Featured Posts
Lunar Networks
23 Jun 2010, 19:31 UTC
Impact melt flow split into two distinct segments. The source crater is 2.5 km to the south in the Steno-Tikhomirov region of the northern Far Side highlands (ENE of Mare Moscoviense). The field of view is 900 meters. The LROC Narrow Angle Camera frame M112902715L was imaged in LRO orbit 1772, last November 15, from 55 km over 30.02°N, 160.99°E. The forked impact melt flow is one of numerous exciting geologic features found on the Far Side. [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. B. Ray Hawke LROC News System Young, Copernican-aged lunar impact craters exhibit spectacular deposits of lava-like material produced by shock melting in and around the craters. These lunar impact melts are observed as thin, hard-rock veneers, flows, and ponds. Today's Featured Image highlights a spectacular example of a large impact melt flow that flowed from a young small highlands crater (~3.1 km in diameter). The distal portion of this curved impact melt flow splits into two separate flows (opening image) about 2.5 km from the crater rim. What caused this impact melt flow to fork? Local topography most likely influenced the impact melt flow path. At the point where the two flows diverge, the main flow is 320 m wide. ...
LROC: Forked flow on the Far Side
23 Jun 2010, 19:31 UTC
Impact melt flow split into two distinct segments. The source crater is 2.5 km to the south in the Steno-Tikhomirov region of the northern Far Side highlands (ENE of Mare Moscoviense). The field of view is 900 meters. The LROC Narrow Angle Camera frame M112902715L was imaged in LRO orbit 1772, last November 15, from 55 km over 30.02°N, 160.99°E. The forked impact melt flow is one of numerous exciting geologic features found on the Far Side. [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University]. B. Ray Hawke LROC News System Young, Copernican-aged lunar impact craters exhibit spectacular deposits of lava-like material produced by shock melting in and around the craters. These lunar impact melts are observed as thin, hard-rock veneers, flows, and ponds. Today's Featured Image highlights a spectacular example of a large impact melt flow that flowed from a young small highlands crater (~3.1 km in diameter). The distal portion of this curved impact melt flow splits into two separate flows (opening image) about 2.5 km from the crater rim. What caused this impact melt flow to fork? Local topography most likely influenced the impact melt flow path. At the point where the two flows diverge, the main flow is 320 m wide. ...
HobbySpace Blog
23 Jun 2010, 18:23 UTC
A reader sends a cool picture of a skydiver falling at the same time that a Space Shuttle is lifting off in the background: jpeg
Snapshot of Shuttle and skydiver
23 Jun 2010, 18:23 UTC
A reader sends a cool picture of a skydiver falling at the same time that a Space Shuttle is lifting off in the background: jpeg
Bad Astronomy
23 Jun 2010, 18:04 UTC
After yesterday’s depressing picture, how about one that will make you smile? The ever-amazing Cassini spacecraft sent back this pretty nifty shot of Saturn’s icy moon Rhea playing peekaboo in the rings: Beautiful, isn’t it? You can see that Rhea was on the other side of the rings from Cassini when this image was taken, and that the spacecraft was almost, but not quite, in the plane of the rings, too. But there’s more to this shot… Take a closer look. What’s that, hiding in a gap in the rings, apparently hovering over Rhea’s terminator (the line dividing day and night)? Surprise! It’s Prometheus, a tiny potato orbiting the planet much closer in. It’s far smaller than Rhea, only about 120 km (75 miles) long versus Rhea’s 1530 km (950 miles) diameter. Rhea is Saturn’s second largest moon — only Titan is bigger — and one of the ten biggest moons in the entire solar system. Prometheus, on the other hand, is so small it wasn’t even discovered until the Voyager 1 probe spotted it in 1980. Nice. And I’m sure there’s science galore to be extracted from this image, but sometimes I think pictures like this will have a ...
The bringer of fire, hiding in the rings
23 Jun 2010, 18:04 UTC
After yesterday’s depressing picture, how about one that will make you smile? The ever-amazing Cassini spacecraft sent back this pretty nifty shot of Saturn’s icy moon Rhea playing peekaboo in the rings: Beautiful, isn’t it? You can see that Rhea was on the other side of the rings from Cassini when this image was taken, and that the spacecraft was almost, but not quite, in the plane of the rings, too. But there’s more to this shot… Take a closer look. What’s that, hiding in a gap in the rings, apparently hovering over Rhea’s terminator (the line dividing day and night)? Surprise! It’s Prometheus, a tiny potato orbiting the planet much closer in. It’s far smaller than Rhea, only about 120 km (75 miles) long versus Rhea’s 1530 km (950 miles) diameter. Rhea is Saturn’s second largest moon — only Titan is bigger — and one of the ten biggest moons in the entire solar system. Prometheus, on the other hand, is so small it wasn’t even discovered until the Voyager 1 probe spotted it in 1980. Nice. And I’m sure there’s science galore to be extracted from this image, but sometimes I think pictures like this will have a ...
Astronomy.com Blog
23 Jun 2010, 18:00 UTC
Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) was just visible to the naked eye at the time of this image. Developer Gene Turner photographed the comet as it passed through the constellation Perseus the Hero near the 4th-magnitude star Mu Persei June 17, 2010. Gene Turner photoDeveloper Gene Turner awakened early the morning of June 17, and the image on this page is the result. To capture Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught), he used the Astronomy Magazine Observatory that he constructed in 2009. That facility sits within the astronomy and equestrian village at Rancho Hidalgo near Animas, New Mexico. This image was a single 200-second exposure through a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi DSLR. The camera rode on Turner’s HyperStar-equipped 14-inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. “I didn’t have a chance to fully process the image to eliminate the morning twilight glow,” Turner said, “but this will at least give you an idea of the field of view we can get with this system.” When Turner shot the comet June 17, McNaught shone at magnitude 5.8, which made it a moderately difficult target to spot without optical aid from a dark site. The bright star in the image is magnitude 4.1 Mu (µ) Persei. Comparing ...
Comet McNaught glows over Astronomy’s observatory
23 Jun 2010, 18:00 UTC
Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught) was just visible to the naked eye at the time of this image. Developer Gene Turner photographed the comet as it passed through the constellation Perseus the Hero near the 4th-magnitude star Mu Persei June 17, 2010. Gene Turner photoDeveloper Gene Turner awakened early the morning of June 17, and the image on this page is the result. To capture Comet C/2009 R1 (McNaught), he used the Astronomy Magazine Observatory that he constructed in 2009. That facility sits within the astronomy and equestrian village at Rancho Hidalgo near Animas, New Mexico. This image was a single 200-second exposure through a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi DSLR. The camera rode on Turner’s HyperStar-equipped 14-inch Meade LX200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. “I didn’t have a chance to fully process the image to eliminate the morning twilight glow,” Turner said, “but this will at least give you an idea of the field of view we can get with this system.” When Turner shot the comet June 17, McNaught shone at magnitude 5.8, which made it a moderately difficult target to spot without optical aid from a dark site. The bright star in the image is magnitude 4.1 Mu (µ) Persei. Comparing ...
Tom's Astronomy Blog
23 Jun 2010, 16:34 UTC
The caption on the image is right from the Phoenix site. Here’s my question: Could the super cold combined with the weight of the frozen out carbon dioxide really cause it to break? The article suggest hundreds of pounds of ice could have accumulated on the lander during the winter. Seems like a lot of [...] Two images of the Phoenix Mars lander taken from Martian orbit in 2008 and 2010. The 2008 lander image (left) shows two relatively blue spots on either side corresponding to the spacecraft's clean circular solar panels. In the 2010 (right) image scientists see a dark shadow that could be the lander body and eastern solar panel, but no shadow from the western solar panel. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona The caption on the image is right from the Phoenix site. Here’s my question: Could the super cold combined with the weight of the frozen out carbon dioxide really cause it to break? The article suggest hundreds of pounds of ice could have accumulated on the lander during the winter. Seems like a lot of build up, they’re the experts. Oh well, fun to think about if nothing else. The outcome is the same and ...
Phoenix Mission Over
23 Jun 2010, 16:34 UTC
The caption on the image is right from the Phoenix site. Here’s my question: Could the super cold combined with the weight of the frozen out carbon dioxide really cause it to break? The article suggest hundreds of pounds of ice could have accumulated on the lander during the winter. Seems like a lot of [...] Two images of the Phoenix Mars lander taken from Martian orbit in 2008 and 2010. The 2008 lander image (left) shows two relatively blue spots on either side corresponding to the spacecraft's clean circular solar panels. In the 2010 (right) image scientists see a dark shadow that could be the lander body and eastern solar panel, but no shadow from the western solar panel. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona The caption on the image is right from the Phoenix site. Here’s my question: Could the super cold combined with the weight of the frozen out carbon dioxide really cause it to break? The article suggest hundreds of pounds of ice could have accumulated on the lander during the winter. Seems like a lot of build up, they’re the experts. Oh well, fun to think about if nothing else. The outcome is the same and ...
13.7
23 Jun 2010, 15:01 UTC
There are some critical, crossroads problems in science that just refuse to go away. They linger like ghosts haunting researchers for decades and eluding all attempts at resolution. by Adam Frank There are some critical, crossroads problems in science that just refuse to go away. They linger like ghosts haunting researchers for decades and eluding all attempts at resolution. Entire careers are spent searching for an answer and sometime entire lifetimes go by without that answer found. But every so often one of those vexing problems on which so much depends falls to human effort and ingenuity. Today may be one of those days. Supernova, the apocalyptic explosions of massive stars, are the brightest most energetic events in the Cosmos second only to the Big Bang which birthed the Universe itself. Visible from across the Universe Supernovae result from the self-immolation of stars. More than fireworks supernova matter acting as nuclear forges that create many of the heavy elements on which life depends. But living at the heart of these beasts is a mystery that 50 years and untold effort has been unable to solve. Until perhaps today. When a massive star (more than 8 times the sun mass) reaches ...
Blowing Up Stars: A 50 Year Old Question Goes Down?
23 Jun 2010, 15:01 UTC
There are some critical, crossroads problems in science that just refuse to go away. They linger like ghosts haunting researchers for decades and eluding all attempts at resolution. by Adam Frank There are some critical, crossroads problems in science that just refuse to go away. They linger like ghosts haunting researchers for decades and eluding all attempts at resolution. Entire careers are spent searching for an answer and sometime entire lifetimes go by without that answer found. But every so often one of those vexing problems on which so much depends falls to human effort and ingenuity. Today may be one of those days. Supernova, the apocalyptic explosions of massive stars, are the brightest most energetic events in the Cosmos second only to the Big Bang which birthed the Universe itself. Visible from across the Universe Supernovae result from the self-immolation of stars. More than fireworks supernova matter acting as nuclear forges that create many of the heavy elements on which life depends. But living at the heart of these beasts is a mystery that 50 years and untold effort has been unable to solve. Until perhaps today. When a massive star (more than 8 times the sun mass) reaches ...
Aviation Week: On Space
23 Jun 2010, 11:57 UTC
Although designed for use in orbit, spacecraft propulsion systems are not immune to the increasing demand to be environmentally responsible - at least while still on the ground. And "green advanced spacecraft propulsion" (aka Green ASP) is one of the topics of a US Air Force Research Laboratory industry day scheduled for June 30.The industry day is to brief potential bidders on an upcoming call for proposals on liquid rocket engine technology development. Green ASP is one of the topics. The others are health assessment and recognition tools (HART) for reusable booster engines and propulsion units for cubesats (PUC).Cal Poly's CP-4 cubesat in orbit. (Photo: Aerospace Corp.)AFRL is pursuing chemical propulsion systems with increased energy density and decreased toxicity to support the development of more easily deployable spacecraft with smaller logistics footprints. The lab has developed a monopropellant meeting the requirements, and the Green ASP program is planned to lead to testing of a prototype flight-weight thruster to demonstrate its performance.HART, meanwhile, is to develop sensors and algorithms that will enable an oxygen-rich, staged-combustion-cycle engine to meet the Air Force's turnaround-time goals for a reusable booster. The health sensors would eliminate time-consuming inspections of the turbopump and thrust chamber, says ...
Green Spacecraft, Healthy Rockets, Cubesat Power
23 Jun 2010, 11:57 UTC
Although designed for use in orbit, spacecraft propulsion systems are not immune to the increasing demand to be environmentally responsible - at least while still on the ground. And "green advanced spacecraft propulsion" (aka Green ASP) is one of the topics of a US Air Force Research Laboratory industry day scheduled for June 30.The industry day is to brief potential bidders on an upcoming call for proposals on liquid rocket engine technology development. Green ASP is one of the topics. The others are health assessment and recognition tools (HART) for reusable booster engines and propulsion units for cubesats (PUC).Cal Poly's CP-4 cubesat in orbit. (Photo: Aerospace Corp.)AFRL is pursuing chemical propulsion systems with increased energy density and decreased toxicity to support the development of more easily deployable spacecraft with smaller logistics footprints. The lab has developed a monopropellant meeting the requirements, and the Green ASP program is planned to lead to testing of a prototype flight-weight thruster to demonstrate its performance.HART, meanwhile, is to develop sensors and algorithms that will enable an oxygen-rich, staged-combustion-cycle engine to meet the Air Force's turnaround-time goals for a reusable booster. The health sensors would eliminate time-consuming inspections of the turbopump and thrust chamber, says ...
IYA2009 Updates
23 Jun 2010, 10:10 UTC
by Theresa Rose The list of women who have contributed to the world of astronomy as space, whether as scientists, scientist astronauts, medical doctors, or military officers who command or fly spacecrafts is lengthy, and the contributions of these courageous women are and have been vitally important. Read more:http://www.helium.com/items/1425179-the-contributions-of-women-to-astronomy-and-space-exploration The contributions of women ...
The contributions of women to astronomy and space exploration
23 Jun 2010, 10:10 UTC
by Theresa Rose The list of women who have contributed to the world of astronomy as space, whether as scientists, scientist astronauts, medical doctors, or military officers who command or fly spacecrafts is lengthy, and the contributions of these courageous women are and have been vitally important. Read more:http://www.helium.com/items/1425179-the-contributions-of-women-to-astronomy-and-space-exploration The contributions of women ...
Systemic - Characterizing Extrasolar Planetary Systems
23 Jun 2010, 07:43 UTC
It’s no exaggeration to assert that Galileo’s unveiling of Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto counts among the epic scientific discoveries of all time. And certainly, it’s fair to say that the Galilean satellites of Jupiter constitute the original exoplanetary system. The Galilean satellites have been producing scientific insights for over four hundred years. Nearly all of the modern exoplanetary discoveries have antecedents — some quite recent, some centuries old — in Jupiter’s four moons. The Galilean satellites can all be observed in transit across the face of Jupiter, and as early as 1656, the Sicilian astronomer Giovanni Hodierna, with his Medicaeorum Ephemerides, emphasized the importance of transit timing measurements for working out accurate predictive tables. In the late 1660′s, University of Bologna Professor Giovanni Cassini’s timing measurements and associated tables for the Jovian system were so impressive that he was tapped by Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Louis XIV to become director of the newly established Paris Observatory. Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712). Prior to holding the directorship of the Paris Observatory, he was the highest paid astronomer at the University of Bologna, having been appointed to his professorship by the Pope. Throughout the 1670s and 80s, Cassini wrestled with the fact that ...
