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Mars Base

This Week's Sky at a Glance - SkyandTelescope.com - 1 views

www.skyandtelescope.com/...ataglance

scibyte123 LookingUp

shared by Mars Base on 02 Feb 14 - Cached
  • Thursday, February 6
  • First-quarter Moon
  • Mercury is visible in evening twilight, low in the west-southwest. It fades rapidly
  • ...39 more annotations...
  • y in the dawn; look southeast
  • s just 4° or 5° from lesser Spica to its lower right.
  • highest in the south around 4 a.m., with Spica now under Mars.
  • the eastern sky in early evening
  • . It crosses nearly overhead (for mid-northern observers) around 9 or 10 p.m
  • ) rises around 1 or 2 a.m. and is high in the south at dawn
  • Regulus in Leo to the Moon's left during evening.
  • "Morning Star" in the dawn; look southeast
  • ) rises around 10 or 11 p.m. now
  • 5° to the right of
  • It crosses nearly overhead (for mid-northern observers) around 9 p.m.
  • rises around 1 a.m. and is highest in the south at dawn.
  • by 28°
  • Wednesday, February 19
  • Go out after 11 tonight, and low in the east-southeast, where the Moon has just risen or is about to rise, you'll find bright, fiery Mars with Spica to its right.
  • Thursday, February 20 As dawn breaks Friday morning the 21st, spot the waning Moon in the south with Saturn to its left. Off to their right are Mars and Spica (out of the frame above).
  • before and during dawn; look southeast. It's at its brightest this week.
  • rises around 10 p.m. now, a fiery blaze 5° or 6° to the right of icy Spica. The two of them are highest in the south around 3 or 4 a.m., with Spica now to Mars's lower right
  • Jupiter
  • high southeast in early evening. It crosses nearly overhead (for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes) around 8 or 9 p.m.
  • Saturn
  • rises around midnight or 1 a.m. and is highest in the south at the beginning of dawn. By then it's far to the left of Mars and Spica,
  • Venus
  • rises around 10 p.m
  • 6° to the left of icy Spica. The two of them are highest in the south around 3 or 4 a.m., with Spica now lower right of Mar
  • Jupiter
  • e high south during evening
  • Thursday, March 13
  • left of the Moon this evening for Regulus. It's the bottom star in the handle of the Sickle of Leo.
  • Venus
  • "Morning Star" before and during dawn; look southeast.
  • rises around 9 p.m
  • Mars (
  • Spica 5° or 6° to its right
  • highest in the south around 2 a.m., with Spica now lower right of Mars
  • Jupiter
  • overhead during evening
  • Saturn
  • rises around 11 p.m. and is highest in the south before dawn
Mars Base

NASA to Reveal Vesta Discoveries by Dawn Asteroid Probe | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/discoveries-nasa-thursday.html

scibyte46 Asteroid Vesta dawn

shared by Mars Base on 09 May 12 - No Cached
  • NASA will showcase the latest discoveries from an asteroid probe orbiting the huge space rock Vesta on Thursday (May 10) in a press conference for reporters and the general public.
  • will present a new analysis of Vesta based on the latest observations from NASA's Dawn spacecraft
  • Dawn spacecraft launched in 2007 on a mission to visit two huge space rocks in the asteroid belt that orbits the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • Dawn arrived in orbit around Vesta in July 2011
  • Vesta is the brightest asteroid in the solar system and second most massive object in the asteroid belt
  • Last month, NASA extended Dawn's stay at Vesta by an extra 40 days to give the spacecraft more time to study the asteroid
  • spacecraft has revealed that many new details about Vesta
  • it is rich in iron and magnesium
  • experiences chilly temperatures that range from minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 degrees Celsius) in the sunlight, to minus150 degrees F (minus 100 degrees C) in shadowed areas.
  • Scientists think Vesta is a 4.5 billion-year-old relic left over from the formation of the solar system
  • In August the probe will move on to the Texas-size Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt and a space rock so large it is considered a dwarf planet.
  • expected to arrive at Ceres in February 2015
Mars Base

Dawn Finds Asteroid Vesta is Rich in Hydrogen - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...roid-vesta-is-rich-in-hydrogen

scibyte64 dawn

shared by Mars Base on 21 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • The giant asteroid Vesta appears to have
  • hydrogen
  • Dawn spacecraft reveals hydrated minerals in a wide area around Vesta’s equator
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Dawn did not find actual water ice, there are signs of hydrated minerals such as hydroxyl
  • source of the hydrogen within Vesta’s surface appears to be hydrated minerals delivered by carbon-rich space rocks that collided with Vesta at speeds slow enough to preserve their volatile content
  • pitted terrain – looking much like potholes – mark where the volatiles, perhaps both hydroxyl and water, released from hydrated minerals boiled off
  • Hydroxyl has recently been found on the Moon in permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles
  • scientists thought there might be a chance that water ice may have
  • around the giant asteroid’s poles
  • unlike Earth’s Moon, however, Vesta has no permanently shadowed polar regions
  • strongest signature for hydrogen actually came from regions near the equator. And there, water ice is not stable
  • The holes that were left as the water escaped stretch as much as 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) across and go down as deep as 700 feet (200 meters
  • collisions converted the hydrogen bound to the minerals into water, which evaporated
  • The pits look just like features seen on Mars, but while water was common on Mars, it was totally unexpected on Vesta in these high abundances
  • ults provide evidence that not only were hydrated materials present, but they played an important role in shaping the asteroid’s geology and the surface we see today
  • the first direct measurements describing the elemental composition of Vesta’s surface
  • elemental investigation by the instrument determined the ratios of iron to oxygen and iron to silicon in the surface materials
  • new findings solidly confirm the connection between Vesta and a class of meteorites found on Earth called the Howardite, Eucrite and Diogenite meteorites
  • have the same ratios for these elements
  • n, more volatile-rich fragments of other objects have been identified in these meteor
Mars Base

Asteroid's troughs suggest stunted planet - 0 views

phys.org/...id-troughs-stunted-planet.html

scibyte65 Vesta

shared by Mars Base on 27 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Scientists have been trying to determine the origin of these unusual troughs since their discovery just last year
  • new analysis supports the notion that the troughs are faults that formed when a fellow asteroid smacked into Vesta's south pole. The research reinforces the claim that Vesta has a layered interior, a quality normally reserved for larger bodies, such as planets and large moons.
  • ggest of those troughs, named Divalia Fossa, surpasses the size of the Grand Canyon by spanning 465 kilometers (289 miles) long, 22 km (13.6 mi) wide and 5 km (3 mi) deep
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • The complexity of their formation can't be explained by simple collisions
  • New measurements
  • taken by NASA's Dawn spacecraft last year
  • indicate that a large collision could have created the asteroid's troughs
  • would only have been possible if the asteroid is differentiated – meaning that it has a core, mantle and crust
  • By saying it's differentiated, we're basically saying Vesta was a little planet trying to happen
  • previous research has found signs of igneous rock on Vesta, indicating that rock on Vesta's surface was once molten, a sign of differentiation
  • If the troughs are made possible by differentiation, then the cracks aren't just troughs, they're graben
  • graben is a dip in the surface that forms when two faults move apart from each other and the ground sinks into the widening gap
  • Vesta's troughs have many of the qualities of graben
  • observations indicate that Vesta is also unusually planet-like for an asteroid in that its mantle is ductile and can stretch under a lot of pressure
  • not yet fully convinced that Vesta's troughs are graben
  • There are other qualities of Vesta that could be clues to how the troughs formed
  • unlike the larger asteroid Ceres, Vesta is not classified as a dwarf planet because the large collision at its south pole knocked it out of its spherical shape
  • if Vesta has a mantle and core, that would mean it has qualities often reserved for planets, dwarf planets and moons—regardless of its shape
  • believes the south pole collision knocked Vesta into its current speedy rate of rotation about its axis of about once per 5.35 hours
  • may have caused the equator to bulge outward so far and so fast that the rotation caused the troughs, rather than the direct power of the impact
  • enigma why Vesta rotates so quickly
  • Dawn has already left to explore Ceres, so all the data it will retrieve on Vesta is in hand
  • scientists will continue to sort that data out and improve on computer simulations of Vesta's interior
Mars Base

Photos of Asteroid Vesta Reveal Bright Surprises | Dawn Spacecraft | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/-vesta-surprising-surface.html

scibyte39 Vesta MarMedia

shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • amazing new photos
  • reveal strange features never-before-seen on an asteroid
  • Dawn spacecraft highlight odd, shiny spots that are nearly twice as bright as other parts of the asteroid
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • suggesting it is original material left over from the space rock's birth 4 billion years ago
  • Vesta is one of the largest and brightest objects in the main asteroid belt
  • bright material originates from Vesta and has undergone little change since the formation of Vesta over 4 billion years ago
  • photos show surprisingly bright spots all over Vesta
  • bright areas range from large spots (around several hundred feet across) to simply huge, with some stretching across 10 miles (16 kilometers) of terrain
  • [Video: Vesta — Asteroid or Dwarf Planet?]
  • Astronomers have known about variations in Vesta's brightness for some time
  • Photos taken by the Hubble Space Telescope before Dawn arrived at the asteroid also revealed the bright patches.
  • scientists suspect the bright patches on Vesta were exposed during violent collisions with other space rocks
Mars Base

March 2014 guide to the five visible planets | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky - 0 views

earthsky.org/...s-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury

scibyte123 LookingUp

shared by Mars Base on 02 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Jupiter sets in the west before dawn’s first light
  • Venus to rise in the east about two hours before sunrise.
  • Venus, for this world will shine at its brilliant best as the morning “star” in mid-February.
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  • Mars shines in
  • coming up around 10 p.m. local time at the month’s end. It is near Spica
  • about two hours before dawn late in the month
  • Saturn is
  • close to local midnight by the end of the month. Saturn climbs to its highest point in the sky at dawn.
  • Venus
  • Venus
  • Mars reaches its highest point for the night
  • 4 a.m. local Daylight Time in early March and 2 a.m. local Daylight Time in late march
  • in the east-southeast around 1 a.m. local Daylight Saving Time in early March, and roughly 11 p.m. local Daylight Time by the end of the month.
  • highest point in the sky shortly before morning dawn
Mars Base

Telescope spies water plumes on dwarf planet Ceres - 0 views

phys.org/...spies-plumes-dwarf-planet.html

scibyte117 Asteroid Ceres

shared by Mars Base on 23 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Scientists
  • have made the first definitive detection of water vapor on the largest and roundest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres.
  • Plumes of water vapor are thought to shoot up periodically from Ceres when portions of its icy surface warm slightly
  • ...26 more annotations...
  • Ceres is classified as a dwarf planet, a solar system body bigger than an asteroid and smaller than a planet.
  • "This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,"
  • Michael Küppers of ESA in Spain
  • NASA's Dawn mission, which is on its way to Ceres now after spending more than a year orbiting the large asteroid Vesta
  • Dawn is scheduled to arrive at Ceres in the spring of 2015, where it will take the closest look ever at its surface.
  • will map the geology and chemistry of the surface in high resolution
  • International Astronomical Union, the governing organization responsible for naming planetary objects
  • Ceres was known as the largest asteroid in our solar system
  • reclassified Ceres as a dwarf planet because of its large size. It is roughly 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter
  • When it first was spotted in 1801, astronomers thought it was a planet orbiting between Mars and Jupiter
  • Scientists believe Ceres contains rock in its interior with a thick mantle of ice that, if melted, would amount to more fresh water than is present on all of Earth
  • The materials making up Ceres likely date from the first few million years of our solar system's existence and accumulated before the planets formed.
  • Until now, ice had been theorized to exist on Ceres but had not been detected conclusively
  • far-infrared vision to see, finally, a clear spectral signature of the water vapor. But
  • did not see water vapor every time it looked
  • spied water vapor four different times, on one occasion there was no signature.
  • what scientists think is happening
  • when Ceres swings through the part of its orbit that is closer to the sun, a portion of its icy surface becomes warm enough to cause water vapor to escape in plumes
  • a rate of about 6 kilograms (13 pounds) per second
  • When Ceres is in the colder part of its orbit, no water escapes
  • The strength of the signal also varied over hours, weeks and months
  • water vapor plumes rotating in and out of Herschel's views as the object spun on its axis
  • This enabled the scientists to localize the source of water to two darker spots on the surface of Ceres
  • previously seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based telescopes. The dark spots might be more likely to outgas because dark material warms faster than light material.
  • "The lines are becoming more and more blurred between comets and asteroids," said Seungwon Lee of JPL
  • Paul von Allmen, also of JPL. "We knew before about main belt asteroids that show comet-like activity, but this is the first detection of water vapor in an asteroid-like object."
Mars Base

Curiosity Captures First Ever Asteroid Images from Mars Surface - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...eroid-images-from-mars-surface

scibyte128 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 25 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • surface of the Red Planet during night sky imaging.
  • The Curiosity rover has captured the first images of asteroids even taken by a Human probe from the
  • two asteroids caught in the same night time pointing on the Red Planet. Namely, asteroids Ceres and Vesta.
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  • snapped by Curiosity’s high resolution Mastcam camera earlier this week on Sunday, April 20, 2014
  • whilst she was scanning about during daylight for her next drilling target at “The Kimberley” waypoint she pulled into at the start of this month.
  • Ceres and Vesta appear as streaks since the Mastcam image was taken as a 12 second time exposure.
  • “This imaging was part of an experiment checking the opacity of the atmosphere at night in Curiosity’s location on Mars, where water-ice clouds and hazes develop during this season,” said camera team member Mark Lemmon
  • “The two Martian moons were the main targets that night, but we chose a time when one of the moons was near Ceres and Vesta in the sky.”
  • Ceres, the largest asteroid, is about 590 miles (950 kilometers) in diameter. Vesta is the third-largest object in the main belt and measures about 350 miles (563 kilometers) wide.
  • the tinier of Mars’ moons, Deimos, was also caught in that same image.
  • Mars largest moon Phobos as well as massive planets Jupiter and Saturn were also visible that same Martian evening, albeit in a different pointing.
  • The two asteroids and three stars would be visible to someone of normal eyesight standing on Mars.
Mars Base

Temperatures measured at Gale Crater higher than expected - 0 views

phys.org/...atures-gale-crater-higher.html

scibte65 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 28 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Preliminary weather reports from the Curiosity's Remote Environment Monitoring Station (REMS) are showing some surprisingly mild temperatures during the day
  • Temperatures have risen above freezing during the day for more than half of the Martian Sols since REMS started recording data.
  • At night the air temperatures sink drastically, reaching a minimum of -70 degrees just before dawn
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • ología in
  • seeing temperatures this warm already during the day is a surprise and very interesting
  • If this warm trend carries on into summer, we might even be able to foresee temperatures in the 20s
  • REMS pressure sensors have also been recording slightly higher pressures than expected
  • the first three weeks after landing to around 750 pascals – a tiny fraction of the average pressure at sea level on Earth.
  • pressure data show a very significant daily variation of pressure
  • The minimum is near 685 pascals and the maximum near 780 pascals. The majority of the variation is due to large scale waves in the atmosphere called tides
Mars Base

This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 13 - 21 | Sky & Telescope - 0 views

www.skyandtelescope.com/...ks-sky-glance-june-13-ndash-21

scibyte134 LookingUp

shared by Mars Base on 16 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Friday, June 20
  • the two brightest stars of summer, Arcturus and Vega, shine equally high overhead as evening grows late: Arcturus in the southwest, Vega toward the east
  • Saturday, June 21
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • June solstice
  • the Sun reaches its northernmost point in the sky for the year and begins its six-month return south
  • Summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere, where today is the longest day. In the Southern Hemisphere, this is the start of winter and the longest night
  • Mercury
  • lost in the glow of sunset
  • Venus
  • low in the east during dawn
  • Mars (
  • high in the south-southwest in twilight, with Spica to its left
  • sets in the west around 1 or 2 a.m. daylight saving time.
  • Jupiter
  • low in the west-northwest in twilight and sets around nightfall
  • Saturn
  • southeast to south during evening
Mars Base

Asteroid 2013 UQ4 Suddenly Becomes a Dark Comet with a Bright Future - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ark-comet-with-a-bright-future

scibyte130

shared by Mars Base on 09 May 14 - No Cached
  • On October 23, 2013,  astronomers with the Catalina Sky Survey picked up a very faint asteroid with an unusual orbit more like a that of a comet than an asteroid
  •  At the time 2013 UQ4 was little  more than a stellar point with no evidence of a hazy coma or tail that would tag it as a comet
  • On May 7,
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • remote telescope located in Siding Spring, Australia to take photos of 2013 UQ4 shortly before dawn in the constellation Cetus.
  • The asteroid had grown a little fuzz, making the move to comethood
  • now displays a substantial coma or atmosphere
  • . No tail is visible yet
  • it’s still bright enough to see in a 12-inch telescope under dark skie
  • Assuming the now renamed C/2013 UQ4 continues to spout dust and water vapor, it should brighten to magnitude +11 by month’s end as it moves northward across Pisces and into a dark morning sky
  • Perihelion occurs on June 5 with the comet reaching magnitude +8-9 by month’s end
  • Peak brightness of 7th magnitude is expected during its close approach of Earth on July 10 at 29 million miles (46.7 million km).
  • should be a great summer comet, plainly visible in binoculars from a dark sky
  • at the rate of some 7 degrees per night! That’s 1/3 of a degree per hour or fast enough to see movement through a telescope in a matter of minutes when the comet is nearest Earth
  • belongs to a special category of asteroids called damocloids
  • that have orbits resembling the Halley-family comets with long periods, fairly steep inclinations and highly eccentric orbits (elongated shapes)
  • Damocloids are thought to be comets that have lost all their fizz.
  • their volatile ices spent from previous trips around the sun, they stop growing comas and tails and appear identical to asteroids
  • Occasionally, one comes back to life. It’s happened in at least four other cases and appears to be happening with C/2013 UQ4 as well.
  • Studies of the comet/asteroid’s light indicate that
  • is a very dark but rather large object some 4-9 miles (7-15 km) across.
  • It’s estimated that
  • takes at least 500 years to make one spin around the sun
Mars Base

This Week's Sky at a Glance, June 6 - 14 | Sky & Telescope - 0 views

www.skyandtelescope.com/...weeks-sky-glance-june-6-14

scibyte134 LookingUp

shared by Mars Base on 08 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Thursday, June 12
  • Full Moon
  • Friday, June 13
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Vega is the brightest star shining in the east after dusk. It's currently the top star of the big Summer Triangle. The brightest star to Vega's lower left is Deneb. Look farther to Vega's lower right for Altair. The Summer Triangle will climb higher in early evening all through the summer, to pose highest overhead at dusk when fall begins
  • Venus
  • low in the east during dawn.
  • Mars (
  • high in the south-southwest in late twilight
  • Mars sets in the west around 2 a.m. daylight saving time
  • Jupiter
  • low in the west-northwest in twilight and sets around nightfall
  • southeast to south during evening
  • Saturn (
Mars Base

This Week's Sky at a Glance, May 23 - 31 | Sky & Telescope - 0 views

www.skyandtelescope.com/...weeks-sky-glance-may-23-31

scibyte132 LookingUp

shared by Mars Base on 25 May 14 - No Cached
  • Wednesday, May 28
  • New Moon
  • (exact at 2:40 p.m. EDT)
  • ...21 more annotations...
  • Friday, May 30
  • very low in the west-northwest in twilight for the hairline crescent Moon with Mercury to its right. They're far to the lower right of bright Jupiter
  • Saturday, May 31
  • The Moon, Jupiter, and Pollux above them form a nearly straight line in twilight as seen from North America
  • Mercury
  • highest evening apparition of 2014 for skywatchers at mid-northern latitudes,
  • fades this week
  • twilight deepens, look for it in the west-northwest to the lower right of bright Jupiter
  • Venus
  • "Morning Star" low due east during dawn
  • Mars (
  • ighest in the south in late twilight
  • Mars sets in the west around 3 or 4 a.m. daylight saving time
  • Jupiter
  • in the west in twilight
  • sinks during the evening and sets around 11 or midnight.
  • Jupiter is on the far side of the Sun from us
  • nearly its minimum apparent size.
  • Saturn
  • is two weeks past 10th opposition.
  • in the southeast during evening and stands highest in the south around 11 or midnight.
Mars Base

June 13 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on June 13th, died, and events - 0 views

www.todayinsci.com/...6_13.htm

scibyte134 LookingBackJun

shared by Mars Base on 05 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Sunspots
  • In 1611, a publication on the newly discovered phenomenon of sunspots was dedicated. Narratio de maculis in sole observatis et apparente earum cum sole conversione. (“Narration on Spots Observed on the Sun and their Apparent Rotation with the Sun”). This first publication on such observations, was the work of Johannes Fabricius, a Dutch astronomer who was perhaps the first ever to observe sunspots. On 9 Mar 1611, at dawn, Johannes had used his telescope to view the rising sun and had seen several dark spots on it. He called his father to investigate this new phenomenon with him. The brightness of the Sun's center was very painful, and the two quickly switched to a projection method by means of a camera obscura
Mars Base

This Week's Sky at a Glance, July 4-12 | Sky & Telescope - 0 views

www.skyandtelescope.com/...weeks-sky-glance-july-412

scibyte135 LookingUp

shared by Mars Base on 08 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Friday, July 11
  • Mars and Spica form a striking pair in the southwestern sky at dusk! They're now just under 2° apart.
  • On Sunday evening they'll be at their minimum separation, 1.3°
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • Full Moon tonight and Saturday night
  • Mercury
  • low in the glow of sunrise to the lower left of Venus
  • Venus
  • low in the east during dawn
  • Mars (
  • high in the southwest at dusk with Spica, a little fainter, closing in on it each day
  • Jupiter is lost in the sunset
  • Saturn
  • Saturn
  • highest in the south in late twilight
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