Skip to main content

Home/ Groups/ SciByte
Rss Feed
Sort By: Most Recent | Popular Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics Simple Middle
14More

How Did Comet Lovejoy Survive Its Trip Around The Sun? - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...urvive-its-trip-around-the-sun scibyte38 comet
shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • just about three months ago that the astronomy world watched in awe as the recently-discovered comet Lovejoy plummeted toward the Sun on what was expected to be its final voyage, only to reappear on the other side seemingly unscathed
  • headed back out into the solar system, displaying a brand-new tail for skywatchers in southern parts of the world
  • How did a loosely-packed ball of ice and rock manage to withstand such a close pass through the Sun’s blazing corona
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • few researchers from Germany have an idea
  • hypothesized that Comet Lovejoy managed to hold itself together through the very process that, to most
  • increased heating from solar radiation causes the frozen materials within the nucleus to sublimate
  • — go directly and suddenly from solid to gas
  • burst through the surface of the comet and create the long, hazy reflective tail that is so often associated with them.
  • sublimation itself may have provided enough outward force across its surface to literally keep it together
  • reaction force caused by the strong outgassing (sublimation) of the nucleus near the Sun acts to keep the nucleus together and to overcome the tidal disruption
  • the team concluded that the diameter of Comet Lovejoy’s nucleus is anywhere between 0.2 km and 11 km (.125 miles and 6.8 miles
  • Any smaller and it would have lost too much material during its pass (and had too little gravity); any larger and it would have been too thick for outgassing to provide enough counterbalancing force.
  • taking a trip around the Sun may not mean the end for all comets… at least not those of a certain size
  • Watch the video of Lovejoy’s Dec. 15 solar swing below
19More

NASA - 2004 and 2012 Transits of Venus - 0 views

eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/...venus0412.html scibyte38 Venus transit
shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Transits of Venus across the disk of the Sun are among the rarest of planetary alignments
  • only six such events have occurred since the invention of the telescope (1631, 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874 and 1882
  • event begins with contact I which is the instant when the planet's disk is externally tangent with the Sun. The entire disk of the Venus is first seen at contact II when the planet is internally tangent with the Sun. During the next several hours, Venus gradually traverses the solar disk at a relative angular rate of approximately 4 arc-min/hr. At contact III, the planet reaches the opposite limb and is once again internally tangent with the Sun. The transit ends at contact IV when the planet's limb is externally tangent to the Sun
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • Geographic Visibility of 2012 June 06
  • The entire transit (all four contacts) is visible from northwestern North America, Hawaii, the western Pacific, northern Asia, Japan, Korea, eastern China, Philippines, eastern Australia, and New Zealand.
  • Sun sets while the transit is still in progress from most of North America, the Caribbean, and northwest South America
  • transit is already in progress at sunrise for observers in central Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and eastern Africa
  • No portion of the transit will be visible from Portugal or southern Spain, western Africa, and the southeastern 2/3 of South America.
  • due to the International Date Line the Western Hemisphere will see the transit on June 5.
  • Transits of Venus are only possible during early December and early June when Venus's orbital nodes pass across the Sun
  • Transits show a clear pattern of recurrence at intervals of 8, 121.5, 8 and 105.5 years
  • next pair of Venus transits occur over a century from now on 2117 Dec 11 and 2125 Dec 08.
  • Edmund Halley first realized that transits of Venus could be used to measure the Sun's distance
  • establishing the absolute scale of the solar system from Kepler's third law
  • his method proved impractical since contact timings of the desired accuracy are impossible due to the effects of atmospheric seeing and diffraction
  • the 1761 and 1769 expeditions to observe the transits of Venus gave astronomers their first good value for the Sun's distance.
  • Mercury can also transit the Sun
  • undergoes transits much more frequently. There are about 13 or 14 transits of Mercury each century
  • Mercury transits fall within several days of 8 May and 10 November
6More

Transit of Venus: June 5–6, 2012 - Observing Highlights - SkyandTelescope.com - 0 views

www.skyandtelescope.com/...s-February-2012-134332798.html scibyte38 Venus transit
shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • combined 17 exposures taken at 20-minute intervals to create this sequence from the transit of Venus in June 2004.
  • transit of Venus, happens only four times every 243 years
  • spacing between each occurrence is very uneven: it's 121½ years, then 8 years, then 105½ years, then 8 years again
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • last transit occurred in June 2004
  • transit by Venus will last for about 6½ hours and can be seen from more than half of Earth's surface.
  • Transit of Venus Event Times
23More

LEGO Figures Flying On NASA Jupiter Probe | NASA Juno Spacecraft & LEGOs In Space | Spa... - 0 views

www.space.com/s-jupiter-juno-spacecraft.html scibyte38 lego Jupiter
shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • three more "very special" LEGO figurines are set to fly to the planet Jupiter with NASA's Juno spacecraft
  • specially-constructed LEGO Minifigures are of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and "father of science" Galileo Galilei.
  • part of the Bricks in Space project
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • joint outreach and educational program developed as part of the collaboration between NASA and the LEGO Group to inspire children to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
  • NASA has a long-standing partnership with the LEGO company
  • Juno and the minifigures are scheduled to arrive in July 2016 and orbit Jupiter for a year (33 revolutions) before intentionally crashing into the giant gas planet
  • 04 August 2011
  • The trio resemble the typical small toys that LEGO sells, but are made out of metal.
  • Jupiter (who was the equivalent of "Zeus" to the Greeks) drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief
  • Juno was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter's true nature
  • Juno spacecraft will also look beneath the clouds to help NASA understand the planet's structure and history.
  • Juno holds a magnifying glass "to signify her search for the truth,"
  • husband holds a lightning bolt
  • third LEGO crew member, Galileo Galilei, made several important discoveries about Jupiter
  • first to point a telescope at the sky to make astronomical observations and discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter — named the Galilean moons in his honor.
  • minifigure Galileo has his telescope with him for the journey to Jupiter.
  • basically the size of the normal LEGO figures
  • made out of aluminum, very special aluminum and they have been prepared in a very special way
  • space-grade aluminum
  • testing to make sure that they fit on our spacecraft in a way that is like our other science instruments."
  • mini-metal statues are joined on the spacecraft by another "special passenger," one
  • 2.8-inch by 2-inch (71 mm by 51 mm) plaque also made of flight-grade aluminum is bonded to Juno's propulsion bay with a spacecraft-grade epoxy. The graphic on the plaque shows a self-portrait of Galileo. The plaque also includes — in Galileo's own hand — a passage he made in 1610 of observations of Jupite
  • Galileo's text included on the plaque reads as follows: "On the 11th it was in this formation -- and the star closest to Jupiter was half the size than the other and very close to the other so that during the previous nights all of the three observed stars looked of the same dimension and among them equally afar; so that it is evident that around Jupiter there are three moving stars invisible till this time to everyone."
23More

Astronaut Builds LEGO Space Station While Inside Real Space Station | LEGO in Space & L... - 0 views

www.space.com/ce-station-astronaut-toys.html scibyte38 lego SpaceStation
shared by Mars Base on 14 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • took more than 200 astronauts from 12 countries more than a dozen years to build the International Space Station (ISS).
  • , an astronaut from Japan, matched that feat in just about two hours
  • his space station was made out of LEGO.
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • approximately two-foot (0.6-meter) long model, which replicated the nearly 360-foot (110-meter) space station was more than just a toy
  • other building brick sets that were launched last year, the LEGO space station was part of an educational collaboration between the Danish toy company and NASA.
  • used it as a demonstration for a series of recorded videos aimed at engaging and educating children about living and working in space
  • LEGO's version of the International Space Station built by astronauts living aboard the real orbiting complex
  • Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa poses with the LEGO model of the International Space Station that he built on board the real space station.
  • Although building the LEGO space station was an activity aimed at students, it was not all child's play.
  • LEGOs are an example of something that is a lot of fun on the ground but it can be very frustrating when you have a lot of loose floating pieces
  • To keep the bricks contained and to protect against some potentially serious dangers
  • pieced together the model inside a glovebox — a sealed container with gloves built into its sides to allow the contents to be manipulated
  • crew members use a more complex glovebox to conduct science experiments with hazardous materials
  • don't have all of these little pieces getting loose and becoming either lost or potentially getting jammed in equipment or even becoming a flammability hazard."
  • Fire is usually not one of the warnings that people find on the side of LEGO boxes.
  • there are flammability concerns about the LEGOs
  • challenging part was using the thick rubber gloves in the containment system because it made me clumsy in building the LEGO space station
  • real space station was declared "assembly complete" on May 29, 2011
  • the model was launched in partially-preassembled "chunks" to help make up for the difficulties working with very small pieces in microgravity
  • The space station could not be launched fully-assembled, because like the real orbiting outpost, it could only be built in space
  • It's a solid model but I believe it can't bear its own weight under gravity
  • LEGO station's time fully assembled was short lived however
  • Due to the flammability hazards, the toy bricks could only be exposed to the open cabin air for two hours.
10More

Radio Glitch Delays 5-Rocket Launch to Edge of Space | Skywatching Tips | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/rocket-launch-atrex-delay.html scibyte38 launch
shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • A radio system glitch on one of five small rockets aimed at the edge of space has forced NASA to cancel a barrage of overnight launches tonight that promised to dazzle East Coast skywatchers with glowing midnight clouds
  • e late-night launch rocket launches, which were scheduled to blast off within about five minutes of one anothe
  • scrubbed for tonight and our next attempt will be no earlier than Friday night, March 16
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • internal radio frequency interference problem with one of the payloads on the rockets caused the launch delay
  • five rockets form the core of NASA's Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX
  • program to study the high-altitude jet stream of wind that blows at speeds of 300 mph (483 kph) at heights of between  60 and 65 miles (97 to 105 kilometers) above Earth.
  • Theories have suggested that these high-altitude winds should only reach speeds of up to 50 mph (80 kph). The edge of space is commonly set at 62 miles (100 km) above Earth.
  • study the jet stream mystery, NASA scientists have loaded each ATREX rocket with a chemical tracer known as trimethyl aluminum. The experiment is designed to spray the material into the jet stream so observers on Earth can map the winds
  • chemical tracer is expected to be seen as glowing, milky white clouds visible to skywatchers along major stretches of the U.S. East Coast, running from southern Vermont and New Hampshire to the border of North and South Carolina.
  • next window to launch the ATREX rockets stretches from March 16 to April 3.
10More

Busy Sunspot Unleashes New M-Class Solar Flare | Space Weather & Solar Storms | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/spot-eruption-solar-flare.html scibyte38 solar flare sun
shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • sun unleashed a new solar flare Tuesday (March 13) from the same region that has been actively brewing for the past week.
  • M7.9-class eruption
  • hurled a wave of plasma and energetic particles, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), into space
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • not heading in Earth's direction
  • The Solar Radiation Storm promptly reached S2 (Moderate) levels, but now should slowly decline
  • sunspot region called AR 1429,
  • already unleashed three strong X-class solar flares and several weaker M-class eruptions
  • , X-class flares from region 1429 triggered the strongest solar storm in eight years.
  • Region 1429 has been rotating across the solar disk and is no longer facing Earth
  • solar physicists will continue to monitor it and other developing sunspot regions for new outbursts.
9More

NASA's Robot Glove Lends a Cyborg Hand to Astronauts | NASA Robo-Glove | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/t-glove-astronaut-cyborgs.html scibyte38 nasa robot cyborg
shared by Mars Base on 15 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • NASA and General Motors have come up with a robotic glove capable of giving today's astronauts and factory workers an extra-strong cyborg grip
  • Robo-Glove" technology emerged when NASA and General Motors (GM) built "Robonaut 2" as a robot assistant for astronauts living aboard the space station
  • glove's mechanical strength allows human wearers to grip tools longer and more comfortably
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • astronaut working in a bulky, pressurized spacesuit might only need to use 10 pounds of force rather than 20 pounds to hold a tool in his or her hand.
  • e robot gloves could also help factory workers on Earth do their job for longer periods with less risk of repetitive stress injury,
  • Such gloves rely upon a robotic sense of touch — pressure sensors in the fingertips — to detect when a human user is grabbing an object
  • wearer grasps a tool, synthetic tendons automatically retract for a firm, mechanical grip until the sensor is released
  • most recent prototypes weigh just two pounds and use an off-the-shelf lithium-ion power tool battery attached to the human user's belt
  • e K-Glove (Robo-Glove) is the first of what we expect to be many spinoffs derived from Robonaut 2
1More

Earth Ice Helps Explain 'Weird' Saturn Moon | Iapetus | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/rn-moon-iapetus-earth-ice.html saturn Iapetus
shared by Mars Base on 17 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Mars Base on 17 Mar 12
     
    It's the frosted mini-wheats of moons
7More

Europe OKs Funding for Mars Mission with Russia | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/mars-mars-mission-funding.html scibyte39 mars
shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • European Space Agency (ESA
  • agreed to continue funding a Mars telecommunications orbiter and atmospheric gas analyzer mission for launch in 2016
  • Russian Proton rocket donated by the Russian space agency
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • ExoMars is a two-mission project that is considered as a single program at ESA
  • council decision removes an immediate problem for ExoMars, it does not solve the longer-term funding issue that has dogged the project for years
  • ESA wants to have a high-resolution imager on their 2016 mission, but the hitch is they need a commitment from NASA
  • ESA official said that with ExoMars now taking on more scientific instruments, many provided by Russia
8More

Orion Crew Capsule Targeted for 2014 Leap to High Orbit - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ed-for-2014-leap-to-high-orbit scibyte39 orion
shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • highest leap in human spaceflight in nearly 4 decades when an unmanned Orion crew capsule blasts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a high stakes, high altitude test flight in early 2014.
  • narrated animation (see below) released by NASA depicts the planned 2014 launch of the Orion spacecraft on the Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) mission to the highest altitude orbit reached by a spaceship intended for humans since the Apollo Moon landing Era.
  • launch atop a Delta 4 Heavy booster rocket
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • capsule will then separate from the upper stage, re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at a speed exceeding 20,000 MPH
  • trio of huge parachutes and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of California.
  • altitude 15 times higher than the International Space Station (ISS) circling in low orbit some 250 miles above Earth and provide highly valuable in-flight engineering data that will be crucial for continued development of the spaceship.
  • Lockheed Martin is nearing completion of the initial assembly of the Orion EFT-1 capsule
  • first integrated launch of an uncrewed Orion is scheduled for 2017 on the first flight of NASA’s new heavy lift rocket
9More

Titan's Haze Is Dropping - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...Titans_haze_is_dropping scibyte39 titan
shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • sky is falling on Titan
  • shroud has plunged more than 100 kilometers since the Cassini spacecraft whizzed by in 2004
  • suggesting that shifting seasons can do more than dump rain
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • hazy layer that hovered 500 kilometers
  • sunk to an altitude of around 360 kilometers
  • One year on Titan is the equivalent of nearly 30 years on Earth
  • one Titan year after Voyager, the moon looks more or less as it did in 1981
  • Cassini first swung by in 2004, the haze had ballooned outward and covered the entire moon except for the wintry north pole vortex
  • , as winter comes to the south, the haze is shrinking, and images snapped by Cassini in late February reveal the beginnings of a vortex at the south pole
27More

Mercury Surprises: Tiny Planet Has Odd Interior, Active Past | Messenger Spacecraft | S... - 0 views

www.space.com/ries-messenger-spacecraft.html scibyte39 MarMedia mercury messenger
shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • interior unlike that of any other rocky planet in our solar system and a surprisingly dynamic history,
  • remained geologically active for a surprisingly large chunk of its evolutionary history, researchers said
  • planet's huge iron core is even larger than they had thought
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • likely overlain with a solid shell of iron and sulfur
  • layered structure not known to exist on Earth, Venus or Mars
  • Messenger has taken nearly 100,000 images and made more than 4 million measurements of the planet's surface
  • probe is mapping Mercury's surface and gathering data on the planet's composition, magnetic environment and tenuous atmosphere, among other features
  • s original science campaign was designed to last one Earth year
  • NASA announced in November that it had granted the spacecraft a one-year mission extension
  • officially began its extended mission earlier this week.
  • In one study
  • They found that the range of elevations was smaller than that found on either Mars or the moon.
  • also observed that the floors of many Mercury craters have been tilted substantially
  • suggest that internal forces pushed the craters up after the impacts created them
  • not out of the question that Mercury is still active today
  • not very likely
  • have not observed an active eruption or extrusion
  • determined that Mercury has "mascons," large positive gravity anomalies associated with big impact basins
  • first discovered on the moon in 1968 and caused great problems in the Apollo program because they tugged low-orbiting spacecraft around and made navigation difficult
  • Subsequently mascons were discovered on Mars
  • find out that Mercury has
  • appear to be a common feature of terrestrial planetary bodies
  • gravity calculations also suggest that Mercury has an iron core that comprises roughly 85 percent of the planet's radius
  • Earth's iron core covers about half of its radius
  • new findings should help shed light on Mercury's past
  • formation and evolution of rocky planets in general
  • looks like a layer of solid iron sulfide overlies Mercury's core — a feature not known to exist on any other terrestrial planet
3More

First-Ever Geologic Map of Jupiter's Volcanic Moon Io Unveiled | Jupiter's Pizza Moon |... - 0 views

www.space.com/moon-io-global-map-photos.html scibyte39 Io jupiter MarMedia
shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • first time, scientists have created a global geologic map of Jupiter's moon Io, the most volcanically active object in the solar system.
  • published this week by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),
  • new map of Io's geology provides for the first time a detailed record of the different types of landforms and deposits that form the surface
12More

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
15More

Self-Propelled Floating Robot Navigates an Arizona Lake | Space Exploration | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ot-navigates-arizona-lake.html scibyte39 robot MarMedia
shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • floating robot made to land on a lake, propel itself around and gather data about the water and atmosphere as it goes
  • built it for future lake-landing missions to one of Saturn's moons, Titan.
  • could also be used for science and military missions on Earth,
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • weighs about 100 pounds,
  • In the video, the robot turns some circles and navigates on the lake's surface.
  • can carry 150 pounds' worth of sensing equipment
  • can be controlled from anywhere around the world using an Internet connection
  • working on making the craft more autonomous
  • wants to create data-gathering robots that have a sense of curiosity
  • investigate certain places, learn from what they find and use that information to decide what to explore next. 
  • an improved version
  • could help officials survey the cleanup of dangerously polluted water in munitions dumps and mines
  • also could help ocean scientists gather data about currents and pollution.
  • For a mission to Titan
  • NASA is interested in rovers that can land on liquid rather than on solid ground
9More

First Ever Geologic Map of Io: 425 Volcanoes, No Craters - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...of-io-425-volcanoes-no-craters scibyte39 Io jupiter MarMedia
shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • One of the reasons for making this map was to create a tool for continuing scientific studies of Io
  • target planning of Io observations on future missions to the Jupiter system
  • 19 different surface material types
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • mapping identified 425 paterae, or individual volcanic centers.
  • determined that most of the active hot spots occur in paterae, which cover less than 3 percent of Io’s surface
  • one feature you won’t see on the geologic map: impact craters
  • testifying to Io’s very active volcanic resurfacing
  • Io is so volcanically active — more than 25 times more volcanically active than Earth
  • most of the long-term surface changes resulting from volcanism are restricted to less than 15 percent of the surface
10More

Jellyfish inspires latest ocean-powered robot (w/ video) - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ocean-powered-robot-video.html scibyte39 robot MarMedia
shared by Mars Base on 21 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • American researchers have created a robotic jellyfish, named Robojelly, which not only exhibits characteristics ideal to use in underwater search and rescue operations, but could, theoretically at least, never run out of energy thanks to it being fuelled by hydrogen.
  • Constructed from a set of smart materials
  • ability to change shape or size as a result of a stimulus, and carbon nanotubes, Robojelly is able to mimic the natural movements of a jellyfish when placed in a water tank and is powered by chemical reactions taking place on its surface.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • To our knowledge, this is the first successful powering of an underwater robot using external hydrogen as a fuel source
  • jellyfish is an ideal invertebrate to base the vehicle on due to its simple swimming action
  • replicated in the vehicle using commercially-available shape memory alloys (SMA) – smart materials that "remember" their original shape – wrapped in carbon nanotubes and coated with a platinum black powder.
  • powered by heat-producing chemical reactions between the oxygen and hydrogen in water and the platinum on its surface
  • renewable element means Robojelly can regenerate fuel from its natural surroundings and therefore doesn't require an external power source or the constant replacement of batteries.
  • heat given off by these reactions is transferred to the artificial muscles of the robot, causing them to transform into different shapes.
  • robot still needs development to achieve full functionality and efficiency
3More

Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | Jupiter Broadcasting - 0 views

www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/...-storms-higgs-boson-scibyte-37 scibyte39 moon MarMedia apollo scibyte42 dinosaur
shared by Mars Base on 22 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Solar Storms & Higgs Boson | SciByte 37
  • March 13, 2012
  • More Dinosaur feathers get color
8More

NASA - NASA Spacecraft Images Offer Sharper Views of Apollo Landing Sites - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...apollo-sites.html scibyte39 moon Apollo MarMedia
shared by Mars Base on 22 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) captured the sharpest images ever taken from space of the Apollo 12, 14 and 17 landing sites
  • interactive shows two LRO images of the Apollo 17 landing site. Click and drag on the white slider bar to wipe from one to the other
  • This interactive shows two LRO images of the Apollo 12 landing site. Click and drag on the white slider bar to wipe from one to the other
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • can retrace the astronauts' steps with greater clarity to see where they took lunar samples
  • In the Apollo 17 image, the foot trails, including the last path made on the moon by humans
  • One of the details that shows up is a bright L-shape in the Apollo 12 image. It marks the locations of cables running from ALSEP's central station to two of its instruments. Although the cables are much too small for direct viewing, they show up because they reflect light very well.
  • higher resolution of these images is possible because of adjustments made to LRO's orbit, which is slightly oval-shaped or elliptical
  • paths left by astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell on both Apollo 14 moon walks are visible in this image. (At the end of the second moon walk, Shepard famously hit two golf balls.)
« First ‹ Previous 201 - 220 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page