Meteor Watch

Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Neptune

2012-02-14T20:47:00.000-05:00

Jupiter is not the only planet in our solar system that harbors a “Great Spot.” Along with Uranus, Neptune also harbors a greats spot within its planetary atmosphere. These spots are a result of a atmospheric disturbances on Neptune that manifests themselves as giant storm systems with winds swirling at a thousand miles or more.

The storms on Neptune are not quite a permanent as Jupiter's red spot. A spot was first observed in the southern hemisphere of Neptune as Voyager to made a pass in 1989. Just five years later, the Hubble telescope observed that the southern hemispheric storm dissipated and a new spot was observed in the northern hemisphere. More recent observations show even more sporadic spot development and dissipation. Some of these spots are the result of large circulations, while others may be large cloud systems.

These storms are generated in the swirling winds of the Neptunian atmosphere. This atmosphere is quite complex, with low, middle, and high clouds, all made up of different material and structure. On Earth we have different names of all of our cloud types. Imagine that on Neptune you would have to come up with an entirely new classification system for clouds!

Some of these clouds build into towering complexes that burst through to the top of the Neptunian atmosphere, which appear as great white spots from ground and space based telescopes.

Neptune is the eighth planet from the sun, orbiting at about 2.8 billions miles from the Sun. Since it has an atmosphere that readily radiates heat from the dark side of the planet at it highest level, Neptune is known to harbor some of the coldest temperatures within our solar sytem, even colder than Pluto.

Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Uranus

2012-02-12T19:44:00.001-05:00

The butt of many jokes while I was growing up, the planet Uranus was known as the “butt” planet among the gang of kids I ran with in my younger days. And since Uranus is considered one of the gas giants, the most famous saying of all: The gases of Uranus are not safe to inhale, it would kill us all" was mentioned quite often to kiddie giggles.

Now we are heading to the outer reaches of the solar system in our trek across our little ring planets. Uranus orbits the sun at about 1.7 billion miles with some variation in its elliptical orbit. The rotational spin of Uranus is unlike any of the other designated planets within the Solar System.

Uranus sits at 97 degrees with respect to the plane of its elliptical orbit, nearly pointing a pole at the Sun during solstice period. This results in either one or the other pole in receiving nearly 42 years of “summer” or “winter.” However, Uranus is actually warmer at its equator, due to some unknown internal process occurring within its atmosphere.

Rings were first definitively observer at Uranus in 1977 by Dunham and Mink using the Kupier Airborne Observatory while studying a star ocultation. Some mention of rings were also mentioned by William Herschel. The rings were seen one again when Voyager 2 made a pass in 1986.

Source of factual information: Uranus on Wikipedia

Bolide Meteor Streaks Across Texas and Oklahoma Skies

2012-02-11T06:57:00.000-05:00

Last Wednesday night, an object was seen streaking across the skies in Texas and Oklahoma. This object was most likely a meteor about the size ranging from a human fist or as large as a human head, which entered the Earth's atmosphere and created a fiery display.

It is unclear whether the meteor reached the ground. However, according to the Meteor Hunter's blog, there is a possibility that some debris landed around the Edgewood are in Texas. A number of all-sky cameras captured the event, as well as the OKC Sandia Sentinel radar.

You can also see a compilation of some of the TV news reports about the meteor's entry.

Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Saturn

2012-02-06T16:19:00.000-05:00

One of the coolest astronomical events I witnessed growing did not happen as I watched the sky. It occurred watching television. Live imagery being beamed back to Earth from the Voyager I mission. I was young at the time, it was 1980, and a fledgling 24 hour news channel was running live broadcasts from NASA showing the spacecraft's approach to the ringed planet. Images of Saturn's rings appeared line by line across a CRT at Voyager's mission control center. What I witnessed astonished me, as well as many NASA scientists at the time, as raw close up images gradually appeared of Saturn's rings. I recall seeing for the first time, complex structures within Saturn's rings. Such complexity within the rings of Saturn was never dreamed of as only blurry telescopic shots of the ring were all that was available at that time.

Twenty years prior to the visit to Saturn, Arthur C. Clark and Stanley Kubrick collaborated on a movie and book project that had a profound impact on how space exploration was depicted in movies. However, there was one notable change made in the movie script that departed from the novel. The book continued the voyage onward to Saturn, while the movie script stopped the voyage at Jupiter.

In a commentary to the 30 year edition to 2001, Arthur C. Clarke makes note of the decision to stop the movie script mission at Jupiter as being a fortuitous decision. The net effect was to make the movie more visually appealling since big discoveries on Saturn were still to be made with the Voyage mission. Sticking to a visit to Jupiter in the film allowed 2001 to stand the test of time. Kubrick and Clarke would have never dreamed of adding such special effects to the rings of Saturn if they were to continue to Saturn within the movie script.

Not only is Saturn's ring system complex and varied. There are an astonishing number of moons orbiting Saturn. There are 62 moons orbiting the ringed planet. And these range in size from just a few kilometers in size, to the second largest moon in the solar system with Titan. Titan is big enough to have its own atmosphere.

More recent observations by the Cassini spacecraft revealed more interesting intricacies within the rings of Saturn. since the first 'moonlet' observations in 2006, hundreds more of these objects have been found within the rings of Saturn.

NASA Follows an Active Launch Schedule in 2012

2011-12-09T06:32:00.002-05:00

NASA will devote a considerable amount of time to testing rockets and space vehicles in 2012. Other missions that partner with the Russians will shuffle the crews back and forth from the International Space Station. There is also mission on tap to send a space telescope to study X-rays coming from deep space.

The brunt of the heavy lifting in 2012 will fall to the Russians and the venerable Soyuz spacecraft. Various forms of the Soyuz spacecraft has been operating since its first flight took place in 1966 as an unmanned spacecraft. There are four Soyuz launches scheduled for 2012. The Soyuz launches will take place in March, May, October, and November. All of the Soyuz launches will occur at Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The Russians will also offer the launch facilities at Baikonur Cosmodrome to the European Space Agency. A robotic arm will be carried atop a Proton rocket to the International Space Agency in May. The European Robotic Arm will be used in the Russian module of the International Space Agency. The arm will be used to ferry external payloads around the space station, and can also be used to move astronauts around external portions of the space station.

A new space telescope will will be headed for the heavens in the spring of 2014. The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope will launch from the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. The mission, called NuSTAR will place a high energy x-ray telescope in Earth orbit. NuSTAR is expected outperform Earth based telescopes, and will help scientists count how many black holes are our universe.

NASA will also test vehicles as a part of the commercial space program. Vehicle test launches will occur in January, February an May. The tests will be of the Falcon 9, and there will be two tests of the Cygnus/Taurus II vehicle.

There will be two launches at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The Atlas V rocket will be used in both launches. One rocket will carry the Radiation Belt Storm Probes into low Earth orbit in August. The other Atlas V will carry a tracking an communications satellite into Earth orbit late in the year.

Even though the space shuttle program has ended, NASA still remains active in 2012, and there are even more exciting mission expected to start in 2013.

Source:
NASA Launch Schedule

Nasa Space Exploration Continues With New Missions In 2012

2011-12-08T06:39:00.002-05:00

Although NASA stopped launching space shuttles in 2011, it still has an ambitious plan to continue space exploration in 2012. Facing increasing budget cuts, and the need to streamline its operations, the space shuttle program came to an end in 2011 after the space shuttle Atlantis made its final landing at Cape Canaveral in July. NASA entered a new phase of space exploration by creating a new fleet of budget minded space craft to explore our solar system. These missions featured smaller and more efficient spacecraft. They can be built with a less expense price tag than the massive shuttle program.

NASA will keep the space exploration ball rolling with greater efficiency as it prepares for up to 17 space vehicle tests and rocket launches the next two years. The vast majority of these tests occur in partnership with other countries and space agencies. By partnering up, NASA is able to stretch its budget dollar and gain an expanded opportunity for space exploration.

Desipite the recent budget cutbacks, there are several NASA space probes still trekking across the solar system, while others remain on station making amazing discoveries. Cassini continues to orbit Saturn and has been taking amazing snapshots of a planetary storm in the northern Hemisphere of Saturn. The Opportunity rover is still rolling across the Martial landscape. Opportunity has been in operation for over 5 years and is well past its planned mission life.

Another probe is orbiting a rocky asteroid, getting ready to embark for another rendezvous with an icy one. More rovers are headed for Mars and space telescopes are still probing the depths of the universe. The New Horizons spacecraft is still on its nearly 10 year journey to Pluto and is expected to reach our farthest planet in 2015.

In addition, NASA is still lending technical support and manpower to keep the International Space Station in orbit.

Sources:
NASA.gov

Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Jupiter

2011-12-02T19:14:00.000-05:00

The great gas giant Jupiter orbits the sun just beyond the vaunted asteroid belt. The planet is about 775 million KM from our Sun, and takes about 12 years to make just a single orbit. On most nights, Jupiter can be readily seem in our night sky since it is one of the brightest objects.

There are 64 moons that have been cataloged as orbiting around the gas giant. Jupiter's gravity produces a considerable amount of tidal forces on some of the moons that allow them to be quite warm, despite being located so far from our Sun.

Jupiter is thought to be mostly made up of liquids and gases. However, deep within the bowels of the planet, a rocky core may be lurking that is surrounded by metallic hydrogen.

Late last summer, NASA launched the Juno spacecraft towards Jupiter. It is expected to arrive on station in the summer of 2016. Juno will measure the amount of thermal radiation emanating from the gas giant. Juno will also measure the magnetospere of Jupiter.

Jupiter has been long hypothesized as being a 'failed star.' It contains the correct ingredients, about three quaters hydrogen and a quarter of helium, as well as the same structure as a star. However, it never quite reached the size, mass, and density to kick off steller ignition.

However, the planet does give off a little more heat than it receives from the Sun. This total amount of heat given off is quite small and barely registers outside of its own atmosphere. Since there is a low level of radiative steller process ongoing, the planet is shrinking by a few centimeters a year.

Tour of the Solar System: Ceres - Planet or Asteroid?

2011-12-01T06:12:00.001-05:00

Instead of driving onward to Jupiter in our tour of the solar system, we are instead going take a quick pit stop at Ceres. Ceres is a one of the little oddballs of our solar system. This almost spherical asteroid was discovered in 1801 by Giuseppe Piazzi. Piazzi was among a group of 24 astronomers that set out on a search for a planet thought to exist between that gap between Mars and Jupiter.

What he found was a tiny speck of of light in the sky and over a period of time Piazzi was able to plot its course and determine and orbit for this little object. Debate raged over the the ensuing years as to whether this little 950 km diameter object was a planet, asteroid, or comet.

Piazzi himself was pretty sure the he has discovered a comet, as he wrote about it in a series of letters to a fellow astronomer. Early on, Ceres was designated as a planet and it appeared as such in the literature of the day. As it became apparent that the solar system is littered with objects just like Ceres, astronomers backed off on planetary status for Ceres and it was relegated to being called an asteroid. In recent years, the status of Ceres was revisited in light of the controversy over the planetary status of Pluto. Ceres is either mentioned as an asteroid or dwarf planet in todays astronomy literary circles.

NASA launched the Dawn mission towards Ceres in 2007. The Dawn probe made a couple of wide loops around the sun and got a gravity assist by slinging itself around Mars to reach Vesta, the largest known asteroid in our solar system. This spacecraft is currently maintaining an orbit at Vesta. In 2012, it will use its ion drive and push itself outwards to match the orbit of Ceres. Dawn is expected to reach Ceres in 2015,to provide some closeup images.

Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Mars

2011-11-30T13:39:00.001-05:00

Mars is the last of the "terrestrial planets" as you move away from the Sun. It has served as the backdrop for more science fiction stories since the 19th century than just about any other planet in the solar system.

It is the fourth planet of the solar system. It shines brightly as a red ruby in our night sky, and is one of the brightest night time objects, lagging behind Jupiter and Venus and the Moon. The brightness of Mars also varies with time based in how far it is away from earth.

Numerous spacecraft have been lofted towards Mars by a growing number of worldwide space agencies in recent years. So far, the United States, Europe, Russia, and Japan have sent missions to Mars. China is even getting into the act. The Yinghuo-1 craft piggybacked a ride on the recently stranded Phobos-Grunt mission and has been declared a loss by Chinese state media. Sending spacecraft to the red planet is a risky proposition. About two thirds of the missions sent to Mars end up in failure. But when they succeed there is a great reaping scientific benefits.

We have been able to land probes to analyze Martian soil, take images of the landscape, and get detailed radar and topographic data. Mars is littered with the wreckage of failed spacecraft, as well as probes and rovers that have successfully completed their mission. One particular rover, which has survived well past its intended mission is the Opportunity Rover. This little energizer bunny landed on Mars in the 25th of January in 2004 and it is still going. It survived getting stuck in the sand, massive dust storms, dust devils, and the bone crackling cold of Martian winters.

The latest mission to be sent to Mars Science Laboratory, also called Curiosity. Curiosity will drop off a Mini-Cooper sized lander that will zoom around the Martian surface conducting a number of experiments.

The Martian year is nearly twice as long as an Earth year. When compared to Earth, it also has similar seasons. Mars experiences both a summer and winter season. However, marition seasons show much greater variation due it is thin atmosphere and longevity of its orbit around the Sun.

Mars has a pair of rather irregularly shaped moons, that look very similar to asteroids. It is theorized that these captured from the nearby asteroid belt. However, exactly how this capture occurred is the under some debate.

Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Earth

2011-11-29T09:30:00.000-05:00

The Big Blue Marble of the solar system is also the third big rock from the Sun. It is our Home. Earth is the only place in our solar system where life has been confirmed. It is also the only place in our solar system where biotic life plays an active role on modifying the planet's atmosphere and surface. Whether it is humans moving land, releasing gasses from industry, or whether it is the smallest microbe, releasing oxygen, methane, carbon dioxide, or some other gas into the atmosphere. We live on a truly unique planet. At least as far as our own solar system is concerned.

Now there is big debate as to whether life exists outside of our terrestrial confines, either somewhere else in our solar system, or out in the vast Universe. It almost seems as if the new goal for the space race between certain countries on our planet is to see which country will be the first to confirm the existence of life outside of our planet. Missions are headed to Mars to look for more early signs of life, some are planned for Venus as well.

NASA has already uncovered faint possibilities that life may have tried to get started on Mars early in its development. But the mostly likely places for extraterrestrial life in our own solar system do not lie on planets at all, but on some of their moons. Specifically, Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa. Titan and Io are also candidates. These moons seem to have water and are either not too hot or cold. Titan seems to have a replenishing source of Methane, a by product of biologic processes. But, that is a post for another day.

Even if the building blocks of life exist on just one other place beside Earth in our own solar system, think of the possibilities. I once heard Stephen Hawking say on a documentary on television somewhere that our universe is so large and vast, and contains so many stars and galaxies, that even if one billionth of a billion stars had the still remote chance of sustainable life, then the number of planets with sentient beings like humans could still number in the billions throughout our universe. He even supposed that by pure chance, there could be civilization that are modeled after our own Star Trek and Star Wars science fiction series. They may even exist right now somewhere in our universe. Now that is mind boggling! Imagine monkeys writing Shakespheare anyone?

December Sky 2011: Meteor Showers, a Rendezvous, and Lunar Eclipse

2011-11-28T10:04:00.000-05:00

Jupiter and the moon will team up again during the first week of December, coming closest on the evening of the 6th. Just look for a very bright object within a finger pinch of the moon on December 6th. The Moon will be just a couple of days from being a full moon, so it should be an impressive sight.

December Total Lunar Eclipse
Which takes us two the 10th of December, when the Moon will put on a real show. Best viewing will occur over the western part of the United States as the Moon especially if you live in the western United States. The lunar action starts at around moon set for the West Coast. You will have to get up bright and early to view the final lunar eclipse for 2011. On the West Coast, you should see the moon turn a blood red color before it sinks below the horizon.

Two Meteor Showers for December
There are two meteor showers slated for the month of December. First up are the Geminids which peak on the night of the 14th and 15th. The second shower are the Ursids which peak near the winter solstice on December 22nd. The best chance for meteor shower viewing for the month of December in 2011 will be the later shower. Even though the Ursids are not considered as active as the Geminids, moonlight will not be around as the Moon will be entering its New Phase about the time that the Ursids peak. Just dress warm for a chilly night, and you just may also spot Santa making some test flights!

Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Venus

2011-11-27T08:17:00.009-05:00

Next up on our Tour of the Solar System is the second planet from the Sun, the planet Venus. Venus is located about 108 million kilometers from the Sun, about three quarters of the distance between the Earth and Sun.

Like Mercury, Venus is always hanging somewhere near the Sun when you look at our sky. It is only visible from the earth during the evening just after sunset, or shortly before sunrise in the early morning. Venus is often mistaken as a UFO since it wanders around the sky each night, and it is also the brightest object in the evening sky. During the evening hours, it usually the first object seen, before all of the other stars peek out from the black veil, in the western sky just above the horizon.

Venus is a perfect example of what happens when the 'greenhouse effect' goes awry. Its atmosphere is largely made up of carbon dioxide. Since the mid to late 1800's, it has been hypothesized by scientists here on Earth that high amounts of carbon dioxide in an atmosphere will help to trap tremendous amounts of heat. The Venusian atmosphere is dense, more than 90 times the density of our own atmosphere. Thus, it keeps a huge amount of heat it receives from the Sun trapped within its atmosphere.

Due to the extreme pressures of the Venusian atmosphere, it would seem unlikely that we would ever be able land humans on the planet's surface. It was a popular legend when I was growing up that the Soviets also sent cosmonauts on suicide missions to Venus. I doubt that one is true. However, the former Soviet Union did manage to land probes on Venus in the '70's and 80's that were able to send back images and bits of data. The probes survived from just a few minutes to a couple hours before they were rendered inoperable by the extreme temperatures and high pressures of the atmosphere. The surface temperature of Venus approaches 800 F which is twice as hot as one most of our baking ovens here on Earth. The images that were returned truly depicted a hellish environment.

Not only does Venus have an inhospitable atmosphere, but the surface of the planet may be hard looking place. Radar mapping of the planet has revealed plenty of volcanic eruptions. And since there is evidence of sulfuric acid raining down, some of these eruptions may be recent or are still ongoing. Radar maps have also revealed that the Venusian landscape is made up of several continents. There is one mountain that stands 11 KM high.

Venus has many remarkable similarities to our own planet. It is about the same size, has similar gravitational effects, and is made up of many of the same materials. However, Venus has one distinct difference about itself that makes it stand apart from all other planets in our solar system, including the Earth. The difference is that Venus rotates in a completely opposite direction on its axis, clockwise, as view from above the elliptic plane. It also has a very slow rotation taking 243 earth days to complete a Venusian day. The planet has a unique property in that its day last longer than its year!

Tour of the Solar System: The Planet Mercury

2011-11-26T09:30:00.002-05:00

As we move away from the Sun in our Tour of the Solar System, the first large body we meet is the smallest planet in our solar system: The planet Mercury. Mercury looks a lot like our moon, but is it made primarily up of iron.

Mercury is about one third larger than the moon. Since it is so close to the Sun, it only takes about three months to complete its orbit. Due to the quick orbit, and close proximity of the Sun, Mercury is always either visible from Earth either in the early evening or early morning. It makes a swap about every months, depending on its location in its orbit around the Sun.

NASA was successfully in sending two spacecraft to Mercury. The first orbited the little planet for about a year in the mid 70s as Mariner 10. The Messenger mission reached the planet early this year and will continue mapping the planet.

As one would expect, Mercury is a hot place. The average temperature is 442 K. Since there is no atmosphere the planet has wild temperatures swings from around 110K on the dark side, to 700 K during the Mercurian daylight hours.

Scientist have speculated that since deep craters at Mercury's poles are never exposed to direct sunlight, that ice is able to form. It would seem that this is a rather odd place for ice to exist, and a hot planet so close to the Sun. But it is theoretically possible

Tour of the Solar System: The Sun

2011-11-25T12:06:00.001-05:00

Today marks the start of new blog series that I have been thinking about starting for a little while. We will be taking a tour of our solar system, and I have simply titled the series: Tour of the Solar System. First, we will take a look at our most familiar star, then trek outwards to each of the planets. I also hope to write a little bit about planetary satellites, comets and some of the larger asteroids that grace our solar system in the near future, perhaps a new post each day or two.

This will be a learning process on my part, and if you subscribe to the blog, I hope you will learn something along the way, too. Coverage of these beautiful solar system entities will not be comprehensive. I will simply offer various facts about each body that I have learned over the years, and will seek out a few more interesting tidbits to share.

So, for this first post in the series, we take a look that the center of our solar system, at an object that is so large that it accounts for nearly 100% of the mass of our solar system, 99.86% of the mass to be exact: our Sun.

When you compare our Sun to other stars in the universe ours is relatively bright. However, size wise, it is quite ordinary. It has been classified as a G2V type star otherwise known as a yellow dwarf.

Even though the Sun sits at the center of our solar system, it is not stationary. It is orbiting and wobbling around the Milky Way Galaxy, just as our own planet is orbiting around the Sun. The Sun takes about 250 million years to complete on revolution about the Milky Way Galaxy.

The surface of the Sun is a stormy place, especially when it hits the peak of its 11 year solar cycle. We are about to enter once such peak on the next couple of years. This is one reason that there have been increased reports of Aurora Borealis sightings. This trend should continue over the next couple of years. Look for increased “Northern Lights” activity during the cold winter nights of 2011, 2012 and 2013.

So How Hot is our Sun?
Since the Sun is such a stormy place, and is made up of different layers, the temperature has tremendous variation. At the center of the Sun, the temperature reaches 14.5 million degrees Kelvin. It gets cooler as you move away from the core and at the surface the sun is only about 6000 degrees K. The temperature drops off rapidly as you move into the “atmosphere” of the Sun, also known as the solar atmosphere. Out in the these regions expect to see a temperature of about 4000 degrees K.

What Causes the Solar Cycle?
Wondering why there is an 11 year solar cycle on the Sun? This is because the Sun is not only highly radioactive. It is also magnetically active, and each year the magnetic pole of the Sun decides to do a reversal. The pole reversal cause sunspots, flares and solar wind fluctuations.

Source of various facts from: Wikipedia

Phobos-Grunt May Crash to Earth with Toxic Material

2011-11-25T06:04:00.000-05:00

The Russian Phobos-Grunt satellite was launched a couple of weeks ago by the Russian Space Agency. However, the second stage rocket of Phobos-Grunt failed to ignite, keeping it in Earth's orbit. It is now stuck there, and only communicating with mission controllers on a sporadic basis. Time is running out for the Russian Mars mission because scientists are not able to control the craft.

The Mars mission sent up by the Russians was an ambitious one. The spacecraft was going to launch a probe to Mar's largest moon, Phobos. This probe was going to scoop up some soil from Phobos and return it back to Earth. This would have been a tremendous opportunity for scientists to study material from Phobos.

In addition, the Russian spacecraft was going to launch a Chinese built satellite once it arrived on station near Mars. This would have been the first satellite sent to Mars by China.

If the Phobos-Grunt mission were to fall back to Earth, it will make for a fantastic light display. There is also a chance that some of material from the satellite will reach the ground. Most notably, there is a large amount of hazardous rocket fuel on board. Some of this toxic fuel may not completely burn up in the Earth's atmosphere upon re-entry.

The Voyager 2 Spacecraft - Approaching 35 Years in Operation

2011-11-18T08:26:00.000-05:00

The Voyager 2 Spacecraft is truly going were no man has gone before as it continues on an extended mission into interstellar space. The Voyager 2 spacecraft was launched back in 1977 and started a grand tour of the outer planets of our solar system after a two year trek to reach Jupiter.

This little spacecraft that could then performed flybys of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Finally in 1989 it ended its mission to study our outer panets, and it began a voyage to leave our or solar system. Voyager 2 began an interstellar mission to study the Kuiper belt and the heliosphere.

Amazingly, after all these years of travel and billions of miles traveled (yes BILLIONS!), NASA is still able to communicate with Voyager 2. It take a message nearly 14 light hours to reach Voyager 2.

The spacecraft is using three radioisotope thermoelectric generators to provide power. These mightly little nuclear generators are expected to be able to provide power for another 9 or 10 years.

Earlier this month, JPL commanded the spacecraft to change to it backup thrusters to conserve energy to allow the slowly declining nuclear power source to provide enough power for its scientific intruments.

As we have all heard at one time or another, "They just do not build them like the used to!"

Great Ocean on Europa Stirs Debate for Extraterrestrial Life

2011-11-17T21:46:00.000-05:00

IMAGE: NASA/WIKIPEDIA

Jupiter's sixth Moon, Europa, is the smallest satellite of our solar system's biggest planet, the great gas giant Jupiter. Despite the relatively small size of Europa to Jupiter's other moons, Europa is still quite large compared to most bodies in our solar system. Europa is just a little bit smaller than out own moon.

Close-up images from recent space missions to Europa show that there is a considerable amount of geologic activity on this moon. The crust of Europa undergoes a considerable amount of stretching and flexing due to the strong tidal forces provided by the gravitation pull of Jupiter. Because of the activity, scientist speculate that Europa is able to maintain a fairly warm temperature, despite its distance from the Sun.

The Galileo spacecraft was sent to Jupiter back in 1989, and scientists are still sifting through the copious amounts of information sent back from the probe. One important discovery from the Galileo mission as far as Europa was concerned was that deep oceans exist on Europa just below its icy surface.

There is a possibility that extraterrestrial life may exist deep with the oceans of Europa, possibly residing in conditions that resemble our own Earth's deep oceans.

Deep in the Earth's oceans microbial life takes up residence in and around hydrothermal vents that provide energy sources for biologic activity. Since similar conditions may prevail deep within the cool seas of Europa, this moon of Jupiter has been placed on the a short list of location where extraterrestrial life may exist within our own solar system.

Canary Volcano Could Create a New Island in the Atlantic Ocean

2011-11-16T14:47:00.001-05:00

IMAGE (Desiree Martin/AFP/Getty Images)

A volcano erupting beneath the ocean just off the island of El Herrio is just a couple hundred feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic according to scientists from Spain's National Geographic Institute. There are signs that lava is starting to pile up at the mouth of the eruption and the top of the eruption it is getting very close to the surface. The ongoing eruption could lead to the creation of a new island.

A similar island creating event occurred in between 1963 and 1965 as the volcano beneath the surface near the southern coast of Iceland. Surtsy grew to an area of 2.7 square miles as material released by the volcano continued to pile up. By 1967, enough material was released to allow Surtsey to become more or less a permanent island despite being battered by the wind and waves of the harsh North Atlantic.

Time will tell whether enough lava, ash and rock will be released by the volcano off the Canary Islands to add another one. However, the signs are looking good for island formation, as there is still steadily increasing earthquake activity beneath the volcano. More earthquake are occurring nearby and deep beneath the volcano. This is a sign that magma is still moving upwards toward the site, and a much larger eruption may occur in the near future.

Massive Volcanoes on Mars Get Slammed by Meteors

2011-11-15T19:15:00.000-05:00

IMAGE: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

Volcanoes that are pockmarked with meteor impacts are not a common site on Earth. Most of our terrestrial volcanoes are quite young, and have not spent enough time exposed to incoming objects from space. On Mars, volcanoes with impact craters are common place. An example of one such volcano slammed by meteors is the Tharsis Tholis volcano, which stands at over 8 km high and covers a land area that covers nearly 20,000 miles.

This Martian volcano is huge when compared to similar ones on our Earth. For a Martian volcano, the Tharsis Tholis Volcano is of average height. The volcano is said to be over 4 billion years old. Because of its great age, it has spent many years exposed to incoming meteors to the Red Planet. The Tharsis Tholis volcano hosts a large number of meteorite impact craters around and inside of its massive caldera.

The image above was taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express, using its High Resolution Stereo Camera. A digital terrain model (DTM) is shown that is exaggerated by a factor of three and it is color coded by elevation of the terrain.

Soyuz to Dock with International Space Station. Look for East Coast Morning Flybys

2011-11-15T04:17:00.021-05:00

The Soyuz spacecraft took of in a snowstorm last week for a heavenly rendezvous with the International Space Station on Thursday. The Soyuz craft is carrying three astronauts as part of a replacement crew for the ISS. Soyuz will dock shortly after midnight early on November 16th. The Soyuz craft will remain tdocked with ISS until November 21st, and it will then ferry three of the older ISS crew members back down to Earth.

If you live along the East Coast of the United States, head out early in the morning to look for flybys of the Soyuz spacecraft docked with the International Space Station nearly every day this week. Flybys will occur from about 4am to about 6am just before the sun rises.

One of my favorite websites for determining the bast times to look is http://heavens-above.com. The heavens-above site offers accurate predictions with a large geographic database.

Sunspot Activity Increasing Sun as Solar Cycle 24 Heats Up

2011-11-14T20:17:00.000-05:00

The past couple week have seen an upswing in solar sunspot activity. In the above image you can track the sunspot number as issued by NOAA, and you can see that for October 2011 we are seeing a decent increase in activity. This increase has also continued into the first couple of weeks of November.

The activity has been predicted to continue to increase over the next couple of years, peaking sometime in 2013. Keep you eye on the night sky for increase in Aurora Borealis displays as we head into the colder and darker nights of winter in the northern hemisphere.

Leonid Meteor Shower for 2011 Will Contend with Moonlight

2011-11-13T14:45:00.000-05:00

There is no need to stay up late the check out the Leonid meteor shower this year. The Leonid meteor shower for 2011 is ramping up toward its peak later this week. However, it is going to contend with a nearly full moon this year.

The Leonid meteor shower peaks each year on the night of November 17th. For the best chance to see some Leonid you will need to get out to to look at the night sky before the moon rises. The moon will be bright on the 17th, and once it rises, it will light up the night sky, washing out nearly all but the brightest of shooting stars.

A storm system with clouds may wash out some meteor shower viewing in the days leading up to the peak hear in the Appalachians, but as Thursday approaches the storm system should the region with high pressure building in. This should lead to crystal clear and chilly nights for at least a few hours of searching the skies for shooting stars.

Picture the Earth and Moon from Six Million Miles Away!

2011-11-12T07:36:00.000-05:00

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI

The Juno spacecraft is headed off to Jupiter and it took a moment to swing its camera back toward the Earth to capture the interesting image of the Earth and its moon. This image offers and interesting perspective of our planet. one that is rarely seen except on the occasional science fiction movie or Star Trek episode.

But here we have just another case where NASA has brought science fiction to life!

This image was taken when Juno was more than 6 million miles away from the Earth back on August 26, 2011 after the Juno mission has spent nearly three weeks in space. The Juno spacecraft is expected to reach Jupiter in 2016. The Juno mission will study Jupiter's atmosphere, search for water, and map the planet's immense magnetic field.

Juno will spend about a year orbiting Jupiter and is expected to de-orbit and crash into the planet in October 2017.

Source:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/news/juno20110830.html

Black Friday 2011 Launch set for Mars Science Laboratory

2011-11-11T10:32:00.002-05:00

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

While millions of American shoppers are hitting the nation's malls on Black Friday looking for the best sales and prices, NASA scientists will be setting their sites on a launchpad in Cape Canaveral Florida. NASA personnel will be watching the weather conditions and monitoring instruments and machinery ensuring that it is operating at peak efficiency.

Sitting atop an Atlas V Rocket, NASA plans to launch the Mars Science Laboratory on Black Friday. The first launch window for the Mars Science Laboratory will be on November 25th, 2011 just one day after Thanksgiving. If this launch window is missed due to weather or equipment malfunctions, the spacecraft will have until December 18th to list off.

Part of the mission package for the Mars Science Laboratory is the Curiosity Rover. The Curiosity Rover will have the capability to split rocks and use a laser spectrometer can study any gases that are released and send its data on the gas make-up back to Earth. By looking into ancient gases that may be locked up inside of rocks that are billions of years old, scientists hope to find out whether there was a time when the Martian environment was favorable the the existence of life.

The Mars Science Lab is expected to reach Mars in August 2012. The Curiosity Rover will then separate from the spacecraft and make an attempt to land within the Gale Crater. There is a landing site will be at the foot of a mountain just south of the Martian equator. The mission of the Curiosity Rover is expected to last about two years as measured on Earth. The Curiosity Rover is about the size of a small car, about twice the size of any of the previous rovers that studied the Martian surface. There are a total of 10 scientific instruments that will search for microbial life.

Source:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html

Moon and Jupiter Close Once Again in Taurus

2011-11-09T16:23:00.000-05:00

If you happened to look up in the sky at the moon last night, you may have been surprised to see a bright star hanging right next to the Moon. However, that was no star. It was the planet Jupiter. It is not all that often that you see these two night sky bodies so close to each other.

If you look to the east just after sunset tonight, you will see the Moon and Jupiter rise once again with the constellation Taurus. The Moon and Jupiter still be within 10 degrees of one another for one last night. The Moon and Jupiter will start to move further away from each other over the next few nights as the moon continues its transition to a Full Moon on November 10th.

Jupiter moves more slowly across the night sky because of its large orbit around the Sun relative to the Earth. Jupiter will takes its time meandering across the night sky and will remain in Taurus until 2012.