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Mars Base

NASA - Hubble to Use Moon as Mirror to See Venus Transit - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...transit-mirror.html

scibyte48 venus transit

shared by Mars Base on 04 May 12 - No Cached
  • image was taken in preparation to observe the transit of Venus across the sun's face on June 5-6.
  • Hubble Space Telescope
  • Hubble cannot look at the sun directly, so astronomers are planning to point the telescope at the Earth's moon, using it as a mirror to capture reflected sunlight and isolate the small fraction of the light that passes through Venus's atmosphere. Imprinted on that small amount of light are the fingerprints of the planet’s atmospheric makeup.
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  • mimic a technique that is already being used to sample the atmospheres of giant planets outside our solar system passing in front of their stars
  • astronomers already know the chemical makeup of Venus's atmosphere
  • test whether this technique will have a chance of detecting the very faint fingerprints of an Earth-like planet, even one that might be habitable for life, outside our solar system that similarly transits its own star. , Venus is an excellent proxy because it is similar in size and mass to our planet.
  • use an arsenal of Hubble instruments, the Advanced Camera for Surveys, Wide Field Camera 3, and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, to view the transit in a range of wavelengths, from ultraviolet to near-infrared light. During the transit, Hubble will snap images and perform spectroscopy, dividing the sunlight into its constituent colors, which could yield information about the makeup of Venus's atmosphere.
  • observe the moon for seven hours, before, during, and after the transit
  • compare the data
  • need the long observation because they are looking for extremely faint spectral signatures
  • Only 1/100,000th of the sunlight will filter through Venus's atmosphere and be reflected off the moon.
  • astronomers only have one shot at observing the transit, they had to carefully plan how the study would be carried out
  • Hubble will need to be locked onto the same location on the moon for more than seven hours
  • roughly 40 minutes of each 96-minute orbit of Hubble around the Earth
Mars Base

2012 Venus Transit - The Countdown Is On! - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...us-transit-the-countdown-is-on

scibyte45 venus transit scibyte49 scibyte48

shared by Mars Base on 04 May 12 - No Cached
  • On June 5 (June 6 in Australia and Asia), it will pass between the Earth and Sun… an event which only happens about twice and century and won’t happen again until the year 2117!
  • now is the time to begin your preparations to view the transit of Venus.
  • Because the transit of Venus is such a rare event, many retailers are carrying special eclipse/transit viewing glasses
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  • appear much like the cardboard 3D glasses you get at the movie theatre, but instead of red and blue lenses, they will have either black mylar or Baader filter film.
  • inspect the edges carefully to make sure they are sealed and no sunlight can enter
  • do not use them in conjunction with binoculars or a telescope
  • meant strictly for use with your eyes
  • Concentrating sunlight with an optical aid and hoping the glasses will be enough to block the Sun’s harmful rays is taking a chance at blinding yourself
  • . If you plan on filming
  • now is the time to practice
  • Make sure well in advance of exactly what time the transit starts in your area
  • times are given on an astronomical standard – Universal Time. If you are unsure of how to convert, try the Time Zone Converter to assist you.
Mars Base

Solar Scientists to Watch June's Historic Venus Transit from Alaska | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/-solar-researchers-alaska.html

venus transit scibyte48

shared by Mars Base on 14 May 12 - No Cached
  • NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) satellite will watch from space as Venus crosses the sun's face on June 5 (June 6 in the Eastern Hemisphere)
  • some SDO scientists are headed to Alaska to watch the seven-hour event in its entirety.
  • For the United States, only Hawaii and Alaska will see the entire transit
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  • NASA plans to webcast live footage of the transit from SDO, whose images should be spectacular.
Mars Base

Astronomer urges researchers everywhere to study Venus transit - 0 views

phys.org/...nomer-urges-venus-transit.html

scibyte48 venus transit

shared by Mars Base on 17 May 12 - No Cached
  • during this transit, our sun will be displaying sun spots
  • allows for comparing changing light patterns of suspected exoplanets with those that occur much closer to home
  • Information gathered during the transit, he points out, could very well reveal pertinent information later on
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  • regardless of area of interest
  • more people studying the transit the better, in as many ways as possible, even if there doesn’t seem to be any immediate payoff
Mars Base

Dark shadows on Mars: Scene from durable NASA rover - 0 views

phys.org/...hadows-mars-scene-durable.html

scibyte48 mars opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • Opportunity took most of the component images on March 9, 2012, while the solar-powered rover was spending several weeks at one location to preserve energy during the Martian winter
Mars Base

Evening Star Goes Black In Rare Celestial Event - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/..._black_in_rare_celestial_event

scibyte48 venus transit

shared by Mars Base on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • Venus will take six hours to march across the star’s face, appearing as an inky black dot in silhouette against the looming solar disk
  • Because the planet’s orbit is slightly off-kilter, its solar transits come in pairs spaced eight years apart, with more than 100 years between pairs.
  • Paris Observatory, who will join Venus Express team members in Svalbard, Norway to observe the transit against the midnight sun.
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  • its planetprint produces the type of dimming that occurs when exoplanets periodically block their stars’ light. Astronomers have been able to study the atmospheres of Jupiter-sized exoplanets, but similar observations of terrestrial planets are still a thing of the future.
  • Maybe one day we will be able to measure the same light that is filtered from the atmospheres of exoplanets – exo-Venuses and exo-Earths
  • such observations aren’t so simple. “Big mirrors and sensitive detectors are not good things to point at the sun
  • capture sunlight reflected off the face of the moon during the transit
Mars Base

Opportunity Gets a View From The Edge - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...nity-gets-a-view-from-the-edge

scibyte48 mars opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • currently the only operational manmade object on the surface of Mars… or any other planet besides Earth, for that matter
  • until the arrival of Mars Science Laboratory at Gale Crater this August.
  • presented in false color to emphasize differences in materials such as dark dunes on the crater floor.
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  • Since landing in the Meridiani region of Mars in January 2004, Opportunity has driven 21.4 miles (34.4 kilometers).
Mars Base

SpaceX Dragon Spies Earth - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...spacex-dragon-spies-earth

scibyte48 SpaceX iss PrivateSpaceTravel

shared by Mars Base on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • released the picture above of the Earth as seen by a thermal imager that Dragon will use in its upcoming approach to the International Space Station
Mars Base

Historic Launch 'Like Winning Super Bowl,' SpaceX CEO Says | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/on-launch-musk-super-bowl.html

scibyte48 SpaceX iss PrivateSpaceTravel

shared by Mars Base on 23 May 12 - No Cached
  • If Dragon performs well during the 10-day mission, the first of SpaceX's contracted cargo flights to the station could lift off later this year
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