The MESSENGER spacecraft has completed its last flyby of Mercury, giving astronomers fresh data and a 98% complete map of the planet’s surface. This article has photos, graphs, and illustrations to accompany the findings.
What landmarks can be used when traveling in space? The GPS reference satellite constellation uses a map of quasars to determine their location. That same map can guide spacecraft and be used to aim telescopes.
The Spirit Rover on Mars has been failing to store its daily data before powering down. This memory problem may slow plans to dislodge the craft from the soils of Troy, where it has been stuck since April.
“On October 8, 2009 about 03:00 Greenwich time, an atmospheric fireball blast was observed and recorded over an island region of Indonesia. The blast is thought to be due to the atmospheric entry of a small asteroid about 10 meters in diameter that, due to atmospheric pressure, detonated in the atmosphere with an energy of about 50 kilotons (the equivalent of 100,000 pounds of TNT explosives).” Quoted from the NASA press release. Fortunately the asteroid exploded in the atmosphere and did not cause any injury or damage.
“Peering far beyond our solar system, NASA researchers have detected the basic chemistry for life in a second hot gas planet, advancing astronomers toward the goal of being able to characterize planets where life could exist. The planet is not habitable but it has the same chemistry that, if found around a rocky planet in the future, could indicate the presence of life. ” Quoted from the NASA release.
A resident of Grimsby, Ontario found a smashed windshield in her SUV and then heard reports that researchers were looking for meteorites from a fireball that passed over the town on September 25. A video of the fireball is below.
“Images from the Ion and Neutral Camera on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft suggest that the heliosphere, the region of the sun’s influence, may not have the comet-like shape predicted by existing models.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
COROT-7b is an exoplanet that orbits the star COROT-7. It it so close to the star that temperatures are thought to be high enough to vaporize silicate rocks. Above the surface the vapors can cool to produce a rain of igneous rocks.
In an effort to learn if there is water on the moon NASA is going to crash a probe into the Moon’s surface, producing a cloud of dust and debris. Moments later another will dive to the surface scanning for water vapor in the debris cloud. This will occur on Friday at 7:31 AM ET.
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around Saturn — by far the largest of the giant planet’s many rings. The ring was not discovered before because it is a very difuse scatter of ice and dust particles.
Interview with USGS scientist Dr. Roger Clark about his September 24th Science article that suggests water exists on the moon. Imaging spectroscopy led Clark and others to this discovery which opens the possibilities into further moon exploration.
“New, three-dimensional imaging of Martian north-polar ice layers by a radar instrument on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is consistent with theoretical models of Martian climate swings during the past few million years.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
“NASA scientists have discovered water molecules in the polar regions of the moon. Instruments aboard three separate spacecraft revealed water molecules in amounts that are greater than predicted, but still relatively small.” Quoted from the NASA press release.
“NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging spacecraft known as MESSENGER will fly by Mercury for the third and final time on Sept. 29. The spacecraft will pass less than 142 miles above the planet’s rocky surface for a final gravity assist that will enable it to enter Mercury’s orbit in 2011.” Quoted from the MESSENGER website.
Cassini acquired lots of images and data while Saturn progressed through its recent equinox. These scenes revealed new information about the planet, its rings and its moons.
Here is an animation that illustrates how the Kepler Mission discovers planets in a very elementary way. If you want a higher level version click here.
The Planck Mission has captured its first rough images of the sky, demonstrating the observatory is working and ready to measure light from the dawn of time.
“We are beginning to observe ancient light that has traveled more than 13 billion years to reach us,” said Charles Lawrence, the NASA project scientist for the mission.
CoRoT-7b is a tiny planet discovered by the CoRoT space telescope. It is the first rocky planet to be discovered outside of our solar system. Its orbit is less than 2 million miles out from its parent star and has a diameter about 80% larger than Earth’s.
NASA has released thousands of new images from the Mars High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. One of the new images is the Pit Crater Chain located south of Arisa Mons.
An article on the Earth Magazine website explores the cause of moonquakes (the lunar equivalent of earthquakes). Data from seismic stations left by the Apollo mission is being reevaluated with improved knowledge.
The purpose of the Kepler space telescope mission is to search for Earth-size planets orbiting other stars. One group of scientists believes that the mission will also have the potential to detect moons orbiting those planets.
The best place on Earth to locate an observatory so that it will have the best possible view of the stars might be on Ridge A Antarctica. The remote, cold, dry and calm environment there provide great conditions for observations.
An article on the LA Times websites presents some history about the Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California. There Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is much larger than anyone ever imagined and that it is expanding.
Astronomers have captured images of some storm clouds hovering near the equator of Saturn’s moon Titan. This is unusual, as Titan has very little cloud cover, and it usually accumulates at the poles.
It is difficult to know for sure what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, or other large groups of species, in the history of our planet. While an asteroid could be the culprit in the dinosaurs’ case, astronomers from the University of Washington think that comets were probably not responsible for any mass extinction.
CNN has a story about the world’s largest and most powerful telescopes. These enable astronomers to not only look farther into the distance but also look farther back in time.
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Hobart King
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