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Universe Today
21 May 2010, 18:08 UTC
Mission planners have narrowed the field for possible launch dates for NASA's next generation rover to Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory, nicknamed Curiosity. Taking into account orbital mechanics, planetary alignment, and communications issues, MSL's launch will occur between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, 2011, with landing will taking place between Aug. 6 and Aug. 20, 2012. The actual landing site is still being decided, between four different locations on Mars (read about the four sites here.)"The key factor was a choice between different strategies for sending communications during the critical moments before and during touchdown," said Michael Watkins, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The shorter trajectory is optimal for keeping both orbiters in view of Curiosity all the way to touchdown on the surface of Mars. The longer trajectory allows direct communication to Earth all the way to touchdown." (...)Read the rest of Launch Dates Narrowed for Mars Science Lab (381 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Curiosity, Mars, Mars Science Laboratory Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Launch Dates Narrowed for Mars Science Lab
21 May 2010, 18:08 UTC
Mission planners have narrowed the field for possible launch dates for NASA's next generation rover to Mars, the Mars Science Laboratory, nicknamed Curiosity. Taking into account orbital mechanics, planetary alignment, and communications issues, MSL's launch will occur between Nov. 25 and Dec. 18, 2011, with landing will taking place between Aug. 6 and Aug. 20, 2012. The actual landing site is still being decided, between four different locations on Mars (read about the four sites here.)"The key factor was a choice between different strategies for sending communications during the critical moments before and during touchdown," said Michael Watkins, mission manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The shorter trajectory is optimal for keeping both orbiters in view of Curiosity all the way to touchdown on the surface of Mars. The longer trajectory allows direct communication to Earth all the way to touchdown." (...)Read the rest of Launch Dates Narrowed for Mars Science Lab (381 words)© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Curiosity, Mars, Mars Science Laboratory Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Lunar Networks
21 May 2010, 16:49 UTC
Interior of fresh impact crater in the Smythii Constellation Region of Interest. Portion of image M126371530LE, full scene width = 530 meters [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].Brett DeneviLROC News SystemThe featured image shows the interior of a fresh impact crater (approximately 300 meters in diameter) within the Mare Smythii Constellation Region of Interest (ROI).The high-sun image (set atop a closer, full-sized look at the dark, fractured melt on the crater floor) above, it's hard to recognize topographic features because there are no shadows. Wider views following below are paired with lower-sun images of this same crater (on the right, in the thumbnail, which is then followed by cropped vertical comparisons from the full sized image) give sharper views of small scale features, such as boulders.A wider view of the same fresh crater under high-sun (above, LROC M126371530LE, solar incidence, Sun-Moon-LRO phase angle = 21°) and lower sun image, with illumination from the east (below, LROC M113392375LE, solar incidence phase angle of 50°) [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].The floor of this small crater looks like a basket of impact-melt covered rocks. Sampling the ejecta would help answer questions about the age of apparently recent impacts such as this one and the processes that cause their ...
LROC: Smythii Splendors
21 May 2010, 16:49 UTC
Interior of fresh impact crater in the Smythii Constellation Region of Interest. Portion of image M126371530LE, full scene width = 530 meters [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].Brett DeneviLROC News SystemThe featured image shows the interior of a fresh impact crater (approximately 300 meters in diameter) within the Mare Smythii Constellation Region of Interest (ROI).The high-sun image (set atop a closer, full-sized look at the dark, fractured melt on the crater floor) above, it's hard to recognize topographic features because there are no shadows. Wider views following below are paired with lower-sun images of this same crater (on the right, in the thumbnail, which is then followed by cropped vertical comparisons from the full sized image) give sharper views of small scale features, such as boulders.A wider view of the same fresh crater under high-sun (above, LROC M126371530LE, solar incidence, Sun-Moon-LRO phase angle = 21°) and lower sun image, with illumination from the east (below, LROC M113392375LE, solar incidence phase angle of 50°) [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].The floor of this small crater looks like a basket of impact-melt covered rocks. Sampling the ejecta would help answer questions about the age of apparently recent impacts such as this one and the processes that cause their ...
Universe Today
21 May 2010, 16:01 UTC
Is this image real, or just a trick? Find out the answer for this week's Where In The Universe Challenge, back at the original post. And check back next week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos!© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Answer Now Posted to This Week's WITU Challenge
21 May 2010, 16:01 UTC
Is this image real, or just a trick? Find out the answer for this week's Where In The Universe Challenge, back at the original post. And check back next week for another test of your visual knowledge of the cosmos!© nancy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Bad Astronomy
21 May 2010, 15:12 UTC
It might seem like a tautology — and that’s because it is — but sometimes the only word you can use to describe an image from the Cassini Saturn probe is otherwordly: [Click to engasgiantize.] This otherworldy picture was taken on March 24, 2010. The big moon is Rhea, seen from 1.2 million kilometers (750,000 miles) away, and the little one below it is Epimetheus, from 1.6 million km (990,000 miles) away. Perspective makes them look right next to each other, but in reality the distance between them is the same as the Moon from the Earth! Saturn and its rings provide the backdrop for this stunning alien portrait. To me, the most striking thing about this picture is the difference between the two moons. Rhea is a ball, a sphere, while Epimetheus is clearly a lumpy rock. Rhea is also clearly a lot bigger, even accounting for perspective in the picture; it’s about 1520 km (940 miles) across, while Epimetheus is 144 x 108 x 98 km (86 x 64 x 58 miles) in size. Why is Rhea round, and Epimetheus lumpy? Gravity. Rhea, being so much bigger, has a lot more mass, so its gravity is much stronger. ...
Don’t have gravity? Take your lumps.
21 May 2010, 15:12 UTC
It might seem like a tautology — and that’s because it is — but sometimes the only word you can use to describe an image from the Cassini Saturn probe is otherwordly: [Click to engasgiantize.] This otherworldy picture was taken on March 24, 2010. The big moon is Rhea, seen from 1.2 million kilometers (750,000 miles) away, and the little one below it is Epimetheus, from 1.6 million km (990,000 miles) away. Perspective makes them look right next to each other, but in reality the distance between them is the same as the Moon from the Earth! Saturn and its rings provide the backdrop for this stunning alien portrait. To me, the most striking thing about this picture is the difference between the two moons. Rhea is a ball, a sphere, while Epimetheus is clearly a lumpy rock. Rhea is also clearly a lot bigger, even accounting for perspective in the picture; it’s about 1520 km (940 miles) across, while Epimetheus is 144 x 108 x 98 km (86 x 64 x 58 miles) in size. Why is Rhea round, and Epimetheus lumpy? Gravity. Rhea, being so much bigger, has a lot more mass, so its gravity is much stronger. ...
Alien Life
21 May 2010, 15:00 UTC
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g Stars - Researchers have now carried out the first fully three-dimensional computer simulations of a core collapse supernova over a timescale of hours after the initiation of the blast. They thus could answer the question of how initial asymmetries, which emerge deep in the dense core during the very early stages of the explosion, fold themselves into inhomogeneities observable during the supernova blast. See article.g Life - How can a tiny spider body contain material for several decimeters of gossamer silk, and what governs the conversion to thread? See article.g Message - "If you're sending a message to extraterrestrials, what you want to send is what's special about us and our planet — what is unusual," according to SETI astronomer Frank Drake. See his essay. Note: This essay is from 2006.g Learning - The recent brouhaha over whether there’s compelling evidence for life on Mars offers a stark lesson about research life: a major scientific discovery is a temptress as beguiling, and as dangerous, as the Sirens that beckoned Ulysses. See article. Note: This article is from 2005.Get your ...
What to say to ETI and supernova in 3-D
21 May 2010, 15:00 UTC
Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:g Stars - Researchers have now carried out the first fully three-dimensional computer simulations of a core collapse supernova over a timescale of hours after the initiation of the blast. They thus could answer the question of how initial asymmetries, which emerge deep in the dense core during the very early stages of the explosion, fold themselves into inhomogeneities observable during the supernova blast. See article.g Life - How can a tiny spider body contain material for several decimeters of gossamer silk, and what governs the conversion to thread? See article.g Message - "If you're sending a message to extraterrestrials, what you want to send is what's special about us and our planet — what is unusual," according to SETI astronomer Frank Drake. See his essay. Note: This essay is from 2006.g Learning - The recent brouhaha over whether there’s compelling evidence for life on Mars offers a stark lesson about research life: a major scientific discovery is a temptress as beguiling, and as dangerous, as the Sirens that beckoned Ulysses. See article. Note: This article is from 2005.Get your ...
Universe Today
21 May 2010, 14:29 UTC
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers… Are you enjoying the typical "change of seasons" weather in your area? If skies should clear for you this weekend, we have some very nice lunar challenges along with some very interesting stars! Why not spend a little time contemplating lunacy and gathering a few photons? When ever you are ready, I'll see you in the back yard… (...)Read the rest of Weekend SkyWatcher's Forecast – May 21-23, 2010 (723 words)© tammy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Weekend SkyWatcher's Forecast – May 21-23, 2010
21 May 2010, 14:29 UTC
Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers… Are you enjoying the typical "change of seasons" weather in your area? If skies should clear for you this weekend, we have some very nice lunar challenges along with some very interesting stars! Why not spend a little time contemplating lunacy and gathering a few photons? When ever you are ready, I'll see you in the back yard… (...)Read the rest of Weekend SkyWatcher's Forecast – May 21-23, 2010 (723 words)© tammy for Universe Today, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
The Discovery Enterprise
21 May 2010, 13:23 UTC
I'm not sure this is a good thing or not. Sounds like the start of a science fiction horror movie:Man-made DNA has booted up a cell for the first time. In a feat that is the culmination of two and a half years of tests and adjustments, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute inserted artificial genetic material — chemically printed, synthesized and assembled — into cells that were then able
Scientists create life?
21 May 2010, 13:23 UTC
I'm not sure this is a good thing or not. Sounds like the start of a science fiction horror movie:Man-made DNA has booted up a cell for the first time. In a feat that is the culmination of two and a half years of tests and adjustments, researchers at the J. Craig Venter Institute inserted artificial genetic material — chemically printed, synthesized and assembled — into cells that were then able
Astronomy.com Blog
21 May 2010, 12:25 UTC
C. R. “Bob” O’Dell, one of the great professors of astronomy of the last several decades, poses below a 1/5 scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope at Dyer Observatory. Not only is Bob the world’s leading expert on the Orion Nebula (among other things), he is the former director of Yerkes Observatory and was one of the primary instigators of the Hubble Space Telescope project. David J. EicherOn Thursday, May 20, I arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, early in the morning, having been invited to come and check out Vanderbilt University’s astronomy activities by Rocky Alvey, director of Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory. Rocky has a superb job in that he oversees the observatory’s historical and many outreach activities, the great collections and telescopes housed here, and works with the university’s astronomy department, too. What a marvelous blend of events go on at this institution. Before heading to the observatory, I trekked to see an old familiar place I hadn’t visited for some years, the Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson. The house is obviously a major historical site of great national importance and is currently undergoing a substantial renovation. The guided tour of the main house, the reflective moments spent at Jackson’s ...
On the Road: Nashville astronomy, Day 1
21 May 2010, 12:25 UTC
C. R. “Bob” O’Dell, one of the great professors of astronomy of the last several decades, poses below a 1/5 scale model of the Hubble Space Telescope at Dyer Observatory. Not only is Bob the world’s leading expert on the Orion Nebula (among other things), he is the former director of Yerkes Observatory and was one of the primary instigators of the Hubble Space Telescope project. David J. EicherOn Thursday, May 20, I arrived in Nashville, Tennessee, early in the morning, having been invited to come and check out Vanderbilt University’s astronomy activities by Rocky Alvey, director of Vanderbilt’s Dyer Observatory. Rocky has a superb job in that he oversees the observatory’s historical and many outreach activities, the great collections and telescopes housed here, and works with the university’s astronomy department, too. What a marvelous blend of events go on at this institution. Before heading to the observatory, I trekked to see an old familiar place I hadn’t visited for some years, the Hermitage, home of Andrew Jackson. The house is obviously a major historical site of great national importance and is currently undergoing a substantial renovation. The guided tour of the main house, the reflective moments spent at Jackson’s ...
The Flame Trench
21 May 2010, 10:28 UTC
Atlantis astronauts are taking part in their third and final spacewalk for this mission.Garrett Reisman and Mike Good exited the U.S. Quest airlock at the International Space Station at 6:27 a.m., about twenty minutes ahead of schedule.It was evident the two were excited as they waited in the airlock chamber for depressurization to be complete.“It’s like standing on your bathroom scale waiting for the needle to go down,” one of them said.Their mission for the day is to replace two decade-old batteries. The task is scheduled to take 6.5 hours.These two batteries are the last of 12 to be replaced.Four were changed out Wednesday during Atlantis’ second spacewalk. The first six were swapped out on the STS-127 mission last July.The $3.6 million batteries were launched along with a port-side central truss segment in late 2000.Good, answering to the call sign of "EV1," is wearing a red stripe and has an insignia of Notre Dame, his alma mater, on his spacesuit.Reisman, "EV2," has the logo of one of his favorite sports teams on his suit, the New York Yankees.Get space launch text message alerts at floridatoday.com/text
Atlantis astronauts begin third, final spacewalk
21 May 2010, 10:28 UTC
Atlantis astronauts are taking part in their third and final spacewalk for this mission.Garrett Reisman and Mike Good exited the U.S. Quest airlock at the International Space Station at 6:27 a.m., about twenty minutes ahead of schedule.It was evident the two were excited as they waited in the airlock chamber for depressurization to be complete.“It’s like standing on your bathroom scale waiting for the needle to go down,” one of them said.Their mission for the day is to replace two decade-old batteries. The task is scheduled to take 6.5 hours.These two batteries are the last of 12 to be replaced.Four were changed out Wednesday during Atlantis’ second spacewalk. The first six were swapped out on the STS-127 mission last July.The $3.6 million batteries were launched along with a port-side central truss segment in late 2000.Good, answering to the call sign of "EV1," is wearing a red stripe and has an insignia of Notre Dame, his alma mater, on his spacesuit.Reisman, "EV2," has the logo of one of his favorite sports teams on his suit, the New York Yankees.Get space launch text message alerts at floridatoday.com/text
