2014年12月31日 星期三

Comet Lovejoy before a Globular Star Cluster



Comet Lovejoy has become visible to the unaided eye. To see the comet, just go outside an hour or so after sunset and look for a fuzzy patch to the right of Orion's belt. Binoculars and a star chart may help. Pictured here, Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) was captured three days ago passing nearly in front of M79, the globular star cluster visible as the bright spot slightly above and to the left of the comet's green-hued coma. The nucleus of Comet Lovejoy is a giant dirty iceberg that is shedding gas into a long and intricate ion tail, extending across the image, as it nears the Sun. The comet is expected to become even easier to spot for northern observers during January, as it is rises earlier and, hopefully, continues to brighten. via NASA http://ift.tt/1wDsyMn

Riding With Cassini Through 2014

Video: see some of the sights Cassini saw this year.



from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1wCCO7p

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A Look Back at an Amazing Year

As excited as we are to jump into 2015, I want to take time to reflect on the year coming to a close and applaud all that we’ve accomplished working together.



from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1tBBQOD

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NASA Highlights Astrophysics Discoveries at American Astronomical Society Meeting

NASA researchers will present a wide range of new astrophysics findings at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS).



December 31, 2014

from NASA http://ift.tt/1rAooJj

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Planetary exploration in 2015: The Year of the Dwarf Planet

Looking ahead to what we can expect from Earth's exploration of the rest of the solar system in 2015, there's an obvious theme: Dwarf planets.



from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1wAZTaE

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Hubble Sees an Ancient Globular Cluster



This image captures the stunning NGC 6535, a globular cluster 22,000 light-years away in the constellation of Serpens (The Serpent) that measures one light-year across. Globular clusters are tightly bound groups of stars which orbit galaxies. The large mass in the rich stellar centre of the globular cluster pulls the stars inward to form a ball of stars. The word globulus, from which these clusters take their name, is Latin for small sphere. Globular clusters are generally very ancient objects formed around the same time as their host galaxy. To date, no new star formation has been observed within a globular cluster, which explains the abundance of aging yellow stars in this image, most of them containing very few heavy elements. NGC 6535 was first discovered in 1852 by English astronomer John Russell Hind. The cluster would have appeared to Hind as a small, faint smudge through his telescope. Now, over 160 years later, instruments like the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the NASA/ European Space Agency (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope allow us to marvel at the cluster and its contents in greater detail. European Space Agency Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Gilles Chapdelaine via NASA http://ift.tt/1vsB3tl

2014年12月30日 星期二

Observatory, Mountains, Universe



The awesomeness in this image comes in layers. The closest layer, in the foreground, contains the Peak Terskol Observatory located in the northern Caucasus Mountains of Russia. The white dome over the 2-meter telescope is clearly visible. The observatory is located on a shoulder of Mt. Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, with other peaks visible in a nearby background layer. Clouds are visible both in front of and behind the mountain peaks. The featured three-image composite panorama was taken in 2014 August. Far in the distance is the most distant layer: the stars and nebulas of the night sky, with the central band of the Milky Way rising on the image right. via NASA http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap141230.html

James Hsiu-Kai Chi

James Hsiu-Kai Chi "Suddenly on Friday, December 26, 2014, James Hsiu-Kai Chi died at his home in Gaithersburg, MD." According to a NASA employee who knew him "James, a highly respected and talented senior information technology specialist, served as a...



from NASA Watch http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/12/james-hsiu-kai.html

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Curiosity results from AGU: Methane is there, and it's variable

At the American Geophysical Union meeting, the Curiosity mission announced that an instrument had finally definitively detected methane in Mars' atmosphere. It exists at a low background level, but there was a spike to about ten times that, which lasted for a couple of months before disappearing. What that means is unclear.



from Planetary Society Blog http://www.planetary.org/blogs/emily-lakdawalla/2014/12301420-curiosity-results-from-agu.html

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Why Does NASA.gov Ignore Cool ISS Photos?

"Can you find Mount #Everest? It is in each of these pictures ... answers tomorrow." #AstroButch http://pic.twitter.com/fw8kCq3ais— NASA Astronauts (@NASA_Astronauts) December 30, 2014 Keith's note Like these photos? I sure do. But you won't see most - if any...



from NASA Watch http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/12/why-does-nasago.html

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Field Report from Mars: Sol 3875 – December 18, 2014

Opportunity is continuing its drives along the rim of Endeavour toward Marathon Valley. Larry Crumpler tells us what to expect as the rover continues its journey.



from Planetary Society Blog http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2014/crumpler-sol3875.html

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Space Simulation Chamber Prepared for Testing Webb Telescope



This photo was captured from outside the enormous mouth of NASA's giant thermal vacuum chamber, called Chamber A, at Johnson Space Center in Houston. Previously used for manned spaceflight missions, this historic chamber is now filled with engineers and technicians preparing a lift system that will be used to hold the James Webb Space Telescope during testing. The James Webb Space Telescope is the scientific successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. It will be the most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb is an international project led by NASA with its partners, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. > Related: Amazing View of Engineers Preparing NASA's Gigantic Space Simulation Chamber for Massive Test Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn via NASA http://www.nasa.gov/content/space-simulation-chamber-prepared-for-testing-webb-telescope

2014年12月29日 星期一

The Sun in X rays from NuSTAR



Why are the regions above sunspots so hot? Sunspots themselves are a bit cooler than the surrounding solar surface because the magnetic fields that create them reduce convective heating. It is therefore unusual that regions overhead -- even much higher up in the Sun's corona -- can be hundreds of times hotter. To help find the cause, NASA directed the Earth-orbiting Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) satellite to point its very sensitive X-ray telescope at the Sun. Featured above is the Sun in ultraviolet light, shown in a red hue as taken by the orbiting Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Superimposed in false-colored green and blue is emission above sunspots detected by NuSTAR in different bands of high-energy X-rays, highlighting regions of extremely high temperature. Clues about the Sun's atmospheric heating mechanisms may not only come from this initial image, but future NuSTAR images aimed at finding hypothesized nanoflares, brief bursts of energy that may drive the unusual heating. via NASA http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap141229.html

Virgin Galactic at ISPCS

Looking Back at Virgin Galactic at ISPCS 2014, SpaceRef Business "Two weeks before the tragedy that saw Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo crash on a test flight, the company was out in full force at the annual International Symposium for Personal and...



from NASA Watch http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/12/virgin-galactic-8.html

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CIA Admits That It Owns All of the Flying Saucers

#1 most read on our #Bestof2014 list: Reports of unusual activity in the skies in the '50s? It was us. http://t.co/BKr81M5OUN (PDF 9.26MB)— CIA (@CIA) December 29, 2014...



from NASA Watch http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/12/cia-admits-that.html

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New camera improves a California near-Earth asteroid program

A new camera is improving the efficiency of the Near-Earth Asteroid Program at the Center for Solar System Studies. This update from Shoemaker NEO Grant winner Bob Stephens reveals amazing recent progress using his 2013 Planetary Society grant.



from Planetary Society Blog http://www.planetary.org/blogs/bruce-betts/20141221-new-camera-improves-the.html

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NASA Updates Pre-Launch Briefings for Upcoming Resupply Mission to Space Station

The fifth SpaceX cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS) under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract now is scheduled to launch about 6:18 a.m. EST Tuesday, Jan. 6, from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.



December 29, 2014

from NASA http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/december/nasa-updates-pre-launch-briefings-for-upcoming-resupply-mission-to-space-station

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Dawn Journal: History of Ceres

As Dawn looks toward the new world of Ceres, Mission Director Marc Rayman looks back on Ceres' discovery.



from Planetary Society Blog http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/marc-rayman/20141229-dawn-journal-history-of-ceres.html

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View of the Alps From Space



Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (ESA) took this photograph of the Alps from the International Space Station, and posted it to social media on Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2014. She wrote, "I'm biased, but aren't the Alps from space spectacular? What a foggy day on the Po plane, though! #Italy" Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Samantha Cristoforetti via NASA http://www.nasa.gov/content/view-of-the-alps-from-space

Bigelow in 2015

2015 Could be a Milestone Year for Bigelow Aerospace [Video], SpaceRef Business "Taking another step forward, Bigelow Aerospace will see its Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) launched and attached to the International Space Station in July of 2015."...



from NASA Watch http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/12/bigelow-in-2015.html

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Pope Francis to Earth's Catholics: Take Action on Global Warming

In a few weeks, Pope Francis will visit the Philippine city of Tacloban, which was devastated by Supertyphoon Haiyan in 2012. Shortly thereafter, according to the Guardian, he is expected to present an encyclical on climate change, “urging all Catholics to take action on moral and scientific grounds.”


Wow. And no sarcasm there; I mean it. Wow.


This is a very big deal, for many reasons. One is that encyclicals are published on issues of high priority to the Pope, and what’s high priority to him is high priority to the Church. There are over a billion Catholics on the planet, so this could have a profound effect.


Another reason is that, also according to the Guardian article, he is doing this to directly affect the outcome of a very important meeting late in 2015: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will meet, and their express intent is to create a legally binding global agreement about actions to take on climate change.


I find this to be very good news. High profile figures speaking up about our ever-warming world will go a long way toward taking the action we so very desperately need to take.


In many countries, where Catholics have a strong political presence, this encyclical is bound to have a positive effect. In the US… well, James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) is arguably the most powerful climate change denier in politics, and he’s a Presbyterian. Inhofe says climate change is a hoax, and that humans can’t possibly affect the environment because God “is still up there”. I suspect he is unlikely to be swayed by the Pope, and is actually far more likely to dig his heels in (and bury his head in the sand) even more.


The basic problem here, the very basic problem, is that arguing over climate change isn’t based on science, it’s based on ideology. The facts are overwhelmingly clear that the globe is warming, creating catastrophic effects from pole to pole, and people who deny that are shutting their eyes tightly and sticking their fingers in their ears.


However, I have hope. Pope Francis choosing to do this after visiting Tacloban is wise; people there are still recovering from the incredible power of Supertyphoon Haiyan… and it’s known that cyclones like that one are becoming more powerful due to global warming. It will present a strong and clear message of the urgency of this issue.


What does it say to you that one of the most socially and politically conservative organizations on the planet is saying it’s time to take action about global warming?


I have no doubt that the deniers in Congress (and in the usual venues) will bloviate, creating sound and fury over this. But what they are doing is flailing, trying to delay the inevitable.


We are not in a position to delay any longer. The effects of global warming are profound and dangerous, threatening our civilization. And they’re happening now. Not in some nebulous future. Now.


In many ways, this Pope has proven to be very forward-thinking. I welcome his words to take action.






from Bad Astronomy http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/12/29/pope_francis_pontiff_will_issue_global_warming_encyclical.html

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2014年12月28日 星期日

Unusual Light Pillars over Latvia



What's happening over that town? Close inspection shows these strange columns of light occur over bright lights, and so likely are light pillars that involve falling ice crystals reflecting back these lights. The above image and several similar images were taken with a standard digital camera in Sigulda, Latvia in late 2009. The reason why these pillars fan out at the top, however, remains a topic for speculation. The air was noted to be quite cold and indeed filled with small ice crystals, just the type known to create several awe-inspiring but well known sky phenomena such as light pillars, sun pillars, sun dogs, and moon halos. The cold and snowy winter occurring this year in parts of Earth's northern hemisphere is giving sky enthusiasts new and typically unexpected opportunities to see several of these unusual optical atmospheric phenomena for themselves. via NASA http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap141228.html

The 4th MSL Landing Site Workshop: Day 2 - Eberswalde

The final site of the four that we discussed yesterday was Eberswalde, which of course is interesting because of the big delta that is preserved in the western part of the crater.



from Planetary Society Blog http://www.planetary.org/blogs/guest-blogs/2010/20100929-4th-msl-landing-site-workshop-day-2-eberswalde.html

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Fake New Year 2015

You may be seeing claims that this image shows Europe at midnight on New Year's Eve. It doesn't. It is a mosaic showing lighting changes from 1993-2003.



Faked satellite image

Not the view at midnight. CREDIT: NASA/NOAA



Ways to tell this pictures isn't what it claims:

  1. Time zones - The image covers over 4 time zones so "Europe" has midnight at different times not all at once.

  2. No clouds - The entire continent is rarely free of cloud, particularly in winter.

  3. Ireland - Ireland doesn't just have red fireworks.

  4. Fireworks at sea? - Highly-flammable North Sea oil rigs aren't the best setting for massive fireworks displays.




Although the image is not New Year's Eve, it does show something pretty interesting. It is a mosaic made by the US's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration showing lighting changes between 1993 and 2003. The red areas are lights that are new in that period, blue areas are those that have reduced, and orange and; yellow are areas of high intensity lighting that have got brighter.



Footnote: this post is a cut down version of my posts from 2014 and 2013. - taken from Astronomy Blog (http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/)



from Astronomy Blog http://www.strudel.org.uk/blog/astro/001049.shtml

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An Accidental Eclipse from 700 Million Kilometers Away

Astronomers keeping an eye on Jupiter’s moon Io got a surprise on Dec. 16 when it looked like something had taken a bite out of it:


What they saw was another of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, passing directly in front of Io, what astronomers call a transit (or more generically a “mutual event”).


Jupiter’s moons orbit the giant planet directly above its equator, and a few times a year everything lines up just right so that, from Earth, we see the orbits edge-on. When that happens the moons can pass in front of each other, creating a transit (or an eclipse if the more distant moon is completely (or nearly completely) covered).


I had to laugh when I saw the animation. My first thought was, why didn’t the astronomers know this would happen? The log records (in the link above) show they really were surprised. So I looked up how often these transits happen, and it turns out to be a little complicated. First, they happen clustered in time when Earth passes through Jupiter’s equatorial plane. Then you might only see a half dozen or so from a given location per month (some happen during the day, or behind Jupiter, when you can’t see them). That’s not very many, and even then they only last for a few minutes at a time.


So really, from a given observatory, it’s pretty unlikely at any given time to accidentally observe a transit. However, in this case, astronomers are engaging in a long-term campaign to observe Io, because the tides from Jupiter cause it to be the most volcanically active object in the solar system. Its volcanoes are constantly erupting, and when they do they’re visible in the infrared. The Gemini telescope, which made these observations, is designed to look at these wavelengths, and in fact you can see an active volcano on the upper left part of Io’s face. Since things on Io change all the time, lots of observations are made, and so it’s inevitable a visible transit would happen eventually.


Europa’s surface is water ice, which is pretty good at absorbing the particular color of infrared observed, so it looks dark. After the transit, the astronomers switched filters so that Europa can be dimly seen moving off to the upper right.


Sometimes there can be serendipitous science from such things; for example, the exact timing can be used to test equations predicting locations of volcanoes on Io and the positions of the moons themselves.


But one thing that I’m pretty sure will come of all this: In the future, I bet the astronomers making these observations will check for mutual events before the observations start!






from Bad Astronomy http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/12/28/io_europa_eclipse_mutual_event_caught_by_gemini.html

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2014年12月27日 星期六

The Winter Shower



Known in the north as a winter meteor shower, the 2014 Geminids rain down on this rugged, frozen landscape. The scene was recorded from the summit of Mt. Changbai along China's northeastern border with North Korea as a composite of digital frames capturing bright meteors near the shower's peak. Orion is near picture center above the volcanic cater lake. The shower's radiant in the constellation Gemini is to the upper left, at the apparent orgin of all the meteor streaks. Paying the price for such a dreamlike view of the celestial spectacle, photographer Jia Hao reports severe wind gusts and wintery minus 34 degree C temperatures near the summit. via NASA http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap141227.html

A Tiny, Faint, Ancient Neighbor

One of the problems with astronomy is best portrayed by an old joke: At night, a cop notices a kid under a street light, looking intently all around him. The cop walks over and asks, “What are you doing, son?” The kid responds, “I lost a dollar, and I’m looking for it.”


The cop looks around for a moment, then asks, “Well, where did you lose it?”


The kid points over to a dark spot across the street. “Over there.”


“Well then, why are you looking over here?” the cop responds, reasonably.


The kid shrugs his shoulders. “The light’s better here.”


Such is astronomy. It’s easy to find the bright stuff, but the fainter objects are tougher, and we sometimes forget about them.


But they’re important. And that’s why the discovery of KKs 3 is so interesting: It’s a dinky spheroidal dwarf galaxy, thought to be the basic building blocks of much beefier galaxies like our Milky Way. Fewer than two dozen are known, so every new one is a gift.


KKS 3 is located about seven million light years away, which is pretty close by—just across the street, so to speak. But it’s fairly isolated, too. The Milky Way is part of a small clump of galaxies called the Local Group, and along with the Andromeda spiral galaxy we’re the two biggest. Most are small dwarf galaxies, and we’re all clustered into a volume of space roughly seven million light years across.


That puts KKs 3 well outside our group. There are other nearby groups, but KKs 3 isn’t a part of them either. It appears to be truly isolated.


It’s small, too: It has a total mass of about 20 million times that of the Sun. The Milky Way’s mass is 10,000 times larger! That makes KKs 3 incredibly faint. It’s amazing it was found at all. It was discovered in 2000, but not conclusively shown to be isolated until this new study using the Hubble Space Telescope. The image at the top of this post shows the galaxy. You can see it as a faint, spread-out smear in this negative image. By coincidence it happens to lie in the sky right next to a globular cluster, a smaller ball of stars presumably orbiting the Milky Way. Not only that but a pair of red stars in our galaxy happens to lie right in the middle of KKs 3.


This shows how hard it is to find these suckers. They don’t exactly stand out. Even faint nearby stars can confuse the surveys.


KKs 3 is also old. The majority of stars in it formed about 12-14 billion years ago in one big episode of star birth; that wasn’t long after the Universe itself formed. It had a couple of other, smaller bursts of star formation long ago, but ran out of gas (literally) after the last one, and no new stars have been created.


But this is all great news for astronomers: KKs 3 is a relic, so isolated and old it probably hasn’t changed much in a long, long time. Studying it is like having a time machine to study the ancient Universe. And we think that, billions of years ago, collisions between small galaxies like KKs 3 are what built up much larger galaxies. We know that the Milky Way is currently eating a few other small galaxies, so we can study those events and compare them to what we see in KKs 3 to learn more about how this process may have occurred so far in the past.


I know that photo of KKs 3 doesn’t look like much; splashier galaxies are so much easier and fun to look at. But this doesn’t make it any less important. You can search where the light is bright all you want, but if what you’re looking for isn’t there, well, what are you going to find?






from Bad Astronomy http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2014/12/27/kks_3_a_nearby_faint_small_galaxy.html

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2014年12月26日 星期五

Cetus Duo M77 and NGC 1055



At the top right, large spiral galaxy NGC 1055 joins spiral Messier 77 in this sharp cosmic view toward the aquatic constellation Cetus. The narrowed, dusty appearance of edge-on spiral NGC 1055 contrasts nicely with the face-on view of M77's bright nucleus and spiral arms. Both over 100,000 light-years across, the pair are dominant members of a small galaxy group about 60 million light-years away. At that estimated distance, M77 is one of the most remote objects in Charles Messier's catalog and is separated from fellow island universe NGC 1055 by at least 500,000 light-years. The field of view is about the size of the full Moon on the sky and includes colorful foreground Milky Way stars (with diffraction spikes) along with more distant background galaxies. via NASA http://ift.tt/13IqD2v

Get an Up-Close Look at the Lunar Surface with These 3D Apollo Images

3D images generated by the Apollo Lunar Surface Closeup Camera give you an idea of how it would look to crouch on the lunar surface with your spacesuit faceplate to the soil.



from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1CKOHAA

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2014年12月25日 星期四

This Comet Lovejoy



Comet Lovejoy, C/2014 Q2, is framed like a cosmic Christmas tree with starry decorations in this colorful telescopic portrait, snapped on December 16th. Its lovely coma is tinted green by diatomic C2 gas fluorescing in sunlight. Discovered in August of this year, this Comet Lovejoy is currently sweeping north through the constellation Columba, heading for Lepus south of Orion and bright enough to offer good binocular views. Not its first time through the inner Solar System, this Comet Lovejoy will pass closest to planet Earth on January 7, while its perihelion (closest point to the Sun) will be on January 30. Of course, planet Earth's own 2015 perihelion passage is scheduled for January 4. A long period comet, this Comet Lovejoy should return again ... in about 8,000 years. via NASA http://ift.tt/1B4nWDf

Merry Nerdmas!

Happy holidays, nerds!


And yes, that's our actual tree topper. Proof:


May all your days be filled with geekery.






from Bad Astronomy http://ift.tt/1HGbmfI

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2014年12月24日 星期三

IC 1795: The Fishhead Nebula



To some, this nebula looks like the head of a fish. However, this colorful cosmic portrait really features glowing gas and obscuring dust clouds in IC 1795, a star forming region in the northern constellation Cassiopeia. The nebula's colors were created by adopting the Hubble false-color palette for mapping narrow emission from oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur atoms to blue, green and red colors, and further blending the data with images of the region recorded through broadband filters. Not far on the sky from the famous Double Star Cluster in Perseus, IC 1795 is itself located next to IC 1805, the Heart Nebula, as part of a complex of star forming regions that lie at the edge of a large molecular cloud. Located just over 6,000 light-years away, the larger star forming complex sprawls along the Perseus spiral arm of our Milky Way Galaxy. At that distance, this picture would span about 70 light-years across IC 1795. via NASA http://ift.tt/13DcvY9

A Visit to India: New Space Collaborations and New Friendships with Role Models for Women in STEM

NASA Chief Scientist Ellen Stofan discusses her recent trip to India to speak at the India-U.S. Technology Summit in Delhi and Miranda House a the University of Dehli on women in STEM careers.



from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1vowYY6

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2014年12月23日 星期二

The Cliffs of Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko



These high cliffs occur on the surface of a comet. They were discovered to be part of the dark nucleus of Comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko (CG) by Rosetta, a robotic spacecraft launched by ESA which began orbiting the comet in early August. The ragged cliffs, as featured here, were imaged by Rosetta about two weeks ago. Although towering about one kilometer high, the low surface gravity of Comet CG would likely make a jump from the cliffs, by a human, survivable. At the foot of the cliffs is relatively smooth terrain dotted with boulders as large as 20 meters across. Data from Rosetta indicates that the ice in Comet CG has a significantly different deuterium fraction -- and hence likely a different origin -- than the water in Earth's oceans. The Rosetta spacecraft is scheduled to continue to accompany the comet as it makes its closest approach to the Sun in 2015 August. via NASA http://ift.tt/13sGGB1

Angara Launch Successful

Angara best response to Western sanctions - deputy PM, ITAR TASS "The Angara launch is a proper response to the Western sanctions and confirmation of Russia's ability to make new achievements, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said." Russia launches...



from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1B3zg2k

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Planetary Surface Processes Field Trip: Day 4

Today we visited the Grand Canyon. If you haven’t been there before, there is no way to convey what it is like.



from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1vlhW5i

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Planetary Surface Processes Field Trip: Day 1

After a hectic week of tying up loose ends and running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I now have my proster done for the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, and am in Phoenix for the Planetary Surface Processes field trip, led by my adviser Jim Bell.



from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1AYwbRs

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Summary of Stealth NASA ISS Workshop

NASA Commercial LEO Workshop (with presentations) "On December 10-11, 2014, NASA held a workshop on the commercialization of low Earth orbit. The goal of the workshop was to start a dialog about creating a thriving commercial marketplace in LEO over...



from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1x7ZIqU

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Sam Keller

Samuel W. Keller "On December 14, 2014.... Memorial service will be held on Saturday, January 3, 2015" Associate Administrator for Russian Programs Appointed (1992) "NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin today announced the appointment of Samuel W. Keller as Associate Administrator...



from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1GUrDin

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Larry Vogel

Lawrence W. Vogel "Lawrence W. Vogel (age 94) passed away after a brief illness on December 18, 2014. For 12 years, Col. Vogel served as Director of NASA Headquarters Administration and was proud to be a part of NASA's very...



from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1AEKr3h

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Russia Launches Angara 5

Russia Launches Angara 5 on Maiden Test Flight [With Video], SpaceRef Business "Russia today successfully launched the Angara 5 rocket on its first test flight. The rocket carried a dummy payload. The Angara 5 flew with five first stage cores...



from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1AEKqMX

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Pretty pictures of the Cosmos: Infinity

Astrophotographer Adam Block shares four stunning images capturing the expansiveness of the universe.



from Planetary Society Blog http://ift.tt/1AXfshl

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One Press Release With a Year's Worth of Highlights

NASA Takes Giant Leaps on the Journey to Mars, Eyes Our Home Planet and the Distant Universe, Tests Technologies and Improves the Skies Above in 2014, NASA "In 2014, NASA took significant steps on the agency's journey to Mars --...



from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1A0UY97

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More Unfunded Commercial Partnerships Announced by NASA

NASA Selects Commercial Space Partners for Collaborative Partnerships, NASA "NASA announced Tuesday the selection of four U.S. companies to collaborate with NASA through unfunded partnerships to develop new space capabilities available to the government and other customers. The partnerships build...



from NASA Watch http://ift.tt/1x0pkav

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NASA Selects Commercial Space Partners for Collaborative Partnerships

NASA announced Tuesday the selection of four U.S. companies to collaborate with NASA through unfunded partnerships to develop new space capabilities available to the government and other customers. The partnerships build on the success of NASA's commercial spaceflight initiatives to leverage NASA experience and expertise into new capabilities.



December 23, 2014

from NASA http://ift.tt/1whHWhe

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Frosty Slopes on Mars



This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. At this time of year, only south-facing slopes retain the frost, while the north-facing slopes have melted. Gullies are not the only active geologic process going on here. A small crater is visible at the bottom of the slope. The image was acquired on Nov. 30, 2014, by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, one of six instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. > More information and image products Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona Caption: Livio Tornabene, Ryan Hopkins, Kayle Hansen and Eric Pilles via NASA http://ift.tt/1zfflLr

2014年12月22日 星期一

The Mysterious Methane of Mars



What's creating methane on Mars? Recent measurements from the robotic Curiosity rover currently rolling across Mars indicate a surprising 10-fold increase in atmospheric methane between measurements only months apart. Life is a major producer of methane on Earth, and so speculation is rampant that some sort of life -- possibly microbial life -- is creating methane beneath the surface of Mars. Other possibilities do exist, though, with a leading model being the sudden release of methane produced by the mixing of specific soil chemicals with underground water. Proposed origins of Martian methane are depicted in the featured illustration. The origin of Mars' methane is a very active area of research, with missions like Curiosity and India's Mars Orbiter Mission searching for clues by measuring methane abundance changes and possible byproducts of different methane-producing processes. via NASA http://ift.tt/1GMyiLv

NASA Takes Giant Leaps on the Journey to Mars, Eyes Our Home Planet and the Distant Universe, Tests Technologies and Improves the Skies Above in 2014

In 2014, NASA took significant steps on the agency’s journey to Mars -- testing cutting-edge technologies and making scientific discoveries while studying our changing Earth and the infinite universe as the agency made progress on the next generation of air travel.



December 22, 2014

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Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, An Astrophysically Correct Book and Song Are Now What You Are

This is so fun: my friends Zach Weinersmith of SMBC and Henry Reich from Minute Physics have written an astronomically corrected version of the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” for kids!


They also put together a totally adorable short video with Henry singing the song:


They have all kinds of e-versions available, and you can pre-order a physical copy, too. The drawings are by children’s book illustrator Chris Jones, so this really is top-notch stuff.


When I first saw it I thought I saw a mistake in it, but I was wrong. I point it out so others don’t misunderstand it the way I did. The lyric is about a pulsar: “Out away from Earth your drift, this is known from your redshift.” I mistook this line to say we know its distance from its redshift, but that only works for very distant galaxies, not pulsars, which are inside our own galaxy. But I misunderstood; they’re saying we know it’s moving away from Earth by its redshift, and that’s technically correct. So there.


Anyway, this has come out just in time for the holidays. Go buy it, and turn more kids into little science pedants!






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NASA Commercial Crew Partners Complete 23 Milestones in 2014, Look Ahead to 2015

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program and the agency’s industry partners completed 23 agreement and contract milestones in 2014 and participated in thousands of hours of technical review sessions. The sessions focused on creating a new generation of safe, reliable and cost-effective crew space transportation systems to low-Earth orbit destinations.



December 22, 2014

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Orion Astronaut View on Re-Entry

Video: NASA Provides an Astronaut's-Eye View of Orion's Re-entry "New video recorded during NASA's Orion return through Earth's atmosphere provides viewers a taste of what the vehicle endured as it returned through Earth's atmosphere during its Dec. 5 flight test."...



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So a Galaxy Walks Into a Bar...

Adam Block is one of my favorite astrophotographers. Now, he has a bit of an unfair advantage: The 0.81-meter Schulman Telescope at the top of a mountain in Arizona at his disposal. He’s also really good at finding interesting but lesser-known objects, and has a serious knack at creating incredible images of them.


I’ve featured his images many many times on this blog, but I think this may be the very best I’ve ever seen: the spiral galaxy NGC 1398.


Holy resonance-amplified stellar awesomeness!


NGC 1398 is a galaxy roughly the same size as out Milky Way, located about 65 million light years away in the Fornax cluster, a cosmic city of hundreds of galaxies. It’s what’s called a barred spiral, due to the long rectangular feature right in the middle. It also has that peculiar ring around the bar, a second double-armed ring farther out, and then a couple of dozen fluffy-looking spurs.


Bars are pretty common in big disk galaxies; the Milky Way has one. They form due to the way gravity works in the disk. In our solar system, essentially all the mass is in the Sun, and the planets orbit it in nice, regular paths. But in a disk galaxy the mass is spread throughout the disk, and that changes things. If you disturb the disk (say a nearby galaxy passes, and its gravity distorts the disk a bit) that perturbation can grow, propagating through the stars and gas.


The math is a tad complex, but the end result is the bar pattern, like a traffic jam in the central galaxy. That bar itself has a peculiar gravitational field, and can affect stars and gas outside it.


The bar rotates around the center of the galaxy with some period. At a certain distance from it, stars and gas orbits at some small multiple of that period, like twice as long, or four times as long. This simple relationship, called a resonance, pumps up the stars and gas, a bit like the way pumping your legs on a playground swing at the right frequency can make you go higher.


That’s what creates the inner ring. It’s actually a pair of tightly wound spiral arms that overlap (you can see that a lot more clearly in a WISE image of the galaxy in the far infrared). The outer ring is also really just tightly constrained arms, too. Outside of that, the spurs are patchy—what’s called flocculent, which is just a cool word (it means patchy, like clumps of wool or cotton).


In Adam’s picture (a total of an astonishing 20 hours of exposure) you can also see a lot of smaller galaxies, almost certainly in the far distant background. I do mean “distant”: they’re a billion light years away or more. The bright red star in the lower right, on the other hand, is in our galaxy, probably only a few hundred or thousand light years away.


Quite the range in this one photo! And a spectacular example of what happens when you take a handful of simple ingredients—stars, gas, gravity, and a few laws of physics—and let them interact for a few billion years.






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2014年12月21日 星期日

Tyrrhenian Sea and Solstice Sky



Today the solstice occurs at 23:03 Universal Time, the Sun reaching its southernmost declination in planet Earth's sky. Of course, the December solstice marks the beginning of winter in the northern hemisphere and summer in the south. When viewed from northern latitudes, and as shown in the above horizontally compressed image, the Sun will make its lowest arc through the sky along the southern horizon. So in the north, the solstice day has the shortest length of time between sunrise and sunset and fewest hours of daylight. This striking composite image follows the Sun's path through the December solstice day of 2005 in a beautiful blue sky, looking down the Tyrrhenian Sea coast from Santa Severa toward Fiumicino, Italy. The view covers about 115 degrees in 43 separate, well-planned exposures from sunrise to sunset. via NASA http://ift.tt/1CgOHZ3

2014年12月20日 星期六

Apollo 11 Landing Site Panorama



Have you seen a panorama from another world lately? Assembled from high-resolution scans of the original film frames, this one sweeps across the magnificent desolation of the Apollo 11 landing site on the Moon's Sea of Tranquility. Taken by Neil Armstrong looking out his window of the Eagle Lunar Module, the frame at the far left (AS11-37-5449) is the first picture taken by a person on another world. Toward the south, thruster nozzles can be seen in the foreground on the left, while at the right, the shadow of the Eagle is visible toward the west. For scale, the large, shallow crater on the right has a diameter of about 12 meters. Frames taken from the Lunar Module windows about an hour and a half after landing, before walking on the lunar surface, were intended to initially document the landing site in case an early departure was necessary. via NASA http://ift.tt/1wwI01I

Detecting an Exoplanet… Without a Telescope

Years ago, when the first transiting exoplanet (HD 209458b) was found, I was startled to realize that it could be easily detected using a small, inexpensive telescope.


Transiting exoplanets are planets that orbit other stars, and from Earth we just so happen to see their orbit edge-on. That means it passes in front of their parent star (that’s the transit bit), blocking a fraction of its light. A tiny fraction, usually far less than 1%. But if the star is bright this dip in brightness can be spotted in small telescopes. I remember doing the calculations and finding that a 30 cm telescope could detect HD 209458b in a single night’s observations. Tough, but possible.


That meant an amateur astronomer could detect exoplanets! What didn’t occur to me at the time is that you don’t necessarily need a telescope to do so.


David Schneider, an editor at IEEE Spectrum, has described a setup using a digital camera and 300mm telephoto lens that has allowed him to detect the transit of the exoplanet HD 189733b, a so-called hot Jupiter, a massive planet orbiting very close to its star. The transit depth is about 2.6%, and his data look pretty good to me. He based his work on an amateur astronomer (vmsguy on the Cloudy Nights forum) who has also posted data that look pretty convincing.


Basically, the idea is to take several exposures over the course of the transit, taking care to make sure you get pictures taken before and after the transit. That’s your baseline. Using software to align the images and examine the stars (both vmsguy and Schneider used IRIS, which is Windows only, but other packages exist), you measure the brightness of the star over time to see the transit.


Not that it’s that easy! In reality you do relative photometry: You measure the brightness of many stars at the same time, so that a passing cloud doesn’t dim your star and make you think you’ve found an exoplanet. You also have to take other calibrations (like darks and flats), and apply them carefully. But it’s not impossible, and in fact sounds like fun.


Mind you, Schneider went all-in, even to the point of building his own gear to track the stars; but if you have a telescope you can always just use the motor drive that does that for you. The point is, you can detect exoplanets using just a camera, a good long lens, and a solid mount!


That’s amazing. I’ve been thinking of trying this sometime using my own 20 cm ‘scope; a lot of exoplanets are within range. But I’m still figuring out how to take astrophotographs, and believe me, I know how addicting this can be. I used to do this for a living, and if I get the software and start observing, I’ll be down the rabbit hole pretty quickly!


But in some ways, that’s the point. If you have the time and resources, it’s pretty amazing what you can do. You can even observe alien worlds.


Tip o’ the lens cap to James Walker .






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2014年12月19日 星期五

Reflections on the 1970s



The 1970s are sometimes ignored by astronomers, like this beautiful grouping of reflection nebulae in Orion - NGC 1977, NGC 1975, and NGC 1973 - usually overlooked in favor of the substantial glow from the nearby stellar nursery better known as the Orion Nebula. Found along Orion's sword just north of the bright Orion Nebula complex, these reflection nebulae are also associated with Orion's giant molecular cloud about 1,500 light-years away, but are dominated by the characteristic blue color of interstellar dust reflecting light from hot young stars. In this sharp color image a portion of the Orion Nebula appears along the bottom border with the cluster of reflection nebulae at picture center. NGC 1977 stretches across the field just below center, separated from NGC 1973 (above right) and NGC 1975 (above left) by dark regions laced with faint red emission from hydrogen atoms. Taken together, the dark regions suggest to many the shape of a running man. via NASA http://ift.tt/1w4DDpt

Video: Ride along with Orion as It Plummets Back to Earth

A new NASA video provides an astronaut's-eye video of the final ten minutes of Orion's test flight.



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Random Space Fact Videos

Enjoy Random Space Fact Videos this holiday season. Each is designed in to give you at least one space fact and one laugh in about one minute. Here are the videos and the background on the concept.



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A new Chang'e 3 and Yutu image archive

A treasure trove of newly released images from the Chang'e 3 program includes a photo sequence of a waxing Earth and lots of high-resolution views of rover and lander on the Moon.



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Video Gives Astronaut’s-Eye View Inside NASA’s Orion Spacecraft

New video recorded during the return of NASA’s Orion through Earth’s atmosphere this month provides a taste of the intense conditions the spacecraft and the astronauts it carries will endure when they return from deep space destinations on the journey to Mars.



December 19, 2014

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Here's How Planetary Science Will Spend Its $1.44 Billion in 2015

The story of NASA's 2015 budget ended on December 16th, when President Barack Obama signed the massive omnibus spending bill into law. NASA's increased budget is locked in, as is the increase to Planetary Science. Here's how Planetary spends its additional money.



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SpaceX Completes First Milestone for Commercial Crew Transportation System

NASA has approved the completion of SpaceX’s first milestone in the company’s path toward launching crews to the International Space Station (ISS) from U.S. soil under a Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contract with the agency.



December 19, 2014

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Hubble Sweeps a Messy Star Factory



This sprinkle of cosmic glitter is a blue compact dwarf galaxy known as Markarian 209. Galaxies of this type are blue-hued, compact in size, gas-rich, and low in heavy elements. They are often used by astronomers to study star formation, as their conditions are similar to those thought to exist in the early Universe. Markarian 209 in particular has been studied extensively. It is filled with diffuse gas and peppered with star-forming regions towards its core. This image captures it undergoing a particularly dramatic burst of star formation, visible as the lighter blue cloudy region towards the top right of the galaxy. This clump is filled with very young and hot newborn stars. This galaxy was initially thought to be a young galaxy undergoing its very first episode of star formation, but later research showed that Markarian 209 is actually very old, with an almost continuous history of forming new stars. It is thought to have never had a dormant period — a period during which no stars were formed — lasting longer than 100 million years. The dominant population of stars in Markarian 209 is still quite young, in stellar terms, with ages of under 3 million years. For comparison, the sun is some 4.6 billion years old, and is roughly halfway through its expected lifespan. The observations used to make this image were taken using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys, and span the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared parts of the spectrum. A scattering of other bright galaxies can be seen across the frame, including the bright golden oval that could, due to a trick of perspective, be mistaken as part of Markarian 209 but is in fact a background galaxy. European Space Agency ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Nick Rose via NASA http://ift.tt/1H01dtM

2014年12月18日 星期四

NGC 7331 and Beyond



Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way. About 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Pegasus, NGC 7331 was recognized early on as a spiral nebula and is actually one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. Since the galaxy's disk is inclined to our line-of-sight, long telescopic exposures often result in an image that evokes a strong sense of depth. The effect is further enhanced in this sharp image from a small telescope by galaxies that lie beyond the gorgeous island universe. The most prominent background galaxies are about one tenth the apparent size of NGC 7331 and so lie roughly ten times farther away. Their close alignment on the sky with NGC 7331 occurs just by chance. Seen through faint foreground dust clouds lingering above the plane of Milky Way, this visual grouping of galaxies is known as the Deer Lick Group. via NASA http://ift.tt/1AshhCs

NASA, Planetary Scientists Find Meteoritic Evidence of Mars Water Reservoir

NASA and an international team of planetary scientists have found evidence in meteorites on Earth that indicates Mars has a distinct and global reservoir of water or ice near its surface.



December 18, 2014

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NASA’s Orion Arrives Back at Kennedy, Media Invited to View Spacecraft

After traveling more than 3,600 miles above Earth and 600 miles over sea, NASA’s Orion spacecraft completed the final leg of its journey by land Thursday, arriving home at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Media representatives are invited to attend an event at 10:30 a.m. EDT Friday, Dec. 19, marking the arrival.



December 18, 2014

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75th Anniversary of NASA Ames



December 20, 2014 marks NASA Ames Research Center's 75th Anniversary. The center was established in 1939 as the second laboratory of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and was named for the chair of the NACA, Joseph S. Ames. It was located at Moffett Field in Sunnyvale, California, now at the heart of Silicon Valley. The Laboratory was renamed the NASA Ames Research Center with the formation of NASA in 1958. This June 2, 1943 photograph shows the construction of the Ames full-scale 40- by 80-foot wind tunnel, with a side view of the entrance cone and a blimp in the background. Image Credit: NASA via NASA http://ift.tt/1zADZKu

NASA, SpaceX Update Launch of Fifth SpaceX Resupply Mission to Space Station

NASA and SpaceX announced today the launch of SpaceX's fifth commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station now will occur no earlier than Tuesday, Jan. 6.



December 18, 2014

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NASA’s Kepler Reborn, Makes First Exoplanet Find of New Mission

NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft makes a comeback with the discovery of the first exoplanet found using its new mission -- K2.



December 18, 2014

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Peninsular

I love photos of the Earth taken from space; our deserts, oceans, islands, volcanoes, farmland, forests… all of it.


But there’s something special about seeing something recognizable, even iconic, from space. Perhaps we’re used to seeing such things on maps, but a photo of it adds the dimension of reality.


I’m not sure. But no matter why, it’s hard to deny this is just straight-up cool:


I’ve spent a lot of time on this peninsula; family vacations when I was younger, visiting friends when I was older, watching the odd rocket launch or three. My folks lived there for many years, so seeing this from space reminds me of combing beaches for shark teeth when my daughter was little, getting sunburned like an idiot despite slathering on lotion, sweating maniacally in March.


At night, from space, the outline of Florida makes it so obvious (like Italy; perhaps peninsulae are easier to recognize). The lights of the city are both lovely to see and appalling to seriously consider; the light pollution is overwhelming, ironically drowning out everything in the night sky except for the few brightest objects… like the International Space Station passing overhead, from where this photo was taken.


Our technology has made it possible to go up and look down, but much harder to stay down and look up. If there is some sort of allegorical conclusion to be drawn here, well, I’ll leave it for you to consider.






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Scientists Discover 38% of the Earth

OK, so the title is a little tongue-in-cheek, but it's sorta true: Mineralogists have finally found naturally-occurring samples of what may be the most common mineral on Earth: what’s called silicate perovskite, or (Mg,Fe)SiO­3.


They’ve also officially given it a name now too: Bridgmanite. Percy Williams Bridgman won the Nobel in 1964 for studying high-pressure minerals… and that’s a clue to why this mineral was so hard to identify.


Bridgmanite can only exist under conditions of high temperatures (at least 2100°C) and pressure (240,000 times the sea level atmospheric pressure—a crushing 240 metric tons per square centimeter!). It’s thought to be abundant in the Earth’s lower mantle—a region 660 to 2900 km beneath Earth’s surface. The molten rock in the mantle is fluid, moving incredibly slowly inside our planet. Any bridgmanite in the mantle brought up toward the surface slowly breaks down under the cooler and lower pressure conditions, which is why it’s remained elusive, even though the mineral may make up as much as 90 percent of that part of the mantle (and therefore more than a third of the entire planet).


The scientific break came in the form of a meteorite, called Tenham. Long ago, two asteroids collided, and the impact created high temperatures and pressures. Bridgmanite formed, and the piece cooled too rapidly for the mineral to decompose. In 1879 the rock fell to Earth in Australia, where it was found and eventually determined to have different kinds of high-pressure minerals in it. Bridgmanite exists in it in very small grains, typically only about 1 micron wide (a human hair is typically 100 microns in width), but it’s there. It was announced earlier this year, but the scientists just published their paper about it in November.


This is quite a boon! It’s difficult to reproduce the conditions in the deep Earth, and even if you can it’s even harder to study what you get. In this case, it’s like we got a sample of the Earth’s lower mantle for free. It’s also a nifty crossover between different disciplines: Meteoritics, high-pressure physics, mineralogy, just to name some.


And also, it’s just amazing. We live on a ball of rock and metal 12,740 km across, with a staggering 1 trillion cubic kilometers of material in it, the vast vast majority of which we can never directly see. I wasn’t even aware that we didn’t actually know for sure what made up over a third of our own planet.


Science! Astronomy may be my passion and my love, but sometimes it’s good to remember that science also tells you, literally, what’s going on right underneath your feet.






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2014年12月17日 星期三

Geminid Fireball over Mount Balang



This was a sky to remember. While viewing the Geminids meteor shower a few days ago, a bright fireball was captured over Mt. Balang, China with particularly picturesque surroundings. In the foreground, a sea of light clouds slowly floated between dark mountain peaks. In the background, the constellation of Orion shone brightly, with the familiar three stars of Orion's belt visible near the image top right. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, is visible near the image center. The bright fireball flashed for only a fraction of second on the lower right. The source of the fireball was a pebble that intersected the protective atmosphere of Earth, originally expelled by the Sun-orbiting asteroid-like object 3200 Phaethon. via NASA http://ift.tt/1zqefAD

Infinite Visions, One Planetary Society

Three weeks ago, we launched a social media campaign hoping to engage the public in space exploration. What we achieved was more than we expected—our Infinite Visions campaign reached more than 2.5 million people in 47 countries.



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NASA Delays Asteroid Redirect Mission Concept Selection until 2015

NASA's efforts to capture a near-Earth asteroid and tow it back to lunar orbit will have to wait a little bit longer for a final mission concept.



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SpaceX to Attempt First-Ever Ocean Barge Rocket Landing

This Friday, SpaceX will attempt what no agency or company has done before: landing a used rocket stage on a floating ocean platform.



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NASA Media Brief On Asteroid Mission No One Supports

NASA to Discuss Today Asteroid Redirect Mission Capture Concept, Next Step in Journey to Mars "NASA will host a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EST today during which agency officials will discuss and answer questions on the selection of an...



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Dark Sky in Canarias

Because why not, here’s a luscious time-lapse animation of the sky over La Palma, Tenerife, and El Hierro, three of the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco:


This video was taken by photographer Imanol Mujika. He has a stunning Flickr gallery, too.


I’ve been to La Palma, and the clouds really do roll in like that. I like how you can see them swell and disappear over the city (I think it’s Santa Cruz in the video) like waves on a beach.


Also, toward the end (at the 1:55 mark), there’s a star trails shot where the long exposure shows the stars as streaks due to Earth’s rotation. Stars on the celestial equator—the part of the sky directly above the Earth’s equator—make straight lines, but toward the right (north) and left (south) they curve more, as they circle the pole. But they curve in opposite directions!


That’s just the natural consequence of the wide-angle shot, being able to see the motions of stars across a big chunk of sky. Near the celestial poles, the stars make smaller circles, so we see the curvature of their trails changing with position. I have a more detailed explanation in an earlier post, if you’re curious (and you should be!).


Seeing this makes me want to get under the stars again... and now that it's winter, Orion, Taurus and all the wonderful chilly weather stars are back at a decent time of night. Time to warm up my camera...






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City Lights Shine Brighter During the Holidays



City lights shine brighter during the holidays when compared with the rest of the year, as shown using a new analysis of daily data from the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite. Dark green pixels are areas where lights are 50 percent brighter, or more, during December. This new analysis of holiday lights uses an advanced algorithm, developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, that filters out moonlight, clouds and airborne particles in order to isolate city lights on a daily basis. The data from this algorithm provide high-quality satellite information on light output across the globe, allowing scientists to track when – and how brightly – people illuminate the night. A daily global dynamic dataset of nighttime lights is a new way for researchers to understand the broad societal forces impacting energy decisions and to look at how people use cities, from an energy perspective. > Full Story: NOAA/NASA Satellite Sees Holiday Lights Brighten Cities Image Credit: NASA's Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen via NASA http://ift.tt/13aSMio

OIG: NASA Reliance on DCAA Increases Costs

NASA OIG: Costs Incurred on NASA's Cost-Type Contracts "We found NASA is at increased risk of paying unallowable, unreasonable, and unallocable incurred costs and of losing the opportunity to recoup improper costs because Agency contracting officers rely too heavily on...



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NASA to Discuss Today Asteroid Redirect Mission Capture Concept, Next Step in Journey to Mars

NASA will host a media teleconference at 4 p.m. EST today during which agency officials will discuss and answer questions on the selection of an Asteroid Redirect Mission concept.



December 17, 2014

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2014年12月16日 星期二

SpaceX Will Attempt Rocket Ship Landing on a Drone Barge

X Marks the Spot: Falcon 9 Attempts Ocean Platform Landing "During our next flight, SpaceX will attempt the precision landing of a Falcon 9 first stage for the first time, on a custom-built ocean platform known as the autonomous spaceport...



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W5: Pillars of Star Formation



How do stars form? Images of the star forming region W5 like those in the infrared by NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) satellite provide clear clues with indications that massive stars near the center of empty cavities are older than stars near the edges. A likely reason for this is that the older stars in the center are actually triggering the formation of the younger edge stars. The triggered star formation occurs when hot outflowing gas compresses cooler gas into knots dense enough to gravitationally contract into stars. In the featured scientifically-colored infrared image, spectacular pillars, left slowly evaporating from the hot outflowing gas, provide further visual clues. W5 is also known as IC 1848, and together with IC 1805 form a complex region of star formation popularly dubbed the Heart and Soul Nebulas. The above image highlights a part of W5 spanning about 2,000 light years that is rich in star forming pillars. W5 lies about 6,500 light years away toward the constellation of Cassiopeia. via NASA http://ift.tt/1yWVaa2

No One Reads The Federal Register Any More

Keith's noteThe NASA Advisory Committee is meeting 14-15 January 2015 at NASA Stennis. NASA staff have managed to find a unique way to format Federal Register notices so as to be all but useless. No one proof reads these...



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RD-180 Bad; RD-181 Good

Antares Upgrade Will Use RD-181s In Direct Buy From Energomash, Aviation Week "Congressional concern about Russian aggression in the Crimean peninsula led to a ban in the new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on using RD-180s purchased after Russia occupied...



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Like A Bad Penny: Methane on Mars

With the announcement of Curiosity's detection of methane on Mars, Nicholas Heavens gives us a guide to the history of methane detection on Mars, a discussion of its scientific significance, and a few things to consider when hearing about and asking about the detection.



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Is Dava Newman's Nomination In Limbo?

Senate may confirm up to 88 federal judges in '14, AP "No longer impeded by Republican blocking tactics, Democrats are on track to win confirmation of up to 88 of President Barack Obama's top judicial nominations this year, a total...



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NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

NASA has selected SpaceX to provide launch services for the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. TESS will launch aboard a Falcon 9 v1.1 launch vehicle, with liftoff targeted for August 2017 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.



December 16, 2014

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Active, Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars

Curiosity Finds Active, Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars "NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic...



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NASA Rover Finds Active, Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars

NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the robotic laboratory’s drill.



December 16, 2014

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Deadline Change, Rule Change and Prize Money Awarded in Google Lunar X Prize

Astrobotic Wins Google Lunar X Prize Milestones and Competition Deadline Extended to End of 2016, SpaceRef Business "Today the Google Lunar X Prize announced that the deadline for the competition deadline had been extended again, this time to the end...



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NASA Analysis: 11 Trillion Gallons to Replenish California Drought Losses

It will take about 11 trillion gallons of water (42 cubic kilometers) -- around 1.5 times the maximum volume of the largest U.S. reservoir -- to recover from California's continuing drought, according to a new analysis of NASA satellite data.



December 16, 2014

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Sunset Over the Gulf of Mexico



From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset and posted it to social media on Dec. 14, 2014. The space station and its crew orbit Earth from an altitude of 220 miles, traveling at a speed of approximately 17,500 miles per hour. Because the station completes each trip around the globe in about 92 minutes, the crew experiences 16 sunrises and sunsets each day. Image Credit: NASA/Terry Virts via NASA http://ift.tt/1zmMJnn

GAO: Webb Continues To Experience Significant Delays

GAO: James Webb Space Telescope: Project Facing Increased Schedule Risk with Significant Work Remaining "With just under 4 years until its planned launch in October 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) project reports it remains on schedule and budget....



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OIG: NASA Does Not Do A Good Job With Space Act Agreements

OIG Report: NASA's Use of Blanket Purchase Agreements "NASA Contracting Officials Using GSA Schedule Agreements Did Not Maximize Competition or Seek Vendor Price Discounts. Our sample included 23 orders obtained using 14 different GSA schedule agreements. We found deficiencies in...



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50 Shades of 67/P

That picture shown above is, seriously, a full-color photo of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.


It was taken by the Rosetta spacecraft on Aug. 6, 2014, when the probe was still 120 km (75 miles) from the comet (long before the Philae lander was deployed). The OSIRIS camera on board has red, green, and blue filters that allow the camera to mimic what the human eye sees. It’s not exact, but it’s close.


And what you see is… grey. Which means the comet really is just kinda overall grey.


That doesn’t surprise me. Comets aren’t really loaded with the sorts of colorful minerals that make Mars or Europa or even our own Earth so gloriously hued. They’re mostly water ice and rock, with other things thrown in for good measure.


But you might expect some variation when you look at the comet in detail. But it’s very smoothly grey; there’s very little change in the color composition across the comet. That means there’s probably physical homogeneity across its surface. If there are any interesting minerals or materials in the comet, they appear to be distributed pretty well.


That does surprise me; I was expecting to see patches of ice at least on the surface, and those reflect blue light better than red. But we see no blue patches at all. The water ice in the comet is mixed in with the other stuff.


That’s not the case with other comets; for example, Hartley 2 is also double-lobed, with a waist in between them, similar in shape to 67P. But observations using the EPOXI spacecraft show the waist is emitting water ice, while the lobes blow out more carbon dioxide. The waist is also smooth in appearance, while the lobes are rougher. It’s unclear why this might be.


But 67/P, for all its similarity in overall shape, is clearly a different beast than Hartley 2. That’s telling us something. Perhaps they were born in different parts of the solar system, and so are constructed differently (we know that to be the case for some by looking at isotope ratios in different comets). Maybe something happened as they aged—4.55 billion years is a long time, after all—that changed them. It could be that 67/P's outgassing and dust have coated its surface everywhere. Or maybe comets are just a diverse group, every one different from another. None of these circumstances would be surprising.


There’s another possibility, too: Simulations of the early solar system show that our Sun may have stolen the vast majority of its comets from other stars! If that’s the case, then that would go a long way toward explaining why comets are so different from each other. They were born in different solar systems!


It’s hard to express just how awe-inspiring that is. We’ve always assumed comets were like time capsules from the ancient solar system (if weathered and worn over the eons). But they actually may be samples of alien stars, transplants from elsewhere in the galaxy.


Thinking about this literally raises the hairs on the back of my neck.


So gaze upon that photo of 67/P once again, and think about what you may be seeing. I know I’ll never use the word “grey” to mean boring ever again.






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2014年12月15日 星期一

The Potsdam Gravity Potato



Why do some places on Earth have higher gravity than others? Sometimes the reason is unknown. To help better understand the Earth's surface, sensitive measurements by the orbiting satellites GRACE and CHAMP were used to create a map of Earth's gravitational field. Since a center for studying this data is in Potsdam, Germany, and since the result makes the Earth look somewhat like a potato, the resulting geoid has been referred to as the Potsdam Gravity Potato. High areas on this map, colored red, indicate areas where gravity is slightly stronger than usual, while in blue areas gravity is slightly weaker. Many bumps and valleys on the Potsdam Gravity Potato can be attributed to surface features, such as the North Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Himalayan Mountains, but others cannot, and so might relate to unusually high or low sub-surface densities. Maps like this also help calibrate changes in the Earth's surface including variable ocean currents and the melting of glaciers. The above map was made in 2005, but more recent and more sensitive gravity maps of Earth was produced in 2011. via NASA http://ift.tt/12RLHmB

This is How Broken NASA Is

NASA's $349 million monument to its drift, Washington Post "In June, NASA finished work on a huge construction project here in Mississippi: a $349 million laboratory tower, designed to test a new rocket engine in a chamber that mimicked the...



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Virgin Galactic Brings DalBello Aboard to Focus on LauncherOne

Virgin Galactic Appoints Richard DalBello as Vice President of Business Development and Government Affairs "In this role, Richard will be responsible for managing business development focusing on LauncherOne, the company's dedicated orbital launch vehicle for small satellites. Richard will be...



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Reporting from the 2014 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union

In San Francisco, in an annual tradition, more than 20,000 geologists are descending on the Moscone Center. I'll be attending #AGU14 this week, but you can also watch press briefings and many of the sessions online.



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A Rain of (Teeny) Asteroids

Over the weekend, the Geminid meteor shower came to a peak. This annual event occurs when the Earth plows through debris left behind by the asteroid 3200 Phaethon as it orbits the Sun (it gets so close to the Sun that bits of the rock vaporize and blow off the asteroid). Each little bit of interplanetary detritus is moving at about 35 km/sec (22 miles/sec), fast enough that as it rams through our air, it heats up enough to become incandescent, and we see a “shooting star”.


I was out Saturday night (Dec. 13), and over the course of two hours I saw so many I lost count; I’m pretty sure I spotted at least 80. I wasn’t able to get any Geminids on camera (grrrrr), but happily photographer Neil Zeller had far better results:


Spectacular! He drove up northeast of Calgary to get nice dark skies, and it was clearly worth the trip. The photo is actually a composite of several exposures; he was facing northwest and captured the Milky Way, several Geminids, and a lovely green aurora on the horizon (Zeller has an astonishing gallery of aurora photos on his website). On the far right you can just see an interesting pair of stars tightly spaced; that’s Mizar and Alcor, the stars in the bend in the Big Dipper’s handle.


As you can see, all the meteors seem to point in the same direction. That’s because they do! The meteors appear to come from a part of the sky near the head of Gemini (hence their name), and radiate away from that point in all directions. It’s a perspective effect, like driving through a tunnel and seeing the lights on the walls appear to come from the same spot ahead of you, and streak away to the sides.


As I stood under the chilly Colorado sky Saturday, this radiating effect was pretty strong; I saw meteors in any part of the sky I looked, and they always pointed back toward Gemini (except for one which was a random meteor unrelated to the shower; on any night you can usually see a few per hour). I saw every flavor of meteor, too: long streaks, short ones, faint ones, bright ones, and one that flared about as bright as Jupiter (magnitude -1 or 2 if you want details) that left a luminous vapor trail that lasted for just a second or two. That was amazing.


This was easily the best meteor shower I’ve ever watched myself. It’s usually too cold and cloudy this time of year to see it, but things worked out well; in fact, as I write this (the day after the shower) it’s snowing!


And I did get a lot of very pretty pictures from the night, including this one of Orion through the trees (and Sirius, the brightest star of the night sky, to the lower left). It was totally worth the cold fingers, toes, and nose.


Tip o' the lens cap to Daggerville on Twitter.






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NASA Tests Software That May Help Increase Flight Efficiency, Decrease Aircraft Noise

NASA researchers Friday began flight tests of computer software that shows promise in improving flight efficiency and reducing environmental impacts of aircraft, especially on communities around airports.



December 15, 2014

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2014年12月14日 星期日

Molecular Cloud Barnard 68



Where did all the stars go? What used to be considered a hole in the sky is now known to astronomers as a dark molecular cloud. Here, a high concentration of dust and molecular gas absorb practically all the visible light emitted from background stars. The eerily dark surroundings help make the interiors of molecular clouds some of the coldest and most isolated places in the universe. One of the most notable of these dark absorption nebulae is a cloud toward the constellation Ophiuchus known as Barnard 68, pictured above. That no stars are visible in the center indicates that Barnard 68 is relatively nearby, with measurements placing it about 500 light-years away and half a light-year across. It is not known exactly how molecular clouds like Barnard 68 form, but it is known that these clouds are themselves likely places for new stars to form. In fact, Barnard 68 itself has been found likely to collapse and form a new star system. It is possible to look right through the cloud in infrared light. via NASA http://ift.tt/1z8HkAd

2014年12月13日 星期六

NASA's 2015 Budget Increase is All But Confirmed

Senate passes the CRomnibus spending bill with an $18.01 billion NASA budget, which includes an increase to planetary science and Europa. The legislation now moves on to the President for his signature.



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The Infrared Visible Andromeda



This remarkable synthetic color composite image was assembled from archives of visible light and infrared astronomy image data. The field of view spans the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), a massive spiral a mere 2.5 million light-years away. In fact, with over twice the diameter of our own Milky Way, Andromeda is the largest nearby galaxy. Andromeda's population of bright young blue stars lie along its sweeping spiral arms, with the telltale reddish glow of star forming regions traced in space- and ground-based visible light data. But infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, also blended directly into the detailed composite's red and green color channels, highlight the the lumpy dust lanes warmed by the young stars as they wind even closer to the galaxy's core. Otherwise invisible at optical wavelengths, the warm dust takes on orange hues. Two smaller companion galaxies, M110 (below) and M32 (above) are also included in the frame. via NASA http://ift.tt/1BFEEwd

SpaceX Spreads Out

SpaceX expansion could add 300 jobs locally, Waco Tribune "In a report prepared by the city of Waco's economic development staff, SpaceX is proposing to invest $46.3 million in the site during the next five years. That will consist of...



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2014年12月12日 星期五

Crystals on Mars



This extreme close-up, a mosaic from the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on the Curiosity rover, spans a breathtaking 5 centimeters. It captures what appear to be elongated crystal shapes formed by the precipitation of minerals dissolved in water, a likely result of the evaporation of ancient lake or river from the Martian surface. Brushed by a dust removal tool and illuminated by white LEDs, the target rock named Mojave was found on the Pink Cliffs outcrop of the Pahrump Hills at the base of Mount Sharp. The MAHLI images were acquired on Curiosity's sol 809, known on planet Earth as November 15, 2014. Of course, the inset 1909 Lincoln Cent image is provided for a comparison scale. Covered with Mars dust itself, the penny is a MAHLI calibration target attached to the rover. via NASA http://ift.tt/1zX2zU2

NASA Highlights Drought, Mars, Arctic Warming at American Geophysical Union

NASA Highlights Drought, Mars, Arctic Warming at American Geophysical Union



December 12, 2014

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The Planetary Society’s Global Volunteer Network

The Planetary Society’s Global Volunteer Network has been busy these past few months!



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Pretty pictures of the Cosmos: Strange and spooky

Award-winning astrophotographer Adam Block shares his haunting images of three different types of nebulae.



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LightSail Completes Testing, Announcement Expected in January

The Planetary Society's LightSail spacecraft successfully completed testing to prepare it for a possible 2015 test flight.



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New Churyumov-Gerasimenko Shapemodel!

Mattias Malmer shares his latest shape model of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, created using data from the Rosetta spacecraft.



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Super Guppy Spends a Restful Night in the NASA Langley Hangar



NASA's Super Guppy aircraft, designed to transport extremely large cargo, rests after making a special delivery to the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The aircraft measures more than 48 feet to the top of its tail and has a wingspan of more than 156 feet with a 25-foot diameter cargo bay – the aircraft features a hinged nose that opens 110 degrees. A representative test article of a futuristic hybrid wing body aircraft will be unloaded from the Super Guppy on Friday, Dec. 12 at Langley Research Center. The large test article, representing the uniquely shaped fuselage cross-section, is made out of a low-weight, damage-tolerant, stitched composite structural concept called Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure, or PRSEUS. Langley's Combined Loads Test System will subject the revolutionary carbon-fiber architecture test article to conditions that simulate loads typically encountered in flight. Image Credit: NASA via NASA http://ift.tt/1zHtwN8

2014年12月11日 星期四

NASA's Budget Increase Is A Step Closer to Reality

By a narrow vote, the House of Representatives passed the 2015 'CRomnibus' spending bill, which includes an increase to NASA and its Planetary Science Division. It now moves on to the Senate.



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Moondog Night



In this night scene from the early hours of November 14, light from a last quarter Moon illuminates clouds above the mountaintop domes of Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona. Bright Jupiter is just left of the overexposed lunar disk with a streak of camera lens flare immediately to the right, but that's no fireball meteor exploding near the center of the picture. Instead, from the roadside perspective a stunningly bright moondog or paraselene stands directly over Kitt Peaks's WIYN telescope. Analogous to a sundog or parhelion, a paraselene is produced by moonlight refracted through thin, hexagonal, plate-shaped ice crystals in high cirrus clouds. As determined by the crystal geometry, paraselenae (plural) are seen at an angle of 22 degrees or more from the Moon. Compared to the bright lunar disk they are more often faint and easier to spot when the Moon is low. About 10 minutes after the photograph even this bright moondog had faded from the night. via NASA http://ift.tt/1DevmJg

Correcting NASA's Inaccurate Infographic

.@WhiteHouse has invested more than $100 billion in America's space program and advanced #NASA's #JourneyToMars http://ift.tt/1zdQM48 David Weaver (@DavidWeaver) December 10, 2014 @DavidWeaver @WhiteHouse Your chart is inaccurate. See revised pic. Nowhere near the $$ needed #emptypromise #NASA http://ift.tt/1wGguAv...



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Brief Venus Express update: Not quite dead yet

Venus Express is still alive and talking to Earth, but may fall into Venus' atmosphere in January.



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The YORP Effect and Bennu

The YORP effect is a phenomenon that affects the rotation rate and pole orientation of an asteroid. YORP is an acronym that combines four scientist’s names: Yarkovsky, O’Keefe, Radzievskii, and Paddack.



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Spaceport America Needs More Spaceships

Spaceport launches online shop to help pay bills, KRQE "The launch of commercial flights to space from Spaceport America was supposed to help the economy here take off. However, after years and years of delays, the Spaceport is trying other...



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NASA, SpaceX Update Launch of Resupply Mission to the Space Station

NASA, SpaceX Update Launch of Resupply Mission to the Space Station



December 11, 2014

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