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Mars Base

Curiosity Pulls into Kimberly and Spies Curvy Terrain For Drilling Action - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...vy-terrain-for-drilling-action

scibyte124 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 23 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • NASA’s Curiosity rover has just pulled into
  • terrain chock full of curvy rock outcrops at Kimberly that’s suitable for contact science and drilling action
  • The robot’s arm has been deployed to investigate the most scientifically productive spots
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  • the mast mounted ChemCam laser and high resolution cameras to determine the best spot for drilling and sampling.
  • the art robot is conducting contact science with the cameras and spectrometers on the terminus of the 7 foot long robotic arm
  • The team commanded Curiosity to clean out the arms CHIMRA sample handling mechanism in anticipation of boring into the Martian outcrops and delivering
  • samples of cored Martian rocks to the SAM and CheMin miniaturized chemistry labs
  • Scientists directed Curiosity on a pinpoint drive to Kimberly after their interest was piqued by orbital images taken
  • NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
  • see three terrain types exposed and a relatively dust-free surface
  • The missions science focus has shifted to “search for that subset of habitable environments which also preserves organic carbon,”
  • To date Curiosity’s odometer stands at 6.2 kilometers
  • has somewhat over another 4 kilometers to go to reach the base of Mount Sharp
  • may arrive at the lower reaches of Mount Sharp sometime in mid 2014, but must first pass through a potentially treacherous dune field
Mars Base

Hubble Sees Jupiter's Red Spot Shrink to Smallest Size Ever - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...t-shrink-to-smallest-size-ever

scibyte132 jupiter ViewerFeedback

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 14 - No Cached
  • “Recent Hubble Space Telescope observations confirm that the spot is now just under  10,250 miles (16,500 km) across, the smallest diameter we’ve ever measured,” said Amy Simon of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Cente
  • Using historic sketches and photos from the late 1800s, astronomers determined the spot’s diameter then at 25,475 miles (41,000 km) across
  • Amateur observations starting in 2012 revealed a noticeable increase in the spot’s shrinkage rate
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  • The spot’s “waistline” is getting smaller by just under 620 miles (1,000 km) per year while its north-south extent has changed little
  • the spot has
  • become more circular in shape
  • what causing the drastic downsizing, there are no firm answers yet:
  • new observations
  • very small eddies are feeding into the storm
  • may be responsible for the accelerated change by altering the internal dynamics of the Great Red Spot
  • The Great Red Spot has been a trademark of the planet for at least 400 years
  • a giant hurricane-like storm whirling in the planet’s upper cloud tops with a period of 6 days
  • The storm appears to be conserving angular momentum by spinning faster the same way an ice skater spins up when she pulls in her arms
  • Wind speeds are increasing too, making one wonder whether they’ll ultimately shrink the spot further or bring about its rejuvenation.
Mars Base

Hulk Smash! Collision That Formed Our Moon Shows Up In Lunar Rocks, Study Says - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...s-up-in-lunar-rocks-study-says

scibyte134 LunarFormation

shared by Mars Base on 07 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • theory
  • Billions of years ago
  • , a Mars-sized body (sometimes called “Theia”) smashed into our young planet
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Earth fortunately survived
  • and the fragments from the crash gradually coalesced into the Moon that we see today
  • scientists believe they have found traces of Theia in lunar rocks pulled from the Apollo missions
  • The isotopes or types of oxygen revealed in the new research appear to be different between the Earth and the Moon
  • implies that a body of different composition caused the changes
  • Before, the “resolution” of these microscopes couldn’t find any significant differences
  • the new data reveals the moon rocks have 12 parts per million more oxygen-17 than the Earth rocks
  • “The differences are small and difficult to detect, but they are there,” stated lead researcher Daniel Herwartz
  • means two things
  • first
  • can now be reasonably sure that the giant collision took place
  • Second
  • it gives us an idea of the geochemistry of Theia
  • The work was published in Science and will also be presented at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference in California on June 11.
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