This is a cropped, reduced version of panorama from NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity with 1.3 billion pixels in the full-resolution version. See full panorama below. It shows Curiosity at the “Rocknest” site where the rover scooped up samples of windblown dust and sand. Curiosity used three cameras to take the component images on several different days between Oct. 5 and Nov. 16, 2012. Viewers can explore this image with pan and zoom controls at http://mars.nasa.gov/bp1/. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

NASA’s newly produced and absolutely spectacular panorama from the Curiosity mega rover offers armchair explorers back on Earth a mammoth 1.3 billion pixels worth of Mars in all its colorful glory.

And everyone can move back and forth around the interactive panorama and zoom in – with special embedded tools- to your hearts delight in exquisite detail at the ‘Rocknest’ site where the rover spent her first extended science stay in late 2012.

This extra special Rocknest panorama is the first NASA- produced view comprising more than a billion pixels from the surface of the Red Planet.(...)
Read the rest of Spectacular Billion Pixel Panorama from NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover (760 words)

© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 5 comments |
Post tags: Curiosity, Curiosity Rover, Gale crater, Mars, Mars Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), Mount Sharp, MSL, NASA, Search for Life

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A test of the 3-D printer in a microgravity-like environment simulated on an airplane that flies parabolas. Credit: Made in Space

The joke about home renovation projects is it takes at least three trips to the hardware store to finish the work. In space, of course, spare parts are a lot harder to come by, meaning astronauts might have to wait for a spacecraft shipment, if, say, the toilet breaks. (Yes, this yucky situation has happened before.)

Some spare parts could be manufactured in space as early as next year, though, providing a 3-D printer passes all the preliminary steps. It recently got a big boost in that direction after passing its microgravity tests successfully, but there are still environmental tests to come, said the company that was behind the work.

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Read the rest of 3-D Printer Passes Key Step On Road to Space Station (283 words)

© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 3 comments |
Post tags: 3-d printing, made in space, systems & materials research corporation

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Three-image panorama of the Milky Way arching of the Badlands of South Dakota. Credit and copyright: Randy Halverson/Dakotalapse

We’ve oohed and ahhed many times over the handiwork of Randy Halverson and his Dakotalapse timelapse videos and imagery of the night sky. He may have outdone himself with his latest timelapse, called “Horizons.” Randy shot the footage from April – October 2012, mostly in South Dakota, but also some at Devils Tower in Wyoming.

“Growing up in South Dakota the landscape itself can be beautiful at times,” Randy says, “but that doesn’t compare to what the sky can do, especially at night.” Not only is the imagery absolutely breathtaking, but the accompanying music is an original called “I Forever” by Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Defiance, Battlestar Galactica, etc) his brother Brendan McCreary and his band Young Beautiful in a Hurry.

There’s a four-minute version below, but also available on Vimeo On Demand is a full 30-minute feature . Enjoy!!
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Read the rest of “Horizons” — Gorgeous New Views from Dakotalapse (50 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: astrophotography, Randy Halverson, Timelapse videos

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The above video should satisfy your daily need for rocket foom. Morpheus — a NASA testbed for vertical landing systems — did two firing tests this week that produced a fair amount of the usual fire and smoke, as you can see above.

You’ll actually see two separate firings in that video. In the first one, the lander strayed out of its safety zone and did a soft abort. The second test, NASA stated, “was a complete success.”

The first lander of the program crashed and burned in a test failure in August 2012, but officials recently praised the program for the progress it has made since then.

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Read the rest of Morpheus Aborts, Then Recovers For a Second Go In Tether Test (161 words)

© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 5 comments |
Post tags: Morpheus, Project Morpheus, vertical landing

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We love a good space debris mystery. Hey, who doesn’t, right?  Regular readers of Universe Today know that it’s a shooting gallery out there, from meteor fireballs caught on dashboard cams to rogue space junk reentries lighting up our skies. (...)
Read the rest of Did a Piece of Mir Really Land in Massachusetts? (738 words)

© David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Mir, NASA, piece of mir, reentry, satellite, satellite reentry, space junk

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Mosaic of Saturn seen in eclipse in September 2006. Earth is the bright dot just inside the F ring at upper left. (CICLOPS/NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)

Citizens of Earth, get ready for your Cassini close-up: once again the spacecraft is preparing to capture images of Saturn positioned between it and the Sun, allowing for incredible views of the ring system and its atmosphere — and also a tiny “pale blue dot” in the distance we call home.

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Read the rest of Say Cheese: Cassini to Snap Another “Pale Blue Dot” Picture of Earth (498 words)

© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 15 comments |
Post tags: #waveatsaturn, Cassini, Earth, NASA, pale blue dot, Porco, Sagan, Saturn, Solar System

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About 70 pages into The Milky Way, An Insider’s Guide, a strange craving for hamburgers overtook me.

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Read the rest of Book Review: The Milky Way, An Insider’s Guide (550 words)

© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments |
Post tags: Book Reviews, the milky way: an insider's guide, william h. waller

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Over the past six years wind speeds in Venus’ southern atmosphere have been steadily rising (ESA)

High-altitude winds on neighboring Venus have long been known to be quite speedy, whipping sulfuric-acid-laden clouds around the superheated planet at speeds well over 300 km/h (180 mph). And after over six years collecting data from orbit, ESA’s Venus Express has found that the winds there are steadily getting faster… and scientists really don’t know why.

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Read the rest of Venus’ Winds Are Mysteriously Speeding Up (473 words)

© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 18 comments |
Post tags: clouds, esa, planet, Solar System, super-rotation, Venus, wind speeds

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ISON as seen by Hubble earlier this spring. (Credit: NASA/ESA/Z. Levay/STScl).

Comets are the big “question marks” of observational astronomy. Some, such as Comet Hyakutake and the Great Daylight Comet of 1910 present themselves seemingly without warning and put on memorable displays. Others, such as the infamous Comet Kohoutek or Comet Elenin, fizzle and fail to perform up to expectations after a much anticipated round of media hype.

And then there’s the case of Comet C/2012 S1 ISON.(...)
Read the rest of Will Comet ISON Dazzle our Skies? An Expert Weighs In (1,231 words)

© David Dickinson for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 10 comments |
Post tags: coemt science, Comet ISON, comet observing, comet of the century, great comet, how bright will ison get

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Image Credit: Lawrence Sromovsky, (Univ. Wisconsin-Madison), Keck Observatory

As Uranus speeds in its orbit in the solar system, there are three large space rocks that are in lockstep with the gas giant, according to new simulations. Two of them are wobbling in unstable “horseshoe” orbits near Uranus, while the third is in a more reliable Trojan orbit that is always 60 degrees in front of the planet.

The largest of this small group is the asteroid Crantor, which is 44 miles (70 kilometers) wide. Its horseshoe orbit, and that of companion 2010 EU65, means the space rocks seesaw between being close to Uranus and further away. They should stay in that configuration for a few million years.

The last of the group is 2011 QF99, in a Trojan orbit near one of Uranus’ Lagrangian points — sort of like a celestial parking spot where an object can hang out without undue influence from the balanced gravitational forces.

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Read the rest of Uranus Is Being Chased By Asteroids! (158 words)

© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 23 comments |
Post tags: crantor, trojan orbit

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