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Mars Base

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

todayinsci.com/3_13.htm

scibyte123 LookingBackMar

shared by Mars Base on 08 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Pluto
  •   In 1930, the discovery of a ninth planet was announced by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory. It is only one-tenth as large as Earth and four thousand million miles away. The planet was named Pluto on 24 May 1930.
  • Uranus
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  • In 1781, English astronomer William Herschel detected Uranus in the night sky, but he thought it was a comet. It was the first planet to be discovered with the aid of a telescope. By 1787, he had also observed the Uranian satellites Titania and Oberon (11 Jan 1787), which were later given these names by his son, John Herschel.
  • In 1930, the discovery of a ninth planet was announced by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory. It is only one-tenth as large as Earth and four thousand million miles away. The planet was named Pluto on 24 May 1930.
Mars Base

An Unexpected Ending for Deep Impact - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...xpected-ending-for-deep-impact

scibyte103 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 21 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • After almost 9 years in space
  • July 4th impact and subsequent flyby of a comet, an additional comet flyby, and the return of approximately 500,000 images of celestial objects
  • NASA’s Deep Impact/EPOXI mission has officially been brought to a close.
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  • team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has reluctantly pronounced the mission at an end after being unable to communicate with the spacecraft for over a month
  • The last communication with the probe was Aug. 8
  • journeyed a total of about 4.7 billion miles (7.58 billion kilometers).
  • Launched in January 2005
  • the spacecraft first traveled about 268 million miles (431 million kilometers) to the vicinity of comet Tempel 1.
  • On July 3, 2005, the spacecraft deployed an impactor into the path of comet to essentially be run over by its nucleus on July 4
  • caused material from below the comet’s surface to be blasted out into space
  • examined by the telescopes and instrumentation of the flyby spacecraft
  • in late December 2007 to put it on course to encounter another comet, Hartley 2 in November 2010
  • Sixteen days after that comet encounter, the Deep Impact team placed the spacecraft on a trajectory to fly back past Eart
  • The spacecraft’s extended mission
  • the successful flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010
  • Along the way, it also observed six different stars to confirm the motion of planets orbiting them
  • took images and data of the Earth, the Moon and Mars
  • data helped to confirm the existence of water on the Moon, and attempted to confirm the methane signature in the atmosphere of Mars
  • It took images of comet ISON this year and collected early images of comet ISON in June
  • After losing contact with the spacecraft last month, mission controllers spent several weeks trying to uplink commands to reactivate its onboard systems
  • Although the exact cause of the loss is not known
  • analysis has uncovered a potential problem with computer time tagging that could have led to loss of control for Deep Impact’s orientation.
  • That would then affect the positioning of its radio antennas, making communication difficult
  • its solar arrays, which would in turn prevent the spacecraft from getting power
  • allow cold temperatures to ruin onboard equipment, essentially freezing its battery and propulsion systems.
Mars Base

Spectacular Liftoff Thrusts China's First Rover 'Yutu' to the Moon - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...s-first-rover-yutu-to-the-moon

scibyte111 ChineseSpaceProgram

shared by Mars Base on 02 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • China successfully launched its first ever lunar rover bound for the Moon’s surface aboard a Long March rocket
  • at 1:30 a.m. Beijing local time, Dec. 2, 2013 (12:30 p.m. EST, Dec. 1) from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China.
  • The name for the ‘Yutu’ rover – which translates as ‘Jack Rabbit’ – was chosen after a special naming contest involving a worldwide poll and voting to select the best name
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  • ‘Yutu’ stems from a Chinese fairy tale, in which the goddess Chang’e flew off to the moon taking her little pet Jade rabbit with her.
  • The Chang’e 3 lander will fire thrusters to enter lunar orbit on Dec. 6.
  • It is due to make a powered descent to the lunar surface on Dec. 14, firing thrusters at an altitude of 15 km (9 mi) for touchdown in a preselected area called the Bay of Rainbows or Sinus Iridum region.
  • If successful, the Chang’e 3 mission will mark the first soft landing on the Moon since the Soviet Union’s unmanned Luna 24 sample return vehicle landed nearly four decades ago back in 1976.
  • Jack Rabbit measures 150 centimeters high and weighs approximately 120 kilograms
  • The rover and lander are equipped with multiple cameras, spectrometers, an optical telescope, radar and other sensors to investigate the lunar surface and composition
  • The rover is expected to continue operating for at least three months
  • The next step will be an unmanned lunar sample return mission, perhaps around 2020
Mars Base

Hubble discovers water vapor venting from Jupiter's moon Europa - 0 views

phys.org/...apor-venting-jupiter-moon.html

scibyte113 Europa

shared by Mars Base on 13 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Only after a particular camera on the Hubble Space Telescope had been repaired on the last servicing mission by the Space Shuttle did we gain the sensitivity to really search for these plumes
  • Future space probe missions to Europa could confirm that the exact locations and sizes of vents and determine whether they connect to liquid subsurface reservoirs
  • ESA's JUpiter ICy moons Explorer, a mission planned for launch in 2022, and which aims to explore both Jupiter and three of its largest moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
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
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  • 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

Interesting Prospects for Comet A1 Siding Spring Versus the Martian Atmosphere - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-versus-the-martian-atmosphere

scibyte130 CometSidingSpring

shared by Mars Base on 09 May 14 - No Cached
  • This October, a comet will brush
  • giving scientists a chance to study how it possibly interacts with a planetary atmosphere
  • an impact of the comet on the surface of the Red Planet has long been ruled out
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  • interesting possibility of possible interactions of the coma of A1 Siding Spring and the tenuous atmosphere of Mars
  • researchers considered how active Comet A1 Siding Spring may be at the time of closest approach on October 19th, 2014
  • Discovered early last year by Robert McNaught from the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia
  • when it was found that it will pass extremely close to Mars later this year.
  • with a nominal passage of 138,000 kilometres from Mars. That’s about one third the distance from Earth to the Moon, and 17 times closer than the nearest recorded passage of a comet to the Earth, Comet D/1770 L1 Lexell in 1780.
  • And although the nucleus will safely pass Mars, the brush with its extended atmosphere might just be detectable by the fleet of spacecraft and rovers in service around Mars
  • NEOWISE and Hubble are already monitoring the comet for enhanced activity
  • The Opportunity rover is also still functioning, and Mars Odyssey and ESA’s Mars Express are still in orbit around the Red Planet and sending back data
  • India’s Mars Orbiter Mission and NASA’s MAVEN orbiter arrive just before the comet.
  • MAVEN was designed to study the upper atmosphere of Mars, and carries an ion-neutral mass spectrometer (NGIMS) which could yield information on the interaction of the coma with the Martian upper atmosphere and ionosphere.
  • Proposals for using Earth-based assets for further observations of the comet prior to the event in October are still pending
  • Amateur observers will be able to follow the approach telescopically
  • It’s also interesting to consider the potential for interactions of the coma with the surfaces of the moons of Mars as well, though the net amount of water vapor expected to be deposited will not be large
  • UPDATE: Check out this nifty interactive simulator which includes Comet A1 Siding Springs courtesy of the Solar System Scope
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
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  • 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

New Earth-Like Blazing Hot Planet 'Kepler-78b' Discovered - 0 views

www.scienceworldreport.com/...overed-an-impossible-world.htm

scibyte108 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 01 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • first known Earth-sized planet with an Earth-like density
  • diameter of 9,200 miles,
  • is 1.2 times the size of Earth and 1.7 times more massive than Earth and it is composed of iron and rock
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  • planet circles its star every eight and a half hours at a distance of less than one mile
  • one of tightest known orbit on record and due to this its formation is deemed as impossible and not suitable for life.
  • The scientists believe no planet can form so close to its star nor could it have moved to its current position.
  • Kepler-78b poses a challenge to theorists
  • When this planetary system was forming, the young star was larger than it is now.
  • the current orbit of Kepler-78b would have been inside the swollen star
  • The star of Kepler-78b is slightly smaller and less massive than the sun
  • Sun-like G-type star, which is  located 400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus
  • The exoplanet was discovered using data from NASA's Kepler Space Telescope
  • follow up observations were made using W.M. Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii
Mars Base

New Dwarf Planet Has Most Distant Trajectory Known - Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/...-most-distant-trajectory-known

scibyte125 Planet

shared by Mars Base on 27 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Astronomers have discovered a probable dwarf planet that orbits the Sun far beyond Pluto
  • Together with Sedna, a similar extreme object discovered a decade ago, the find is reshaping ideas about how the Solar System came to be
  • been searching for more objects like Sedna for more than 10 years now.
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  • Finding another one like it reduces the chances that Sedna is a fluke
  • astronomers now have to come up with ideas to explain how these objects remain tightly gravitationally bound to the Sun when they orbit so far away.
  • In several years time, after observations have pinned down its orbit, the scientists will submit a name for consideration by the International Astronomical Union (IAU)
  • The newfound object's official name is 2012 VP113, but the discovery team calls it VP for short, or just 'Biden' — after US Vice-President Joe Biden
  • the Kuiper belt, that includes Pluto. This region stretches from roughly 30 to 50 AU. And beyond that lies the Oort cloud, with Sedna at its inner edge and comets farther out.
  • Sedna never gets any closer to the Sun than 76 AU.
  • 2012 VP113, although still in the inner Oort cloud, is even more remote: at its closest, it is 80 AU away
  • been hunting for distant objects with the Dark Energy Camera, a 520-megapixel camera on the 4-meter Blanco telescope
  • in Chile
  • They captured 2012 VP113during their first observing run, in November 2012, on the fifth image of the hundreds they would eventually snap
  • For months they tracked the object, until its full orbit became more apparent
  • There are several competing ideas for how objects such as Sedna and 2012 VP113 got to where they are today
  • One leading hypothesis proposes that in the Solar System’s infancy, a nearby star gravitationally perturbed the coalescing system and dragged some fragments out towards the edge
  • Another possibility is that a massive rogue planet passed through at some point, kicking objects from the Kuiper belt outwards into the inner Oort cloud.
Mars Base

35-year-old ISEE 3 Craft Phones Home | Sky & Telescope - 0 views

www.skyandtelescope.com/...-isee-3-spacecraft-phones-home

scibyte133 ISEE-3

shared by Mars Base on 31 May 14 - No Cached
  • The team successfully established contact that afternoon — notwithstanding a minor earthquake in the area — at a heart-thumping transmission rate of 512 bits per second.
  • approval from NASA to attempt contact, and that go-ahead came on May 29th
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

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)
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  • 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°
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  • 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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