilometer-wide) crater, the impact may have also created fractures through which liquid later emerged."We also see fractures on other solar system bodies, such as Jupiter's icy moon Europa," Quick said. "The fractures on Europa are more widespread than the fractures we see at Occator. However, processes related to liquid reservoirs that might exist beneath Europa's cracks today could be used as a comparison for what may have happened at Occator in the past."As Dawn continues the final phase of its mission, in which it willdescend to lower altitudes than ever before, scientists will continue learning about the origins of the bright material on Ceres and what gave rise to the enigmatic features in Occator.The Dawn mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit:https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/missionMore information about Dawn is available at the following sites:https://www.nasa.gov/dawnhttps://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/all-eyes-on-hurricane-michael | All Eyes on Hurricane Michael | Many NASA instruments are keeping tabs on Hurricane Michael from space, including AIRS and MISR. Here's what they've seen. | Hurricane
Michael plowed into the Florida panhandle Wednesday, Oct. 10, as a major
Category 4 storm -- the strongest hurricane ever to hit that region. Many NASA
instruments are keeping tabs on Michael from space, including the Atmospheric
Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR).The first
image, taken by AIRS, shows Hurricane Michael just off the west coast of
Florida on Oct. 10 in the early morning hours local time. The large purple area
indicates very cold clouds at about -90°F (-68°C) carried high into the atmosphere by
deep thunderstorms. These
storm clouds are associated with heavy rainfall. The eye, which is much warmer than the surrounding clouds, appears
in green. The red areas
moving away from the storm indicate temperatures of around 60°F (15°C), typical of the surface of Earth at
night. These red areas are mostly cloud-free.MISR
carries nine cameras fixed at different angles, each of which viewed Michael
over the course of approximately seven minutes when it was just off Florida's
west coast on Tuesday, Oct. 9.Images
from the nine views are used to calculate the height of the cloud tops, and the
motion of the clouds between the views provides information on wind speed and
direction. This first MISR image shows the view from the central,
downward-pointing camera (left), the calculated cloud-top heights (middle) and
wind velocity arrows (right) superimposed on top. The length of the arrows is
proportional to wind speed, and the colors show the altitude of the cloud tops
in kilometers.MISR's
stereo anaglyph shows a three-dimensional view of Michael that combines two of
MISR's camera angles. Using 3D red-blue glasses, you can see a number of bright
"clumps." These clumps, called "vortical hot towers," are
groups of strong thunderstorms embedded in the larger circulation of the
hurricane. They indicate the rapid transport of heat energy from the ocean
surface into the storm and usually occur when a hurricane intensifies quickly.The
National Hurricane Center clocked Michael's sustained wind speed at 150 mph
(240 kph) just before noon local time on Wednesday, Oct. 10. It is expected to
bring strong winds, storm surges and heavy rainfall to much of the southeast.AIRS,
in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), senses emitted
infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to provide a three-dimensional look
at Earth's weather and climate. Working in tandem, the two instruments make
simultaneous observations down to Earth's surface, even in the presence of
heavy clouds. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the
atmosphere, the system creates a global, three-dimensional map of atmospheric
temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas
concentrations, and many other atmospheric phenomena. Launched into Earth orbit
in 2002, the AIRS and AMSU instruments fly onboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft and
are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, in
Pasadena, California.MISR
was built and is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
The instrument flies aboard the Terra satellite, which is managed by NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The MISR data were obtained
from the NASA Langley Research Center Atmospheric Science Data Center in
Hampton, Virginia.More information about AIRS is available here:https://airs.jpl.nasa.gov/More information on MISR is available here:https://misr.jpl.nasa.gov/ |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-invites-students-to-name-mars-2020-rover | NASA Invites Students to Name Mars 2020 Rover | Through Nov. 1, K-12 students in the U.S. are encouraged to enter an essay contest to name NASA's next Mars rover. | Red rover, red rover, send a name forMars 2020right over! NASA is recruiting help from students nationwide to find a name for its next Mars rover mission.Starting Tuesday, Aug. 27, K-12 students in U.S. public, private and home schools can enter theMars 2020 Name the Rover essay contest. One grand prize winner will name the rover and be invited to see the spacecraft launch in July 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.The Mars 2020 Rover is preparing to launch to the Red Planet in July 2020, but it doesn't have a name yet. We're asking K-12 students across the United States to send in essays with their best name ideas by Nov. 1, 2019.The Name the Rover contest is part of NASA's efforts to engage students in the STEM enterprise behind Mars exploration and inspire interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics."This naming contest is a wonderful opportunity for our nation's youth to get involved with NASA's Moon to Mars missions," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. "It is an exciting way to engage with a rover that will likely serve as the first leg of a Mars Sample return campaign, collecting and caching core samples from the Martian surface for scientists here on Earth to study for the first time."The Mars 2020 rover is a 2,300-pound (1,040-kilogram) robotic scientist that will search for signs of past microbial life, characterize the planet's climate and geology, collect samples for future return to Earth, and pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet."Our Mars 2020 rover has fully taken shape over the past several months, as the project team installed various components onto the chassis: the computer brain and electronics; wheels and mobility system; robotic arm; remote sensing mast; the seven science instruments; and finally, the sample caching system," said George Tahu, Mars 2020 program executive. "All that's missing is a great name!"See NASA's next Mars rover quite literally coming together inside a clean room at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This behind-the-scenes look at what goes into building and preparing a rover for Mars, including extensive tests in simulated space environments, was captured from March to July 2019.To enter the contest, students must submit by Nov. 1 their proposed rover name and a short essay, no more than 150 words, explaining why their proposed name should be chosen. The essays will be divided into three groups, by grade level - K-4, 5-8, and 9-12 - and judged on the appropriateness, significance and originality of their proposed name, and the originality and quality of their essay, and/or finalist interview presentation.Fifty-two semifinalists will be selected per group, each representing their respective state or U.S. territory. Three finalists then will be selected from each group to advance to the final round.As part of the final selection process, the public will have an opportunity to vote online on the nine finalists in January 2020. NASA plans to announce the selected name on Feb. 18, 2020 - exactly one year before the rover will land on the surface of Mars.For complete contest and prize details, visit:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/participate/name-the-rover/The naming contest partnership is part of a Space Act Agreement between NASA, Battelle of Columbus, Ohio, and Future Engineers of Burbank, California, in educational and public outreach efforts.Register to be a JudgeNASA is seeking volunteers to help judge the thousands of contest entries anticipated to pour in from around the country. U.S. residents over 18 years old who are interested in offering approximately five hours of their time to review submissions should register to be a judge at:https://www.futureengineers.org/registration/judge/nametheroverRover UpdateWith all major elements onboard and initial functional checks complete, Mars 2020's Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations team is preparing the rover and its sky crane descent stage for the next big test: simulating the vibration dynamics of launch and the thermal environment the rover will experience on the surface of Mars.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages rover development for the agency. The Launch Services Program at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is responsible for launch management.For more about NASA's Moon to Mars plans, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/topics/moon-to-mars |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-research-yields-full-map-of-antarctic-ice-flow | NASA Research Yields Full Map of Antarctic Ice Flow | NASA-funded researchers have created the first complete map of the speed and direction of ice flow in Antarctica. | PASADENA, Calif. - NASA-funded researchers have created the first complete map of the speed and direction of ice flow in Antarctica. The map, which shows glaciers flowing thousands of miles from the continent's deep interior to its coast, will be critical for tracking future sea-level increases from climate change. The team created the map using integrated radar observations from a consortium of international satellites."This is like seeing a map of all the oceans' currents for the first time. It's a game changer for glaciology," said Eric Rignot of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and the University of California (UC), Irvine. Rignot is lead author of a paper about the ice flow published online Thursday in Science Express. "We are seeing amazing flows from the heart of the continent that had never been described before."Rignot and UC Irvine scientists Jeremie Mouginot and Bernd Scheuchl used billions of data points captured by European, Japanese and Canadian satellites to weed out cloud cover, solar glare and land features masking the glaciers. With the aid of NASA technology, the team painstakingly pieced together the shape and velocity of glacial formations, including the previously uncharted East Antarctica, which comprises 77 percent of the continent.Like viewers of a completed jigsaw puzzle, the scientists were surprised when they stood back and took in the full picture. They discovered a new ridge splitting the 5.4 million-square-mile (14 million-square-kilometer) landmass from east to west.The team also found unnamed formations moving up to 800 feet (244 meters) annually across immense plains sloping toward the Antarctic Ocean and in a different manner than past models of ice migration."The map points out something fundamentally new: that ice moves by slipping along the ground it rests on," said Thomas Wagner, NASA's cryospheric program scientist in Washington. "That's critical knowledge for predicting future sea level rise. It means that if we lose ice at the coasts from the warming ocean, we open the tap to massive amounts of ice in the interior."The work was conducted in conjunction with the International Polar Year (IPY) (2007-2008). Collaborators worked under the IPY Space Task Group, which included NASA; the European Space Agency (ESA); Canadian Space Agency (CSA); Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; the Alaska Satellite Facility in Fairbanks; and MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates of Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. The map builds on partial charts of Antarctic ice flow created by NASA, CSA and ESA using different techniques."To our knowledge, this is the first time that a tightly knit collaboration of civilian space agencies has worked together to create such a huge dataset of this type," said Yves Crevier of CSA. "It is a dataset of lasting scientific value in assessing the extent and rate of change in polar regions."For a video animation of the new Antarctic map, visit:http://1.usa.gov/poJq1P.For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:http://www.nasa.gov.JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-dust-storms | Mars Dust Storms | Martian dust storms are very much like the severe ones on Earth--"only more so," Jet Propulsion Laboratory planetary scientist says. | Martian dust storms are very much like the severe ones on Earth--"only more so," Jet Propulsion Laboratory planetary scientist says.The towering storms which obscured Mars' southern hemisphere in 1971 appear to have been triggered by the same mechanism which kicks up giant dust clouds on Earth in winter and spring--polar air sweeping down onto warmer mountain slope, basin or plain.Peter M. Woiceshyn of JPL reported this finding after twoyear comparative study of Martian and Earth dust storm data. He said Martian storms, particularly in the Hellas area, are "quite similar" to some in the arid regions of Russia, Persia, the high plains of the United States, and the Arizona and Sahara deserts.The JPL investigator used Lowell Observatory data on July l9, 1971, Martian dust storm to determine that wall of dust over 30 miles high (50 kilometers) swept down the west slopes of Hellas at speeds greater than 300 miles per hour. Mariner 9 radio occultation data provided by Dr. Arvidas J. Kliore, also of JPL, verified that such high-velocity winds would be required to raise surface dust in Mars' low atmospheric pressure.(Air density on Mars is only l/l00th that on Earth. Mariner 9 is the unmanned spacecraft laboratory which JPL sent to orbit Mars in 1970-71 for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.)When Mariner 9 arrived in November, 1971, second dust storm had been in progress several weeks. Dust cloud tops were estimated by Mariner 9 experimenters at heights of 50 to 70 kilometers (30 to 40 miles) above the surface.In their joint written report, Woiceshyn and Kliore said the two 1971 storms (and another in 1956) began in the same location on Hellas slopes and apparently were triggered by cold jet stream from the Martian north pole, funneling down long valley across the planet's equator.Hellas extends from about 65 degrees to 30 degrees south latitude on Mars. Its long sloping topography is strong factor in producing giant dusters--the bottom of the Hellas basin lying 8 km (5 miles) lower than the highest rim of the surrounding mountains."The gravity flow produced from cold air streaming over the top of mountain ridge is like combination of waterfall and tidal wave," Woiceshyn told members of the Division of planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Tex., March 30. He will make further report at the annual spring meeting of the American Geophysical Union April 11 in Washington, D.C.Such frigid air cascade over mountain barrier onto slope and plain is known to meteorologists as bora, or norther. The best Earth examples, Woiceshyn points out, are found in Russia, where polar winds sweep the steppes; in the mountain-ringed valleys of Persia, and to some extent on the U.S. plains just east of the Rockies.Typical dust storms on these plains have been reported to reach heights of more than 20,000 feet, with winds near the surface ranging from 60 to l00 miles per hour. recent (March 19) dust storm obscured the Colorado-Kansas border region, whipped by 80 to l00 mph winds.Data from Project Dustorm (cq), organized by the Aerosol Project Group and headed by Dr. Ed Danielsen of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colo., is now being analyzed to determine the soil erosion damage caused by severe dusters in this country and around the world.The most intense and dangerous storms on Earth have occurred during prolonged periods of drought, such as the early 1930s in the U.S. dustbowl area. In Russia winds of prolonged 1928 storm raised more than 15 million tons of black earth dust from an area of 250 million acres, according to Woiceshyn's research.Similar erosion is caused by the heavy winds on Mars, too, Mariner 9 revealed. And there were indications other factors may be at work on the Red Planet.The yellow cast of the Mars' dust clouds gave them the appear ance of so-called desert dusters, known as haboobs (Arabic for wild winds). Haboobs are the dust-laden gusts which occasionally cool Sahara and Arizona desert regions during the summer. But there is no firm proof yet that the right conditions exist to produce that type of storm on Mars.However, more conclusive data on Martian storms could be provided in the coming year by the two 1976 Viking soacecraft and their landers. Viking arrives at Mars in mid-June and drops its lander on or about July 4. Viking II reaches Mars in mid-August, with lander descendinq about Sept. 4.The Woiceshyn-Kliore study was sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Science. Caltech operates JPL for NASA.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/tally-ho-deep-impact-spacecraft-eyes-comet-target | Tally-Ho! Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes Comet Target | NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has beamed down the first of over 64,000 images it will be taking of Comet Hartley 2. | On Sunday, Sept. 5, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft beamed down the first of more than 64,000 images it's expected to take of Comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft, now on an extended mission known as EPOXI, has an appointment with the comet on Nov. 4, 2010.It will use all three of the spacecraft's instruments (two telescopes with digital color cameras and an infrared spectrometer) to scrutinize Hartley 2 for more than two months."Like any tourist who can't wait to get to a destination, we have already begun taking pictures of our comet -- Hartley 2," said Tim Larson, the project manager for EPOXI from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We have to wait for Nov. 4 to get the close-up pictures of the cometary nucleus, but these approach images should keep the science team busy for quite some time as well."The imaging campaign, along with data from all the instruments aboard Deep Impact, will afford the mission's science team the best extended view of a comet in history during its pass through the inner solar system. With the exception of one, six-day break to calibrate instruments and perform a trajectory correction maneuver, the spacecraft will continuously monitor Hartley 2's gas and dust output for the next 79 days.This first image of comet Hartley 2 taken by Deep Impact was obtained by the spacecraft's Medium Resolution Imager on Sept. 5 when the spacecraft was 60 million kilometers (37.2 million miles) away from the comet.EPOXI is an extended mission that utilizes the already "in flight" Deep Impact spacecraft to explore distinct celestial targets of opportunity. The name EPOXI itself is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: the extrasolar planet observations, called Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI). The spacecraft will continue to be referred to as "Deep Impact."NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the EPOXI mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Maryland, College Park, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Michael A'Hearn. Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., is the science lead for the mission's extrasolar planet observations. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. For more information about EPOXI visithttp://epoxi.umd.edu/. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/chaos-seen-in-movement-of-ring-herding-moons-of-saturn | Chaos Seen in Movement of Ring-Herding Moons of Saturn | Scientists have a new explanation for weird movements of two small moons | Scientists have a new explanation for weird movements of two small moons that shepherd one of Saturn's rings: Pandora, which keeps the narrow F ring from spreading outward, and Prometheus, which rides herd along the same ring's inner edge.Observations of the pair in recent years found them far from where they should have been based on orbital movements calculated from NASA's Voyager spacecraft observations during Saturn flybys in 1980 and 1981. Pandora is about 20 degrees farther around in its orbit than it would be if it had followed standard physics for the past two decades. Prometheus lags behind its predicted position by about the same amount. At the size of these moons' orbits, 20 degrees is more than 160,000 kilometers (100,000 miles).
"Chaotic gravitational interactions between them can fully account for these discrepancies," said Dr. Nicole Rappaport of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. She and Prof. Peter Goldreich of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, reported the new explanation this week at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Sciences in Birmingham, Ala.With chaotic interactions, a barely perceptible difference in starting conditions can make such a great difference in later positions that the movements are not fully predictable over time. The two moons give each other a gravitational kick each time Pandora passes inside Prometheus, about every 28 days. Because neither's orbit is quite circular, the distance between them on those occasions -- hence the strength of the kick -- varies. The perturbations lead to changes in motion that are not periodic or predictable, say Rappaport and Goldreich.They had predicted 20 years ago that Pandora's motion might be chaotic. "This is like a dream come true," Goldreich said of the observations that fit the prediction. For him, it's a recurring dream, since he and Dr. Scott Tremaine, then a post-doctoral fellow at Caltech, also predicted the very existence of shepherd moons -- confirmed later by Voyager -- as an explanation for the narrowness of the F ring.By the principle of action and reaction, the same transfer of momentum by which Pandora pushes F ring particles inward toward Saturn and Prometheus pushes them outward should also gradually push the two moons away from the ring. The effects of Saturn's wider A ring, which is just inside the F ring, are even more important in pushing the moons outward. The F ring would slowly widen. So, although the discovery of the shepherd moons fulfilled a scientific prediction explaining the current narrowness of the F ring, it led to more questions about the longer-term history and fate of the ring and shepherds.One theory among several has been that the ring must be quite young to still be so narrow, perhaps about 10 million-years-old. But in proportion to the age of Saturn itself, that would be as if the ring were created in the last three minutes of a 24-hour day, and some scientists believe it unlikely that we would happen to witness such a rare event. Another theory, proposed by Rappaport, Goldreich and Tremaine in 1982, is that Pandora's movement includes an element of chaos.The story took a further twist in the mid-1990s, while Saturn's rings were edge-on toward Earth so the timing was good for observing Prometheus and Pandora with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Analysis of those and subsequent observations by several researchers in New York and Massachusetts revealed that each moon was about 20 degrees from where normal orbital mechanics would have put it. This was an amazing discovery. For the first time ever, astronomers found that they could not predict the orbits of objects in the sky.Goldreich and Rappaport have demonstrated that chaotic orbits of the F ring shepherds could produce changes in location very similar to those observed with the Hubble Space Telescope. "The chaos is due to the gravitational interactions between the two moons," Rappaport said. "This is the first observation ever of chaotic orbital motions in the solar system." A larger moon of Saturn, Hyperion, is already known to have chaotic rotation around its axis.Goldreich and Rappaport hope they have found the piece of the puzzle that will help resolve the problem of the age of the rings.JPL, NASA's lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system, is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-spacecraft-on-final-approach-toward-comet | NASA Spacecraft on Final Approach Toward Comet | NASA's EPOXI mission spacecraft steadily approaches its target, comet Hartley 2, as it completes its final flight-path adjustment. | The EPOXI mission spacecraft has refined its path toward a Nov. 4 flyby of comet Hartley 2, successfully performing its final maneuver today at 8 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT). The spacecraft burned its engines for 6.8 seconds, changing the spacecraft's velocity by 1.4 meters per second (3 miles per hour)."I've worked the Stardust flyby of comet Wild 2 and the Deep Impact encounter with comet Tempel 1, and I have never seen a comet flit around the sky like this one," said mission navigator Shyam Bhaskaran of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We needed to make this burn to re-locate the spacecraft for the 700-kilometer [about 435 miles] flyby distance."Part of the reason Hartley 2 is hard to pin down is because the small comet is very active."Hartley 2 is one-seventh the size of comet Tempel 1, but it releases almost the same amount of material into the space environment," said EPOXI Principal Investigator Mike A'Hearn of the University of Maryland. "These jets can act as thrusters and actually make small changes to the comet's orbit around the sun."On Thursday, Nov. 4, the spacecraft will fly past the comet, with closest approach expected about 7 a.m. PDT [10 a.m. EDT]. This flyby will mark the fifth time in history that a spacecraft has been close enough to image the heart of the comet, more commonly known as the nucleus.EPOXI is an extended mission that uses the already "in-flight" Deep Impact spacecraft to explore distinct celestial targets of opportunity. The name EPOXI itself is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: the extrasolar planet observations, called Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI). The spacecraft will continue to be referred to as "Deep Impact."JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the EPOXI mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Maryland, College Park, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Michael A'Hearn. Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., is the science lead for the mission's extrasolar planet observations. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo.For more information about EPOXI, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/epoxiandhttp://epoxi.umd.edu/. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-twins-plan-martian-ramble | NASA Twins Plan Martian Ramble | With just over a year to go before NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers land on the red planet, members of the science team are previewing the mission's goals and candidate landing sites at a special session of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. | With just over a year to go before NASA's twin Mars Exploration Rovers land on the red planet, members of the science team are previewing the mission's goals and candidate landing sites at a special session of the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco."The twin rovers will be able to travel the distance of several football fields during their missions. They will carry sophisticated instruments that effectively make them robotic geologists, acting as the eyes and hands of the science team on Earth," said Dr. Mark Adler, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
"We are very busy at JPL building and testing the two rovers and the spacecraft that will land them safely on Mars."Remote sensing instruments will be mounted on a rover mast, including high-resolution color stereo panoramic cameras and an infrared spectrometer for determining the mineralogy of rocks and soils. When interesting scientific targets are identified, the rovers will drive over to them and perform detailed investigations with instruments mounted on a robotic arm.Rover instruments include a microscopic imager, to see micron-size particles and textures; an alpha-particle/x-ray spectrometer, for measuring elemental composition; and a Moessbauer spectrometer for determining the mineralogy of iron-bearing rocks. Each rover will carry a rock abrasion tool, the equivalent of a geologist's rock hammer, to remove the weathered surfaces from rocks and analyze their interior."All the instruments on the payload are undergoing intensive calibration and test activities in preparation for flight," said Dr. Steve Squyres, principal investigator for the
science payload at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y."Once at Mars, the instruments will be used, together with the rover's ability to traverse long distances, to study the geologic history of the two landing sites," Squyres explained. The scientific focus of the mission is to investigate what role water played there, and to determine how suitable the conditions would have been for life.NASA scientists are in the process of picking the landing site for each rover. Four sites look the most promising. "Three of the sites, Terra Meridiani, known as the Hematite
site, Gusev, and Isidis show evidence for surface processes involving water. These sites appear capable of addressing the science objectives of the rover missions: to determine if water was present on Mars and whether there are conditions favorable to the preservation of evidence for ancient life," said Dr. Matt Golombek, landing site scientist at JPL. The
fourth site, Elysium, appears to contain ancient terrain, which may hold clues to Mars' early climate when conditions may have been wetter.The launch period for the first rover opens May 30, 2003, and the second rover's launch period opens June 25, 2003. The first rover will reach Mars January 4, 2004, and the second arrives January 25, 2004. Each rover will have a primary mission lasting at least three months on the martian surface.The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.Pictures of the rovers at JPL can be viewed at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/merMore information about the mission is on the Internet at:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-hears-from-opportunity-rover-on-mars | NASA Hears from Opportunity Rover on Mars | NASA's second Mars Exploration Rover successfully sent signals to Earth during its bouncy landing and after it came to rest on one of the three side petals of its four-sided lander. | NASA's second Mars Exploration Rover successfully sent signals to Earth during its bouncy landing and after it came to rest on one of the three side petals of its four-sided lander.Mission engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., received the first signal from Opportunity on the ground at 9:05 p.m. Pacific Standard Time Saturday via the NASA Deep Space Network, which was listening with antennas in California and Australia."We're on Mars, everybody!" JPL's Rob Manning, manager for development of the landing system, announced to the cheering flight team.NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said at a subsequent press briefing, "This was a tremendous testament to how NASA, when really focused on an objective, can put every ounce of effort, energy, emotion and talent to an important task. This team is the best in the world, no doubt about it."Opportunity landed in a region called Meridiani Planum, halfway around the planet from the Gusev Crater site where its twin rover, Spirit, landed three weeks ago. Earlier today, mission managers reported progress in understanding and dealing with communications and computer problems on Spirit."In the last 48 hours, we've been on a roller coaster," said Dr. Ed Weiler, NASA associate administrator for space science. "We resurrected one rover and saw the birth of another."JPL's Pete Theisinger, project manager for the rovers, said, "We are two for two. Here we are tonight with Spirit on a path to recovery and with Opportunity on Mars."By initial estimates, Opportunity landed about 24 kilometers (15 miles) down range from the center of the target landing area. That is well within an outcropping of a mineral called gray hematite, which usually forms in the presence of water. "We're going to have a good place to do science," said JPL's Richard Cook, deputy project manager for the rovers.Once it pushed itself upright by opening the petals of the lander, Opportunity was expected to be facing east.The main task for both rovers in coming months is to explore the areas around their landing sites for evidence in rocks and soils about whether those areas ever had environments that were watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about the project is available from JPL athttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.govand from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., athttp://athena.cornell.edu. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/europas-ocean-may-have-an-earthlike-chemical-balance | Europa's Ocean May Have An Earthlike Chemical Balance | A NASA modeling study suggests the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist in the ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa, even without volcanic hydrothermal activity. | A new NASA study modeling conditions in the ocean of Jupiter's moon Europa suggests that the necessary balance of chemical energy for life could exist there, even if the moon lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity.Europa is strongly believed to hide a deep ocean of salty liquid water beneath its icy shell. Whether the Jovian moon has the raw materials and chemical energy in the right proportions to support biology is a topic of intense scientific interest. The answer may hinge on whether Europa has environments where chemicals are matched in the right proportions to power biological processes. Life on Earth exploits such niches.In a new study, scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, compared Europa's potential for producing hydrogen and oxygen with that of Earth, through processes that do not directly involve volcanism. The balance of these two elements is a key indicator of the energy available for life. The study found that the amounts would be comparable in scale; on both worlds, oxygen production is about 10 times higher than hydrogen production.The work draws attention to the ways that Europa's rocky interior may be much more complex and possibly earthlike than people typically think, according to Steve Vance, a planetary scientist at JPL and lead author of the study. "We're studying an alien ocean using methods developed to understand the movement of energy and nutrients in Earth's own systems. The cycling of oxygen and hydrogen in Europa's ocean will be a major driver for Europa's ocean chemistry and any life there, just as it is on Earth."Ultimately, Vance and colleagues want to also understand the cycling of life's other major elements in the ocean: carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur.As part of their study, the researchers calculated how much hydrogen that could potentially be produced in Europa's ocean as seawater reacts with rock, in a process called serpentinization. In this process, water percolates into spaces between mineral grains and reacts with the rock to form new minerals, releasing hydrogen in the process. The researchers considered how cracks in Europa's seafloor likely open up over time, as the moon's rocky interior continues to cool following its formation billions of years ago. New cracks expose fresh rock to seawater, where more hydrogen-producing reactions can take place.In Earth's oceanic crust, such fractures are believed to penetrate to a depth of 3 to 4 miles (5 to 6 kilometers). On present-day Europa, the researchers expect water could reach as deep as 15 miles (25 kilometers) into the rocky interior, driving these key chemical reactions throughout a deeper fraction of Europa's seafloor.The other half of Europa's chemical-energy-for-life equation would be provided by oxidants -- oxygen and other compounds that could react with the hydrogen -- being cycled into the Europan ocean from the icy surface above. Europa is bathed in radiation from Jupiter, which splits apart water ice molecules to create these materials. Scientists have inferred that Europa's surface is being cycled back into its interior, which could carry oxidants into the ocean."The oxidants from the ice are like the positive terminal of a battery, and the chemicals from the seafloor, called reductants, are like the negative terminal. Whether or not life and biological processes complete the circuit is part of what motivates our exploration of Europa," said Kevin Hand, a planetary scientist at JPL who co-authored the study.Europa's rocky, neighboring Jovian moon, Io, is the most volcanically active body in the solar system, due to heat produced by the stretching and squeezing effects of Jupiter's gravity as it orbits the planet. Scientists have long considered it possible that Europa might also have volcanic activity, as well as hydrothermal vents, where mineral-laden hot water would emerge from the sea floor.According to Vance, researchers previously speculated that volcanism is paramount for creating a habitable environment in Europa's ocean. If such activity is not occurring in its rocky interior, the thinking goes, the large flux of oxidants from the surface would make the ocean too acidic, and toxic, for life. "But actually, if the rock is cold, it's easier to fracture. This allows for a huge amount of hydrogen to be produced by serpentinization that would balance the oxidants in a ratio comparable to that in Earth's oceans," he said.The results are published online this week in the journalGeophysical Research Letters.NASA is currently formulating a mission to explore Europa and investigate in depth whether the icy moon might be habitable. This new model is part of a large body of evidence that is guiding the mission's development. Some time in the 2020s, NASA would send a highly capable, radiation-tolerant spacecraft into a long, looping orbit around Jupiter to perform repeated close flybys of Europa. During these flybys, the mission would take high-resolution images; determine the composition of the icy moon's surface and faint atmosphere; and investigate its ice shell, ocean and interior.For more information about NASA's mission to Europa, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/europa |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/recurring-martian-streaks-flowing-sand-not-water | Recurring Martian Streaks: Flowing Sand, Not Water? | Seasonal dark streaks on Mars that previously were described as possible signs of flowing water have steep slopes that are better matches to dry flow processes. | Fast Facts:› Seasonal dark streaks on Mars have been described as possible signs of flowing water; a new study shows they are a better fit to dry flow processes.› The steepness of more than 150 of these features was assessed with a telescopic camera on a NASA Mars orbiter.› The findings add to evidence that these environments may be too dry for microbes to thrive, despite the presence of water in hydrated salts.› How seasonal warming triggers these streaks is still a puzzle, and water may be involved.Dark features on Mars previously considered evidence for subsurface flowing of water are interpreted by new research as granular flows, where grains of sand and dust slip downhill to make dark streaks, rather than the ground being darkened by seeping water.Continuing examination of these still-perplexing seasonal dark streaks with apowerful cameraon NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) shows they exist only on slopes steep enough for dry grains to descend the way they do on faces of active dunes.The findings published today in Nature Geoscience argue against the presence of enough liquid water for microbial life to thrive at these sites. However, exactly how these numerous flows begin and gradually grow has not yet been explained. Authors of the report propose possibilities that include involvement of small amounts of water, indicated by detection ofhydrated salts observedat some of the flow sites.These features have evoked fascination and controversy since their2011 discovery, as possible markers for unexpected liquid water or brine on an otherwise dry planet. They are dark streaks that extend gradually downhill in warm seasons, then fade away in winter and reappear the next year. On Earth, only seeping water is known to have these behaviors, but how they form in the dry Martian environment remains unclear.Many thousands of these Martian features, collectively called "recurring slope lineae" or RSL, have been identified in more than 50 rocky-slope areas, from the equator to about halfway to the poles."We've thought of RSL as possible liquid water flows, but the slopes are more like what we expect for dry sand," said Colin Dundas of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Science Center in Flagstaff, Arizona. "This new understanding of RSL supports other evidence that shows that Mars today is very dry."Dundas is lead author of the report, which is based on observations with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on MRO. The data include 3-D models of slope steepness using pairs of images for stereo information. Dundas and co-authors examined 151 RSL features at 10 sites.The RSL are almost all restricted to slopes steeper than 27 degrees. Each flow ends on a slope that matches the dynamic "angle of repose" seen in the slumping dry sand of dunes on Mars and Earth. A flow due to liquid water should readily extend to less steep slopes."The RSL don't flow onto shallower slopes, and the lengths of these are so closely correlated with the dynamic angle of repose, it can't be a coincidence," said HiRISE Principal Investigator Alfred McEwen at the University of Arizona, Tucson, a co-author of the new report.The seasonal dark streaks have been thought of as possible evidence for biologically significant liquid water -- sufficient water for microbial life -- though explaining how so much liquid water could exist on the surface in Mars' modern environment would be challenging. A granular-flow explanation for RSL fits with the earlier understanding that the surface of modern Mars, exposed to a cold, thin atmosphere, lacks flowing water. A 2016 report also cast doubt on possible sources ofundergroundwater at RSL sites. Liquid water on today's Mars may be limited to traces of dissolved moisture from the atmosphere and thin films, which are challenging environments for life as we know it.However, RSL remain puzzling. Traits with uncertain explanations include their gradual growth, their seasonal reappearance, their rapid fading when inactive, and the presence of hydrated salts, which have water molecules bound into their crystal stucture.The new report describes possible connections between these traits and how RSL form. For example, salts can become hydrated by pulling water vapor from the atmosphere, and this process can form drops of salty water. Seasonal changes in hydration of salt-containing grains might result in some trigger mechanism for RSL grainflows, such as expansion, contraction, or release of some water. Darkening and fading might result from changes in hydration. If atmospheric water vapor is a trigger, then a question is why the RSL appear on some slopes but not others."RSL probably form by some mechanism that is unique to the environment of Mars," McEwen said, "so they represent an opportunity to learn about how Mars behaves, which is important for future surface exploration.""Full understanding of RSL is likely to depend upon on-site investigation of these features," said MRO Project Scientist Rich Zurek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "While the new report suggests that RSL are not wet enough to favor microbial life, it is likely that on-site investigation of these sites will still require special procedures to guard against introducing microbes from Earth, at least until they are definitively characterized. In particular, a full explanation of how these enigmatic features darken and fade still eludes us. Remote sensing at different times of day could provide important clues."The University of Arizona operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the MRO Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems of Denver built the orbiter and supports its operations. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-rover-opportunity-views-comet-near-mars | NASA Rover Opportunity Views Comet Near Mars | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity caught an image of a celestial visitor -- comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring -- as the comet approached near to Mars on Oct. 19, 2014. | NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity captured images of a comet passing much closer to Mars than any previous known comet flyby of Earth or Mars. The images of comet Siding Spring were taken against a backdrop of the pre-dawn Martian sky on Sunday (Oct. 19).Images of comet A1 Siding Spring from the rover's panoramic camera (Pancam) are online at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18591http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18592http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18617Researchers used Opportunity's Pancam to image at a range of exposure times about two-and-one-half hours before the closest approach of the nucleus of comet Siding Spring to Mars. By the time of closest approach at about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers), dawn had lit the sky above Opportunity."It's excitingly fortunate that this comet came so close to Mars to give us a chance to study it with the instruments we're using to study Mars," said Opportunity science team member Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, who coordinated the camera pointing. "The views from Mars rovers, in particular, give us a human perspective, because they are about as sensitive to light as our eyes would be."Three NASA Mars orbiters, two Mars rovers and other assets on Earth and in space are studying comet Siding Spring. This comet is making its first visit this close to the sun from the outer solar system's Oort Cloud, so the concerted campaign of observations may yield fresh clues to our solar system's earliest days more than 4 billion years ago.Opportunity has been roving on Mars since January 2004 and has provided evidence about the Red Planet's ancient wet environments.For more about Opportunity, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/rovershttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.govFor more about comet Siding Spring, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/ |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassini-finds-global-ocean-in-saturns-moon-enceladus | Cassini Finds Global Ocean in Saturn's Moon Enceladus | A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus, according to new research using data from NASA's Cassini mission. | A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus, according to new research using data from NASA's Cassini mission.Researchers found the magnitude of the moon's very slight wobble, as it orbits Saturn, can only be accounted for if its outer ice shell is not frozen solid to its interior, meaning a global ocean must be present.The finding implies the fine spray of water vapor, icy particles and simple organic molecules Cassini has observed coming from fractures near the moon's south pole is being fed by this vast liquid water reservoir. The research is presented in a paper published online this week in the journal Icarus.Previous analysis of Cassini data suggested the presence of a lens-shaped body of water, or sea, underlying the moon's south polar region. However, gravity data collected during the spacecraft's several close passes over the south polar region lent support to the possibility the sea might be global. The new results -- derived using an independent line of evidence based on Cassini's images -- confirm this to be the case."This was a hard problem that required years of observations, and calculations involving a diverse collection of disciplines, but we are confident we finally got it right," said Peter Thomas, a Cassini imaging team member at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and lead author of the paper.Cassini scientists analyzed more than seven years' worth of images of Enceladus taken by the spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since mid-2004. They carefully mapped the positions of features on Enceladus -- mostly craters -- across hundreds of images, in order to measure changes in the moon's rotation with extreme precision.As a result, they found Enceladus has a tiny, but measurable wobble as it orbits Saturn. Because the icy moon is not perfectly spherical -- and because it goes slightly faster and slower during different portions of its orbit around Saturn -- the giant planet subtly rocks Enceladus back and forth as it rotates.The team plugged their measurement of the wobble, called a libration, into different models for how Enceladus might be arranged on the inside, including ones in which the moon was frozen from surface to core."If the surface and core were rigidly connected, the core would provide so much dead weight the wobble would be far smaller than we observe it to be," said Matthew Tiscareno, a Cassini participating scientist at the SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, and a co-author of the paper. "This proves that there must be a global layer of liquid separating the surface from the core."The mechanisms that might have prevented Enceladus' ocean from freezing remain a mystery. Thomas and colleagues suggest a few ideas for future study that might help resolve the question, including the surprising possibility that tidal forces due to Saturn's gravity could be generating much more heat within Enceladus than previously thought."This is a major step beyond what we understood about this moon before, and it demonstrates the kind of deep-dive discoveries we can make with long-lived orbiter missions to other planets," said co-author Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado, and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. "Cassini has been exemplary in this regard."The unfolding story of Enceladus has been one of the great triumphs of Cassini's long mission at Saturn. Scientists first detected signs of the moon's icy plume in early 2005, and followed up with a series of discoveries about the material gushing from warm fractures near its south pole. They announced strong evidence for a regional sea in 2014, and more recently, in 2015, they shared results that suggest hydrothermal activity is taking place on the ocean floor.Cassini is scheduled to make a close flyby of Enceladus on Oct. 28, in the mission's deepest-ever dive through the moon's active plume of icy material. The spacecraft will pass a mere 30 miles (49 kilometers) above the moon's surface.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The Cassini imaging operations center is based at SSI. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.For more information about Cassini, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/cassinihttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/finder-search-and-rescue-technology-helped-save-lives-in-nepal | FINDER Search and Rescue Technology Helped Save Lives in Nepal | In the wreckage of a collapsed textile factory and another building in the Nepalese village of Chautara, four men were rescued, thanks to a NASA technology that was able to find their heartbeats. | Updated Details of the Rescue in a Press Release Issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology DirectorateClick here to view storyIn the wreckage of a collapsed textile factory and another building in the Nepalese village of Chautara, four men were rescued, thanks to a NASA technology that was able to find their heartbeats.A small, suitcase-sized device called FINDER helped uncover these survivors -- two from each destroyed building -- in one of the hardest-hit areas of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rattled Nepal on April 25. The technology detected the men's presence even though they were buried under about 10 feet of brick, mud, wood and other debris.FINDER, which stands for Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response, is a collaboration between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate in Washington. The latest version of the system was being showcased at the Virginia Task Force One Training Facility in Lorton, Virginia, on May 7."The true test of any technology is how well it works in a real-life operational setting," said DHS Under Secretary for Science and Technology Reginald Brothers. "Of course, no one wants disasters to occur, but tools like this are designed to help when our worst nightmares do happen. I am proud that we were able to provide the tools to help rescue these four men."The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA, licensed a version of the technology to R4 Incorporated, Edgewood, Maryland. R4 took FINDER to Nepal to assist with relief efforts in the aftermath of the earthquake. David Lewis, the company's president, brought two protoypes to Nepal and joined an international contingent of search and rescue personnel, which helped find the four men in Chautara."It's very gratifying to have a piece of technology that we developed at JPL out in the field helping to save lives," said James Lux, task manager for the FINDER project at JPL.In natural disasters such as earthquakes and avalanches, timing is everything. The faster victims can be found, rescued and taken to safety and medical care, the more likely they are to survive. "FINDER is a tool that complements the other search methods, like canines, listening devices and cameras, used by first responders," Lux said. "It provides another item in the toolbox for search and rescue."FINDER sends a low-powered microwave signal - about one-thousandth of a cell phone's output -- through rubble and looks for changes in the reflections of those signals coming back from tiny motions caused by victims' breathing and heartbeats. In tests, FINDER has detected heartbeats through 30 feet of rubble or 20 feet of solid concrete.A rescue worker with FINDER, using a rugged laptop running the FINDER software, can specify a minimum and maximum range for detecting heartbeats in the vicinity. The program identifies whether the signal is stronger from the left or right as well, to further home in on victims' locations. The FINDER device weighs less than 20 pounds, so it can easily be transported by car or plane.FINDER detects the small motions using algorithms similar to those that JPL uses to measure the orbits of satellites at Jupiter and Saturn, or changes in Earth's surface from orbiting satellites. It then displays the detected heart and respiration rates and a reliability score. FINDER's software can distinguish between the heartbeats of a human and those of animals or mechanical devices.The JPL team built four new FINDER prototypes in the last year, all of which have been tested by first responder teams in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Virginia. JPL engineers have participated in multi-day, full-scale exercises, embedded with search and rescue teams using FINDER in simulated disaster scenarios.Besides natural disaster settings, the device could be used to find people lost in a forest, trapped in a burning house or buried in the wreckage of a collapsed building. "We've had countless people ask us for different applications," Lux said. "One of the more unusual was whether FINDER could detect rhinoceroses hidden in bushes for the purpose of protecting them. We haven't tried it for that, but in principle, it should work."There are many potential uses in medicine as well: A device based on FINDER could monitor the vital signs of someone who is trapped in a car or quarantined with an extremely contagious disease such as Ebola. In these situations, first responders could measure a patient's heartbeat without having to physically touch them.The next generation of this technology could combine FINDER with robotics and even small autonomous flying vehicles to get closer to victims and examine a wider area."NASA technology plays many roles: driving exploration, protecting the lives of our astronauts and improving -- even saving -- the lives of people on Earth," said David Miller, NASA's chief technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "FINDER exemplifies how technology designed for space exploration has profound impacts to life on Earth." |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-announces-contest-to-name-deep-space-2s-two-microprobes | NASA Announces Contest to Name Deep Space 2's Two Microprobes | NASA has announced the start of a contest to name its Deep Space 2 mission's two microprobes, scheduled to be launched next month on journey to Mars. | NASA has announced the start of a contest to name its Deep Space 2 mission's two microprobes, scheduled to be launched next month on journey to Mars."Just as Mars Pathfinder's Sojourner rover received its name through a contest, we would like to invite the public to become involved in helping to name Deep Space 2's twin probes," said Project Manager Sarah Gavit of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "What better way to involve school children and parents alike in this exciting, one-of-a-kind mission?"Deep Space 2, launching with the Mars Polar Lander on January 3, will send its two microprobes to impact and penetrate the surface of Mars in December 1999. Each of its two entry systems consists of a basketball-sized aeroshell with a softball- sized probe inside. Released from the cruise stage of the Mars Polar Lander, the probes will dive toward the surface of Mars. Upon impact, the forebody of each probe will bury itself up to about one meter (three feet) underground, while the aftbody remains on the surface to transmit data through the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft back to Earth.Unlike any spacecraft before, the Deep Space 2 probes will smash into the planet at speeds of up to 200 meters per second (400 miles per hour). The mission's main purpose is to flight- test new technologies to enable future science missions -- demonstrating innovative approaches to entering a planet's atmosphere, surviving a crash-impact and penetrating below a planet's surface. As a secondary goal, the probes will search for water ice under Mars' surface.Participants in the probe naming contest can choose either two people from history, mythology or fiction (not living) or two places or things that are in some way associated with each other, or a combination. Their choices should be accompanied by a short written composition of up to 100 words explaining why their entries would make good names for the miniature probes."The names should symbolize our exploration of the universe, embodying the spirit of risk-taking pioneers breaking barriers," explained Gavit. Complete details, along with on-line entry forms and further information about Deep Space 2, are available athttp://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds2/.The deadline is April 30, 1999, and winners will be announced the following November. Finalists will receive one copy each of a Deep Space 2 poster signed by the project team.JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/surprise-hidden-in-titans-smog-cirrus-like-clouds | Surprise Hidden in Titan's Smog: Cirrus-Like Clouds | Scientists report details about thin, wispy clouds of ice particles, similar to Earth's cirrus clouds, on Saturn's largest moon, smoggy Titan. | Every day is a bad-air day on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Blanketed by haze far worse than any smog belched out in Los Angeles, Beijing or even Sherlock Holmes' London, the moon looks like a dirty orange ball. Described once as crude oil without the sulfur, the haze is made of tiny droplets of hydrocarbons with other, more noxious chemicals mixed in. Gunk.Icky as it may sound, Titan is really the rarest of gems: the only moon in our solar system with an atmosphere worthy of a planet. This atmosphere comes complete with lightning, drizzle and occasionally a big, summer-downpour style of cloud made of methane or ethane-hydrocarbons that are best known for their role in natural gas.Now, thin, wispy clouds of ice particles, similar to Earth's cirrus clouds, are being reported by Carrie Anderson and Robert Samuelson at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The findings, published this week in the journal Icarus, were made using the composite infrared spectrometer on NASA's Cassini spacecraft.Unlike Titan's brownish haze, the ice clouds have the pearly white appearance of freshly fallen snow. Their existence is the latest clue to the workings of Titan's intriguing atmosphere and its one-way "cycle" that delivers hydrocarbons and other organic compounds to the ground as precipitation. Those compounds don't evaporate to replenish the atmosphere, but somehow the supply has not run out yet."This is the first time we have been able to get details about these clouds," says Samuelson, an emeritus scientist at Goddard and the co-author of the paper. "Previously, we had a lot of information about the gases in Titan's atmosphere but not much about the [high-altitude] clouds."Compared to the puffy methane and ethane clouds found before in a lower part of the atmosphere by both ground-based observers and in images taken by Cassini's imaging science subsystem and visual and infrared mapping spectrometer, these clouds are much thinner and located higher in the atmosphere. "They are very tenuous and very easy to miss," says Anderson, the paper's lead author. "The only earlier hints that they existed were faint glimpses that NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft caught as it flew by Titan in 1980."The full story is online at:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/titan-clouds.html.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The CIRS team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., where the instrument was built. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-satellites-help-improve-ocean-condition-forecasts | NASA Satellites Help Improve Ocean Condition Forecasts | Freighters, cruise lines, marine rescuers and coastal managers are among those who could benefit from prototype three-dimensional, three- day ocean condition forecasts created with the assistance of NASA satellite data, computer models and on-site ocean measurements. | Freighters, cruise lines, marine rescuers and coastal managers are among those who could benefit from prototype three-dimensional, three- day ocean condition forecasts created with the assistance of NASA satellite data, computer models and on-site ocean measurements.Scientists hope to forecast ocean conditions several days ahead, much like regional weather forecasts broadcast on television news. "It's a three-dimensional look at the ocean, from the surface to the ocean bottom," said Dr. Yi Chao of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead scientist on the project. Chao and three colleagues presented their real-time operational forecast system for the Central California ocean at the recent annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society."The end product from our 3-D ocean model includes temperature, salinity and current," Chao said. These are available as text or binary data, or can be visualized for further analysis. Seeing the ocean in three dimensions, and knowing how it will behave from top to bottom, will save fuel costs for large shippers by steering them away from choppy waters, or moving with the current. The data will also help Coast Guard rescuers, as they would be able to better determine which direction people stranded in the water would drift.Multiple sources of measurement provide input into the forecast system. Satellite data include near-real-time wind data from the SeaWinds instrument on NASA's QuikScat satellite; ocean height, including waves, measured from NASA's Topex/Poseidon and Jason satellites; and sea surface temperatures measured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer instrument.Aircraft data from the Office of Naval Research are used on cloudy days, when satellites cannot see the ocean surface. Ocean water temperature and salinity data are provided by a variety of sensors, such as sea gliders that can dive from the ocean surface to several hundred meters depth, as well as data from ships and autonomous underwater vehicles. Meters measure ocean currents, and shore-based high-frequency radars provide ocean surface current data.Once these data are put into the forecast system, existing ocean conditions are simulated in 3-D, within 24 hours of real-time, and more accurate three-day forecasts are then generated in 3-D.Chao said the NASA 3-D ocean models were useful in planning daily ocean measurement missions during a field campaign conducted last summer in Monterey Bay, Calif. Mission scientists used the forecasts to find interesting areas to observe, such as where cold water from the ocean bottom came up to the surface. Wherever the models seemed to generate an error, more observations were planned, so the forecasts could be improved.Data are only available for Monterey Bay, where the prototype system was first tested, and are not yet available for public use. Further research is planned along an expanded stretch of the U.S. Pacific coastline. The researchers hope to eventually issue round-the-clock operational forecasts along all U.S. coastal areas.In addition to helping with ocean condition forecasts, NASA also is interested in studying the coastal ocean to monitor resources for many purposes including recreation, conservation and commerce. Satellites provide the high-resolution imagery to accomplish this task.NASA and the Office of Naval Research jointly funded this research. Sixteen institutions are evaluating the system or providing data. The forecast system exemplifies NASA's Earth Science Enterprise Coastal Management national application, where agency aerospace research and development of science and technologies are being used with other federal agencies such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.For information about NASA and agency programs on the Internet, visithttp://www.nasa.gov.For more information about 3-D ocean models and images on the Internet, visithttp://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0113forecastca.html.For a copy of the study abstract from the American Meteorological Society meeting, visithttp://ams.confex.com/ams/84Annual/techprogram/paper_73425.htm.JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-calls-for-american-industry-ideas-on-arm-spacecraft-development | NASA Calls for American Industry Ideas on ARM Spacecraft Development | NASA, through JPL, has issued a call to American industry for innovative ideas involving the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission. | NASA, through its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, has issued a callhttp://go.nasa.gov/1LJbz3Uto American industry for innovative ideas on how the agency could obtain a core advanced solar electric propulsion-based spacecraft to support the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM).Part of NASA's overall Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM)http://go.nasa.gov/1LJbGfT, this mission will use a number of important technologies to prepare for an early human exploration mission in deep space -- specifically, the area around the moon known as cislunar space. The robotic mission also will provide the first large-scale asteroid samples on which to conduct research and analysis for better understanding of the composition and nature of these primordial planetary bodies, leading to future use of in-situ resources from asteroids. The mission both uses and expands NASA's ability to detect, characterize and mitigate the threat these space rocks pose to our home planet. The highest priority of ARM is to affordably demonstrate and prove new capabilities needed for future human missions to Mars."We're eager to hear from American companies on their ideas for a spacecraft design that could accommodate our advanced solar electric propulsion requirements and robotic technologies," said NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot. "We're also interested in what sorts of innovative commercial, international and academic partnerships opportunities might be practical and help reduce overall mission costs while still demonstrating the technologies we need for our journey to Mars."NASA's ARRM is being formulated to perform a number of technology demonstrations needed for the agency's journey to Marshttp://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html, including the use of a 20-fold improvement in state-of-the-art deep space solar electric propulsion capability to move and maneuver multi-ton objects. The objective of the robotic segment of ARM is to acquire a multi-ton boulder from a large asteroid and redirect it to a crew-accessible orbit around our moon, setting the stage for future integrated crewed and robotic vehicle operations in deep space.NASA's ARRM spacecraft will need to be able to demonstrate support of high power solar electric propulsion, with initial solar array power of approximately 50 kilowatts. The robotics capture system planned aboard the pioneering vehicle will be capable of acquiring a 20-ton (or larger) boulder of up to about 19 feet (six meters) in width from an asteroid's surface and then returning it to an astronaut-accessible orbit near our moon. The spacecraft is being formulated to fit atop a variety of launch vehicles -- NASA's Space Launch System or a commercially provided rocket. The spacecraft will need to be ready for launch by the end of 2020.While at a large asteroid, the spacecraft will demonstrate a "slow-push" planetary defense asteroid deflection technique during the mission. This uses the spacecraft and boulder's combined gravitational pull to attempt to change the course of an asteroid.ARM brings together the best of NASA's science, technology and human exploration efforts to accomplish several important objectives that are critical elements during our journey to Mars.Redirecting and "parking" a large asteroid boulder within reach of human and robotic explorers also will provide American commercial enterprises their first opportunities to investigate the viability of mining asteroids for precious metals and other resources.NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission and the robotic component of the overall mission will be the topic of an online Adobe Connect community update on Friday, Oct. 23 from 7 to 10 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT). During the update, NASA leaders will share recent developments for the Asteroid Redirect Mission, including the recent spacecraft design study solicitation and the selection of the mission's Formulation Assessment and Support Team members. The Adobe Connect meeting is open to the public. Access to the online session will be available a few minutes before the start of the update at:https://ac.arc.nasa.gov/arrmMore information about NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission and the agency's Asteroid Initiative is available online at:http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-data-reveals-possible-reason-some-exoplanets-are-shrinking | NASA Data Reveals Possible Reason Some Exoplanets Are Shrinking | A new study could explain the ‘missing’ exoplanets between super-Earths and sub-Neptunes. | Some exoplanets seem to be losing their atmospheres and shrinking. In anew studyusing NASA’s retired Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers find evidence of a possible cause: The cores of these planets are pushing away their atmospheres from the inside out.Exoplanets(planets outside our solar system)come in a variety of sizes, from small, rocky planets to colossal gas giants. In the middle lie rockysuper-Earthsand larger sub-Neptunes with puffy atmospheres. But there’s a conspicuous absence – a “size gap” – of planets that fall between 1.5 to 2 times the size of Earth (or in between super-Earths and sub-Neptunes) that scientists have been working to better understand.This video explains the differences between the main types of exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech“Scientists have now confirmed the detection of over 5,000 exoplanets, but there are fewer planets than expected with a diameter between 1.5 and 2 times that of Earth,” said Caltech/IPAC research scientist Jessie Christiansen, science lead for the NASA Exoplanet Archive and lead author of the new study in The Astronomical Journal. “Exoplanet scientists have enough data now to say that this gap is not a fluke. There’s something going on that impedes planets from reaching and/or staying at this size.”Researchers think that this gap could be explained by certain sub-Neptunes losing their atmospheres over time. This loss would happen if the planet doesn’t have enough mass, and therefore gravitational force, to hold onto its atmosphere. So sub-Neptunes that aren’t massive enough would shrink to about the size of super-Earths, leaving the gap between the two sizes of planets.But exactly how these planets are losing their atmospheres has remained a mystery. Scientists have settled on two likely mechanisms: One is called core-powered mass loss; and the other, photoevaporation. The study has uncovered new evidence supporting the first.This infographic details the main types of exoplanets. Scientists have been working to better understand the “size gap,” or conspicuous absence, of planets that fall between super-Earths and sub-Neptunes.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechSolving the MysteryCore-powered mass loss occurs when radiation emitted from a planet’s hot core pushes the atmosphere away from the planet over time, “and that radiation is pushing on the atmosphere from underneath,” Christiansen said.The other leading explanation for the planetary gap, photoevaporation, happens when a planet’s atmosphere is essentially blown away by the hot radiation of its host star. In this scenario, “the high-energy radiation from the star is acting like a hair dryer on an ice cube,” she said.While photoevaporation is thought to occur during a planet’s first 100 million years, core-powered mass loss is thought to happen much later – closer to 1 billion years into a planet’s life. But with either mechanism, “if you don’t have enough mass, you can’t hold on, and you lose your atmosphere and shrink down,” Christiansen added.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERFor this study, Chistiansen and her co-authors used data from NASA’sK2, an extended mission of the Kepler Space Telescope, to look at the star clusters Praesepe and Hyades, which are 600 million to 800 million years old. Because planets are generally thought to be the same age as their host star, the sub-Neptunes in this system would be past the age where photoevaporation could have taken place but not old enough to have experienced core-powered mass loss.So if the team saw that there were a lot of sub-Neptunes in Praesepe and Hyades (as compared to older stars in other clusters), they could conclude that photoevaporation hadn’t taken place. In that case, core-powered mass loss would be the most likely explanation of what happens to less massive sub-Neptunes over time.In observing Praesepe and Hyades, the researchers found that nearly 100% of stars in these clusters still have a sub-Neptune planet or planet candidate in their orbit. Judging from the size of these planets, the researchers think they have retained their atmospheres.This differs from the other, older stars observed by K2 (stars more than 800 million years old), only 25% of which have orbiting sub-Neptunes. The older age of these stars is closer to the timeframe in which core-powered mass loss is thought to take place.From these observations, the team concluded that photoevaporation could not have taken place in Praesepe and Hyades. If it had, it would have occurred hundreds of millions of years earlier, and these planets would have little, if any, atmosphere left. This leaves core-powered mass loss as the leading explanation for what likely happens to the atmospheres of these planets.Christiansen’s team spent more than five years building the planet candidate catalog necessary for the study. But the research is far from complete, she said, and it is possible that the current understanding of photoevaporation and/or core-powered mass loss could evolve. The findings will likely be put to the test by future studies before anyone can declare the mystery of this planetary gap solved once and for all.This study was conducted using the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which is operated by Caltech in Pasadena under contract with NASA as part of the Exoplanet Exploration Program, which is located at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. JPL is a division of Caltech.More About the MissionOn Oct. 30, 2018, Kepler ran out of fuel and ended its mission after nine years, during which it discovered more than 2,600 confirmed planets around other stars along with thousands of additional candidates astronomers are working to confirm.NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California, manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. JPL managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation operated the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder.For more information about the Kepler and K2 missions, visit:https://science.nasa.gov/mission/kepler |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/panel-discussion-will-explore-mars-and-the-human-imagination | Panel Discussion Will Explore Mars and the Human Imagination | "Mars in the Mind of Man: A Panel Discussion" is part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-sponsored von Karman Lecture Series, Thursday, March 16 at JPL, and Friday, March 17 at Pasadena City College. Both discussions begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. | "Mars in the Mind of Man: A Panel Discussion" is part of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-sponsored von Karman Lecture Series, Thursday, March 16 at JPL, and Friday, March 17 at Pasadena City College. Both discussions begin at 7 p.m. Admission is free, and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.The red planet has intrigued human beings for centuries. The ancient Greeks named the planet after their god of war. Copernicus used Mars to prove that the planets orbit the Sun. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has sent more than a dozen spacecraft to Mars since the mid-1960s. This panel discussion focuses on how scientific and popular views of Mars have inspired artists, writers, scientists and explorers throughout history.The panelists include Dr. Daniel McCleese, program scientist of JPL's Mars Exploration Program; Dr. Richard Zurek, project scientist for the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander missions; Carl Colby, a Los Angeles - area filmmaker; and Warren James, an aerospace engineer and local radio commentator.The lecture on March 16 is at JPL, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, off the 210 (Foothill) freeway. The March 17 lecture is at The Forum at Pasadena City College, 1570 E. Colorado Blvd.JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.##### |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/deep-space-1-loads-up-for-trek-to-comet | Deep Space 1 Loads up for Trek to Comet | NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft, sailing through the solar system today, has taken delivery of a new cargo: the latest software for its ambitious encounter with Comet Borrelly this September. | NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft, sailing through the solar system today, has taken delivery of a new cargo: the latest software for its ambitious encounter with Comet Borrelly this September.After successfully finishing its primary mission in 1999 as a testing ground for important new technologies, NASA approved a risky bonus mission to Comet Borrelly for Deep Space 1. There the spacecraft will take black-and-white pictures, use infrared pictures to find out the nature of the comet's surface, measure and identify the gases coming from the comet, and measure the interaction of solar wind with the comet. To take pictures of the comet, Deep Space 1 must upgrade its software's pointing system to turn the spacecraft from a testbed for advanced technologies to a chronicler of Comet Borrelly."Deep Space 1's previous version of software, which was transmitted to the spacecraft nine months ago, has proven itself during the surprisingly successful flight through the solar system since then, but now we're giving the probe a new assignment," said Dr. Marc Rayman, the project manager. "And in order to prepare for this exciting and daring comet encounter, the software needs to be upgraded."The spacecraft team will be checking the software, radioed to Deep Space 1 throughout the week of March 5. The first check came when the team actually received a signal from the spacecraft after it shut the main computer off and restarted it. Since the software sent by the team works well, the spacecraft sent a signal indicating it is healthy. Now engineers are giving the spacecraft's new software a thorough physical checkup."The process of transmitting the new software to the spacecraft, rebooting the on-board computer to begin running it, verifying that the spacecraft is working properly with the new software and restoring the craft to its cruise configuration, all when the spacecraft is 318 million kilometers (197 million miles) away, is a complex and tricky operation, " said Daniel Eldred, the Deep Space 1 mission manager.The new software contains capabilities that will be needed when the spacecraft gets to Borrelly. The new commands will include lessons that Deep Space 1 learned in its 1999 encounter with asteroid Braille about the behavior of the spacecraft when it gets close to a solar system object.The spacecraft carries a device, part of the successful new technology system, which holds two cameras. One uses a conventional charge-coupled device detector, the other a new technology detector. The test camera, though performing its initial tests successfully, wasn't equipped to deal with the very dark object that Braille turned out to be. Small bodies like asteroids and comets are still a mystery. Since they're so small and distant, their exact size and shape can't usually be determined from Earth. Deep Space 1 plans to use its tried- and-true CCD camera to try to snap photos of Borrelly. The team will send commands to the new software to stop using the test camera and start using the CCD camera, which will take a larger picture with more light.In late 1999, after the successful end of its primary mission, Deep Space 1 lost its star tracker, and the spacecraft had to be reconfigured to use the photographic camera to orient itself by the stars around it. In order to take pictures of Borrelly, the camera can't align the spacecraft and snap photos of the comet at the same time. Instead, the spacecraft will have to rely on its fiber-optic gyroscopes to help maintain its orientation. But the gyros are not accurate enough by themselves, so the new software will try to correct for those inaccuracies. The new software is designed to help the camera stay pointed at the comet's nucleus during the 15 minutes that the camera will attempt to observe the comet.Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to target a chancy but exciting encounter with the comet in September 2001. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/herschel-and-spitzer-see-nearby-galaxies-stardust | Herschel and Spitzer See Nearby Galaxies' Stardust | The cold dust that builds blazing stars is revealed in new images that combine observations from the Herschel Space Observatory and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. | PASADENA, Calif. - The cold dust that builds blazing stars is revealed in new images that combine observations from the Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency-led mission with important NASA contributions; and NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The new images map the dust in the galaxies known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two of the closest neighbors to our own Milky Way galaxy.The new images are available at the following links:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/herschel/multimedia/pia15254.htmlhttp://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/herschel/multimedia/pia15255.htmlThe Large Magellanic Cloud looks like a fiery, circular explosion in the combined Herschel-Spitzer infrared data. Ribbons of dust ripple through the galaxy, with significant fields of star formation noticeable in the center, center-left and top right (the brightest center-left region is called 30 Doradus, or the Tarantula Nebula, for its appearance in visible light). The Small Magellanic Cloud has a much more irregular shape. A stream of dust extends to the left in this image, known as the galaxy's "wing," and a bar of star formation appears on the right.The colors in these images indicate temperatures in the dust that permeate the Magellanic Clouds. Colder regions show where star formation is at its earliest stages or is shut off, while warm expanses point to new stars heating dust surrounding them. The coolest areas and objects appear in red, corresponding to infrared light taken up by Herschel's Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver at 250 microns, or millionths of a meter. Herschel's Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer fills out the mid-temperature bands, shown in green, at 100 and 160 microns. The warmest spots appear in blue, courtesy of 24- and 70-micron data from Spitzer."Studying these galaxies offers us the best opportunity to study star formation outside of the Milky Way," said Margaret Meixner, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., and principal investigator for the mapping project. "Star formation affects the evolution of galaxies, so we hope understanding the story of these stars will answer questions about galactic life cycles."The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are the two biggest satellite galaxies of our home galaxy, the Milky Way, though they are still considered dwarf galaxies compared to the big spiral of the Milky Way. Dwarf galaxies also contain fewer metals, or elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. Such an environment is thought to slow the growth of stars. Star formation in the universe peaked around 10 billion years ago, even though galaxies contained lesser abundances of metallic dust. Previously, astronomers only had a general sense of the rate of star formation in the Magellanic Clouds, but the new images enable them to study the process in more detail.The results were presented today at the 219th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas.Herschel is a European Space Agency cornerstone mission, with science instruments provided by consortia of European institutes and with important participation by NASA. NASA's Herschel Project Office is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, supports the United States' astronomical community.JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.For more information about Herschel, visithttp://www.herschel.caltech.edu,http://www.nasa.gov/herschelandhttp://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel/index.html.For more information about Spitzer, visithttp://spitzer.caltech.edu/andhttp://www.nasa.gov/spitzer. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-to-host-nasa-social-highlighting-comets | JPL to Host 'NASA Social' Highlighting Comets | NASA will hold a one-day NASA Social for up to 50 of its social media followers on Oct. 13, 2014, at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. | NASA will hold a one-day NASA Social for up to 50 of its social media followers on Oct. 13, 2014, at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.The NASA Social will highlight two upcoming comet events: the close flyby of Mars by Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring on Oct. 19, and the European Space Agency's ongoing Rosetta mission, including the planned landing of the Philae probe on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in mid-November.The event will offer people who connect with NASA through Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and other social networks, the opportunity to interact with scientists and engineers working on the Rosetta Mission and several Mars missions. Participants will interact with fellow space enthusiasts and members of NASA's social media team. They will also get a behind-the-scenes tour of JPL that includes:- Spacecraft Assembly Facility, where hardware for upcoming missions is under construction- Earth Science Center, where data from many of the agency's Earth-observing missions are showcased in interactive displays- Mars Yard, where engineering models of NASA's Curiosity rover are tested in a sandy, Mars-like environmentNASA Social participants are welcome to attend the annual JPL Open House, which takes place on Saturday, Oct. 11, and Sunday, Oct. 12. The free public event, themed "Welcome to Our Universe," will include exhibits and demonstrations from numerous space missions. An interactive art installation inspired by comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will also be on display.Registration for this NASA Social is now open, and closes at 2 p.m. PDT (5 p.m. EDT) on Sept. 8, 2014. People who actively collect, report, analyze and disseminate news on social networking platforms are encouraged to apply. Selection is not random. Those chosen must prove through the registration process they meet specific criteria. Registration is for one person, aged 18 and over only, and is non-transferable. Selected attendees are responsible for their own expenses for travel, accommodation, food and other amenities.Since 2009, NASA has held over 80 NASA Social events at venues across the United States. The program has brought thousands of people together for unique social media experiences of exploration and discovery.For more information on the event and to register, go to:http://www.nasa.gov/nasasocial-comets-2014For more about comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring, visit:http://mars.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspringFor more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.govMore information about Rosetta is available at:http://www.esa.int/rosettaJPL manages the U.S. contribution to the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO instrument and hosts its principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. JPL manages the Mars Exploration Program for NASA.The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-orbiters-spectrometer-shows-oort-comets-coma | Mars Orbiter's Spectrometer Shows Oort Comet's Coma | The imaging spectrometer on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has provided an image of the coma surrounding a comet that flew near Mars this week. | The Compact Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) observed comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring as the comet sped close to Mars on Oct. 19. CRISM recorded imaging data in 107 different wavelengths, showing the inner part of the cloud of dust, called the coma, surrounding the comet's nucleus.Two images from CRISM presenting three of the recorded wavelengths are online at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA15291Comet Siding Spring -- an Oort Cloud comet that may contain material from the formation of the solar system some 4.6 billion years ago -- was making its first voyage through the inner solar system. CRISM and many other instruments and spacecraft combined forces to provide an unprecedented data set for an Oort Cloud comet.The appearance of color variations in the CRISM observations of the inner coma could be due to the properties of the comet's dust, possibly dust grain size or composition. The full spectra will be analyzed to better understand the reason for the color variations.The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, provided and operates CRISM. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the orbiter.For more about CRISM, visit:http://crism.jhuapl.edu/For more about Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/For more about comet Siding Spring, including other images of the comet, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/comets/sidingspring/ |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/from-the-field | From the Field | Take a group of strangers, put them in a harsh environment, and give them a challenging mission to accomplish -- scientists who do field research have much more experience with this than reality television producers ever will. | Click forFlash and HTMLversions of "Desert Dispatches."Take a group of strangers, put them in a harsh environment, and give them a challenging mission to accomplish -- scientists who do field research have much more experience with this than reality television producers ever will.JPL scientists have covered the globe from Antarctica to the Arctic Circle in their quest for knowledge about planet Earth and worlds beyond our own. Recently, JPL's Mark Helmlinger and four British students from Oxford University headed off into the Nevada desert to rendezvous with NASA's Earth-orbiting Terra satellite. Helmlinger will be filing regular field reports along the way, reporting on both the professional and personal challenges they'll confront.The purpose of their expedition is to help ensure that the measurements made by one of Terra's instruments, the Multi-angle Imaging Spectro-Radiometer, are as accurate as possible. The spectroradiometer measures sunlight reflected off Earth's surface and from particles in the atmosphere, such as haze layers, dust, and clouds. Scientists use these measurements in a variety of different ways, but one of the most important is to study climate.Calibrating an instrument like the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer would be fairly simple if it were sitting in a laboratory. But since it is orbiting 700 kilometers (435 miles) above Earth's surface, the process is a bit more complicated.As part of the instrument calibration team, Helmlinger and his four summer helpers will make precise measurements on the ground of sunlight coming down and reflecting back up, while at the same time, directly above them, the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer makes its own measurements from space. Also at the same time, NASA's ER-2 aircraft will make similar observations of the identical target from its vantage point in the stratosphere with an airborne version of the spectroradiometer. Once all the data are collected and compared, they'll be used to calibrate the spaceborne instrument.The ChallengeFor their efforts to succeed, the calibration team will need several of what they call "golden days," those in which everything falls into place. "We have to have clear weather over the target, no haze and no clouds," says Helmlinger. "It also needs to be calm at the airfield, because the airplane can't take off or land in a cross-wind. We need to have airspace clearance, which can be an issue because of where our targets are located. All the instruments, both airborne and on the ground, must be working as well. That's a lot that needs to go right."The calibration exercises are planned for two different locations, Railroad Valley and Black Rock Desert. Both are large, dry lakebeds in Nevada about 480 kilometers (300 miles) apart. "They make big, bright calibration targets," says Helmlinger. Both sites are remote, and the local environment can be challenging. Helmlinger and his student assistants, whom he likes to call "Hellwinger's Irregulars," will be making the trip in a recreational vehicle crammed with a mountain of equipment. It will also serve as their home for the six weeks or so that they'll be spending in the desert. "Sometimes the journey itself is an adventure," says Helmlinger.Helmlinger and the Irregulars have a limited number of opportunities to get the data they need. If they miss one, they'll have to wait five to seven days for the satellite to come back to the same spot and try again. "That's why two dry lakebed, or playa, targets on two different orbits have been chosen," explains Helmlinger, "to increase the chances of success." If all goes well, they may finish everything up in a few weeks; if not, they could be out in the desert for much longer.The reward for all this effort is a better understanding of Earth's surface, atmosphere and climate. The "ground truth" data collected by the field experiments help researchers make the most of the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer. It will also be used to help calibrate several other Earth-observing instruments, including JPL's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder flying on NASA's Aqua satellite.The calibration team's first attempt for a "golden day" was June 22, meaning Helmlinger and the Irregulars were in place in Railroad Valley with everything set up and ready to go by dawn. It's a long way from Pasadena and Oxford to the Nevada desert and from space to the desert floor. A lot can happen in between.Stay tuned.Media contact: Alan Buis (818) 354-0474Written by: Rosemary Sullivant |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/five-things-about-nasas-epoxi-mission | Five Things About NASA's EPOXI Mission | Here are five quick facts about the EPOXI mission, scheduled to fly by comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010. | Here are five quick facts about the EPOXI mission, scheduled to fly by comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010.1. High Fives- This is the fifth time humans will see a comet close-up, and the Deep Impact spacecraft flew by Earth for its fifth time on Sunday, June 27, 2010.2. Eco-friendly Spacecraft: Recycle, Reuse, Record- The EPOXI mission is recycling the Deep Impact spacecraft, whose probe intentionally collided with comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005, revealing, for the first time, the inner material of a comet. The spacecraft is now approaching a second comet rendezvous, a close encounter with Hartley 2 on Nov. 4. The spacecraft is reusing the same trio of instruments used during Deep Impact: two telescopes with digital imagers to record the encounter, and an infrared spectrometer.3. Small, Mighty and Square-Dancing in Space- Although comet Hartley 2 is smaller than Tempel 1, the previous comet visited by Deep Impact, it is much more active. In fact, amateur skywatchers may be able to see Hartley 2 in a dark sky with binoculars or a small telescope. Engineers specifically designed the mighty Deep Impact spacecraft to point a camera at Tempel 1 while its antenna was directed at Earth. This flyby of comet Hartley 2 does not provide the same luxury. It cannot both photograph the comet and talk with mission controllers on Earth. Engineers have instead programmed Deep Impact to dance the do-si-do. The spacecraft will spend the week leading up to closest approach swinging back and forth between imaging the comet and beaming images back to Earth.4. Storytelling Comets- Comets are an important aspect of studying how the solar system formed and Earth evolved. Comets are leftover building blocks of solar system formation, and are believed to have seeded an early Earth with water and organic compounds. The more we know about these celestial bodies, the more we can learn about Earth and the solar system.5. What's in a Name?- EPOXI is a hybrid acronym binding two science investigations: the Extrasolar Planet Observation and Characterization (EPOCh) and Deep Impact eXtended Investigation (DIXI). The spacecraft keeps its original name of Deep Impact, while the mission is called EPOXI. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/stardust-can-see-clearly-now-just-before-earth-flyby | Stardust Can See Clearly Now -- Just Before Earth Flyby | After a few months of foggy camera vision, NASA's Stardust mission team has improved the spacecraft's navigation-camera resolution to nearly normal, just as Stardust is preparing to make a close flyby of the Earth on Monday. | After a few months of foggy camera vision, NASA's Stardust mission team has improved the spacecraft's navigation-camera resolution to nearly normal, just as Stardust is preparing to make a close flyby of the Earth on Monday.By heating the camera's optical path, the Stardust team was able to help its nearsighted spacecraft boil away contaminants that had been deposited on optical surfaces.One year ago, the imaging team took pictures of a small lamp inside the optical path of the camera. The camera will be used to navigate Stardust to its 2004 encounter with Comet Wild 2 (pronounced "vilt-2"). Apparent contamination of the navigation-camera prevented a clear test-image of the squiggly line of the lamp's filament, and the lens seemed to be covered with a veil of light- scattering material that produced a blurry image.The team concluded that the contamination might have been released with gases escaping from the spacecraft after its launch, and that heating the optical path of the camera might evaporate the contaminant covering the camera lens. After a series of heating cycles, they re-tested the camera by taking more pictures of the lamp.Pictures taken after the heating revealed that the zigzag line of the lamp's filament was visible again. Images of stars taken by the camera are also clearer. The team estimates the camera can now photograph stars two magnitudes (celestial degrees of brightness) better. The navigation camera has detected stars as faint as 9th magnitude in brightness, which should allow the spacecraft to perform its final navigation maneuvers during approach to the comet nearly at the time originally planned.Now Stardust, on its journey to collect comet dust, is getting ready to springboard from Earth -- in a maneuver called a "gravity-assist" -- when the spacecraft passes closest to Earth on January 15, 2001. The Earth will not be in the navigation camera's field-of-view during the flyby, so no images of Earth will be taken.Stardust was launched on February 7, 1999, into its first loop around the Sun. When Stardust passes by Earth at about 10 kilometers per second (22,400 miles per hour), it will go into a slightly wider orbit that will allow it to reach the comet on January 2, 2004.On Monday, January 15, Stardust will fly by a point just southeast of the southern tip of Africa, slightly more than 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles) from the surface at about 3:15 a.m. PST (6:15 a.m. EST).Stardust may be visible to observers using sophisticated telescopes with charge-coupled device (CCD) detectors from the Pacific Ocean and the Western United States just after the spacecraft flies by Earth. Stardust will not be visible using binoculars.A gravity-assist works like this: when a spacecraft closely approaches a planet, the planet's gravitational pull accelerates the spacecraft and bends the flight path. Mission designers account for this extra pull and use it to their advantage to boost spacecraft speed and direct interplanetary spacecraft to their targets. Like a windup before the pitch, the Earth gravity-assist will sling Stardust into the right path to meet Comet Wild 2.About 15 hours after its closest approach to Earth, the spacecraft will pass about 98,000 kilometers (61,000 miles) from the Moon. Because of the greater distance, the Moon's gravity will have essentially no influence on the spacecraft's flight path.Stardust, a part of NASA's Discovery Program of low- cost, highly focused science missions, is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. More information on the Stardust mission is available athttp://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html.#####NOTE TO BROADCASTERS: Interview clips and B-roll to accompany this release are being carried on NASA Television, GE-2, Transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, with vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0 megahertz with audio on 6.8 megahertz. For broadcast times, seeftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/tv-advisory/nasa-tv.txt. Live shots are available Friday, Dec. 12 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern Time.To arrange a live shot, contact Jack Dawson at (818) 354-0040. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-newest-mars-mission-spacecraft-enters-orbit-around-red-planet | NASA's Newest Mars Mission Spacecraft Enters Orbit around Red Planet | NASA's MAVEN spacecraft successfully entered Mars' orbit at 7:24 p.m. PDT (10:24 p.m. EDT) Sunday, Sept. 21, where it now will prepare to study the Red Planet's upper atmosphere. | NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft successfully entered Mars' orbit at 7:24 p.m. PDT (10:24 p.m. EDT) Sunday, Sept. 21, where it now will prepare to study the Red Planet's upper atmosphere as never done before. MAVEN is the first spacecraft dedicated to exploring the tenuous upper atmosphere of Mars."As the first orbiter dedicated to studying Mars' upper atmosphere, MAVEN will greatly improve our understanding of the history of the Martian atmosphere, how the climate has changed over time, and how that has influenced the evolution of the surface and the potential habitability of the planet," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "It also will better inform a future mission to send humans to the Red Planet in the 2030s."After a 10-month journey, confirmation of successful orbit insertion was received from MAVEN data observed at the Lockheed Martin operations center in Littleton, Colorado, as well as from tracking data monitored at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory navigation facility in Pasadena, California. The telemetry and tracking data were received by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna station in Canberra, Australia."NASA has a long history of scientific discovery at Mars and the safe arrival of MAVEN opens another chapter," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "Maven will complement NASA's other Martian robotic explorers-and those of our partners around the globe-to answer some fundamental questions about Mars and life beyond Earth."Following orbit insertion, MAVEN will begin a six-week commissioning phase that includes maneuvering into its final science orbit and testing the instruments andscience-mapping commands. MAVEN then will begin its one Earth-year primary mission, taking measurements of the composition, structure and escape of gases in Mars' upper atmosphere and its interaction with the sun and solar wind."It's taken 11 years from the original concept for MAVEN to now having a spacecraft in orbit at Mars," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU/LASP). "I'm delighted to be here safely and successfully, and looking forward to starting our science mission."The primary mission includes five "deep-dip" campaigns, in which MAVEN's periapsis, or lowest orbit altitude, will be lowered from 93 miles (150 kilometers) to about 77 miles (125 kilometers). These measurements will provide information down to where the upper and lower atmospheres meet, giving scientists a full profile of the upper tier."This was a very big day for MAVEN," said David Mitchell, MAVEN project manager from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. "We're very excited to join the constellation of spacecraft in orbit at Mars and on the surface of the Red Planet. The commissioning phase will keep the operations team busy for the next six weeks, and then we'll begin, at last, the science phase of the mission. Congratulations to the team for a job well done today."MAVEN launched Nov. 18, 2013, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, carrying three instrument packages. The Particles and Fields Package, built by the University of California at Berkeley with support from CU/LASP and Goddard, contains six instruments that will characterize the solar wind and the ionosphere of the planet. The Remote Sensing Package, built by CU/LASP, will identify characteristics present throughout the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. The Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer, provided by Goddard, will measure the composition and isotopes of atomic particles.The spacecraft's principal investigator is based at CU/LASP. The university provided two science instruments and leads science operations, as well as education and public outreach, for the mission.NASA Goddard Space Flight Center manages the project and also provided two science instruments for the mission. Lockheed Martin built the spacecraft and is responsible for mission operations. The Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley provided four science instruments for MAVEN. JPL provides navigation and Deep Space Network support, and Electra telecommunications relay hardware and operations. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Program for NASA.To learn more about the MAVEN mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mavenandhttp://mars.nasa.gov/maven/ |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/radar-images-of-near-earth-asteroid-2006-dp14 | Radar Images of near-Earth Asteroid 2006 DP14 | Radar images of peanut-shaped asteroid reveal it is no peanut-sized space rock. | A collage of radar images of near-Earth asteroid 2006 DP14 was generated by NASA scientists using the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., on the night of Feb. 11, 2014.Delay-Doppler radar imaging revealed that the asteroid is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) long, 660 feet (200 meters) wide, and shaped somewhat like a big peanut. The asteroid's period of rotation is about six hours. The asteroid is of a type known as a "contact binary" because it has two large lobes on either end that appear to be in contact. Previous radar data from Goldstone and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has shown that at least 10 percent of near-Earth asteroids larger than about 650 feet (200 meters) have contact binary shapes like that of 2006 DP14. The data were obtained over an interval of 2.5 hours as the asteroid completed about half a revolution. The resolution is about 60 feet (19 meters) per pixel.The data were obtained on Feb. 11 between 9:03 a.m. and 11:27 p.m. PST (12:03 a.m. to 2:27 a.m. EST on Feb. 12). At the time of the observations, the asteroid's distance was about 2.6 million miles (4.2 million kilometers) from Earth. That is about 11 times the average distance between Earth and its moon. The asteroid's closest approach to Earth occurred on Feb. 10, at a distance of about 1.5 million miles (2.4 million kilometers).Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid's size, shape, rotation state, surface features and surface roughness, and for improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. While this asteroid would appear as no more than a point of light to optical telescopes, using planetary radar scientists are able to discern the physical characteristics of the asteroid and measure its exact distance from Earth. But, in order to point the enormous 230-foot (70-meter) dish antenna in the precise direction of the asteroid, numerous professional and amateur astronomers assisted in the days leading up to Feb. 11 by supplying observational data to help pinpoint the location. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than if radar observations weren't available.NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. In fact, the United States has the most robust and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth objects. To date, U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known near-Earth objects.Along with the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it also partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based astronomers, and space science institutes across the country that are working to find, track and understand these objects better, often with grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA. In addition, NASA values the work of numerous highly skilled amateur astronomers, whose accurate observational data helps improve asteroid orbits after they are found.NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is available at:http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/,http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatchand via Twitter athttp://www.twitter.com/asteroidwatch.More information about asteroid radar research is at:http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/.More information about the Deep Space Network is at:http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-funded-study-says-saturns-moon-enceladus-rolled-over | NASA-Funded Study Says Saturn's Moon Enceladus Rolled Over | 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. | 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.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."It's astounding that Cassini found a region of current geological activity on an icy moon that we would expect to be frigidly cold, especially down at this moon's equivalent of Antarctica," said Robert Pappalardo, co-author and planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We think the moon rolled over to put a deeply seated warm, active area there." Pappalardo worked on the study while at the University of Colorado.Rotating bodies, including planets and moons, are stable if more of their mass is close to the equator. "Any redistribution of mass within the object can cause instability with respect to the axis of rotation. A reorientation will tend to position excess mass at the equator and areas of low density at the poles," Nimmo said. This is precisely what happened to Enceladus.Nimmo and Pappalardo calculated the effects of a low-density blob beneath the surface of Enceladus and showed it could cause the moon to roll over by up to 30-degrees and put the blob at the pole.Pappalardo used an analogy to explain the Enceladus rollover. "A spinning bowling ball will tend to roll over to put its holes -- the axis with the least mass -- vertically along the spin axis. Similarly, Enceladus apparently rolled over to place the portion of the moon with the least mass along its vertical spin axis," he said.The rising blob (called a "diapir") may be within either the icy shell or the underlying rocky core of Enceladus. In either case, as the material heats up it expands and becomes less dense, then rises toward the surface. This rising of warm, low-density material could also help explain the high heat and striking surface features, including the geysers and "tiger-stripe" region suggesting fault lines caused by tectonic stress.Internal heating of Enceladus probably results from its eccentric orbit around Saturn. "Enceladus gets squeezed and stretched by tidal forces as it orbits Saturn, and that mechanical energy is transformed into heat energy in the moon's interior," added Nimmo.Future Cassini observations of Enceladus may support this model. Meanwhile, scientists await the next Enceladus flyby in 2008 for more clues.This research was supported by grants from NASA. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.For images and information about the Cassini mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/cassiniandhttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-rover-spirit-remains-quiet-as-dust-storm-weakens | Mars Rover Spirit Remains Quiet as Dust Storm Weakens | A dust storm that has reduced power to NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is clearing, but the Spirit's status remains unknown on Wednesday. | PASADENA, Calif. -- A dust storm that has reduced power to NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is clearing, but the Spirit's status remains unknown on Wednesday.Mission controllers sent a set of commands to the rover early Tuesday, Nov. 11, telling it to follow several energy-saving steps, including not trying to communicate before Thursday. The team's immediate goal was to keep Spirit out of a pre-programmed protective mode that is triggered when battery charge is depleted below a safety level. The new commands, if received, would allow the team to keep more active control of Spirit than is possible when the rover is in the low-power protective mode."Like concerned parents, if we can stay in communication with the rover, we are in a better position to help," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity.Controllers listened overnight Tuesday to Wednesday in case Spirit had entered the protective mode and attempted to communicate. It could be a favorable sign that Spirit was not heard from, because that could mean that the rover has received and is following the commands sent Tuesday. However, another possibility is that Spirit has not only entered the low-power protective mode, but that its battery power is so low it would not wake up to communicate."We likely won't know anything definitive until Thursday," Callas said. "The good news is that we have indications from Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that the dust storm on Mars is clearing over Gusev." (Spirit is working in a range of hills inside Gusev Crater, which is about the size of Connecticut.)Meanwhile, controllers will continue to listen for communication from Spirit at the times the rover would be expected to communicate if it has entered the low-power protective mode but still has enough power to transmit a signal.Spirit has been operating on Mars for nearly five years in an exploration mission originally planned to last three months. A coating of dust on its solar panels is reducing its ability to generate electricity even when the sky is clear.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nature-chinese-pollution-offset-us-west-ozone-gains | Nature, Chinese Pollution Offset U.S. West Ozone Gains | An expected reduction in atmospheric ozone levels over the western U.S. was offset by natural atmospheric processes and pollutants crossing the Pacific Ocean from China. | A new study finds that the western United States reduced its production of ozone-forming pollutants by a whopping 21 percent between 2005 and 2010, but ozone in the atmosphere above the region did not drop as expected in response. The reason: a combination of naturally occurring atmospheric processes and pollutants crossing the Pacific Ocean from China.Scientists from the Netherlands and from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, looked at ozone in the mid-troposphere, about 10,000 to 30,000 feet (3 to 9 kilometers) above ground level. Ozone is formed throughout the atmosphere by chemical reactions, and it travels through the atmosphere upward, downward and sideways -- from ground level to many miles up into the stratosphere. In the mid-troposphere, ozone has a measurable greenhouse effect.The researchers focused on ozone above eastern China and the western United States, using measurements of ozone and key ozone-forming pollutants from instruments on NASA's Aura satellite, and a computer model of global atmospheric chemistry and weather. Their study covered 2005 through 2010.Over China, ozone increased about seven percent in the mid-troposphere. The researchers found two causes. First, Chinese emissions of ozone-forming pollutants increased 21 percent during these years. Second, an unusually large amount of ozone drifted down from the stratosphere as the result of several periodic, natural cycles, including an El Niño event in 2009-10.At the same time, western U.S. emissions of ozone-forming pollutants decreased by 21 percent. The benefits of this large decrease will continue to accumulate for many years, like compound interest. By 2010, however, the decrease should have created a drop of more than two percent in mid-tropospheric ozone. Instead, there was no drop at all.To quantify the impact of each cause, the scientists tested several scenarios with the atmospheric chemistry model. They used the NASA satellite measurements to set up accurate model simulations and to provide a reality check on the results.In one model simulation, they held emissions from China constant at 2005 levels while allowing everything else (weather conditions, U.S. emissions, etc.) to evolve as in real life. The difference between West Coast ozone levels in this simulation and in the real world allowed them to quantify China's contribution to offsetting western U.S. ozone progress at 43 percent. The remainder of the offset -- 57 percent -- was the result of a temporary uptick in the amount of stratospheric ozone descending to the mid-troposphere.JPL scientist Jessica Neu, a coauthor of the paper, explained, "The large contribution from the stratosphere is part of a natural up-and-down cycle of upper-atmosphere winds. We know pretty well what will happen to the stratospheric contribution in the next few decades; it will continue to go up and down every two years or so. On the other hand, the contribution from China increased steadily throughout the study, and we don't know what will happen to it in the future because it depends on human rather than natural factors."Neu noted that this is by no means the only case of emissions from one nation crossing borders to another, and in fact, China itself is on the receiving end of pollutants blowing in from India. "We focused on China because its emissions grew very rapidly during a period when there were good satellite observations of ozone available, making it much easier to see the tropospheric ozone response to changing emissions," she said.The lead author of the study is Willem Verstraeten, an atmospheric chemist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, who is also affiliated with the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in DeBilt.NASA uses the vantage point of space to increase our understanding of our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and shorter-term process-oriented studies. The agency freely shares this unique knowledge and works with institutions around the world to gain new insights into how our planet is changing.For more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/earth |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassini-halloween-treat-titan-glows-in-the-dark | Cassini Halloween Treat: Titan Glows in the Dark | NASA's Cassini spacecraft sees dim, unexplained light diffusing up through the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon. | A literal shot in the dark by imaging cameras on NASA's Cassini spacecraft has yielded an image of a visible glow from Titan, emanating not just from the top of Titan's atmosphere, but also - surprisingly - from deep in the atmosphere through the moon's haze. A person in a balloon in Titan's haze layer wouldn't see the glow because it's too faint - something like a millionth of a watt. Scientists were able to detect it with Cassini because the spacecraft's cameras are able to take long-exposure images."It turns out that Titan glows in the dark - though very dimly," said Robert West, the lead author of a recent study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters and a Cassini imaging team scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It's a little like a neon sign, where electrons generated by electrical power bang into neon atoms and cause them to glow. Here we're looking at light emitted when charged particles bang into nitrogen molecules in Titan's atmosphere."Scientists are interested in studying the input of energy from the sun and charged particles into Titan's atmosphere because it is at the heart of the natural organic chemistry factory that exists in Titan's atmosphere."Scientists want to know what galvanizes the chemical reactions forming the heavy molecules that develop into Titan's thick haze of organic chemicals," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, also at JPL. "This kind of work helps us understand what kind of organic chemistry could have existed on an early Earth."The light, known as airglow, is produced when atoms and molecules are excited by ultraviolet sunlight or electrically charged particles. Cassini scientists have already seen an airglow from Titan's nitrogen molecules caused by X-rays and ultraviolet radiation from the sun when Titan was illuminated by the sun. During 2009, Titan passed through Saturn's shadow, offering a unique opportunity for Cassini instruments to observe any luminescence from Titan while in darkness. Cassini's imaging cameras could see in very dim light by using exposure times of 560 seconds.Scientists expected to see a glow in the high atmosphere (above 400 miles, or 700 kilometers in altitude) where charged particles from the magnetic bubble around Saturn strip electrons off of atmospheric molecules at Titan. Although an extremely weak emission was seen in that region, they were surprised to see Titan's dark face glow in visible wavelengths of light from deeper in the atmosphere (at about 190 miles or 300 kilometers above the surface), as though illuminated by moonshine from nearby satellites.The scientists took into account sunlight reflected off Saturn. There was still a glow from the part of Titan that was dark. The luminescence was diffusing up from too deep for charged particles from the sun to be exciting atmospheric particles. The area was also not affected by the shooting of charged particles into the magnetic fields, which is what causes auroras.Scientists' best guess is that the glow is being caused by deeper-penetrating cosmic rays or by light emitted due to some kind of chemical reaction deep in the atmosphere."This is exciting because we've never seen this at Titan before," West said. "It tells us that we don't know all there is to know about Titan and makes it even more mysterious."Scientists have previously reported that the nightside Venus atmosphere also produces a glow, called the Ashen light. Some have suggested that lightning on Venus is responsible, although that explanation is not universally accepted. While Cassini's radio wave instrument has detected lightning at Saturn, it has not detected lightning at Titan. Scientists plan to keep looking for clues as Cassini continues to make its way around the Saturn system for another season.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-rover-sees-variable-environmental-history-at-martian-crater | NASA Rover Sees Variable Environmental History at Martian Crater | One of NASA's two Mars rovers has recorded a compelling saga of environmental changes that occurred over billions of years at a Martian crater. | PASADENA, Calif. -- One of NASA's two Mars rovers has recorded a compelling saga of environmental changes that occurred over billions of years at a Martian crater.The Mars rover, Opportunity, surveyed the rim and interior of Victoria Crater on the Red Planet from September 2006 through August 2008. Key findings from that work, reported in the May 22 edition of the journal Science, reinforce and expand what researchers learned from Opportunity's exploration of two smaller craters after landing on Mars in 2004.The rover revealed the effects of wind and water. The data show water repeatedly came and left billions of years ago. Wind persisted much longer, heaping sand into dunes between ancient water episodes. These activities still shape the landscape today. At Victoria, steep cliffs and gentler alcoves alternate around the edge of a bowl about 0.8 kilometers (half a mile) in diameter. The scalloped edge and other features indicate the crater once was smaller than it is today, but wind erosion has widened it gradually."What drew us to Victoria Crater is the thick cross-section of rock layers exposed there," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is the principal investigator for the science payloads on Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit. "The impact that excavated the crater millions of years ago provided a golden opportunity, and the durability of the rover enabled us to take advantage of it."Imaging the crater's rim and interior, Opportunity inspected layers in the cliffs around the crater, including layered stacks more than 10 meters (30 feet) thick. Distinctive patterns indicate the rocks formed from shifting dunes that later hardened into sandstone, according to Squyres and 33 co-authors of the findings.Instruments on the rover's arm studied the composition and detailed texture of rocks just outside the crater and exposed layers in one alcove called "Duck Bay." Rocks found beside the crater include pieces of a meteorite, which may have been part of the impacting space rock that made the crater.Other rocks on the rim of the crater apparently were excavated from deep within it when the object hit. These rocks bear a type of iron-rich small spheres, or spherules, that the rover team nicknamed "blueberries" when Opportunity first saw them in 2004. The spherules formed from interaction with water penetrating the rocks. The spherules in rocks deeper in the crater are larger than those in overlying layers, suggesting the action of groundwater was more intense at greater depth.Inside Duck Bay, the rover found that, in some ways, the lower layers differ from overlying ones. The lower layers showed less sulfur and iron, more aluminum and silicon. This composition matches patterns Opportunity found earlier at the smaller Endurance Crater, about 6 kilometers (4 miles) away from Victoria, indicating the processes that varied the environmental conditions recorded in the rocks were regional, not just local.Opportunity's first observations showed interaction of volcanic rock with acidic water to produce sulfate salts. Dry sand rich in these salts blew into dunes. Under the influence of water, the dunes hardened to sandstone. Further alteration by water produced the iron-rich spherules, mineral changes and angular pores left when crystals dissolved away.A rock from space blasted a hole about 600 meters (2,000 feet) wide and 125 meters (400 feet) deep. Wind erosion chewed at the edges of the hole and partially refilled it, increasing the diameter by about 25 percent and reducing the depth by about 40 percent.Since leaving Victoria Crater about eight months ago, Opportunity has been on its way to study a crater named Endeavour that is about 20 times bigger than Victoria. The rover has driven about one-fifth of what could be a 16-kilometer (10-mile) trek to this new destination.The twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, continue to produce scientific results while operating far beyond their design life. The mission, designed to last 90 days, celebrated its fifth anniversary in January. Both rovers show signs of aging but are still capable of exploration and scientific discovery.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Mars rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.More information about Spirit and Opportunity is athttp://www.nasa.gov/rovers. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/what-looks-like-ceres-on-earth | What Looks Like Ceres on Earth? | When you see these prominent features of Ceres, you might recognize some of their Earthly cousins. | With its dark, heavily cratered surface interrupted by tantalizing bright spots, Ceres may not remind you of our home planet Earth at first glance. The dwarf planet, which orbits the Sun in the vast asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is also far smaller than Earth (in both mass and diameter). With its frigid temperature and lack of atmosphere, we're pretty sure Ceres can't support life as we know it.But these two bodies, Ceres and Earth, formed from similar materials in our solar system. And, after combing through thousands of images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft, which has been orbiting Ceres since 2015, scientists have spotted many features on Ceres that look like formations they've seen on Earth.By looking at similar features on different bodies -- what scientists call "analogs" -- we can learn more about the origins and evolution of these bodies over time. Check out these prominent features of Ceres, and see if you recognize any of their earthly cousins!On Ceres: Occator CraterOccator Crater on Ceres, with its central bright area called Cerealia Facula. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSIFull image and captionAs Dawn approached Ceres in early 2015, two mysterious gleaming beacons stood out in images: the "bright spots" of Occator Crater. When the spacecraft spiraled into orbits closer to Ceres, higher-resolution images revealed that there are not just two spots, but many. The center of Occator contains a bright, 2,000-foot-high (500-meter-high) dome called the Cerealia Dome, which is covered with bright material. The bright material on top of the dome is called the Cerealia Facula. A collection of smaller bright regions called Vinalia Faculae is clustered on the eastern side of the crater floor.Thanks to Dawn's observations, scientists think the bright material is made of sodium carbonate and mineral salts. Moreover, Dawn scientists think the Cerealia Dome formed from briny liquid or mushy ice rising from below the surface -- what we call "hydrothermal" activity -- because it involves heat (thermal) and water (hydro).Scientists have two theories about how this hydrothermal activity happened: either the heat from the impact that formed the crater caused briny liquid or mushy ice to push up on the surface -- so much that it popped out -- or alternatively, the heat from the impact could have enhanced activity related to pre-existing liquid reservoirs just below the surface.On Earth: PingosIbyuk, an example of a pingo in Canada. Credit: Adam Jones/Flickr user adam_jones/Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0Larger viewWhen groundwater on Earth freezes, it can push up against the overlying soil, creating a dome-like structure called a "pingo." These structures appear near the Arctic regions of Earth, including Canada's Pingo National Landmark. "The dimensions, shape and 'fractured' top of a pingo resemble the Cerealia Dome, which may have formed from alternating cycles of ice 'punching' up and effusing onto the surface of Ceres," said Lynnae Quick, planetary scientist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington.On Earth: Volcanic DomesPanum Crater in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, California. Credit: USGSLarger viewPanum Crater at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California has rounded edges and fractured summits that remind scientists of the Cerealia Dome, too. Both the Panum dome and the Cerealia dome sit inside pits. Lassen Peak in California, a lava dome, also has a similar shape, as does the dome in the Mount Saint Helens caldera in the state of Washington.On Earth: Searles LakeSearles Lake, California. Credit: NASALarger viewLike Occator Crater, Searles Lake in California's Mojave Desert is famous for bright evaporite minerals -- that is, minerals that remain long after the evaporation of saltwater. Once a lake fed by water from the Sierra Nevada mountains, today Searles is a dried-out lakebed with white mineral deposits. Mining operations collect minerals rich in sodium and potassium for industrial use. These minerals are mostly found in subsurface brines that are pumped to the surface.On Ceres: Ahuna MonsAhuna Mons, Ceres' "Lonely Mountain," shown with a vertical exaggeration factor of two. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDAFull image and captionAhuna Mons sticks out on Ceres as a tall, lonely mountain with bright material dusting its slopes. Similar to the material found in Occator, the bright coating is made of sodium carbonate. The leading hypothesis is that Ahuna Mons is a cryovolcano -- a very cold volcano that has erupted with salty water, mud and volatile materials instead of molten rock. Ahuna Mons rises an average of 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the surrounding surface, about the same as the height of the summit of Mount Rainier in Washington State. Ahuna Mons doesn't appear to be associated with any impacts, suggesting that Ceres must have had cryovolcanic activity in the recent past.On Earth: Hlíðarfjall dome, IcelandHlíðarfjall dome, Iceland. Credit: Hansueli Krapf/Wikimedia Commons contributor Simisa/CC BY-SA 3.0Larger viewWhile nothing in the solar system is exactly like Ahuna Mons, the Hlíðarfjall dome in Iceland has a similar shape. Both have loose, fine-grained material, and are similar in their proportion of heights and widths. But these mountains are very different in composition. The Icelandic dome formed by silicate volcanic material, whereas Ahuna Mons formed primarily from water and salt, with a minor contribution from silicate minerals. "Despite the chemical differences, however, the materials on Earth and Ceres behave similarly when they protrude out of the crust to form volcanoes," said Ottaviano Ruesch, research scientist at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands.On Earth: Chaitén Dome, ChileChaiten Dome in Chile. Credit: NASALarger viewAnother volcanic structure reminiscent of Ahuna Mons is Chaitén Dome in Chile, located within a caldera, a cauldron-like volcanic feature. Beyond Earth, the Compton-Belkovich volcanic complex on the Moon contains a dome that seems to have formed by silicate materials erupting. "This means that silicic dome formation is a process not limited to Earth," Ruesch said.On Ceres: Samhain CatenaePit ChainsSamhain Catenae pit chains on Ceres. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/PSI/LPIFull image and captionCeres is full of craters large and small, but it also has chains of small bowl-shaped or elliptical pits that did not result from impacts. Pit chains, such as Samhain Catenae, are caused by fractures or faults in the subsurface, which formed up to a billion years ago. When the fractures or faults leave behind empty space under the surface, loose material falls in from above -- forming the pits at the surface.On Earth: Iceland Pit ChainsPit chains in northern Iceland, just north of the Krafla Volcano. Credit: Google Earth/Emily Martin/Jennifer WhittenLarger viewNorthern Iceland has a system of pit chains related to faults and fractures. Scientists believe these pit chains formed because of seismic events in the 1970s. A 2011 study led by David Ferrill of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio finds that the pits resulted from poorly consolidated material falling down into subterranean cavities, which were produced by faults and fractures. "It's possible that stresses derived from material upwelling from deeper within Ceres resulted in parts of the crust being pulled apart, which may have formed the Samhain Catenae," said Jennifer Scully, Dawn scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Scientists also have mapped similar pit chains on Mars and other solar system bodies.On Ceres: Haulani CraterHaulani Crater on Ceres. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDAFull image and captionHaulani Crater, 21 miles (34 kilometers) in diameter, with sharp rims and bright material, is one of the youngest craters on Ceres. Some flow features are associated with a mountainous ridge in the center, while other flow features run outward from the crater's rim toward the surrounding area. Pitted terrain on the crater's floor and northern rim probably formed when an impacting body caused water under the surface -- which had been locked in Ceres' crust -- to vaporize. That's why pitted terrain is additional evidence for water ice as a key component of the crust.On Earth: Ries Crater, GermanyRies Crater, Germany. Credit: Wikimedia Commons contributor Vesta/NASA WorldWindLarger viewRies Crater in southern Germany was formed from an impacting meteorite about 15 million years ago. It is an example of a "rampart crater," a crater whose material flowed due to the presence of volatile materials, such as water, when the meteorite hit. Although Ceres does not have craters that are exactly "rampart" in nature, some of the craters on Ceres such as Haulani do have flow features in their ejecta blankets -- the layers of rock that were overturned and deposited around the crater as during the impact event. "Ries also has clusters of pipe-like structures in the bedrock that are the basis for our understanding of the formation of pitted materials on Mars, Vesta, and Ceres," said Hanna Sizemore, research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona.On Ceres: LandslidesThree kinds of landslides on Ceres. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDALarger viewDawn has revealed many landslides on Ceres, which may have been shaped by the presence of water ice. This image shows three different kinds of landslides on Ceres. At left, Ghanan Crater hosts an example of a Type I landslide, which is relatively round and large and has thick deposits, or "toes," at its end. Type II and Type III features are shown in the middle and right of this image respectively. Scientists think Type I landslides form in areas where the ground is rich in ice, which may occur near Ceres' poles. Type II landslides are often thinner and longer than Type 1. Type III landslides form in ice-rich ejected material from impacts.On Earth:The Mud Creek landslide, California. Credit: USGSLarger viewLandslides can occur anywhere on Earth where the ground along a slope becomes unstable, such as last year's landslide in northern California. A hillside called Mud Creek collapsed in May 2017 after the area had received substantial rainfall, increasing the amount of groundwater in the area. The way the rock and dirt slid down over Highway 1 into the ocean resembles the way the mixture of ice and rock skidded down Ghanan Crater on Ceres. In some cases, water or ice in the ground can increase the likeliness of landslide occurrenceThe Dawn mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. JPL is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.For a complete list of mission participants, visit:https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/missionMore information about Dawn is available at the following sites:https://www.nasa.gov/dawnhttps://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/researcher-hopes-to-put-fuel-cells-on-the-fast-track | Researcher hopes to put fuel cells on the fast track | The slow evolution of clean-energy solutions is about to kick into high gear, if Sossina M. Haile has anything to say about it. | The slow evolution of clean-energy solutions is about to kick into high gear, if Sossina M. Haile has anything to say about it. As a fuel cell researcher at the California Institute of Technology and a founding member of the company Superprotonic Inc., she hopes to make this "technology of the future" practical for today's applications.Current fuel cell technology is hamstrung by impracticality. The most efficient and powerful fuel cells need large amounts of heat and space, whereas those suitable for smaller scale operation require lots of precious, expensive platinum. "If we converted every car in the U.S. to fuel cells, we'd need more platinum than there is in the proven reserves," Haile says.Haile's research, which initially began several years ago with fuel cell researchers at JPL, has led to breakthroughs in more "consumer-ready" fuel cell technology. She's developed fuel cell systems that strike a balance between power and manageability -- perfect, she says, for standalone residential generators. Her team has worked hard to reduce the amount of platinum needed for each system.Haile's team has also taken on one of the biggest roadblocks to widespread fuel cell use -- their reliance on hydrogen as a primary fuel. Hydrogen requires lots of energy to extract and it's difficult to store and distribute.In fact, Haile thinks that the verdict is still out on whether hydrogen "makes sense" as the fuel of the future. "When most people hear 'fuel cells,' they think hydrogen," says Haile. "That's a common misperception -- fuel cells aren't necessarily restricted to hydrogen."Haile's team has focused on developing fuel cells that can run on more traditional fuels, like ethanol or biomass, while also solving many of the problems of conventional hydrogen fuel cells. Fuel cells that use carbon-based fuels still produce carbon emissions, but at a much lower rate than their internal-combustion counterparts. Because fuel cells extract energy from electrochemical reactions instead of burning their fuel, they are much more efficient and environmentally friendly. "It's a unique middle ground," explains Haile -- one she believes will speed the integration of these new technologies into the current energy infrastructure.For Haile, the incentive to design practical, unconventional fuel cells is simple: "Science should be in the service of society." She thinks that fuel cells that can use renewable energy resources like biomass will help end what she calls she calls "drawing from the bank" -- using fossil fuels as a source of energy."There's scientific proof that CO2 concentrations have been rising for decades to levels not felt on the Earth in millenia," Haile says. "We need to have a diverse approach to solving the problem before it's too late." |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-spitzer-observes-gas-emission-from-comet-ison | NASA's Spitzer Observes Gas Emission From Comet ISON | Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have observed what most likely are strong carbon dioxide emissions from Comet ISON. | PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have observed what most likely are strong carbon dioxide emissions from Comet ISON ahead of its anticipated pass through the inner solar system later this year.Images captured June 13 with Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera indicate carbon dioxide is slowly and steadily "fizzing" away from the so-called "soda-pop comet," along with dust, in a tail about 186,400 miles (300,000 kilometers) long."We estimate ISON is emitting about 2.2 million pounds (1 million kilograms) of what is most likely carbon dioxide gas and about 120 million pounds (54.4 million kilograms) of dust every day," said Carey Lisse, leader of NASA's Comet ISON Observation Campaign and a senior research scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md. "Previous observations made by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission and Deep Impact spacecraft gave us only upper limits for any gas emission from ISON. Thanks to Spitzer, we now know for sure the comet's distant activity has been powered by gas."Comet ISON was about 312 million miles (502 million kilometers) from the sun, 3.35 times farther than Earth, when the observations were made."These fabulous observations of ISON are unique and set the stage for more observations and discoveries to follow as part of a comprehensive NASA campaign to observe the comet," said James L. Green, NASA's director of planetary science in Washington. "ISON is very exciting. We believe that data collected from this comet can help explain how and when the solar system first formed."Comet ISON (officially known as C/2012 S1) is less than 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) in diameter, about the size of a small mountain, and weighs between 7 billion and 7 trillion pounds (3.2 billion and 3.2 trillion kilograms). Because the comet is still very far away, its true size and density have not been determined accurately. Like all comets, ISON is a dirty snowball made up of dust and frozen gases such as water, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide. These are some of the fundamental building blocks, which scientists believe led to the formation of the planets 4.5 billion years ago.Comet ISON is believed to be inbound on its first passage from the distant Oort Cloud, a roughly spherical collection of comets and comet-like structures that exists in a space between one-tenth light-year and 1 light-year from the sun. The comet will pass within 724,000 miles (1.16 million kilometers) of the sun on Nov. 28.It is warming up gradually as it gets closer to the sun. In the process, different gases are heating up to the point of evaporation, revealing themselves to instruments in space and on the ground. Carbon dioxide is thought to be the gas that powers emission for most comets between the orbits of Saturn and the asteroids.The comet was discovered Sept. 21, roughly between Jupiter and Saturn, by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok at the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) near Kislovodsk, Russia. This counts as an early detection of a comet, and the strong carbon dioxide emissions may have made the detection possible."This observation gives us a good picture of part of the composition of ISON, and, by extension, of the proto-planetary disk from which the planets were formed," said Lisse. "Much of the carbon in the comet appears to be locked up in carbon dioxide ice. We will know even more in late July and August, when the comet begins to warm up near the water-ice line outside of the orbit of Mars, and we can detect the most abundant frozen gas, which is water, as it boils away from the comet."NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.For more information about Spitzer, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer. Learn more about NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign:http://www.isoncampaign.org. NASA's Comet ISON Toolkit is at:http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/ison. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/robotic-toolkit-added-to-nasas-mars-2020-rover | Robotic Toolkit Added to NASA's Mars 2020 Rover | The bit carousel, which lies at the heart of the rover's Sample Caching System, is now aboard NASA's newest rover. | The bit carousel - a mechanism that will play a key role in the acquisition, containment and eventual return to Earth of humanity's first samples from another planet - has been incorporated into NASA's Mars 2020 rover."The bit carousel is at the heart of the sampling and caching subsystem," said Keith Rosette, Mars 2020 sample handling delivery manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "It contains all of the tools the coring drill uses to sample the Martian surface and is the gateway for the samples to move into the rover for assessment and processing."Looking somewhat like an extraterrestrial version of a 1960s slide projector, Mars 2020's bit carousel is home to nine drill bits that facilitate sample acquisition and surface analysis: two for abrading, one for regolith (rock and soil) and six for coring. The coring and regolith bits are used to place Martian samples in a clean sample collection tube, while the abrader bit is used to scrape the top layers of rocks to expose un-weathered surfaces for study.When the rover team is ready to drill, the carousel whirrs into action. If, for instance, the goal is to abrade, the carousel maneuvers the appropriate bit into position so that the drill at the end of the rover's robotic arm can extract it. Once the drilling's done, the bit goes back into the carousel.For core sampling, a sample tube is inserted inside the appropriate bit before the carousel moves the combination into position for the drill. Once the sample tube has been filled, the robotic arm returns the drill bit and tube to the carousel, where they wend their way to processing stations and storage."The bit carousel was the last piece of the Mars 2020 rover's Sample Caching System to be installed," said JPL's John McNamee, project manager of Mars 2020. "And while the rover interior is essentially complete - a battery and a camera used during landing are planned in coming weeks - the assembly and test team will not be resting on their laurels. Months of evaluation and fine tuning lie ahead to make absolutely certain this rover is on the launch pad and ready to go on July 17, 2020."Mars 2020 will land on Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. NASA will use Mars 2020 and other missions, including to the Moon, to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. The agency intends to establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028 through NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans.To submit your name to travel to Mars with NASA's 2020 mission and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to the Red Planet, go here by Sept. 30, 2019:https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020PassFor more information about the mission, go to:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpls-new-deep-impact-comet-mission-okd-by-nasa | JPL's New Deep Impact Comet Mission Ok'd by NASA | A radical mission to excavate the interior of a comet has been selected as one of the next two flights in NASA's Discovery Program, the agency announced today. | A radical mission to excavate the interior of a comet has been selected as one of the next two flights in NASA's Discovery Program, the agency announced today.The comet mission, called Deep Impact, will be managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, led by Dr. Michael A'Hearn from the University of Maryland in College Park, and built by Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colo. The mission will send a 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) copper projectile into comet P/Tempel 1, creating a crater as big as a football field and as deep as a seven-story building. A camera and infrared spectrometer on the spacecraft, along with ground-based observatories, will study the resulting icy debris blasted off the comet, as well as the pristine interior material exposed by the impact."Comets are leftovers from the birth of the Sun and the planets, and Deep Impact will punch through the dark crust of P/Tempel 1 to give us our first look at what's inside," said JPL director Dr. Edward Stone.James E. Graf will serve as project manager at JPL. Graf currently heads NASA's QuikScat mission to measure sea surface winds over the global ocean, successfully launched last month.Deep Impact will be launched in January 2004 toward an explosive July 4, 2005 encounter with P/Tempel 1. Those impacts will occur at an approximate speed of 10 kilometers per second (22,300 mph). The total cost of Deep Impact to NASA is $240 million.NASA also today announced the selection of another new Discovery mission, one that will map the pockmarked surface of Mercury. That spacecraft, to be built and managed by the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, MD, is known as Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging mission, or Messenger."These low-cost missions are both fantastic examples of the creativity of the space science community," said Dr. Edward Weiler, associate administrator for space science at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. "Deep Impact presents a special chance to do some truly unique science, and it is a direct complement to the other two comet missions already in the Discovery Program."Those missions are Stardust, managed by JPL, launched in February 1999 on a journey to gather samples of comet dust and return them to Earth, and the Comet Nucleus Tour (CONTOUR) that will launch in June 2002 and fly closely by three comets. CONTOUR is managed by Applied Physics Lab of Johns Hopkins University.Another Discovery mission managed by JPL was Mars Pathfinder, which landed successfully on the red planet in 1997, accompanied by a small robotic rover named Sojourner. The Pathfinder mission returned hundreds of images and thousands of measurements of the Martian environment.JPL also manages the Discovery mission called Genesis, launching in January 2001, which will gather samples of the solar wind and return them to Earth.In this latest round of Discovery missions, NASA selected Deep Impact and Messenger from 26 proposals made in early 1998. The missions must be ready for launch no later than Sept. 30, 2004, within the Discovery Program's development cost cap of $190 million in fiscal 1999 dollars over 36 months and a total mission cost of $299 million. The Discovery Program emphasizes lower- cost, highly focused scientific missions.JPL will manage the Deep Impact mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/dawn-creates-guide-to-vestas-hidden-attractions | Dawn Creates Guide to Vesta's Hidden Attractions | Some beauty is revealed only at a second glance. | Some beauty is revealed only at a second glance. When viewed with the human eye, the giant asteroid Vesta, which was the object of scrutiny by the Dawn spacecraft from 2011 to 2012, is quite unspectacular color-wise. Vesta looks grayish, pitted by a variety of large and small craters.But scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, have re-analyzed the images of this giant asteroid obtained by Dawn's framing camera. They assigned colors to different wavelengths of light and, in the process, revealed in unprecedented detail not only geological structures that are invisible to the naked eye, but also landscapes of incomparable beauty.Researchers at Max Planck can now see structures such as melts from impacts, craters buried by quakes and foreign material brought by space rocks, visible with a resolution of 200 feet (60 meters) per pixel."The key to these images is the seven color filters of the camera system on board the spacecraft," said Andreas Nathues, the framing camera team lead at Max Planck. Since different minerals reflect light of different wavelengths to different degrees, the filters help reveal compositional differences that remain hidden without them. In addition, scientists calibrated the data so that the finest variations in brightness can be seen.In the new colorized images, different colors indicate different materials on the surface of Vesta. They reveal impressive formations and a wide range of geological diversity, said Nathues. But above all, the color-coded images are impressive because of their beauty."No artist could paint something like that. Only nature can do this," said Martin Hoffman, a member of the framing camera team also at Max Planck. Pictures of the crater Aelia, the crater Antonia and an area near the crater Sextilia show some of Vesta's most impressive sites.Dawn visited Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. The spacecraft is currently on its way to its second destination, the dwarf planet Ceres. Ceres is the largest object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. The Dawn framing cameras were developed and built under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, with significant contributions by DLR German Aerospace Center, Institute of Planetary Research, Berlin, and in coordination with the Institute of Computer and Communication Network Engineering, Braunschweig. The framing camera project is funded by the Max Planck Society, DLR and NASA.More information on Dawn is available at:http://www.nasa.gov/dawnandhttp://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-reconnaissance-orbiter-resumes-full-duty | NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Resumes Full Duty | Engineers have restored NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to full operations, following a March 9 unplanned swap of duplicate computers aboard the spacecraft. | UPDATED: March 13, 2014Engineers have restored NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to full operations, following a March 9 unplanned swap of duplicate computers aboard the spacecraft. On Thursday morning, March 13, the orbiter resumed science observations with its own instruments and relay of data from NASA's Curiosity Mars rover.NASA's long-lived Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter put itself into a precautionary safe standby mode March 9 after an unscheduled swap from one main computer to another. The mission's ground team has begun restoring the spacecraft to full operations."The spacecraft is healthy, in communication and fully powered," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Dan Johnston of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We have stepped up the communication data rate, and we plan to have the spacecraft back to full operations within a few days."Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter's science observations and its relaying of communications from NASA's two active Mars rovers have been suspended. The rovers continue to use NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter as a communications relay.Entry into safe mode is the prescribed response by a spacecraft when it detects conditions outside the range of normal expectations. Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has experienced unplanned computer swaps triggering safe-mode entry four times previously, most recently in November 2011. The root cause of the previous events has not been determined. The spacecraft has also experienced safe-mode entries that have not involved computer swaps.Unlike any previous safe-mode entries experienced in this mission, the March 9 event included a swap to a redundant radio transponder on the orbiter. While the mission resumes operations with this transponder, engineers are investigating the status of the one that is now out of service.NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter entered orbit around Mars eight years ago, on March 10, 2006. Since then, it has returned more data than all other past and current interplanetary missions combined. The mission met all its science goals in a two-year primary science phase. Three extensions, the latest beginning in 2012, have added to the science returns. The longevity of the mission has given researchers tools to study seasonal and longer-term changes on the Red Planet.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter and collaborates with JPL to operate it. For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/mroandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-moon-is-rusting-and-researchers-want-to-know-why | The Moon Is Rusting, and Researchers Want to Know Why | While our Moon is airless, research indicates the presence of hematite, a form of rust that normally requires oxygen and water. That has scientists puzzled. | Mars has long been known for its rust. Iron on its surface, combined with water and oxygen from the ancient past, give the Red Planet its hue. But scientists were recently surprised to find evidence that our airless Moon has rust on it as well.A new paper in Science Advances reviews data from the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 orbiter, whichdiscovered water iceand mapped out a variety of minerals while surveying the Moon's surface in 2008. Lead author Shuai Li of the University of Hawaii has studied that water extensively in data from Chandrayaan-1's Moon Mineralogy Mapper instrument, or M3, which was built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Water interacts with rock to produce a diversity of minerals, and M3 detected spectra - or light reflected off surfaces - that revealed the Moon's poles had a very different composition than the rest of it.Intrigued, Li homed in on these polar spectra. While the Moon's surface is littered with iron-rich rocks, he nevertheless was surprised to find a close match with the spectral signature of hematite. The mineral is a form of iron oxide, or rust, produced when iron is exposed to oxygen and water. But the Moon isn't supposed to have oxygen or liquid water, so how can it be rusting?Metal MysteryThe mystery starts with the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that flows out from the Sun, bombarding Earth and the Moon with hydrogen. Hydrogen makes it harder for hematite to form. It's what is known as a reducer, meaning it adds electrons to the materials it interacts with. That's the opposite of what is needed to make hematite: For iron to rust, it requires an oxidizer, which removes electrons. And while the Earth has a magnetic field shielding it from this hydrogen, the Moon does not."It's very puzzling," Li said. "The Moon is a terrible environment for hematite to form in." So he turned to JPL scientists Abigail Fraeman and Vivian Sun to help poke at M3's data and confirm his discovery of hematite."At first, I totally didn't believe it. It shouldn't exist based on the conditions present on the Moon," Fraeman said. "But since we discovered water on the Moon, people have been speculating that there could be a greater variety of minerals than we realize if that water had reacted with rocks."After taking a close look, Fraeman and Sun became convinced M3's data does indeed indicate the presence of hematite at the lunar poles. "In the end, the spectra were convincingly hematite-bearing, and there needed to be an explanation for why it's on the Moon," Sun said.Three Key IngredientsTheir paper offers a three-pronged model to explain how rust might form in such an environment. For starters, while the Moon lacks an atmosphere, it is in fact home to trace amounts of oxygen. The source of that oxygen: our planet. Earth's magnetic fieldtrails behind the planet like a windsock. In 2007, Japan's Kaguya orbiter discovered that oxygen from Earth's upper atmosphere can hitch a ride on this trailing magnetotail, as it's officially known, traveling the 239,000 miles (385,00 kilometers) to the Moon.That discovery fits with data from M3, which found more hematite on the Moon's Earth-facing near side than on its far side. "This suggested that Earth's oxygen could be driving the formation of hematite," Li said. The Moon has been inching away from Earth for billions of years, so it's also possible that more oxygen hopped across this rift when the two were closer in the ancient past.Then there's the matter of all that hydrogen being delivered by the solar wind. As a reducer, hydrogen should prevent oxidation from occurring. But Earth's magnetotail has a mediating effect. Besides ferrying oxygen to the Moon from our home planet, it also blocks over 99% of the solar wind during certain periods of the Moon's orbit (specifically, whenever it's in the full Moon phase). That opens occasional windows during the lunar cycle when rust can form.The third piece of the puzzle is water. While most of the Moon is bone dry, water ice can be found in shadowed lunar craters on the Moon's far side. But the hematite was detected far from that ice. The paper instead focuses on water molecules found in the lunar surface. Li proposes that fast-moving dust particles that regularlypelt the Mooncould release these surface-borne water molecules, mixing them with iron in the lunar soil. Heat from these impacts could increase the oxidation rate; the dust particles themselves may also be carrying water molecules, implanting them into the surface so that they mix with iron. During just the right moments - namely, when the Moon is shielded from the solar wind and oxygen is present - a rust-inducing chemical reaction could occur.More data is needed to determine exactly how the water is interacting with rock. That data could also help explain another mystery: why smaller quantities of hematite are also forming on the far side of the Moon, where the Earth's oxygen shouldn't be able to reach it.More Science to ComeFraeman said this model may also explain hematite found on other airless bodies like asteroids. "It could be that little bits of water and the impact of dust particles are allowing iron in these bodies to rust," she said.Li noted that it's an exciting time for lunar science. Almost 50 years since the last Apollo landing, the Moon is a major destination again. NASA plans to send dozens of new instruments and technology experiments to study the Moon beginning next year, followed by human missions beginning in 2024 all as part of theArtemis program.JPL is also building a new version of M3 for an orbiter called Lunar Trailblazer. One of its instruments, the High-resolution Volatiles and Minerals Moon Mapper (HVM3), will be mapping water ice in permanently shadowed craters on the Moon, and may be able to reveal new details about hematite as well."I think these results indicate that there are more complex chemical processes happening in our solar system than have been previously recognized," Sun said. "We can understand them better by sending future missions to the Moon to test these hypotheses." |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/spaceset-gives-students-a-chance-to-design-a-mission-to-mars | 'Spaceset' Gives Students a Chance to Design a Mission to Mars | More than 150 students from throughout California have signed up to learn the intricacies of planning a space mission as part of the 12th annual Space Settlement Design Competition (Spaceset), to be held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 4-6. | More than 150 students from throughout California have signed up to learn the intricacies of planning a space mission as part of the 12th annual Space Settlement Design Competition (Spaceset), to be held at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on April 4-6.Sponsored by JPL Space Exploration Post 509, Spaceset aims to give both male and female students between the ages of 15 and 19 years old a chance to design, plan and present a detailed proposal for a space mission. This year's competition will involve the creation of a permanent human settlement on Mars in the year 2047, following last year's competition involving the creation of an orbiting colony around the red planet. The goal of the settlement will be the search for life on Mars, inspired by the 1996 discovery of a Martian meteorite reported to contain evidence of fossilized microbial life.The JPL Scout post has been active for 25 years. Exploration posts are affiliated with a particular field such as aerospace or medicine in order to give young people a firsthand experience working within those vocations. A committee composed of scientists and engineers from JPL, Boeing and Berkeley Systems Inc. developed this year's competition, and will comprise the panel that will judge the submitted proposals.Spaceset will begin on Friday, April 4, when the students are given a description of the competition and divided into five "companies," teams similar to actual aerospace companies. Companies will then divide up according to function, including human factors, automation, management, structures and dynamics involved in the successful completion of the project. The simulation will stress the importance of time restraints, creativity, organization and use of information in a mission proposal.On Saturday, professional engineers and scientists from JPL and elsewhere will give technical presentations to the students, explaining in detail the crucial elements necessary in the creation of a successful mission proposal. Throughout the remainder of the day, students will use computers loaned by Compaq to create and design a Martian colony and prepare their mission proposals. Proposals will be judged on Sunday, when students will also be given a tour of the JPL facility."Spaceset shows young people the reality of how engineering projects are done," said Peter Mason, member of the JPL technical staff and chairman of the JPL Scout post's committee. "Students work through a systems design very much like engineers at JPL would, and Spaceset can help teach them how to set goals and organize themselves effectively to achieve those goals."818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/keeping-current-with-ocean-currents | Keeping Current With Ocean Currents | Imagine a place where the roads change constantly and last month's map may be completely out of date. That's the ocean. | Imagine a place where the roads change constantly and last month's map may be completely out of date. That's the ocean.Knowing where the currents were a week ago won't help a ship captain chart the best course or a clean-up crew anticipate where an oil spill is heading nearly as much as knowing where the currents are today.Take Captain Karl Greig, for example, who skippers a large anchor-handling towing supply boat in the Gulf of Mexico. He works for Edison Chouest Offshore moving oil rigs from one spot to another as they search for oil and natural gas. Each rig comes with eight to 12 anchors along with heavy chain and steel cables. Top towing speed is two to four knots, about as fast as strong ocean currents.Greig needs up-to-the minute information on ocean currents and now he can get it, thanks to near real-time ocean altimetry. Greig now regularly taps into the Web site of the University of Colorado's Center for Astrodynamics Research, where the latest satellite measurements of sea surface height are used to create maps showing the location, direction and speed of currents in the Gulf of Mexico.Greig calculated that this information helped him shorten his towing time on one 724-kilometer (425-mile) tow trip last year by more than 50 hours. "I was able to adjust my course to avoid towing into the Loop Currents and to get one astern of us and increase our tow speed by almost two knots," says Greig. "That saved the company chartering the equipment a considerable amount of money."Currents follow the ocean's ever-changing landscape. The best way to map global ocean currents is from space with altimetry, measurements of sea surface topography. NASA satellites have been making continuous measurements of ocean altimetry since 1992 beginning with the launch of Topex/Poseiden followed by Jason. Now four different international satellites orbit Earth making continuous measurements of sea surface height. The data are available to the public free of charge.Scientists were quick to use altimetry data for studies ranging from long-term climate change to predicting the next El Niño. For most researchers, the month it took for satellite data to be downloaded, processed and delivered wasn't a problem.However, with the advent of near real-time altimetry data just a few years ago and Web sites that offer help in how to use it, a whole new group of people, such as Captain Greig, are taking advantage of this new information both for work and for pleasure. Near real-time altimetry, as global positioning has already done, is working its way from the military and scientific spheres into everyday life."I couldn't do my job without it," says oceanographer Jenifer Clark, "I use it all over the world for yacht races." Clark, who half jokingly calls herself "the AAA of the ocean," runs her own company preparing real-time ocean charts for sailboat racing, ocean cruising, fisheries and other uses. She uses a variety of sources, including buoys and satellite sea surface temperature measurements and altimetry, to create her charts.Near real-time altimetry data also helped Spanish authorities deal with the massive oil spill caused when the oil tanker Prestige broke apart and sank in November 2002. Within hours of the ship's sinking, the U.S. Navy's research laboratory began providing current information for those in charge of clean up. The laboratory now produces a daily 72-hour forecast of ocean currents for the area based on computer models that assimilate different types of satellite data, including sea-surface temperature measurements and ocean altimetry."It is critical to have near real-time observations," says Greg Jacobs, head of the Ocean Dynamics and Prediction Branch of the Naval Research Laboratory Stennis Space Center. "You have the same problems predicting ocean currents as predicting the weather. It's the 'butterfly effect' -- over time, a small change in one place can grow through time to completely alter the flow in another area," explains Jacobs. "If we didn't have constant observations, we wouldn't have any idea about what the currents or the weather would be like a week from now." The Naval Research Laboratory's public Web site has a wide range of users, including fishermen, sailors and oil companies, according to Jacobs.Sources of near real-time ocean altimetry are growing along with the number of users. However, being able to use satellite data does require skill. "The learning curve is pretty steep," says Robert Leben, associate research professor at the University of Colorado's Center for Astrodynamics Research. "The ocean is a complicated fluid system." Many altimetry data users, especially industry, turn to consultants to help them translate the data into the specific information they need, he says.But, he adds, learning to read satellite maps of ocean currents is not unlike learning to understand a weather map. "If you work at it, you can figure out how to get the information you're looking for," Leben says, "and there are a lot of resources on the Web to help." |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-spacecraft-reveal-comet-flyby-effects-on-martian-atmosphere | Mars Spacecraft Reveal Comet Flyby Effects on Martian Atmosphere | Two NASA and one European spacecraft that obtained the first up-close observations of a comet flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, have gathered new information. | Two NASA and one European spacecraft that obtained the first up-close observations of a comet flyby of Mars on Oct. 19, have gathered new information about the basic properties of the comet's nucleus and directly detected the effects on the Martian atmosphere.Data from observations carried out by NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission, NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), and a radar instrument on the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Mars Express spacecraft have revealed that debris from the comet added a temporary and very strong layer of ions to the ionosphere, the electrically charged layer high above Mars. In these observations, scientists were able to make a direct connection from the input of debris from a specific meteor shower to the formation of this kind of transient layer in response; that is a first on any planet, including Earth.Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring traveled from the most distant region of our solar system, called the Oort Cloud, and made a close approach around 2:27 p.m. EDT within about 87,000 miles (139,500 kilometers) of the Red Planet. This is less than half the distance between Earth and our moon and less than one-tenth the distance of any known comet flyby of Earth.Dust from the comet impacted Mars and was vaporized high in the atmosphere, producing what was likely an impressive meteor shower. This debris resulted in significant temporary changes to the planet's upper atmosphere and possible longer-term perturbations. Earth-based and a host of space telescopes also observed the unique celestial object."This historic event allowed us to observe the details of this fast-moving Oort Cloud comet in a way never before possible using our existing Mars missions," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "Observing the effects on Mars of the comet's dust slamming into the upper atmosphere makes me very happy that we decided to put our spacecraft on the other side of Mars at the peak of the dust tail passage and out of harm's way."The MAVEN spacecraft, recently arrived at Mars, detected the comet encounter in two ways. The remote-sensing Imaging Ultraviolet Spectrograph observed intense ultraviolet emission from magnesium and iron ions high in the atmosphere in the aftermath of the meteor shower. Not even the most intense meteor storms on Earth have produced as strong a response as this one. The emission dominated Mars' ultraviolet spectrum for several hours after the encounter and then dissipated over the next two days.MAVEN also was able to directly sample and determine the composition of some of the comet dust in Mars' atmosphere. Analysis of these samples by the spacecraft's Neutral Gas and Ion Mass Spectrometer detected eight different types of metal ions, including sodium, magnesium and iron. These are the first direct measurements of the composition of dust from an Oort Cloud comet. The Oort Cloud, well beyond the outer-most planets that surround our sun, is a spherical region of icy objects believed to be material left over from the formation of the solar system.Elsewhere above Mars, a joint U.S. and Italian instrument on Mars Express observed a huge increase in the density of electrons following the comet's close approach. This instrument, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS), saw a huge jump in the electron density in the ionosphere a few hours after the comet rendezvous. This spike occurred at a substantially lower altitude than the normal density peak in the Martian ionosphere. The increased ionization, like the effects observed by MAVEN, appears to be the result of fine particles from the comet burning up in the atmosphere.MRO's Shallow Subsurface Radar (SHARAD) also detected the enhanced ionosphere. Images from the instrument were smeared by the passage of the radar signals through the temporary ion layer created by the comet's dust. SHARAD scientists used this smearing to determine that the electron density of the ionosphere on the planet's night side, where the observations were made, was five to 10 times higher than usual.Studies of the comet itself, made with MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, revealed the nucleus is smaller than the expected 1.2 miles (2 kilometers). The HiRISE images also indicate a rotation period for the nucleus of eight hours, which is consistent with recent preliminary observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.MRO's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) also observed the comet to see whether signs of any particular chemical constituents stood out in its spectrum. Team members said the spectrum appears to show a dusty comet with no strong emission lines at their instrument's sensitivity.In addition to these immediate effects, MAVEN and the other missions will continue to look for long-term perturbations to Mars' atmosphere.MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics in Boulder, and NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Mars Express is a project of the European Space Agency; NASA and the Italian Space Agency jointly funded the MARSIS instrument.For more information about NASA's Mars missions, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mars |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-europa-clipper-mission-completes-main-body-of-the-spacecraft | NASA’s Europa Clipper Mission Completes Main Body of the Spacecraft | The agency’s mission to explore Jupiter’s icy moon takes a big step forward as engineers deliver a major component of the spacecraft. | The main body of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft has been delivered to the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Over the next two years there, engineers and technicians will finish assembling the craft by hand before testing it to make sure it can withstand the journey to Jupiter’s icy moon Europa.The spacecraft body is the mission’s workhorse. Standing 10 feet (3 meters) tall and 5 feet (1.5 meters) wide, it’s an aluminum cylinder integrated with electronics, radios, thermal loop tubing, cabling, and the propulsion system. With its solar arrays and other deployable equipment stowed for launch, Europa Clipper will be as large as an SUV; when extended, the solar arrays make the craft the size of a basketball court. It is the largest NASA spacecraft ever developed for a planetary mission.“It’s an exciting time for the whole project team and a huge milestone,” said Jordan Evans, the mission’s project manager at JPL. “This delivery brings us one step closer to launch and the Europa Clipper science investigation.”Set to launch in October 2024, Europa Clipper will conduct nearly 50 flybys ofEuropa, which scientists are confident harbors an internal ocean containing twice as much water as Earth’s oceans combined. And the ocean may currently have conditions suitable for supporting life. The spacecraft’s nine science instruments will gather data on Europa’s atmosphere, surface, and interior – information that scientists will use to gauge the depth and salinity of the ocean, the thickness of the ice crust, and potential plumes that may be venting subsurface water into space.This video captures the delivery of the core of NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft to the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory designed and built the spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThose instruments already have begun arriving at JPL, where the phase known as assembly, test, and launch operations has been underway since March. The ultraviolet spectrograph, calledEuropa-UVS, arrived in March. Next came the spacecraft’s thermal emission imaging instrument,E-THEMIS, delivered by the scientists and engineers leading its development at Arizona State University. E-THEMIS is a sophisticated infrared camera designed to map Europa’s temperatures and help scientists find clues about the moon’s geological activity – including regions where liquid water may be near the surface.By the end of 2022, most of the flight hardware and the remainder of the science instruments are expected to be complete.The Whole PackageThe Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, designed Europa Clipper’s body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The flight system designed, built, and tested by APL – using a team of hundreds of engineers and technicians – was the physically largest system ever built by APL,” said APL’s Tom Magner, the mission’s assistant project manager.The main body of NASA's Europa Clipper spacecraft is seen in its shipping container as it rolls into the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed WhitmanFull Image DetailsThe work on the main module continues now at JPL.“What arrived at JPL represents essentially an assembly phase unto itself. Under APL’s leadership, this delivery includes work by that institution and two NASA centers. Now the team will take the system to an even higher level of integration,” said Evans.The main structure is actually two stacked aluminum cylinders dotted with threaded holes for bolting on the spacecraft’s cargo: the radio frequency module, radiation monitors, propulsion electronics, power converters, and wiring. The radio frequency subsystem will power eight antennas, including an enormous high-gain antenna that measures 10 feet (3 meters) wide. The structure’s web of electrical wires and connectors, called the harness, weighs 150 pounds (68 kilograms) by itself; if stretched out, it would run almost 2,100 feet (640 meters) – twice the perimeter of a football field.See more images of Europa Clipper coming togetherThe heavy-duty electronics vault, built to withstand the intense radiation of the Jupiter system, will be integrated with the main spacecraft structure along with the science instruments.Inside the main body of the spacecraft are two tanks – one to hold fuel, one for oxidizer – and the tubing that will carry their contents to an array of 24 engines, where they will combine to create a controlled chemical reaction that produces thrust.“Our engines are dual purpose,” said JPL’s Tim Larson, the deputy project manager. “We use them for big maneuvers, including when we approach Jupiter and need a large burn to be captured in Jupiter’s orbit. But they’re also designed for smaller maneuvers to manage the attitude of the spacecraft and to fine tune the precision flybys of Europa and other solar system bodies along the way.”Those big and small maneuvers will come into play a lot during the six-year, 1.8-billion-mile (2.9-billion-kilometer) journey to this ocean world, which Europa Clipper will begin investigating in earnest in 2031.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERMore About the MissionMissions such as Europa Clipper contribute to the field ofastrobiology, the interdisciplinary research on the variables and conditions of distant worlds that could harbor life as we know it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa’s habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with APL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.More information about Europa can be found here:europa.nasa.gov |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/earth-approaching-asteroid-shape-determined | Earth-Approaching Asteroid Shape Determined | Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed new approach to old radar data and determined the shape of the large Earth-approaching asteroid, Eros. | Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed new approach to old radar data and determined the shape of the large Earth-approaching asteroid, Eros.Dr. Steven Ostro who, with two colleagues, wrote paper entitled "The Shape of Eros," said the radar observations were made at NASA's Goldstone facility in the California desert between Jan. 19 and 26, 1975.Ostro's co-authors were Dr. Raymond Jurgens and Keith Rosema. The paper, accepted for publication in the science journal Icarus, was scheduled for presentation Dec. 6 before the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.Eros was discovered in 1898 and was subsequently found to cross the orbit of Mars. It made its closest approach to Earth in this century in January 1975 at 14 million miles and was, few months later, favorably placed for observation with available astronomical techniques including radar.It was determined that Eros is nearly 22 miles long by 9 miles wide and 8 miles thick and rotates about its short axis so it appears to be tumbling end-over-end through space every 5 hours and 16 minutes.Ostro and his colleagues developed new theoretical approach to the 1975 radar data, called echo spectra, to define its shape as like rounded trapezoid, that is, with one of its long sides longer than the other. He said their work showed how to estimate the shape of the asteroid, develop error-analysis techniques, and study the relation between the accuracy of their estimate and the 1975 data set's signal-to-noise ratio.The earlier observations determined the asteroid has an iron-bearing silicate composition similar to minority of main belt asteroids and is probably identifiable with ordinary chondrites that make up the majority of Earth-striking meteorites.The research on Eros was carried out by the Caltech-JPL scientists under contract with NASA.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-administrator-visits-jpl-talks-exploration | NASA Administrator Visits JPL, Talks Exploration | NASA Administrator James Bridenstine toured and met with scientists and engineers at JPL on Monday, Aug. 27. | NASA
Administrator Jim
Bridenstine toured and met with scientists and engineers at the agency's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, on Monday, Aug. 27. At one
stop, he was briefed on the agency's next Mars landing, InSight, by team
members in the In-Situ Instrument Laboratory, where a full-scale engineering
model of the spacecraft is being tested in preparation for the mission's Nov.
26 landing on the Red Planet.Among the other stops in the administrator's day-long tour of JPL were
the Spacecraft Assembly Facility, where he saw the Mars 2020 rover mission
under construction; and the space simulator chamber where the Mars
Helicopter is being tested in a Mars-like atmosphere.The administrator was also briefed on the
Europa clipper mission and on JPL-led Earth research and missions.InSight, which stands for Interior
Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, will
study the deep interior of Mars to learn how all rocky planets formed,
including Earth and its Moon. The lander's instruments include a seismometer to
detect marsquakes, and a probe that will monitor the flow of heat from the
planet's interior.Mars 2020 is targeted for launch in July 2020 aboard an Atlas V 541 rocket
from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
The rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars,
determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient
Martian life, and assess natural resources and hazards for future human
explorers. Additionally, scientists will use the instruments aboard the rover
to identify and collect samples of rock and soil, encase them in sealed tubes
and leave them on the surface of Mars for potential return to Earth by a future
mission to the Red Planet. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/yeomans-to-lead-us-science-team-on-asteroid-lander-mission | Yeomans to Lead U.S. Science Team on Asteroid Lander Mission | Astronomer Dr. Donald K. Yeomans has been named project scientist for the NASA portion of a joint U.S.-Japanese mission that will be the first ever to send a lander and robotic rover to an asteroid, and return an asteroid sample back to Earth. | Astronomer Dr. Donald K. Yeomans has been named project scientist for the NASA portion of a joint U.S.-Japanese mission that will be the first ever to send a lander and robotic rover to an asteroid, and return an asteroid sample back to Earth.Yeomans is a senior research scientist at JPL and supervisor of the Laboratory's Solar System Dynamics Group, which is responsible for tracking all the planets, natural satellites, comets and asteroids in the solar system. He specializes in identifying the orbital paths of comets, asteroids and other bodies. Yeomans will lead the work of the U.S. science team in utilizing the scientific instruments on the tiny book-size rover being built at JPL for the asteroid lander mission, which is called MUSES-C. The U.S. and Japanese science teams will collaborate on the analysis of scientific data returned by the spacecraft, including work on the asteroid sample that will be brought back to Earth.Scheduled for launch from Kagoshima, Japan on a Japanese M5 rocket in January 2002, MUSES-C will be the world's first asteroid sample return mission and will be the first space flight demonstration of several new technologies. "MUSES-C" stands for Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft (the "C" signifies that it is the third in a series). It is part of a series of flight technology and science missions managed by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of Japan (ISAS). NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, is managing the U.S. portion of the mission. Ross M. Jones is the project manager at JPL.Asteroid 4660 Nereus, a small, near-Earth asteroid nearly one mile in diameter, is the target of the MUSES-C mission that will set a lander down on the asteroid's surface, let loose a miniature rover to gather photos of the terrain, and collect and return to Earth three samples from the asteroid's surface. The lander and sample return vehicles are provided by Japan and the rover is being provided by JPL. All three vehicles will be combined as one package for flight to the asteroid.Asteroids are thought to be remnants of the material from which the inner solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago. They are representative of the fundamental building blocks that coalesced into the terrestrial planets -- Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. Scientists want to study asteroids because of the clues these small bodies may hold to the origin and evolution of the solar system. Eventually, metal-rich asteroids could also serve as resources for space mining and human exploration.Yeomans is well-known for his precise orbit determinations of solar system objects. He provided the accurate position predictions that led to the first telescope sighting of comet Halley on its return visit to the inner solar system in 1982. He provided the predictions that led to the successful flybys of five international spacecraft past comet Halley in March 1986. Yeomans also provided the position predictions for asteroids 951 Gaspra and 243 Ida that helped the Galileo spacecraft to make the first close-up images of an asteroid. More recently, he worked with Dr. Paul Chodas, also of JPL, to provide the accurate predictions for the impacts of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in July 1994. Yeomans is currently a science investigator on a NASA mission to fly past three different comets. He is also the radio science team chief for NASA's Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission, a spacecraft headed for an encounter with the asteroid Eros.Yeomans has been given seven NASA awards including an Exceptional Service Medal in 1986. In addition, he was presented with a Space Achievement Award by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, an award of appreciation by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. Asteroid 2956 was re-named 2956 in Yeomans' honor. He has authored four books and more than 80 technical papers on comets and asteroids.A native of Rochester, NY, Yeomans received his bachelor's degree in mathematics in 1964 from Middlebury College in Middlebury, VT, and a master's degree in 1967 and doctorate in astronomy in 1970 from the University of Maryland. Yeomans and his wife, Laurie, have two adult children and reside in La Canada-Flintridge, CAJPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.818-354-5011 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/asteroid-hunting-spacecraft-delivers-a-second-year-of-data | Asteroid-Hunting Spacecraft Delivers a Second Year of Data | NASA's NEOWISE spacecraft discovered 72 near-Earth objects out of 439 characterized in its first two years of operations. | NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) mission has released its second year of survey data. The spacecraft has now characterized a total of 439 NEOs since the mission was re-started in December 2013. Of these, 72 were new discoveries.Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) are comets and asteroids that have been nudged by the gravitational attraction of the giant planets in our solar system into orbits that allow them to enter Earth's neighborhood. Eight of the objects discovered in the past year have been classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs), based on their size and how closely their orbits approach Earth.With the release to the public of its second year of data, NASA's NEOWISE spacecraft completed another milestone in its mission to discover, track and characterize the asteroids and comets that approach closest to Earth.Since beginning its survey in December 2013, NEOWISE has measured more than 19,000 asteroids and comets at infrared wavelengths. More than 5.1 million infrared images of the sky were collected in the last year. A new movie, based on the data collected, depicts asteroids and comets observed so far by NEOWISE."By studying the distribution of lighter- and darker-colored material, NEOWISE data give us a better understanding of the origins of the NEOs, originating from either different parts of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or the icier comet populations," said James Bauer, the mission's deputy principal investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.Originally called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the spacecraft was launched in December 2009. It was placed in hibernation in 2011 after its primary mission was completed. In September 2013, it was reactivated, renamed NEOWISE and assigned a new mission: to assist NASA's efforts to identify the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. NEOWISE also is characterizing previously known asteroids and comets to provide information about their sizes and compositions."NEOWISE discovers large, dark, near-Earth objects, complementing our network of ground-based telescopes operating at visible-light wavelengths. On average, these objects are many hundreds of meters across," said Amy Mainzer of JPL, NEOWISE principal investigator. NEOWISE has discovered 250 new objects since its restart, including 72 near-Earth objects and four new comets.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the NEOWISE mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.For more information about NEOWISE, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/neowiseMore information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/distant-planet-may-be-on-its-second-atmosphere-nasas-hubble-finds | Distant Planet May Be on Its Second Atmosphere, NASA’s Hubble Finds | Transformed from a gaseous planet like Neptune to a hot, rocky world with a poisonous atmosphere, GJ 1132 b shows that planets can undergo drastic physical changes. | Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that a planet orbiting a distant star may have lost its atmosphere but gained a second one through volcanic activity.The planet, GJ 1132 b, is hypothesized to have begun as a gaseous world with a thick hydrogen blanket of atmosphere. Starting out at several times the diameter of Earth, this so-called “sub-Neptune” is believed to have quickly lost its primordial hydrogen and helium atmosphere due to the intense radiation of the hot, young star it orbits. In a short period of time, such a planet would be stripped down to a bare core about the size of Earth. That’s when things got interesting.To the surprise of astronomers, Hubble observed an atmosphere which, according to their theory, is a “secondary atmosphere” that is present now. Based on a combination of direct observational evidence and inference through computer modeling, the team reports that the atmosphere consists of molecular hydrogen, hydrogen cyanide, methane and also contains an aerosol haze. Modeling suggests the aerosol haze is based on photochemically produced hydrocarbons, similar to smog on Earth.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERScientists interpret the current atmospheric hydrogen in GJ 1132 b as hydrogen from the original atmosphere which was absorbed into the planet’s molten magma mantle and is now being slowly released through volcanic processes to form a new atmosphere. The atmosphere we see today is believed to be continually replenished to balance the hydrogen escaping into space.“It’s super-exciting because we believe the atmosphere that we see now was regenerated, so it could be a secondary atmosphere,” said study co-author Raissa Estrela of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California. “We first thought that these highly irradiated planets could be pretty boring because we believed that they lost their atmospheres. But we looked at existing observations of this planet with Hubble and said, ‘Oh no, there is an atmosphere there.’”Scientists using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that a planet orbiting a distant star that may have lost its atmosphere but gained a second one through volcanic activity.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Robert HurtThe findings could have implications for otherexoplanets, planets beyond our solar system.“How many terrestrial planets don’t begin as terrestrials? Some may start as sub-Neptunes, and they become terrestrials through a mechanism that photo-evaporates the primordial atmosphere. This process works early in a planet’s life, when the star is hotter,” said lead author Mark Swain of JPL. “Then the star cools down and the planet’s just sitting there. So you’ve got this mechanism where you can cook off the atmosphere in the first 100 million years, and then things settle down. And if you can regenerate the atmosphere, maybe you can keep it.”In some ways GJ 1132 b, located about 41 light-years from Earth, has tantalizing parallels to Earth, but in some ways it is very different. Both have similar densities, similar sizes, and similar ages, being about 4.5 billion years old. Both started with a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere, and both were hot before they cooled down. The team’s work even suggests that GJ 1132 b and Earth have similar atmospheric pressure at the surface.But the planets have profoundly different formation histories. Earth is not believed to be the surviving core of a sub-Neptune. And Earth orbits at a comfortable distance from our Sun. GJ 1132 b is so close to its red dwarf star that it completes an orbit around its host star once every day and a half. This extremely close proximity keeps GJ 1132 b tidally locked, showing the same face to its star at all times – just as our Moon keeps one hemisphere permanently facing Earth.“The question is, what is keeping the mantle hot enough to remain liquid and power volcanism?” asked Swain. “This system is special because it has the opportunity for quite a lot of tidal heating.”Tidal heating is a phenomenon that occurs through friction, when energy from a planet’s orbit and rotation is dispersed as heat inside the planet. GJ 1132 b is in an elliptical orbit, and the tidal forces acting on it are strongest when it is closest to or farthest from its host star. At least one other planet in the host star’s system also gravitationally pulls on the planet.The consequences are that the planet is squeezed or stretched through this gravitational “pumping.” That tidal heating keeps the mantle liquid for a long time. A nearby example in our own solar system is Jupiter’s moon Io, which has continuous volcanic activity due to a tidal tug-of-war from Jupiter and the neighboring Jovian moons.Given GJ 1132 b’s hot interior, the team believes the planet’s cooler, overlying crust is extremely thin, perhaps only hundreds of feet thick. That’s much too feeble to support anything resembling volcanic mountains. Its flat terrain may also be cracked like an eggshell due to tidal flexing. Hydrogen and other gases could be released through such cracks.NASA’s upcomingJames Webb Space Telescopehas the ability to observe this exoplanet. Webb’s infrared vision may allow scientists to see down to the planet’s surface. “If there are magma pools or volcanism going on, those areas will be hotter,” explained Swain. “That will generate more emission, and so they’ll be looking potentially at the actual geologic activity – which is exciting!”The team’s findings will be published an upcoming issue ofThe Astronomical Journal. |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-perseverance-sheds-more-light-on-jezero-craters-watery-past | NASA’s Perseverance Sheds More Light on Jezero Crater’s Watery Past | Pictures from NASA’s latest six-wheeler on the Red Planet suggest the area’s history experienced significant flooding events. | A new paper from the science team of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover details how the hydrological cycle of the now-dry lake at Jezero Crater is more complicated and intriguing than originally thought. The findings are based on detailed imaging the rover provided of long, steep slopes called escarpments, or scarps in the delta, which formed from sediment accumulating at the mouth of an ancient river that long ago fed the crater’s lake.The images reveal that billions of years ago, when Mars had an atmosphere thick enough to support water flowing across its surface, Jezero’s fan-shaped river delta experienced late-stage flooding events that carried rocks and debris into it from the highlands well outside the crater.This image of “Kodiak” – one remnant of the fan-shaped deposit of sediments inside Mars’ Jezero Crater known as the delta – was taken by Perseverance’s Mastcam-Z instrument on Feb. 22, 2021.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSSFull Image DetailsTaken by the rover’s left and rightMastcam-Z camerasas well as its Remote Micro-Imager, or RMI (part of theSuperCam instrument), they also provide insight into where the rover could best hunt for rock and sediment samples, including those that may contain organic compounds and other evidence that life once existed there.The rover team has long planned to visit the delta because of its potential for harboring signs of ancient microbial life. One of the mission’s primary goals is to collect samples that could be brought to Earth by the multi-missionMars Sample Returneffort, enabling scientists to analyze the material with powerful lab equipment too large to bring to Mars.The paper on Perseverance’s scarp imagery – the first research to be published with data acquired after the rover’s Feb. 18landing– was released online today in the journal Science.“This is the key observation that enables us to once and for all confirm the presence of a lake and river delta at Jezero.”Perseverance’s ‘Kodiak’ MomentAt the time the images were taken, the scarps were to the northwest of the rover and about 1.2 miles (2.2 kilometers) away. Southwest of the rover, and at about the same distance, lies another prominent rock outcrop the team calls “Kodiak.” In its ancient past, Kodiak was at the southern edge of the delta, which would have been an intact geologic structure at the time.Prior to Perseverance’s arrival, Kodiak had been imaged only from orbit. From the surface, the rover’s Mastcam-Z and RMI images revealed for the first time the stratigraphy – the order and position of rock layers, which provides information about the relative timing of geological deposits – along Kodiak’s eastern face. The inclined and horizontal layering there is what a geologist would expect to see in a river delta on Earth.“Never before has such well-preserved stratigraphy been visible on Mars,” said Nicolas Mangold, a Perseverance scientist from the Laboratoire de Planétologie et Géodynamique in Nantes, France, and lead author of the paper. “This is the key observation that enables us to once and for all confirm the presence of a lake and river delta at Jezero. Getting a better understanding of the hydrology months in advance of our arrival at the delta is going to pay big dividends down the road.”While the Kodiak results are significant, it is the tale told by the images of the scarps to the northeast that came as the greatest surprise to the rover science team.The top mosaic of Jezero Crater’s river delta was stitched together from multiple images taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover on Apr. 17, 2021. The bottom annotated image highlights the location of four prominent long, steep slopes known as escarpments, or scarps.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSSMoving BouldersImagery of those scarps showed layering similar to Kodiak’s on their lower halves. But farther up each of their steep walls and on top, Mastcam-Z and RMI captured stones and boulders.“We saw distinct layers in the scarps containing boulders up to 5 feet [1.5 meters] across that we knew had no business being there,” said Mangold.Those layers mean the slow, meandering waterway that fed the delta must have been transformed by later, fast-moving flash floods. Mangold and the science team estimate that a torrent of water needed to transport the boulders – some for tens of miles – would have to travel at speeds ranging from 4 to 20 mph (6 to 30 kph).“These results also have an impact on the strategy for the selection of rocks for sampling,” said Sanjeev Gupta, a Perseverance scientist from Imperial College, London, and a co-author of the paper. “The finest-grained material at the bottom of the delta probably contains our best bet for finding evidence of organics and biosignatures. And the boulders at the top will enable us to sample old pieces of crustal rocks. Both are main objectives for sampling and caching rocks before Mars Sample Return.”Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERA Lake of Changing DepthsEarly in the history of the Jezero Crater’s former lake, its levels are thought to have been high enough to crest the crater’s eastern rim, where orbital imagery shows the remains of an outflow river channel. The new paper adds to this thinking, describing the size of Jezero’s lake fluctuating greatly over time, its water level rising and falling by tens of yards before the body of water eventually disappeared altogether.While it’s unknown if these swings in the water level resulted from flooding or more gradual environmental changes, the science team has determined that they occurred later in the Jezero delta’s history, when lake levels were at least 330 feet (100 meters) below the lake’s highest level. And the team is looking forward to making more insights in the future: The delta will be the starting point for the rover team’s upcoming second science campaign next year.“A better understanding of Jezero’s delta is a key to understanding the change in hydrology for the area,” said Gupta, “and it could potentially provide valuable insights into why the entire planet dried out.”More About PerseveranceA key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars isastrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includesArtemismissions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more about Perseverance:mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/andnasa.gov/perseverance |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-grace-gravity-mission-weighs-in-on-earths-changing-climate | NASA's Grace Gravity Mission Weighs in on Earth's Changing Climate | For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that precise measurements of Earth's changing gravity field can effectively monitor changes in the planet's climate and weather. | For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that precise measurements of Earth's changing gravity field can effectively monitor changes in the planet's climate and weather.This finding comes from more than a year's worth of data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment, or Grace. Grace is a two-spacecraft, joint partnership of NASA and the German Aerospace Center.Results published in the journal Science show that monthly changes in the distribution of water and ice masses could be estimated by measuring changes in Earth's gravity field. The Grace data measured the weight of up to 10 centimeters (four inches) of groundwater accumulations from heavy tropical rains, particularly in the Amazon basin and Southeast Asia. Smaller signals caused by changes in ocean circulation were also visible.Launched in March 2002, Grace tracks changes in Earth's gravity field. Grace senses minute variations in gravitational pull from local changes in Earth's mass. To do this, Grace measures, to one-hundredth the width of a human hair, changes in the separation of two identical spacecraft in the same orbit approximately 220 kilometers (137 miles) apart.Grace maps these variations from month to month, following changes imposed by the seasons, weather patterns and short-term climate change. Understanding how Earth's mass varies over time is an important component necessary to study changes in global sea level, polar ice mass, deep ocean currents, and depletion and recharge of continental aquifers.Grace monthly maps are up to 100 times more accurate than existing ones, substantially improving the accuracy of many techniques used by oceanographers, hydrologists, glaciologists, geologists and other scientists to study phenomena that influence climate."Measurements of surface water in large, inaccessible river basins have been difficult to acquire, while underground aquifers and deep ocean currents have been nearly impossible to measure," said Dr. Byron Tapley, Grace principal investigator at the University of Texas Center for Space Research in Austin, Texas. "Grace gives us a powerful new tool to track how water moves from one place to another, influencing climate and weather. These initial results give us great confidence Grace will make critical contributions to climate research in the coming years," he added."The unparalleled accuracy of the Grace measurements opens a number of new scientific perspectives," said Dr. Christoph Reigber of GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam in Germany. "Observations of mass variations over the oceans will assist in interpreting annual signals in long-term sea-level change that have become an important climate change indicator," Reigber said.Dr. Michael Watkins, Grace project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said the results mark the birth of a new field of remote sensing. "Over the past 20 years, we've made primitive measurements of changes in Earth's gravity field over scales of thousands of kilometers, but this is the first time we've been able to demonstrate gravity measurements can be truly useful for climate monitoring," he said."The Grace gravity measurements will be combined with water models to sketch an exceptionally accurate picture of water distribution around the globe. Together with other NASA spacecraft, Grace will help scientists better understand the global water cycle and its changes," Watkins added.The University of Texas Center for Space Research has overall mission responsibility. German mission elements are the responsibility of GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam. Science data processing, distribution, archiving and product verification are managed under a cooperative arrangement between JPL, the University of Texas and GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam.For more information about Grace on the Internet, visithttp://www.csr.utexas.edu/graceorhttp://www.gfz-potsdam.de/grace. For information about NASA programs on the Internet, visithttp://www.nasa.gov.Other public affairs points of contact for Grace partner organizations include Margaret Baguio at the University of Texas, Austin, at (512) 471-6922; Vanadis Weber, German Aerospace Center, at 49 (0) 2203/601-3068; and Franz Ossing, GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam, at 49 (331) 288-1040.JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.Alan Buis (818) 354-0474Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.Gretchen Cook-Anderson (202) 358-0836NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.2004-224 |
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-will-study-ideas-to-transform-earth-observations | NASA Will Study Ideas to Transform Earth Observations | NASA's New Millennium program has selected four concepts for further study as candidates for its Earth Observing 3 (EO-3) mission, technologies that could revolutionize space-based Earth observations, according to Dr. Ghassem Asrar, NASA's Associate Administrator for Earth Science. Each concept is designed to test innovative approaches for observing Earth's surface and atmosphere from positions outside low-Earth orbits, with an emphasis on advanced measurement technologies. | NASA's New Millennium program has selected four concepts for further study as candidates for its Earth Observing 3 (EO-3) mission, technologies that could revolutionize space-based Earth observations, according to Dr. Ghassem Asrar, NASA's Associate Administrator for Earth Science. Each concept is designed to test innovative approaches for observing Earth's surface and atmosphere from positions outside low-Earth orbits, with an emphasis on advanced measurement technologies.The primary goal of the New Millennium program is to identify, develop and validate key instrument and spacecraft technologies that can lower cost and increase performance of science missions in the 21st century."The technologies under consideration for these missions will revolutionize space-based Earth observations, due to their unique spatial, spectral and temporal characteristics, and capture aspects not previously possible of the Earth's dynamic atmosphere," said Asrar.The selected concepts are:Active large aperture optical systems to provide high resolution thermal imaging from geosynchronous orbit, proposed by Del Jenstrom, manager of Advanced Geosynchronous Studies at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, which will lead this study.Geostationary synthetic aperture microwave sounder, proposed by Dr. Bjorn Lambrigtsen, a senior member of the technical staff in the Earth and Planetary Atmospheres Research Element at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, which will lead this study.Geostationary imaging Fourier transforming spectrometer, proposed by Dr. William L. Smith, chief of the Atmospheric Science Division at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, which will lead the study.Geostationary tropospheric trace-gas imager, proposed by Dr. Jack Fishman, a member of the Atmospheric Science Division of the Langley Research Center. Dr. Fishman will work with Dr. James F. Gleason, a member of the Laboratory of Atmospheres at Goddard, with Langley leading the study.These concepts were selected from 24 proposals submitted in response to a NASA Research Announcement released in September 1997. The selection process included evaluations of each proposal by external science and technology peer reviewers, along with two panel sessions with leading NASA scientists and technologists to categorize each proposal.Each of the concept providers is responsible for forming a team to conduct a six-month study effort, at the end of which they will each produce peer-reviewed study reports. At least one will be selected by the Office of Earth Science to enter the full implementation phase. Final selection is targeted for September 1999.The first New Millennium program Earth-orbiting mission, Earth Observing-1 (EO-1), is scheduled for launch in December 1999. It will demonstrate an advanced land imager system and hyperspectral imaging technologies that may eventually replace the current measurement approach used by Landsat satellites. Further information about EO-1 is available at URL:http://eo1.gsfc.nasa.gov/NUwww/miscPages/home.htmlEarth Observing-2 will fly an infrared laser in the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle to demonstrate the capabilities of a space-based lidar to accurately measure atmospheric winds from the Earth's surface to a height of about ten miles. This flight is scheduled for launch in early 2001. Details are available at URL:http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/sparcle/The New Millennium program is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for NASA's Office of Space Science and Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. Further information about the New Millennium program is available at URL:http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.818-354-5011 |