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Showing posts with label solar system. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar system. Show all posts

Wednesday 22 July 2015

NEW PLUTO PICTURES SHOW JELLY-BEAN MOON AND MOUNTAINS

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Newly-discovered frozen peaks on Pluto are taller than Ben Nevis while images of Nix reveal an unusual red spot
Newly-discovered frozen peaks on Pluto are taller than Ben Nevis while images of Nix reveal an unusual red spot
The latest pictures to be beamed back from the far reaches of the Solar System show a new mountain range on Pluto and the first close up images of two of the dwarf-planet’s smaller moons.
NASA’s New Horizons probe has discovered a new, mountain range on bright, heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Region.
These newly-discovered frozen peaks are estimated to be around 5,000ft high – about 600ft taller than Ben Nevis.
The Norgay Mountains discovered by New Horizons on July 15 are much taller, around 11,000ft, roughly the height of The Pyrenees.
The new range is just west of the region within Pluto’s heart called Sputnik Plain and some 68 miles northwest of Norgay Mountains..
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New Horizons has also picked up the first images large images of two of Pluto’s smaller moons.
Nix and Hydra – the second and third moons to be discovered – are approximately the same size, but their similarity ends there.
New Horizons’ first colour image of Nix shows a jelly bean shaped satellite which is 26 miles long and 22 miles wide.
Although the overall surface colour of Nix is neutral grey in the image, the newfound region has a distinct red tint. Hints of a bull’s-eye pattern lead scientists to speculate that the reddish region is a crater.
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Meanwhile, the sharpest image yet received from New Horizons of Pluto’s satellite Hydra shows that its irregular shape resembles the state of Michigan.
There appear to be at least two large craters, one of which is mostly in shadow. The upper portion looks darker than the rest of Hydra, suggesting a possible difference in surface composition.
Source: Telegraph

Monday 3 November 2014

NASA Releases Sounds From Space On SoundCloud

space-metal

NASA recently released over a half a century of sounds on SoundCloud, ranging from eerie noises from our solar system to historic moments in space exploration. The U.S. space agency recently created a SoundCloud page to reveal some of the most unusual sounds ever recorded, according to Mother Nature Network.

Although sounds in space are stifled by a vacuum, scientists have discovered ways of capturing noise using special instruments on the Voyager space probe that converts electromagnetic vibrations into sound, Gigwise reports.

The recordings include sounds of Saturn’s rings, Neptune, Jupiter, and Uranus, as well as what Earth would sound like millions of miles away. The files also contain sounds of shuttle launching and famous quotes from NASA astronauts.

Some of the sounds are quirky, chilling, and otherworldly. Here are seven of NASA’s most interesting uploads.

  1. “Earthsong” It is also called “Chorus” and is NASA’s most popular feed. The sound is produced by our own planet. It is described as an electromagnetic phenomenon caused by plasma waves in Earth’s radiation belts that hover 8,000 miles above the surface. The sound is too high for humans to hear, however ham radio operators have detected it for a long time, especially in the morning. It has been compared to the sound of birdsongs, from which the moniker is derived. NASA recorded this in 2012 with its EMFISIS probe.

  2. Saturn Radio” Saturn is home to dramatic auroras that are a lot like the northern and southern lights that dance around the Earth’s poles when solar wind hits the upper atmosphere. These lights are closely related to the planet’s strong radio emissions, first detected by the Cassini spacecraft 2002.

  3. “Interstellar Plasma” It has taken NASA’s Voyager 1 three decades since it left Earth to escape the sun’s magnetic field. This clip represents data that was recorded outside the heliosphere in 2012 and 2013. NASA calls it “The Sounds of Interstellar Space.”

  4. “Sonified Starlight” Scientists now may “sonify” non-auditory data by translating its values to noises, a lot like a Geiger counter converts silent radiation to audible clicks. Locating patterns in in data is often easier by ear, even if the data doesn’t represent sounds. The technique also helps scientists understand faraway stars, as with this clip of sonified light waves from KIC 7671081B, a variable star listed in NASA’s Kepler Input Catalog (KIC).

  5. Eerie Enceladus” This is Saturn’s sixth-largest of its several dozen moons. Enceladus spews enormous plumes of water vapor from its ice-covered surface. In 2005, the Cassini spacecraft detected a “significant atmosphere around it,” recording data from ion cyclotron waves.

  6. A Giant Leap” Neil Armstrong’s most famous words when his foot touched the surface of the moon. This was the first SoundCloud clip that NASA posted online.

  7. “Lift Off” These are the sounds of the first manned-mission to the moon, Apollo 11. The clip includes lift off, as well as the applause in the space center.





Some of NASA’s files might sound familiar to gamers.

NASA’s release of sounds from space on its SoundCloud page comprises of 63 files so far, including several of the most historic and mind-bending moments from the past 50 years of space exploration.
Source : inquisitr

Friday 31 October 2014

NASA catches the sun celebrating Halloween

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NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) captured quite a photo of the sun on October 8.

In the photo, hotspots of magnetic fields on the sun form what can appear to look like eyes, a nose and a grin reminiscent of a Jack-O-Lantern.

The image is a composite of two photos taken in ultraviolet light. The magnetic activity in the corona, or sun's atmosphere, is what creates the pattern.

The SDO, launch in 2010, monitors the sun's activity to provide accurate space weather forecasts, including to provide warning when solar flares may threaten the Earth.

Tuesday 28 October 2014

High-Altitude Methane Ice Cloud Discovered Floating Above Titan's Pole

titan ice cloud

NASA scientists have uncovered a starting new find on Saturn's moon, Titan. They've found an unexpected high-altitude methane ice cloud, similar to exotic clouds formed high above Earth's own poles. This cloud in the stratosphere over Titan’s north pole (left) is similar to Earth’s polar stratospheric clouds (right). NASA scientists found that Titan’s cloud contains methane ice, which was not previously thought to form in that part of the atmosphere. Cassini first spotted the cloud in 2006. (Photo : L. NASA/JPL/U. of Ariz./LPGNantes; R. NASA/GSFC/M. Schoeberl)


NASA scientists have uncovered a starting new find on Saturn's moon, Titan. They've found an unexpected high-altitude methane ice cloud, similar to exotic clouds formed high above Earth's own poles.

The researchers first spotted the cloud with the help of NASA's Cassini spacecraft. It was part of the winter cap of condensation over Titan's north pole. Now, scientists have teased apart the data and found that the cloud contained methane ice, which produces a much denser cloud than the previously identified ethane ice.

"The idea that methane clouds could form this high on Titan is completely new," said Carrie Anderson, lead author of the new study, in a news release. "Nobody considered that possible before."

The temperatures in Titan's lower stratosphere are not the same at all latitudes. In fact, the high-altitude temperature near the north pole is far colder than just south of the equator. This temperature difference-as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit-is enough to yield methane ice.

So how do these clouds form? The mechanisms for forming these high-altitude clouds are different from what happens in the troposphere. Titan has a global circulation pattern; warm air in the summer hemisphere wells up from the surface and enters the stratosphere, slowly making its way to the winter pole. There, the air sinks back down and cools as it descends. This forms the methane clouds.

Currently, the scientists are gathering more information about Saturn's moon in order to better understand the natural processes that occur on the alien world. This could shed light on the processes that occur on exoplanets and allow scientists to apply their findings to processes that also occur on Earth.

"Titan continues to amaze with natural processes similar to those on Earth, yet involving materials different from our familiar water," said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist. "As we approach southern winter solstice on Titan, we will further explore how these cloud formation processes might vary with season."

Spacecraft Spots Ice at Mercury's North Pole

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NASA 's MESSENGER spacecraft has sent back its first visible-light images of water ice on Mercury, the tiny charbroiled planet that orbits closest to the sun.

The findings, described in the journal Geology, reveal that the ice deposits look surprisingly "fresh" -- and hint that water could have been very recently delivered to rocky little Mercury.

Even though Mercury sits less than 36 million miles from the sun -- which is less than two-fifths of the Earth's comfortable 93 million miles from sun -- some ice still manages to cling to the planet's surface. That's because the ice lies at the poles, in permanently shadowed regions inside craters that are eternally shielded from sunlight and remain very, very cold.

More than two decades ago, ground-based radar observations picked up signs of this polar ice, and the MESSENGER spacecraft later lent support to the idea with its own suite of instruments. But it's tough to actually see these permanently shadowed regions with the spacecraft's visible-light camera because, well, it's dark there. But recently, the team was able to refine the images of the ice-deposit surfaces with the help of what little light was reflecting off the crater walls.

The scientists examined Prokofiev, which at roughly 69.6 miles in diameter is the largest crater at Mercury's north pole thought to have water-ice deposits. There, the surface ice had a "cratered" texture -- showing that it was placed there more recently than the smaller underlying craters.

And in other spots, such as Berlioz crater, the researchers found that the water ice was "covered by a thin layer of dark, organic-rich volatile material." The boundaries of those icy regions were surprisingly sharp -- they hadn't been in place long enough to get smoothed out.

"The sharp boundaries indicate that the volatile deposits at Mercury's poles are geologically young, relative to the time scale for lateral mixing by impacts," the study authors wrote, "and either are restored at the surface through an ongoing process or were delivered to the planet recently."

To put that idea in perspective, estimates indicate that there could be roughly enough water-ice on Mercury to fill Lake Ontario. And if at least some of that water is indeed being delivered to the planet, it sheds new light on dynamics in the inner solar system, the scientists said.

"If Mercury's currently substantial polar volatile inventory is the product of the most recent portion of a longer process," the study authors wrote, "then a considerable mass of volatiles may have been delivered to the inner Solar System throughout its history."

Wednesday 25 September 2013

ISRO: India's Mars Orbiter Mission to Launch on 28 October 2013

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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that the country's most ambitious space project - Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) - is scheduled for launch on 28 October.

Last week, ISRO scientists gave a detailed presentation about the Mars mission before a national committee of experts. After reviewing the status of MOM, the panel of experts, including former ISRO chairman UR Rao, space expert Roddam Narasimha and professors from Indian Institute of Science, gave approval to launch the mission on 28 October.

Earlier, ISRO officials allotted a launch window of 21 October to 14 November, but now the launch date has been fixed for 28 October though the final date of the launch window remains the same (19 November).

Saturday 21 September 2013

No sign of life detected on martian surface

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The Curiosity rover used a laser to sample freshly drilled rock dust on Mars. It has not found methane.

NASA's Curiosity rover has failed to find significant signs of methane in the Martian atmosphere, mission scientists reported on Thursday. The new rover information suggests that earlier reports of Martian methane—once seen as a possible sign of microbial life on the planet—may have been off target.
If the Curiosity finding holds up, it would raise questions about one of the most intriguing discoveries made about Mars in recent years: that periodic and large-scale plumes of organic methane are released from beneath the planet's surface.
"We consider this to be a quite definitive conclusion, and we're very confident with it," Chris Webster, manager of the Planetary Science Instrument Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said of the new rover readings reported in the journal Science.
"It puts an upper limit on the background methane on Mars that is very constraining of any scenarios for its production on the planet."
The special interest in the gas comes from the fact that some 90 percent of the methane on Earth is the product of living microbes. Signs of methane plumes in the Martian atmosphere seen by Earth-based telescopes had earlier raised hopes of detecting similar microbial life hidden under the Martian surface.
Original Discovery Defended
The lead author of that 2009 methane plume discovery report, Michael Mumma of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said that he stood by his finding that substantial and localized plumes of methane were released on Mars in 2003.
He suggests that the Martian atmosphere destroys methane much more quickly than Earth's does, and that within three years of the original measurements new observations showed that half of the methane was gone.
"These findings are actually consistent with our results," Mumma said of the findings from Curiosity. "We reported that the methane releases are likely to be sporadic and that the methane is quickly eliminated in the atmosphere.
"The good news here is that the rover instrument designed to detect methane is working, and we look forward to ongoing monitoring in the future."
Other American and European researchers have also detected elevated levels of methane in the atmosphere of Mars—for example, the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiting spacecraft found methane in 2004—but none with the specificity reported by Mumma's team.
Curiosity Counters Methane Reports
Webster said that he took the previous reports of methane on Mars "at face value," since they too were published in peer-reviewed journals. But he said the Curiosity observations were clearly different.
While methane can be produced through geological processes, on Earth it is overwhelmingly a byproduct of microbes called methanogens. Best known as denizens of the guts of creatures ranging from humans to cattle to termites, these organisms produce the marsh gas found in wetlands and landfills. But they can also live deep underground.
Because of the harsh environment on Mars—high levels of surface radiation; low temperatures; and dry, acidic conditions—scientists have generally agreed that any microbes now alive on the planet would likely inhabit the deep underground.
Mumma's team did not point to biology as the source of the methane plumes they identified, but they did raise it as a possibility along with geological processes.
Surface Measurements Will Continue
The new paper makes the case that the methane levels Curiosity detected on the ground are so low that the likelihood of a biological source is vanishingly small.
"Methane is a very well understood gas that is quite stable," Webster said. "We know how long it lasts and how it is destroyed over decades."
While it is conceivable that something exists in the Martian atmosphere that destroys methane at a much faster pace than on Earth, "we have no evidence, no observations of what it might be," he said.
Webster said the rover's instruments have not detected any methane so far, but the possibility of error put the upper limit of methane at 1.7 parts per billion. That means that the Martian atmosphere could hold at most about 10,000 tons (nine million kilograms) of methane, notes the University of Michigan's Sushil Atreya, a co-author on the new study. On Earth, the atmosphere holds about six billion tons (5.44 trillion kilograms) of methane.
The methane-detecting device is on the rover's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument panel and is called the tunable laser spectrometer. Webster said that efforts to detect methane will continue, but will likely be reduced if results continue to come back negative.
A European satellite is scheduled to arrive at Mars in 2016 with the specific goal of searching for gases such as methane. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter was initially going to be a joint venture with NASA, but the agency pulled out for budgetary reasons.