Datasets:

Magneto

/

Nasa_news_pages

like 1

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/dhs-successfully-transitions-search-and-rescue-tool-that-pinpoints-buried-victims

DHS Successfully Transitions Search and Rescue Tool That Pinpoints Buried Victims

The Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, in partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, announced the transition of the final prototype of the Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER) technology to the commercial market.

Press Release Issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology DirectorateWashington, D.C. -- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), in partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, announced today the transition of the final prototype of the Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER) technology to the commercial market. FINDER is a radar technology designed to detect heartbeats of victims trapped in wreckage. Two commercial partners have been licensed to manufacture the device: R4 Inc. of Eatontown, N.J. and SpecOps Group Inc. of Sarasota, Fla.Earlier today, S&T and NASA demonstrated its newest capabilities at the Virginia Task Force One (VA-TF1) Training Facility in Lorton, Va., finding "survivors" in a simulated disaster. This is thanks to the new locator feature, which can help pinpoint the location of the victim to within about five feet - depending on the type of rubble. This key change saves rescuers time, increasing chances for locating survivors.The technology proved successful during its first real-world operational use when it was deployed to Nepal following the April 25 earthquake to support international search and rescue efforts in the country. David Lewis, president of one of S&T's commercial partners, R4 Inc., arrived in Nepal with two prototype FINDER devices on April 29 to assist in the rescue efforts. He joined a contingent of international rescuers from China, the Netherlands, Belgium and members of the Nepali Army in Northern Nepal. Using FINDER, they were able to detect two heartbeats beneath each of two different collapsed structures, allowing the rescue workers to find and save the men. The four men had been trapped beneath the rubble for days in the hard-hit village of Chautara."I stopped at every decimated village and used FINDER there," Lewis explained of his actions in Nepal, crediting the Nepali people with providing invaluable support. "On two separate occasions, FINDER found two heartbeats. Family members were desperate to find trapped people. I am just happy we could be there with FINDER; I am very privileged to be part of the team and effort."FINDER's human-finding abilities were demonstrated through multiple test searches over the past two years with urban search and rescue (US&R) teams in Virginia, Oklahoma, Indiana, New Jersey, Georgia, California, and Illinois."The latest operational assessments demonstrated FINDER was successful in locating a VATF-1 member buried in 30 feet of mixed concrete, rebar, and gravel rubble from a distance of over 30 feet," said John Price, S&T program manager for FINDER. "This capability will complement the current Urban Search and Rescue tools such as canines, listening devices, and video cameras to detect the presence of living victims in rubble.""There is no one magic tool that can find everyone. We use FINDER as one of our tools: canines, Delsar listening devices, cameras," explained VATF-1 Captain Randy Bittinger. "FINDER is the only tool that can identify an unconscious, unresponsive individual just by their heartbeat. We don't have any other tool like it. I want any tool that will help us find any people anywhere in the world."In disaster scenarios, such as earthquakes and tornadoes, the wreckage is made up of twisted and shattered materials. Radar signals bounce back so signals are complex."Because the victim's hearts are beating, that signal changes a very small amount," said Jim Lux, JPL's FINDER task manager. "So what FINDER can do, is look for those very small changes, determine if they're from a human heartbeat and it they are, a message will display for the user indicating there is somebody in there."S&T and R4 Inc. are also evaluating FINDER for additional search and rescue applications such as detecting people in burning buildings.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/with-one-year-to-jupiter-nasas-juno-team-prepares

With One Year to Jupiter, NASA's Juno Team Prepares

With one year remaining in a five-year trek, NASA's Juno mission team is preparing for the spacecraft's expedition to the solar system's largest planet.

Fast Facts:› Juno is on track for arrival on July 4, 2016› NASA recently approved updates to Juno's flight plan at Jupiter that help streamline the mission.› Scientists are monitoring Jupiter with Earth- and space-based telescopes to provide context for Juno's observations.With just one year remaining in a five-year trek to Jupiter, the team of NASA's Juno mission is hard at work preparing for the spacecraft's expedition to the solar system's largest planet. The mission aims to reveal the story of Jupiter's formation and details of its interior structure. Data from Juno will provide insights about our solar system's beginnings, and what we learn from the mission will also enrich scientists' understanding of giant planets around other stars.Juno is scheduled to arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016 (Pacific Daylight Time). Once it settles into orbit, the spacecraft will brave the hazards of Jupiter's intense radiation when it repeatedly approaches within a few thousand miles, or kilometers, of the cloud tops to collect its data.Juno is the first mission dedicated to the study of a giant planet's interior, which it will do by mapping the planet's magnetic and gravity fields. The mission will also map the abundance of water vapor in the planet's atmosphere, providing the key to understanding which of several theories about the planet's formation is likely the correct one. In addition, Juno will travel through the previously unexplored region above the planet's poles, collecting the first images from there, along with data about electromagnetic forces and high-energy particles in the environment.Although other spacecraft have previously visited Jupiter, the space around the planet is full of unknowns, especially the regions above the poles. With these challenges in mind, the Juno team has been busy fine-tuning their flight plan."We're already more than 90 percent of the way to Jupiter, in terms of total distance traveled," said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio. "With a year to go, we're looking carefully at our plans to make sure we're ready to make the most of our time once we arrive."Following a detailed analysis by the Juno team, NASA recently approved changes to the mission's flight plan at Jupiter. Instead of taking 11 days to orbit the planet, Juno will now complete one revolution every 14 days. The difference in orbit period will be accomplished by having Juno execute a slightly shorter engine burn than originally planned.The revised cadence will allow Juno to build maps of the planet's magnetic and gravity fields in a way that will provide a global look at the planet earlier in the mission than the original plan. Over successive orbits, Juno will build a virtual web around Jupiter, making its gravity and magnetic field maps as it passes over different longitudes from north to south. The original plan would have required 15 orbits to map these forces globally, with 15 more orbits filling in gaps to make the map complete. In the revised plan, Juno will get very basic mapping coverage in just eight orbits. A new level of detail will be added with each successive doubling of the number, at 16 and 32 orbits.The slightly longer orbit also will provide a few extra days between close approaches to the planet for the team to react to unexpected conditions the spacecraft might experience in the complex environment very close to Jupiter."We have models that tell us what to expect, but the fact is that Juno is going to be immersed in a strong and variable magnetic field and hazardous radiation, and it will get closer to the planet than any previous orbiting spacecraft," said Bolton. "Juno's experience could be different than what our models predict -- that's part of what makes space exploration so exciting."The revised plan lengthens Juno's mission at Jupiter to 20 months instead of the original 15, and the spacecraft will now complete 32 orbits instead of 30. But the extra time doesn't represent bonus science for the mission -- rather, it's an effect of the longer orbital period and the change in the way Juno builds its web around Jupiter. Basically, it will take Juno a bit longer to collect the full data set the mission is after, but it will get a low-resolution version of its final products earlier in the mission than originally planned.NASA also recently approved a change to the spacecraft's initial orbit after Jupiter arrival, called the capture orbit. The revised plan splits the originally planned, 107-day-long capture orbit into two. The new approach will provide the Juno team a sneak preview of their science activities, affording them an opportunity to test the spacecraft's science instruments during a close approach to Jupiter before beginning the actual science phase of the mission. The original scenario called for an engine burn to ease Juno into Jupiter orbit, followed by a second burn 107 days later, putting the spacecraft into an 11-day science orbit. In the updated mission design, the orbit-insertion burn is followed 53.5 days later by a practice run at Jupiter with science instruments turned on, followed by another 53.5-day orbit before the final engine burn that places Juno into its new, 14-day science orbit.In addition to myriad preparations being made on the engineering side, Juno's science team is also busy preparing to collect valuable data about the giant planet's inner workings. One piece of this science groundwork is a collection of images and spectra being obtained by powerful ground-based telescopes and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (spectra are like chemical fingerprints of gases in the atmosphere). These data are intended to provide big-picture context for Juno's up-close observations of Jupiter, which is important for interpreting what the spacecraft's instruments will see.With the countdown clock ticking -- this time, not toward launch, but toward arrival at their destination -- the Juno team is acutely aware of how quickly they're sneaking up on the giant planet. And their excitement is building."It's been a busy cruise, but the journey has provided our team with valuable experience flying the spacecraft and enhanced our confidence in Juno's design," said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Now it's time to gear up for Jupiter."Juno is the second mission chosen as part of NASA's New Frontiers program of frequent, medium-class spacecraft missions that address high-priority exploration initiatives in the solar system. NASA's New Horizons mission, which will soon encounter Pluto, is the first New Frontiers mission; OSIRIS-REx is next in the lineup, slated to launch in 2016.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The New Frontiers Program is managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.For more information about Juno visit:http://www.nasa.gov/junohttp://missionjuno.swri.edu

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/deep-space-1-spacecraft-keeps-going-and-going

Deep Space 1 Spacecraft Keeps Going . . . and Going . . .

It has the little engine that could, and the pint-sized power plant on board NASA's Deep Space 1 probe has been doing it longer and more efficiently than anything ever launched. The spacecraft, designed to test new technologies, has run its unique propulsion system for more than 200 days (4,800 hours).

It has the little engine that could, and the pint-sized power plant on board NASA's Deep Space 1 probe has been doing it longer and more efficiently than anything ever launched. The spacecraft, designed to test new technologies, has run its unique propulsion system for more than 200 days (4,800 hours)."The ion propulsion engine on Deep Space 1 has now accumulated more operating time in space than any other propulsion system in the history of the space program," said John Brophy, manager of the NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Applications Readiness project, at the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif.Unlike the fireworks of most chemical rockets using solid or liquid fuels, the ion drive emits only an eerie blue glow as ionized (electrically charged) atoms of xenon are pushed out of the engine. Xenon is the same gas found in photo flash tubes and many lighthouse bulbs.The almost imperceptible thrust from the system is equivalent to the pressure exerted by a sheet of paper held in the palm of your hand. The ion engine is very slow to pick up speed, but over the long haul it can deliver 10 times as much thrust per pound of fuel as more traditional rockets.Previous ion propulsion systems, like those found on some communications satellites, were not used as the main engines, but only to keep the satellites on track. Deep Space 1 is the first spacecraft to use this important technology as its primary means of propulsion. The NASA Space Electric Rocket Test 2, launched into Earth orbit in 1970, had the previous record for ion propulsion, thrusting for about 161 days."The importance of ion propulsion is its great efficiency," says Dr. Marc Rayman, project manager for Deep Space 1. "It uses very little propellant, and that means it weighs less so it can use a less expensive launch vehicle and ultimately go much faster than other spacecraft."The ion particles travel out at about 109,000 kilometers per hour (68,000 miles per hour). However, Deep Space 1 doesn't move that fast in the other direction, because it's much heavier than the ion particles. By the end of the mission, the ion engine will have changed the spacecraft's speed by about 11,000 kilometers per hour (6,800 miles per hour)."This opens the solar system to many future exciting missions which otherwise would have been unaffordable or even impossible," added Dr. Rayman.The technology is so efficient that it only consumes about 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of xenon per day, taking about four days to expend just one half kilogram (about one pound).The only other system that has operated longer is a ground- based replica of the spacecraft's engine. The ongoing extended- life test, being done in a vacuum test chamber at JPL, has run its ion propulsion system for almost 500 days (12,000 hours) and is scheduled to complete nearly 625 days (15,000 hours) by the end of the year.The Deep Space 1 ion engine could have a total operating time of more than 583 days (14,000 hours) by the end of its mission in the fall of 2001.With its primary mission to serve as a technology demonstrator -- testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced technologies -- successfully completed in September 1999, Deep Space 1 is now headed for a rendezvous with Comet Borrelly. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to target a risky, but exciting, encounter with the comet in September 2001.But early in this bonus mission Deep Space 1 suffered a serious setback with the loss of its star tracker navigation system. Rather than abandon the project, NASA engineers managed a deep-space rescue. They sent new software, on-the-fly, turning an onboard camera into a navigation instrument -- all while Deep Space 1 was 321 million kilometers (200 million miles) from Earth.Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 Home Page athttp://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rain-rain-go-online

Rain, Rain, Go Online

A new webcam at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is keeping an eye on debris and water flows that could course down nearby wildfire-stripped hillsides during a rainstorm.

A new webcam at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is keeping an eye on debris and water flows that could course down nearby wildfire-stripped hillsides during a rainstorm.The camera, installed by the U.S. Geological Survey, looks over the Arroyo Seco, a usually dry riverbed on the east side of JPL property. The Lab, in addition to the National Weather Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and first responders will be monitoring the images for large pulses of water and debris, which could damage surrounding areas.The public can also watch the current state of the stream in real-time athttp://ca.water.usgs.gov/webcams/jpl/. New images appear every five minutes, and users can control the camera for up to three minutes at a time.The Station fire, as it's known, charred more than 160,000 acres in and around the San Gabriel Mountains and crept to within an eighth of a mile of JPL in late August 2009. Rains this month caused mudslides on slopes burned bare by the fire and damaged homes in areas not far from JPL. Mudslides and debris flows could potentially threaten foothill communities for years to come.The U.S. Geological Survey approached Eric Fuller, JPL's emergency preparedness administrator, after he attended a meeting with geologists, fire officials, land managers and other stakeholders. The Survey installed the camera in early February, and JPL has provided electrical power and a network line."Though we haven't had any damage at JPL, we want to be prepared and we want everyone else to be, as well," Fuller said.The webcam is part of JPL's ongoing interest in studying the effects of the Station fire. Shortly after the most intense part of the wildfire, Tom Farr, a geologist at JPL, began working with researchers from the California Institute of Technology, the Survey and Arizona State University, Tempe, to study how sediment is moving on scorched hillsides around the Arroyo.Farr, who has jogged regularly through the area for more than 20 years, now uses the daily runs for field work. His photos show log jams, erosion around guard rails and displaced boulders. He has also noted that in some places streams have flowed into old channels and others have broken off pavement from the roads. He also checks rain rates recorded by the JPL weather station, available athttp://weatherstation.jpl.nasa.gov/."The Arroyo Seco is almost unrecognizable from before the fires," Farr said. "A huge amount of sediment has been deposited and in some places eroded during the last few storms. We'll want to keep watching."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-satellites-help-forecasters-since-1992s-hurricane-andrew

NASA Satellites Help Forecasters Since 1992's Hurricane Andrew

Ten years ago, on Aug. 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew developed in the Atlantic Ocean and became one of the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history as it caused massive damage in South Florida. Since then, NASA has launched three satellites, including two with instruments developed and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., that will help improve forecasting of tropical cyclones.

Ten years ago, on Aug. 24, 1992, Hurricane Andrew developed in the Atlantic Ocean and became one of the costliest hurricanes in U.S. history as it caused massive damage in South Florida. Since then, NASA has launched three satellites, including two with instruments developed and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., that will help improve forecasting of tropical cyclones.NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission; the JPL-developed and managed Quick Scatterometer, or Quikscat; and the Aqua satellite, with its JPL-managed Atmospheric Infrared Sounder system, each look at different factors of tropical cyclones to help generate better forecasts. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission focuses on the intensity of tropical rainfall, which is indicative of whether a cyclone is weakening or strengthening. Quikscat collects wind data, and Aqua records ocean and air temperatures and humidity. These factors are primary in the strengthening of a hurricane, and NASA researchers, working with forecasters from the National Hurricane Center, hope data from these satellites will improve hurricane predictions. These efforts may help lessen damages when another hurricane like Andrew strikes our coasts."Andrew's wind data was recently re-analyzed and found to have reached maximum sustained wind speeds of 266 kilometers per hour (165 mph) at landfall in South Florida, making the hurricane a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale," said Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center. Category 5 storms have winds over 249 kilometers per hour (155 mph) and storm surges generally over 5.5 meters (18 feet) above normal sea level. This makes Andrew one of only three Category 5 hurricanes known to have struck the United States.On August 24, Andrew cut its destructive swath through South Florida and entered the Gulf of Mexico. On August 26, Andrew made landfall 161 kilometers (100 miles) southwest of New Orleans, and was downgraded to a tropical depression the next day, northeast of Jackson, Miss.South Florida was declared a federal disaster area, as entire neighborhoods were destroyed. Andrew caused more than $25 billion in damages (1992 dollars). The enormity of the damage created a new awareness of hurricanes and further prompted scientists to study these deadly storms in an effort to predict and mitigate future similar catastrophic events.Toward this goal, the National Hurricane Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, together with NASA and other federal agencies, work together to provide the public with the best information possible. The Center uses several computer models to help forecast and track the intensity of tropical cyclones. Each computer model includes air temperature and pressure, sea surface temperature, wind speed and humidity as recorded from hurricane hunter aircraft that fly above tropical cyclones and drop sensors into them to get this data. The National Hurricane Center also verifies storm locations with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite."NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite has been very valuable in determining hurricane or tropical cyclone intensity and in improving hurricane track forecasting through the use of rainfall data into hurricane forecast computer models," said Dr. Bob Adler, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Data from the mission have been combined with data from other satellites to detect heavy rain events and the associated flood potential due to tropical cyclones in areas where there is limited ground-based information.The SeaWinds instrument on Quickscat is a specialized microwave radar that measures the speed and direction of winds near the ocean surface. It is being used by many marine weather prediction centers to improve monitoring and forecasting of tropical cyclones. In January 2002, the United States and Europe incorporated wind speed and direction data from Quikscat into their operational global weather analysis and forecast systems. Significant improvement has been demonstrated. JPL manages Quikscat for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington. D.C.The Aqua satellite, launched this past May, carries the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument developed by JPL. It is the central part of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit/Humidity Sounder for Brazil instrument group that will obtain global temperatures and humidity records throughout the atmosphere. NASA hopes these data will lead to improved weather forecasts and improved determination of cyclone intensity, location and tracks. "The improved data from Aqua will not make weather forecasting perfect, but should make it better," said Dr. Claire Parkinson, Aqua project scientist at Goddard."People should be watchful and remember that it only took one hurricane named Andrew during 1992 to change the lives of hundreds of thousands in South Florida," said Dr. Scott Curtis, researcher at Goddard and the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, Md.More information and images are online athttp://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/20020823andrew.html.JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-opportunity-rover-logs-15-years-on-mars

NASA's Opportunity Rover Logs 15 Years on Mars

The rover landed in a region of the Red Planet called Meridiani Planum 15 years ago today, on Jan. 24, 2004.

NASA's Opportunity rover begins its 16th year on the surface of Mars today. The rover landed in a region of the Red Planet called Meridiani Planum on Jan. 24, 2004, sending its first signal back to Earth from the surface at 9:05 p.m. PST (Jan. 25, 2004, at 12:05 a.m. EST). The golf-cart-sized rover was designed to travel 1,100 yards (1,006 meters) and operate on the Red Planet for 90 Martian days (sols). It has traveled over 28 miles (45 kilometers) and logged its 5,000th Martian day (or sol) back in February of 2018."Fifteen years on the surface of Mars is testament not only to a magnificent machine of exploration but the dedicated and talented team behind it that has allowed us to expand our discovery space of the Red Planet," said John Callas, project manager for Opportunity at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "However, this anniversary cannot help but be a little bittersweet as at present we don't know the rover's status. We are doing everything in our power to communicate with Opportunity, but as time goes on, the probability of a successful contact with the rover continues to diminish."Opportunity's last communication with Earth was received June 10, 2018, as a planet-wide dust stormblanketed the solar-powered rover's locationon the western rim of Perseverance Valley, eventually blocking out so much sunlight that the rover could no longer charge its batteries. Although the storm eventually abated andthe skies over Perseverance cleared, the rover has not communicated with Earth since then. However, Opportunity's mission continues, in a phase where mission engineers at JPL are sending commands to as well as listening for signals from the rover. If engineers hear from the rover, they could attempt a recovery.Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 2003. Spirit landed on Mars in 2004, and its mission ended in 2011.For more information about Opportunity and the Mars Exploration Rover program, visit:https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/home/index.html

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/asteroid-hunters-bring-oldie-but-goodie-into-new-age

Asteroid Hunters Bring Oldie-But-Goodie into New Age

NASA astronomers searching for asteroids headed toward Earth are expanding their sky-watching repertoire by adding high-tech, computerized electronic upgrades to the classic 1.2-meter- diameter (48-inch) Oschin telescope atop Palomar Mountain near San Diego, California.

NASA astronomers searching for asteroids headed toward Earth are expanding their sky-watching repertoire by adding high-tech, computerized electronic upgrades to the classic 1.2-meter- diameter (48-inch) Oschin telescope atop Palomar Mountain near San Diego, California.Right now, NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) system uses a fully automated charge-coupled device (CCD) camera mounted on a 1-meter-diameter (39-inch) telescope atop Mt. Haleakela on Maui, HI. The U.S. Air Force operates the telescope.NEAT scientists will computerize the pointing system of the 1.2-meter (48-inch) Oschin telescope, which currently uses a human operator exclusively, and replace photographic plates with a modern electronic camera. The refurbished telescope will enable them to peer deeper into the sky than they can from Haleakela - they'll see 20 percent farther, and their field of view will be 10 times wider."Imagine watching the Super Bowl on your 25-inch TV and then switching to an 80-inch giant screen TV," said Dr. Steven Pravdo, NEAT project manager and co-investigator. "But in this case, it's even better than the TV analogy because, with the wider field, we'll see many more asteroids in each picture - those that would be on the 'sidelines' of other telescopes."The NEAT-Oschin alliance got a test run on June 9 and 10, when Pravdo and two other JPL astronomers, Dr. David Rabinowitz and Jeffrey Schroeder, took the NEAT camera to the Oschin telescope. They obtained the first-ever electronic images from that venerable sky eye."This experiment proved that the Oschin telescope will be a powerful tool in our hunt for near-Earth objects," Pravdo said. "We'll spruce up this gentle giant and put it to excellent use helping us find asteroids,""For ten years, I've dreamed and mapped out plans for adding electronic detectors to this telescope," said Eleanor Helin, principal investigator for NEAT, which has been operating since December 1995. "We've been able to study only a fraction of the sky so far, and we've been looking for ways to cover the entire sky."NASA's goal is to find all asteroids larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) across within 10 years. "This will achieve one-third of that goal, with the remaining two-thirds filled by the Haleakela camera and other viewing sites," Helin explained. "The Oschin telescope at Palomar may become the premier finder of near-Earth objects in the world."It's estimated there are 1,000 to 2,000 asteroids larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) that approach within 48 million kilometers (30 million miles) of Earth. Less than 20 percent have been detected so far. Although the vast majority are harmless and will never pose a threat to Earth, scientists want to keep track of the tiny percentage whose orbits could eventually put them on a collision course with Earth.The Oschin telescope, operated by the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, has served as a world-class telescope since it was built in 1949. Helin used the telescope to discover near-Earth asteroids and comets from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The instrument is currently completing the second of two sky surveys that serve as a resource to astronomers worldwide. The Oschin telescope has done yeoman's duty for astronomers through the years, but it has been surpassed in many ways by newer, more advanced telescopes. Nonetheless, it remains the telescope with the largest field of view.NASA will fund the Oschin upgrade, estimated to cost $300,000 to $500,000, and Caltech will provide the use of the facility and the infrastructure. Within about two years, astrophysicists from Yale University in New Haven, CT, may provide further high-tech upgrades to maximize the potential of the Palomar telescope.Images gathered by NEAT using the Oschin telescope, along with general information on NEAT, are available at the following web site:http://neat.jpl.nasa.gov/Information on the Palomar Observatory is available at:http://astro.caltech.edu/observatories/palomar/public/The NEAT project is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of Caltech.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-curiosity-captures-martian-morning-afternoon-in-new-postcard

NASA’s Curiosity Captures Martian Morning, Afternoon in New ‘Postcard’

Lighting from two times of day was combined for a stunning view of terrain that the rover is leaving behind.

Loading Image Comparison...NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover used its black-and-white navigation cameras to capture panoramas of “Marker Band Valley” at two times of day on April 8. Color was added to a combination of both panoramas for an artistic interpretation of the scene. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechAfter completing amajor software updatein April, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover took a last look at “Marker Band Valley” before leaving it behind, capturing a “postcard” of the scene.The postcard is an artistic interpretation of the landscape, with color added over two black-and-white panoramas captured by Curiosity’s navigation cameras. The views were taken on April 8 at 9:20 a.m. and 3:40 p.m. local Mars time, providing dramatically different lighting that, when combined, makes details in the scene stand out. Blue was added to parts of the postcard captured in the morning and yellow to parts taken in the afternoon, just as with asimilar postcardtaken by Curiosity in November 2021.The resulting image is striking. Curiosity is in the foothills ofMount Sharp, which stands 3 miles (5 kilometers) high within Gale Crater, where the rover has been exploring since landing in 2012. In the distance beyond its tracks is Marker Band Valley, a winding area in the “sulfate-bearing region” within which the rover discovered unexpectedsigns of an ancient lake. Farther below (at center and just to the right) are two hills – “Bolívar” and “Deepdale” – that Curiosity drove between while exploring “Paraitepuy Pass.”See the full "postcard" from Curiosity“Anyone who’s been to a national park knows the scene looks different in the morning than it does in the afternoon,” said Curiosity engineer Doug Ellison of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who planned and processed the images. “Capturing two times of day provides dark shadows because the lighting is coming in from the left and the right, like you might have on a stage – but instead of stage lights, we’re relying on the Sun.”Adding to the depth of the shadows is the fact that it was winter – a period of lower airborne dust – at Curiosity’s location when the images were taken. “Mars’ shadows get sharper and deeper when there’s low dust and softer when there’s lots of dust,” Ellison added.The image peers past the rear of the rover, providing a glimpse of its three antennas and nuclear power source. The Radiation Assessment Detector, or RAD, instrument, which appears as a white circle in the lower right of the image, has been helping scientists learn how toprotect the first astronauts sent to Marsfrom radiation on the planet’s surface.More About the MissionCuriosity was built by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California. JPL leads the mission on behalf of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.For more about Curiosity, visit:http://mars.nasa.gov/msl

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-space-missions-pinpoint-sources-of-co2-emissions-on-earth

NASA Space Missions Pinpoint Sources of CO2 Emissions on Earth

A case study involving Europe’s largest coal-fired power plant shows space-based observations can be used to track carbon dioxide emissions – and reductions – at the source.

A duo of Earth-observing missions has enabled researchers to detect and track carbon dioxide (CO2) emission changes from a single facility, using the world’s fifth-largest coal-fired power plant as a test case.In therecent study, researchers used space-based measurements from NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) 2 and 3 missions to quantify the carbon dioxide discharged hundreds of miles below at Bełchatów Power Station in Poland, the largest single emitter in Europe. Analyzing the plant’s emission plumes from several satellite overpasses between 2017 and 2022, they detected changes in carbon dioxide levels that were consistent with hourly fluctuations in electricity generation. Temporary and permanent unit shutdowns (for maintenance or decommissioning) reduced the plant’s overall emissions, which the team was able to detect as well.This illustration shows NASA’s OCO-2 satellite, launched in 2014. As it orbits Earth, the spacecraft maps natural and human-made carbon dioxide emissions on scales ranging from regions to continents. Light-analyzing spectrometers are tuned to detect the telltale signature of the gas.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechFull Image DetailsThe findings demonstrate that space-based observations can be used to track carbon dioxide emission changes at a local scale, the scientists said.Launched in 2014, NASA’sOCO-2 satellitemaps natural and human-made (anthropogenic)carbon dioxide emissionson scales ranging from regions to continents. The instrument samples the gas indirectly by measuring the intensity of sunlight reflected off Earth’s surface and absorbed by carbon dioxide in the column of air from the ground to the satellite. OCO-2’s spectrometers are tuned to detect the specific signature of CO2 gas.Spare components from that mission were used to createOCO-3, an instrument that has flown on the International Space Station since 2019. OCO-3 was designed with a mapping mode that can make multiple sweeping observations as the space station passes over an area, allowing researchers to create detailed mini-maps from a city-scale area of interest.This illustration shows NASA’s OCO-3 mounted on the underside of the International Space Station. The instrument, launched in 2019, was not originally designed to detect carbon dioxide emissions from individual facilities but scientists said it will be used for more point-source studies in the future.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechFull Image DetailsNeither OCO instrument was originally designed specifically to detect emissions from individual facilities such as Bełchatów, so the new findings are a “pleasant surprise,” said Abhishek Chatterjee, project scientist for the OCO-3 mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “As a community we are refining the tools and techniques to be able to extract more information from the data than what we had originally planned,” he added. “We are learning that we can actually understand a lot more about anthropogenic emissions than what we had previously expected.”Tracking Carbon Into the FutureEmissions from large facilities such as power plants and refineries account forabout halfof global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels. Bełchatów Power Station, in operation since 1988, is the largest lignite-fired power plant in the world, with a reported capacity of 5,102 megawatts. Lignite (brown coal) typically leads to higher emissions per megawatt generated than anthracite (hard coal). The Polish government has drafted plans to close the plant by the end of 2036.Ray Nassar, a senior researcher at Environment and Climate Change Canada and the study’s lead author, noted that most carbon dioxide emissions reports are created from estimates or data collected at the land surface. Researchers account for the mass of fossil fuels purchased and used, then calculate the expected emissions; they generally do not make actual atmospheric carbon dioxide measurements.“The finer details about exactly when and where emissions occur are often not available,” Nassar said. “Providing a more detailed picture of carbon dioxide emissions could help to track the effectiveness of policies to reduce emissions. Our approach with OCO-2 and OCO-3 can be applied to more power plants or modified for carbon dioxide emissions from cities or countries.”Because of the mapping mode observations of OCO-3, NASA data could be used more extensively in quantifying CO2 point-source emissions in the future. NASA recently announced that mission operations will be extended for several more years aboard the space station, and the instrument will operate alongside another greenhouse gas observer aboard the space station, the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT).“It is really exciting to think that we will get another five to six years of operations with OCO-3,” Chatterjee said. “We are seeing that making measurements at the right time and at the right scale is critical.”He added that OCO-3 can serve as a “pathfinder” for next-generation satellite missions. The OCO-2 and OCO-3 projects are managed by JPL. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-captures-a-mars-rock-feature-in-3d

NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Captures a Mars Rock Feature in 3D

The rotorcraft captures nuances of rocky outcrop during aerial reconnaissance.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter provided a 3D view of a rock-covered mound during its 13th flight on Sept. 4. The plan for this reconnaissance mission into the “South Seítah” region of Mars’ Jezero Crater was to capture images of this geologic target – nicknamed “Faillefeu” (after a medieval abbey in the French Alps) by the agency’s Perseverance rover team – and to obtain the color pictures from a lower altitude than ever before: 26 feet (8 meters).This image of an area the Mars Perseverance rover team calls Faillefeu was captured by NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during its 13th flight at Mars on September 4, 2021.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechFull Image DetailsAbout 33 feet (10 meters) wide, the mound is visible just north of the center of the image, with some large rocks casting shadows. Stretching across the top of the image is a portion of “Artuby,” a ridgeline more than half a mile (900meters) wide. At the bottom of the image, and running vertically up into the middle, are a few of the many sand ripples that populate South Seítah.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERBest viewed with red-blue glasses, this stereo, or 3D, view (also called an anaglyph) was created by combining data from two images taken 16 feet (5 meters) apart by the color camera aboard Ingenuity.More About IngenuityTheIngenuity Mars Helicopterwas built by JPL, which also manages the operations demonstration activity during its extended mission for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science, Aeronautics Research, and Space Technology mission directorates. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Martin Space designed and manufactured the Mars Helicopter Delivery System.More About PerseveranceA key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars isastrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includesArtemismissions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more about Perseverance:mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/andnasa.gov/perseverance

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rover-rounds-martian-dune-to-get-to-the-other-side

Rover Rounds Martian Dune to Get to the Other Side

NASA's Curiosity rover has driven to the downwind side of an active sand dune and returned images of cascaded sand.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover, partway through the first up-close study ever conducted of extraterrestrial sand dunes, is providing dramatic views of a dune's steep face, where cascading sand has sculpted very different textures than the wavy ripples visible on the dune's windward slope.Panoramic scenes dominated by the steep face of a dune called "Namib Dune" are online at these sites:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20284http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20281Researchers are using Curiosity to examine examples of the Bagnold Dunes, a band of dark sand dunes lining the northwestern flank of Mt. Sharp, the layered mountain the rover is climbing. A characteristic that sets true dunes apart from other wind-shaped bodies of sand, such as drifts and ripples previously visited by Mars rovers, is a steep, downwind slope known as the slip face. Here, sand blowing across the windward side of the dune suddenly becomes sheltered from the wind by the dune itself. The sand falls out of the air and builds up on the slope until it becomes steepened and flows in mini-avalanches down the face.The mission's dune-investigation campaign is designed to increase understanding about how wind moves and sorts grains of sand, in an environment with less gravity and much less atmosphere than well-studied dune fields on Earth. The Bagnold Dunes are active. Sequential images taken from orbit over the course of multiple years show that some of these dunes are migrating by as much as a yard, or meter, per Earth year.Curiosity has not caught a sand slide in action, but the rover's images of the Namib Dune slip face show where such slides have occurred recently. These dunes likely are most active in Mars' southern summer, rather than in the current late-fall season.A few days of rover operations were affected in December due to an arm-motion fault, diagnosed as a minor software issue. Normal use of the arm resumed Dec. 23.Curiosity has been working on Mars since early August 2012. It reached the base of Mount Sharp in 2014 after fruitfully investigating outcrops closer to its landing site and then trekking to the mountain. The main mission objective now is to examine successively higher layers of Mount Sharp.For more information about Curiosity, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-advanced-technology-concepts-selected-for-study

NASA Advanced Technology Concepts Selected for Study

NASA has selected 12 proposals, including two from JPL, for study under Phase I of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program, which aims to turn science fiction into fact.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA has selected 12 proposals, including two from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., for study under Phase I of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program, which aims to turn science fiction into fact.The selected proposals include a wide range of imaginative concepts, including 3-D printing of biomaterials, such as arrays of cells; using galactic rays to map the insides of asteroids; and an "eternal flight" platform that could hover in Earth's atmosphere, potentially providing better imaging, Wi-Fi, power generation and other applications."NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts Program invites innovators everywhere -- industry, academia, NASA centers, other agencies -- to propose bold, visionary ideas," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington. "We're working together to transform the future of aerospace while investigating new technologies that may one day benefit our new technology economy and our lives here on Earth."NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate chose this year's Phase I proposals based on their potential to transform future aerospace missions by enabling either entirely new missions or breakthroughs in future aerospace capabilities, accelerating progress toward NASA's goals.NIAC Phase I awards are about $100,000 to conduct nine-month initial definition and analysis studies of a concept. If the basic feasibility studies are successful, proposers can apply for Phase II funding of as much as $500,000 for two more years of concept maturation."These new Phase I selections include potential breakthroughs for Earth and space science, diverse operations and the potential for new paths that expand human civilization and commerce into space," said NIAC Program Executive Jay Falker.NASA solicits visionary, long-term concepts for technological maturation based on their potential value to the agency's future space missions and operational needs. The projects are chosen through a peer-review process that evaluates their innovative potential, technical approach, and benefits for study in a timely manner. All are very early in development and typically years from implementation. NASA's early investment and partnership with creative scientists, engineers and citizen inventors from across the nation will provide technological dividends and help maintain America's leadership in the global technology economy.The portfolio of diverse and innovative ideas selected for NIAC awards represent multiple technology areas, including in-space propulsion, human habitation, science instruments, materials for use in space, and exploring other diverse technology paths needed to meet NASA's strategic goals.NIAC is part of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA's future missions. These competitively awarded projects are creating new technological solutions for NASA and America's future.The two JPL proposals are:• Two-Dimensional Planetary Surface Landers -- Hamid Hemmati,, principal investigatorhttp://www.nasa.gov/content/two-dimensional-planetary-surface-landers/#.Uel9auDOsX5• Transformers for Extreme Environments -- Adrian Stoica, principal investigatorhttp://www.nasa.gov/content/transformers-for-extreme-environments/#.UemCbeDOsX5For a complete list of the selected proposals and more information about the NIAC, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/niac. For more information about NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech.The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/wise-launch-rescheduled-for-december-14

WISE Launch Rescheduled for December 14

The launch of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) is now rescheduled for Dec. 14.

(Dec. 10, 2009) - The launch of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission is now rescheduled for Dec. 14, with a launch window of 6:09 to 6:23 a.m. PST (9:09 to 9:23 a.m. EST). The first launch attempt scheduled for Dec. 11 was delayed due to an anomaly in the motion of a booster steering engine.Mission managers have implemented a plan to completely resolve the anomaly. This plan includes removing and replacing a suspect component on Friday, Dec. 11, allowing the Delta II to be ready for Monday’s launch attempt. The current weather forecast calls for an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather during the launch window.WISE will circle Earth over the poles, scanning the entire sky one-and-a-half times in nine months. The mission will uncover hidden cosmic objects, including the coolest stars, dark asteroids and the most luminous galaxies.More information is online athttp://www.nasa.gov/wise,http://wise.astro.ucla.edu, andhttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/latest-computers-will-boost-asteroid-tracking-efforts

Latest Computers Will Boost Asteroid Tracking Efforts

NASA astronomers conducting a monthly sweep of the night sky to identify previously unknown asteroids and comets will be able to double their coverage and the number of discoveries they make, thanks to new, state-of-the-art computer and data analysis hardware.

NASA astronomers conducting a monthly sweep of the night sky to identify previously unknown asteroids and comets will be able to double their coverage and the number of discoveries they make, thanks to new, state-of-the-art computer and data analysis hardware.The new equipment was purchased with funds from NASA, which recently doubled its resources for near-Earth object research.The new real-time analysis system, which serves a fully automated charged-couple device (CCD) camera and telescope atop Mt. Haleakala, Maui, HI, is part of the Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) project, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. The new system features four 300- megahertz processors that will be devoted solely to the enormous amount of data coming back from the NEAT telescope on a nightly basis."This new system will speed up the processing of data and allow us to analyze up to 40 gigabytes of data each night, or the equivalent of nearly 70 CD-ROMs," said Dr. Steven Pravdo, NEAT project manager at JPL. "We will be able to double the amount of sky we search each night, which is currently 500 square degrees, as well as the number of new asteroids and comets we find during each monthly observation cycle."Installed in 1995, the NEAT camera uses a very large, very sensitive 4,096- by 4,096-pixel CCD chip. The camera is located on a 1-meter-diameter (39-inch) telescope operated by the U.S. Air Force and located at an elevation of 3,000 meters (nearly 2 miles) above the Pacific Ocean. With stable climate, clear, dry air and little light pollution, the NEAT tracking system has been highly successful and continues to operate six days out of each month. With additional support, the project hopes to increase this six-day observational run to 18 nights of observations each month.Asteroids are considered relics of the formation of the early solar system. Most of them are rocky materials, with some composed of nickel and iron. Most range in size from boulders up to the largest main belt asteroid, Ceres, which is approximately 965 kilometers (600 miles) in diameter. Comets, on the other hand, are bodies of ice with embedded rock and organic materials which heat up and become active, spewing gases and dust as they approach the Sun.The NEAT telescope detects these small bodies by observing the same part of the sky three times during an interval of about one hour and comparing the three images to determine the location of objects moving across the sky. Since its inception, this fully automated system has detected more than 25,000 objects, including 30 near-Earth asteroids, two long-period comets and the unique 1996 PW, which has the most eccentric orbit of all objects discovered to date. More information about NEAT discoveries, along with black-and-white images of the objects, is available athttp://huey.jpl.nasa.gov/~spravdo/neat.html.Most recently, the NEAT team has discovered two new Earth- crossing asteroids. One, designated 1998 HT31, is a relatively small Apollo-type asteroid 270 meters (800 feet) in diameter; the other, 1998HD14, is the 30th Aten to be discovered since JPL astronomer Eleanor Helin first identified this class of asteroid 22 years ago, and the fifth discovered with the NEAT tracking system. Both are classified as potentially hazardous asteroids because their orbits come within 5 million kilometers (3 million miles) of Earth, or about 20 times the distance of the Moon. However, neither currently poses a threat to Earth."Atens are a rare class of asteroid because of their small orbits, which are smaller than that of Earth's, and which never allow them to wander far from our planet," said Helin, who is the principal investigator of the NEAT program. "1998 HD14 passed within 5 million kilometers (3 million miles of Earth) just a week after we discovered it on April 29. This is relatively close but poses no threat in the foreseeable future. Atens are of particular interest to us because they stay so close to Earth's orbit."Along with near-Earth asteroids, astronomers are also interested in tracking long-period comets, which travel vast distances from the Oort Cloud, a region far beyond Pluto's orbit, which is believed to house trillions of incipient comets. These objects travel in very long paths through the solar system, and can appear unannounced, with no calling cards."We are particularly interested in these comets because they give us little time before appearing in Earth's vicinity," Helin said.Astronomers dedicated to discovering and tracking near-Earth objects are eager to find all of the potentially dangerous asteroids and comets long before they are likely to approach Earth. For instance, the NEAT team at JPL is developing two new CCD cameras and hopes to install them at Mt. Haleakala or other facilities."With additional telescopes, longer observational runs and our new operating system, we will be able to detect 90 percent of the Earth-crossing asteroids that are larger than 1 kilometer (6/10ths of a mile) in diameter in the next 10 years," Pravdo said. "As our knowledge about these objects grows, we will be able to provide better information which can be used in studies of ways to divert Earth-crossers on threatening orbits toward Earth."NEAT was built and is being managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-fickle-el-nino-of-2014

The Fickle El Nino of 2014

Prospects have been fading for an El Niño event in 2014, but now there's a glimmer of hope for a very modest comeback.

Prospects have been fading for an El Niño event in 2014, but now there's a glimmer of hope for a very modest comeback. Scientists warn that unless these developing weak-to-modest El Niño conditions strengthen, the drought-stricken American West shouldn't expect any relief.The latest sea-level-height data from the NASA/European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 satellite mission show a pair of eastward-moving waves of higher sea level, known as Kelvin waves, in the Pacific Ocean -- the third such pair of waves this year. Now crossing the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, these warm waves appear as the large area of higher-than-normal sea surface heights (warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures) hugging the equator between 120 degrees west and the International Dateline. The Kelvin waves are traveling eastward and should arrive off Ecuador in late September and early October.A series of larger atmospheric "west wind bursts" from February through May 2014 triggered an earlier series of Kelvin waves that raised hopes of a significant El Niño event. Just as the warming of the eastern equatorial Pacific by these waves dissipated, damping expectations for an El Niño this year, these latest Kelvin waves have appeared, resuscitating hopes for a late arrival of the event.The new image is online at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/earth/elnino/earth20140922-full.jpgFor an overview of 2014's El Niño prospects and Kelvin waves, please see:http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/19may_elnino/Climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, says it's too early to know for sure, but he would not be surprised if the latest Kelvin waves are the "last hurrah" for this much-hoped-for El Niño. "Since February 2014, the prospect of an El Niño has waxed and waned. This late in the season, the best we can expect is a weak to moderate event. What comes next is not yet clear. But for the drought-plagued American West, the possibility of a badly needed drenching is fading," said Patzert.NASA scientists will continue to monitor the Pacific to see what is in store next for the world's climate.This image was created with data collected by the U.S./European OSTM/Jason-2 satellite during a 10-day period centered on Sept. 18, 2014. It shows a red and yellow area in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, indicating that the ocean surface is about 4 to 6 inches (10 to 12 centimeters) above normal. Green indicates near-normal conditions. These regions contrast with the western equatorial Pacific, where sea levels (blue and purple areas) are 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) lower than normal.The height of the ocean water relates, in part, to its temperature, and thus is an indicator of the amount of heat stored in the ocean below. As the ocean warms, the water expands and the sea level rises; as it cools, its level falls. Above-normal height variations along the equatorial Pacific indicate El Niño conditions, while below-normal height variations indicate La Niña conditions. The temperature of the upper ocean can have a significant influence on weather patterns and climate.This latest image highlights the processes that occur on time scales of more than a year but usually less than 10 years, such as El Niño and La Niña. The image also highlights faster ocean processes such as Kelvin waves. As Patzert says, "Jason-2 is a fantastic Kelvin wave counter." These processes are known as the interannual ocean signal. To show that signal, scientists refined data for this image by removing trends over the past 21 years, seasonal variations and time-averaged signals of large-scale ocean circulation. For a more detailed explanation of what this type of image means, visit:http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/elninopdo/latestdata/The comings and goings of El Niño and La Niña are part of the long-term, evolving state of global climate, for which measurements of sea surface height are a key indicator. Jason-2 is a joint effort between NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the French Space Agency Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). JPL manages the U.S. portion of Jason-2 for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. In early 2015, NASA and its international partners CNES, NOAA and EUMETSAT will launch Jason-3, which will extend the timeline of ocean surface topography measurements begun by the Topex/Poseidon and Jason 1 and 2 satellites. Jason-3 will make highly detailed measurements of sea level on Earth to gain insight into ocean circulation and climate change. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology.For a time sequence of the evolution of the 2014 El Nino, visit:http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov/science/elninopdo/latestdata/archive/To learn more on NASA's satellite altimetry programs, visit:http://sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-technology-can-detect-heartbeats-in-rubble

New Technology Can Detect Heartbeats in Rubble

New technology may allow victims trapped in piles of rubble to be rescued more quickly.

When natural disasters or human-made catastrophes topple buildings, search and rescue teams immediately set out to find victims trapped beneath the wreckage. During these missions, time is imperative, and the ability to quickly detect living victims greatly increases the chances of rescue and survival.The Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate, Washington, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have developed a new radar-based technology named Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response, or FINDER.FINDER was created to detect a human heartbeat buried beneath 30 feet (9 meters) of crushed material, hidden behind 20 feet (6 meters) of solid concrete, and from a distance of 100 feet (30 meters) in open space.In the past several months, DHS and JPL have tested and developed several FINDER prototypes. In June, DHS and first responders used a prototype to conduct more than 65 test searches with two Urban Search and Rescue teams: the Virginia Task Force 1 at the Fairfax County Fire Department training center, and the Virginia Task Force 2 in Virginia Beach, Va."Testing proved successful in locating a task force member buried in 30 feet of mixed concrete, rebar and gravel rubble from a distance of over 30 feet," said John Price, DHS Science and Technology program manager. "This capability will complement the current urban search and rescue tools such as canines, listening devices and video cameras to detect the presence of living victims in rubble."In disaster scenarios, like earthquakes and tornadoes, the debris from the disasters causes the radar signals of FINDER to bounce back irregularly, making it difficult to decipher the signals. "Isolating the relatively weak signal of a heartbeat within the noisy signals becomes a difficult task," said Edward Chow, JPL program manager. "JPL's radar expertise helps in this challenge."JPL uses advanced data processing systems to pick out faint signals. The microwave radar technology is sensitive enough to distinguish the unique signature of a human's breathing pattern and heartbeat from that of other living creatures, such as rats. The advantage of this technology is to allow first responders to quickly ascertain if a living human is present in the debris. The technology is sensitive enough that victims, whether conscious or not, can easily be detected, which helps responders decide the most efficient course of action."It is anticipated that a commercialized technology could be ready for search and rescue operations as early as spring 2014," Price said.The earlier tests resulted in design changes that are being incorporated into a new version of the device. These changes include a revised user interface, and increased battery life of up to 14 hours. The mechanical and electronic design has evolved with the core being a lightweight sensing module that uses a USB interface to integrate an antenna, radar electronics and digital processing."This module is the key to future miniaturization and the use of FINDER sensing technology in other applications," said James Lux, task manager for the FINDER project at JPL. Those applications include installing FINDER on proposed search and rescue robots, such as JPL's Urbie, on stretchers or ambulances to monitor a patient's heartbeat, and in biology research to distinguish species.The research partners continue developmental efforts to construct a final prototype while using a wealth of practitioner input and recommendations following the test searches. Future phases of development will focus on a more specific locator function, which will help determine not only the presence of a victim, but more precisely where in the rubble the victim is located.The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/major-ocean-observing-satellite-starts-providing-science-data

Major Ocean-Observing Satellite Starts Providing Science Data

Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, the latest spacecraft to monitor sea surface height, releases its first science measurements to users.

After six months of check-out and calibration in orbit, theSentinel-6 Michael Freilichsatellite will make its first two data streams available to the public on June 22. It launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on Nov. 21, 2020, and is a U.S.-European collaboration to measure sea surface height and other key ocean features, such as ocean surface wind speed and wave height.Lee esta historia en español aquíOne of the sea surface height data streams that will be released is accurate to 2.3 inches (5.8 centimeters) and will be available within hours of when the instruments aboard Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich collect it. A second stream of data, accurate to 1.4 inches (3.5 centimeters), will be released two days after collection. The difference in when the products become available balances accuracy with delivery timeliness for tasks like forecasting the weather and helping to monitor the formation of hurricanes. More datasets, which will be accurate to about 1.2 inches (2.9 centimeters), are slated for distribution later this year and are intended for research activities and climate science including tracking global mean sea level rise.Find out more about Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich as it orbits Earth to collect critical sea level and atmospheric data. Click anywhere on the image to take it for a spin. View the full interactive experience and fly along with the mission in real time atEyes on the Solar System. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe satellite, named after former NASA Earth Science Division DirectorMichael Freilich, collects its measurements for about 90% of the world’s oceans. It is one of two satellites that compose the Copernicus Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission. The second satellite, Sentinel-6B, is slated for launch in 2025. Together, they are the latest in a series of spacecraft starting with TOPEX/Poseidon in 1992 and continuing with the Jason series of satellites that have been gathering precise ocean height measurements for nearly 30 years.Shortly after launch, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich moved into position, trailing the current reference sea level satellite Jason-3 by 30 seconds. Scientists and engineers then spent time cross-calibrating the data collected by both satellites to ensure the continuity of measurements between the two. Once they have are assured of the data quality, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will then become the primary sea level satellite.“It’s a relief knowing that the satellite is working and that the data look good,” said Josh Willis, project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Several months from now, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will take over for its predecessor, Jason-3, and this data release is the first step in that process.”Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERKeeping an Eye on Rising SeasThe ocean absorbs more than 90% of the heat trapped in the Earth system by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, which causes seawater to expand and sea level to rise. Monitoring ocean height is important because it helps forecasters predict things, including ocean currents and potential hurricane strength.“These initial data show that Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is an amazing new tool that will help to improve marine and weather forecasts,” said Eric Leuliette, program and project scientist at theNational Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationin Maryland. “In a changing climate, it’s a great achievement that these data are ready for release.”Ocean Altimetry Programme Manager Julia Figa Saldana of EUMETSAT (European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites), added that the operational release of the first data streams from this unique ocean altimetry mission was a significant milestone at the start of the Atlantic hurricane season.“The altimetry data are now being processed at EUMESAT headquarters in Darmstadt, from where the satellite is also being controlled, and released to ocean and weather forecasting data users around the world for their operational usage,” Saldana said.Scientists also anticipate using the data to gauge how fast sea levels are rising because of climate change. The expansion of warm seawater accounts for about one-third of modern-day sea level rise, while meltwater from glaciers and ice sheets accounts for the rest. The rate at which the oceans are rising has accelerated over the past two decades, and researchers expect it to speed up more in the years to come. Sea level rise will change coastlines and increase flooding from tides and storms. To better understand how rising seas will impact humanity, researchers need long climate records – something Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will help provide.More About the MissionSentinel-6/Jason-CS is being jointly developed by ESA (European Space Agency), EUMETSAT, NASA, and NOAA, with funding support from the European Commission and technical support from France's National Centre for Space Studies.JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, is contributing three science instruments for each Sentinel-6 satellite: theAdvanced Microwave Radiometer, theGlobal Navigation Satellite System - Radio Occultation, and theLaser Retroreflector Array. NASA is also contributing launch services, ground systems supporting operation of the NASA science instruments, the science data processors for two of these instruments, and support for the U.S. members of the international Ocean Surface Topography Science Team.For more about Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/sentinel-6To access data from Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, visit:https://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/https://search.earthdata.nasa.gov/search?q=sentinel-6

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-curiosity-mars-rover-takes-a-new-selfie-before-record-climb

NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Takes a New Selfie Before Record Climb

Along with capturing an image before its steepest ascent ever, the robotic explorer filmed its "selfie stick," or robotic arm, in action.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover recently set a record for the steepest terrain it's ever climbed, cresting the "Greenheugh Pediment," a broad sheet of rock that sits atop a hill. And before doing that, the rover took a selfie, capturing the scene just below Greenheugh.In front of the rover is a hole it drilled while sampling a bedrock target called "Hutton." The entire selfie is a 360-degree panorama stitched together from 86 images relayed to Earth. The selfie captures the rover about 11 feet (3.4 meters) below the point where it climbed onto the crumbling pediment.Curiosity finally reached the top of the slope March 6 (the 2,696th Martian day, or sol, of the mission). It took three drives to scale the hill, the second of whichtilted the rover 31 degrees- the most the rover has ever tilted on Mars and just shy of the now-inactive Opportunity rover's32-degree tilt record, set in 2016. Curiosity took the selfie on Feb. 26, 2020 (Sol 2687).Since 2014, Curiosity has been rolling up Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain at the center of Gale Crater. Rover operators at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California carefully map out each drive to make sure Curiosity will be safe. The rover is never in danger of tilting so much that it would flip over -Curiosity's rocker-bogie wheel system enables it to tilt up to 45 degrees safely- but the steep drives do cause the wheels to spin in place.How Are Selfies Taken?Before the climb, Curiosity used the black-and-white Navigation Cameras located on its mast to, for the first time, record a short movie of its "selfie stick," otherwise known as its robotic arm.Curiosity's mission is to study whether the Martian environment could have supported microbial life billions of years ago. One tool for doing that is theMars Hand Lens Camera, or MAHLI, located in the turret at the end of the robotic arm. This camera provides a close-up view ofsand grains and rock textures, similarly to how a geologist uses a handheld magnifying glass for a closer look in the field on Earth.By rotating the turret to face the rover, the team can use MAHLI to show Curiosity. Because each MAHLI image covers only a small area, it requires many images and arm positions to fully capture the rover and its surroundings."We get asked so often how Curiosity takes a selfie," said Doug Ellison, a Curiosity camera operator at JPL. "We thought the best way to explain it would be to let the rover show everyone from its own point of view just how it's done."This video shows how the robotic arm on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover moves as it takes a selfie. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechIn this video, JPL imaging specialist Justin Maki explains how NASA's Mars Curiosity rover takes a selfie. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechLocated in Pasadena, California, Caltech manages JPL for NASA, and JPL, which built Curiosity, manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego.For more about Curiosity:https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/home/http://nasa.gov/msl

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/saturns-famous-hexagon-may-tower-above-the-clouds

Saturn's Famous Hexagon May Tower Above the Clouds

A study using Cassini data reveals a warming, high-altitude, hexagonal vortex emerging at Saturn's northern pole.

A new long-term study using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed a surprising feature emerging at Saturn's northern pole as it nears summertime: a warming, high-altitude vortex with a hexagonal shape, akin to the famous hexagon seen deeper down in Saturn's clouds.The finding, published Sept. 3 inNature Communications, is intriguing, because it suggests that the lower-altitude hexagon may influence what happens above, and that it could be a towering structure hundreds of miles in height.When Cassini arrived at the Saturnian system in 2004, the southern hemisphere was enjoying summertime, while the northern was in the midst of winter. The spacecraft spied a broad, warm high-altitude vortex at Saturn's southern pole but none at the planet's northern pole. The new study reports the first glimpses of a northern polar vortex forming high in the atmosphere, as Saturn's northern hemisphere approached summertime. This warm vortex sits hundreds of miles above the clouds, in the stratosphere, and reveals an unexpected surprise."The edges of this newly-found vortex appear to be hexagonal, precisely matching a famous and bizarre hexagonal cloud pattern we see deeper down in Saturn's atmosphere,"said Leigh Fletcher of the University of Leicester, lead author of the new study.Saturn's cloud levels host the majority of the planet's weather, including the pre-existing north polar hexagon. This feature was discovered by NASA's Voyager spacecraft in the 1980s and has been studied for decades; a long-lasting wave potentially tied to Saturn's rotation, it is a type of phenomenon also seen on Earth, as in the Polar Jet Stream.Its properties were revealed in detail by Cassini, which observed the feature in multiple wavelengths -- from the ultraviolet to the infrared -- using instruments including its Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). However, at the start of the mission this instrument could not peer farther up into the northern stratosphere, where temperatures were too cold for reliable CIRS infrared observations, leaving these higher-altitude regions relatively unexplored for many years."The mystery and extent of the hexagon continue to grow, even after Cassini's 13 years in orbit around Saturn," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist. "I look forward to seeing other new discoveries that remain to be found in the Cassini data."For more on the new study, visit the European Space Agency's story here:http://sci.esa.int/cassini-huygens/60589-saturn-s-famous-hexagon-may-tower-above-the-clouds/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/small-near-earth-object-probably-a-rocket-part

Small Near-Earth Object Probably a Rocket Part

Scientists have determined that a small object that safely passed Earth on May 21 is more than likely an upper-stage of a rocket.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Scientists at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have determined that a small object that safely passed Earth on May 21 is more than likely an upper-stage of a rocket that carried a spacecraft on an interplanetary trajectory."The orbit of this object is very similar to that of the Earth, and one would not expect an object to remain in this type of orbit for very long," said Paul Chodas, a scientist at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.Observations by astronomer S.J. Bus, using the NASA-sponsored Infrared Telescope Facility in Mauna Kea, Hawaii, indicate that 2010 KQ's spectral characteristics do not match any of the known asteroid types, and the object's absolute magnitude (28.9) suggests it is only a few meters in size.2010 KQ was discovered by astronomer Richard Kowalski at the NASA-sponsored Catalina Sky Survey in the mountains just north of Tucson, Ariz., on May 16. Five days later, it made its closest approach to Earth at a distance just beyond the moon's orbit. The object is departing Earth's neighborhood but will be returning in 2036."At present, there is a 6 percent probability that 2010 KQ will enter our atmosphere over a 30-year period starting in 2036," said Chodas. "More than likely, additional observations of the object will refine its orbit and impact possibilities. Even in the unlikely event that this object is headed for impact with Earth, whether it is an asteroid or rocket body, it is so small that it would disintegrate in the atmosphere and not cause harm on the ground."NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-rover-and-orbiter-team-examines-victoria-crater

NASA's Mars Rover and Orbiter Team Examines Victoria Crater

NASA's long-lived robotic rover Opportunity is beginning to explore layered rocks in cliffs ringing the massive Victoria crater on Mars.

NASA's long-lived robotic rover Opportunity is beginning to explore layered rocks in cliffs ringing the massive Victoria crater on Mars.While Opportunity spent its first week at the crater, NASA's newest eye in the Martian sky photographed the rover and its surroundings from above. The level of detail in the photo from the high-resolution camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will help guide the rover's exploration of Victoria."This is a tremendous example of how our Mars missions in orbit and on the surface are designed to reinforce each other and expand our ability to explore and discover," said Doug McCuistion, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program in Washington. "You can only achieve this compelling level of exploration capability with the sustained exploration approach we are conducting at Mars through integrated orbiters and landers.""The combination of the ground-level and aerial view is much more powerful than either alone," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is principal investigator for Opportunity and its twin, Spirit. "If you were a geologist driving up to the edge of a crater in your jeep, the first thing you would do would be to pick up the aerial photo you brought with you and use it to understand what you're seeing from ground level. That's exactly what we're doing here."Images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, orbiting the red planet since 1997, prompted the rover team to choose Victoria two years ago as the long-term destination for Opportunity. The images show the one-half-mile-wide crater has scalloped edges of alternating cliff-like high, jutting ledges and gentler alcoves. The new image by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter adds significantly more detail.Exposed geological layers in the cliff-like portions of Victoria's inner wall appear to record a longer span of Mars' environmental history than the rover has studied in smaller craters. Victoria is five times larger than any crater Opportunity has visited during its Martian trek.High-resolution color images taken by Opportunity's panoramic camera since Sept. 28 reveal previously unseen patterns in the layers. "There are distinct variations in the sedimentary layering as you look farther down in the stack," Squyres said. "That tells us environmental conditions were not constant."Within two months after landing on Mars in early 2004, Opportunity found geological evidence for a long-ago environment that was wet. Scientists hope the layers in Victoria will provide new clues about whether that wet environment was persistent, fleeting or cyclical.The rovers have worked on Mars for more than 10 times their originally planned three-month missions. "Opportunity shows a few signs of aging but is in good shape for undertaking exploration of Victoria crater," said John Callas, project manager for the rovers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif."What we see so far just adds to the excitement. The team has worked heroically for nearly 21 months driving the rover here, and now we're all rewarded with views of a spectacular landscape of nearly 50-foot-thick exposures of layered rock," said Jim Bell of Cornell. Bell is lead scientist for the rovers' panoramic cameras. NASA plans to drive Opportunity from crater ridge to ridge, studying nearby cliffs across the intervening alcoves and looking for safe ways to drive the rover down. "It's like going to the Grand Canyon and seeing what you can from several different overlooks before you walk down," Bell said.The orbiter images will help the team choose which way to send Opportunity around the rim, and where to stop for the best views. Conversely, the rover's ground-level observations of some of the same features will provide useful information for interpreting orbital images."The ground-truth we get from the rover images and measurements enables us to better interpret features we see elsewhere on Mars, including very rugged and dramatic terrains that we can't currently study on the ground," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson. He is principal investigator for the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera.JPL manages the rovers and orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.For images and information about the rovers, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/roversFor images and information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mro

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/two-of-a-space-kind-apollo-12-and-mars-2020

Two of a Space Kind: Apollo 12 and Mars 2020

Apollo 12 and the upcoming Mars 2020 mission may be separated by half a century, but they share several goals unique in the annals of space exploration.

Fifty years ago today, during their second moonwalk, Charles "Pete" Conrad Jr. and Alan Bean became the first humans to reach out and touch a spacecraft that had previously landed on another celestial body. NASA's 1969 Apollo 12 Moon mission and the upcoming Mars 2020 mission to the Red Planet may be separated by half a century and targets that are 100 million miles apart, but they share several mission goals unique in the annals of space exploration."We on the Mars 2020 project feel a special kinship with the crew of Apollo 12," said John McNamee, Mars 2020 project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "They achieved the first precision landing, deployed the most advanced suite of science instruments of the time, and were the first to interact with another spacecraft that put down on another world. That's all part of the Mars 2020 playbook as well."NASA needed Apollo 12 to prove a precision landing was possible because future Apollo missions would target locations in the lunar highlands, where mountains, massive craters, boulder fields and rilles could ruin their day if the lunar modules strayed from their prescribed landing path. And while the previous mission, Apollo 11, was a monumental success, it overshot its intended landing site in the Sea of Tranquility by about 4 miles (6 kilometers).To demonstrate a precision landing, Apollo 12 mission planners could have chosen just about anywhere on the nearside of the Moon by targeting any of literally millions of known geologic features. In the end, they chose for Pete and Al a relatively nondescript crater in the Ocean of Storms because JPL had plunked down a spacecraft there two-and-a-half years earlier."When Pete and Al put the lunar module Intrepid down within about 520 feet [160 meters] of Surveyor 3, it gave NASA the confidence to later send Apollo 15 to Hadley Rille, Apollo 16 to go to the Descartes Highlands and Apollo 17 to land at Taurus Littrow," said McNamee. "We also have to be precise with our landing on Mars - not only to pave the way for future precision landings on the Red Planet for both robotic and human-crewed missions, but also because Mars 2020's scientifically appealing landing site atJezero Craterhas all sorts of cliffsides, sand dunes, boulders and craters that can adversely affect us during landing."Mars 2020 will be history's first planetary mission to includeterrain relative navigation, a computerized autopilot that utilizes optical imagers and computers to help Mars 2020 avoid landing hazards and make the most accurate landing on a planetary body in history.Sweet Suite ScienceThere are other similarities. During their first moonwalk, Conrad and Bean deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments package (ALSEP). Powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, the five science instruments (seismometer, atmospheric sensor, solar wind spectrometer, lunar dust collector and magnetic field sensor) were the most advanced ever to be carried to another celestial body, and they sent back groundbreaking data on the lunar environment from November 1969 to September 1977. When Mars 2020 alights at Jezero Crater, it also will be equipped with themost advanced science instrumentsever to travel to another world."The science instruments we carry benefit not only from advances in technology, but the hard lessons learned by those missions of exploration, including Apollo, that preceded us," said Ken Farley, project scientist for Mars 2020 from Caltech in Pasadena. "Our seven state-of-the-art science tools will help us acquire the most information possible about Martian geology, atmosphere, environmental conditions, and potential biosignatures, giving us insight into the Red Planet like never before."Return to SenderDuring their second moonwalk, Conrad and Bean reached theSurveyor 3 lander- one of the robotic missions that explored the Moon in advance of astronauts. They not only collected images and samples of the lunar surface surrounding the spacecraft, but cut, sawed and hacked parts off the three-legged spacecraft, including Surveyor's TV camera and its surface-soil sampling scoop."NASA wanted to see what happened to materials that were exposed to the lunar environment for an extended period," said McNamee. "To this day, the samples of Surveyor 3, which endured 31 months at the Ocean of Storms, are our best and only demonstrations of the natural processes that can affect spacecraft components left on the Moon."One of Mars 2020's major mission goals is to seek signs of past microscopic life, collecting the most compelling rock core and Martian dust samples. Subsequent missions, currently under consideration by NASA, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. To help engineers design spacesuits to shield astronauts from the elements, NASA is sending five samples of spacesuit material along with one of Mars 2020's science instruments, calledScanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC). A piece of an astronaut's helmet and four kinds of fabric are mounted on thecalibration targetfor this instrument. Scientists will use SHERLOC, as well as a camera that photographs visible light, to study how the materials degrade in ultraviolet radiation. It will mark the first time spacesuit material has been sent to Mars for testing and will provide a vital comparison for ongoing testing at NASA's Johnson Space Center.Robots First, Astronauts LaterJust as NASA's Surveyor missions helped blaze a trail for Neil and Buzz on Apollo 11, Pete and Al on 12, as well as Al and Ed (Apollo 14), Dave and Jim (Apollo 15), John and Charlie (Apollo 16), and Gene and Harrison (Apollo 17), Mars 2020 is helping set the tone forfuture crewed missions to Mars.Mars 2020's landing system includes a suite of sensors that will document the descent to the surface in never-seen-before detail so that future robotic and crewed missions factor those details into their landings. When on the surface, the rover'sMOXIEinstrument is designed to demonstrate that converting Martian carbon dioxide to pure oxygen is possible, andRIMFAXcould teach us how to use ground-penetrating radar so that future missions can use it to find sources of fresh water."Isaac Newton once wrote, 'If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants,'" said McNamee. "When Mars 2020 flies, it will allow us to see farther into the geologic history of the Red Planet than ever before - and that is happening because we too are standing on the shoulders of giants - giants like the crew of Apollo 12."The launch period for Mars 2020 opens on July 17, 2020. It will land at Mars' Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021.For more information about the mission, visit:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-rovers-probing-water-history-at-two-sites

Mars Rovers Probing Water History at Two Sites

NASA's Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring Mars about three times as long as originally scheduled. The more they look, the more evidence of past liquid water on Mars these robots discover. Team members reported the new findings at a news briefing today.

NASA's Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring Mars about three times as long as originally scheduled. The more they look, the more evidence of past liquid water on Mars these robots discover. Team members reported the new findings at a news briefing today.About six months ago, Opportunity established that its exploration area was wet a long time ago. The area was wet before it dried and eroded into a wide plain. The team's new findings suggest some rocks there may have gotten wet a second time, after an impact excavated a stadium sized crater.Evidence of this exciting possibility has been identified in a flat rock dubbed "Escher" and in some neighboring rocks near the bottom of the crater. These plate-like rocks bear networks of cracks dividing the surface into patterns of polygons, somewhat similar in appearance to cracked mud after the water has dried up here on Earth.Alternative histories, such as fracturing by the force of the crater-causing impact, or the final desiccation of the original wet environment that formed the rocks, might also explain the polygonal cracks. Rover scientists hope a lumpy boulder nicknamed "Wopmay," Opportunity's next target for inspection, may help narrow the list of possible explanations."When we saw these polygonal crack patterns, right away we thought of a secondary water event significantly later than the episode that created the rocks," said Dr. John Grotzinger. He is a rover-team geologist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. Finding geological evidence about watery periods in Mars' past is the rover project's main goal, because such persistently wet environments may have been hospitable to life."Did these cracks form after the crater was created? We don't really know yet," Grotzinger said.If they did, one possible source of moisture could be accumulations of frost partially melting during climate changes, as Mars wobbled on its axis of rotation, in cycles of tens of thousands of years. According to Grotzinger, another possibility could be the melting of underground ice or release of underground water in large enough quantity to pool a little lake within the crater.One type of evidence Wopmay could add to the case for wet conditions after the crater formed would be a crust of water-soluble minerals. After examining that rock, the rover team's plans for Opportunity are to get a close look at a tall stack of layers nicknamed "Burns Cliff" from the base of the cliff. The rover will then climb out of the crater and head south to the spacecraft's original heat shield and nearby rugged terrain, where deeper rock layers may be exposed.Halfway around Mars, Spirit is climbing higher into the "Columbia Hills." Spirit drove more than three kilometers (approximately two miles) across a plain to reach them. After finding bedrock that had been extensively altered by water, scientists used the rover to look for relatively unchanged rock as a comparison for understanding the area's full range of environmental changes. Instead, even the freshest-looking rocks examined by Spirit in the Columbia Hills have shown signs of pervasive water alteration."We haven't seen a single unaltered volcanic rock, since we crossed the boundary from the plains into the hills, and I'm beginning to suspect we never will," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science payload on both rovers. "All the rocks in the hills have been altered significantly by water. We're having a wonderful time trying to work out exactly what happened here."More clues to deciphering the environmental history of the hills could lie in layered rock outcrops farther upslope, Spirit's next targets. "Just as we worked our way deeper into the Endurance crater with Opportunity, we'll work our way higher and higher into the hills with Spirit, looking at layered rocks and constructing a plausible geologic history," Squyres said.Jim Erickson, rover project manager at JPL, said, "Both Spirit and Opportunity have only minor problems, and there is really no way of knowing how much longer they will keep operating. However we are optimistic about their conditions, and we have just been given a new lease on life for them, a six-month extended mission that began Oct. 1. The solar power situation is better than expected, but these machines are already well past their design life. While they're healthy, we'll keep them working as hard as possible."JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Images and additional information about the project are available from JPL and Cornell athttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.govandhttp://athena.cornell.edu.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-global-surveyor-data-reveal-deeply-layered-terrain-magnetic-features-and-genesis-of-a-martian-dust-storm

New Global Surveyor Data Reveal Deeply Layered Terrain, Magnetic Features and Genesis of a Martian Dust Storm

For the first time in Mars exploration, a spacecraft has captured the full evolution of a Martian dust storm. NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission also has returned new insights into the deeply layered terrain and mineral composition of the Martian surface, and to highly magnetized crustal features that provide important clues about the planet's interior.

For the first time in Mars exploration, a spacecraft has captured the full evolution of a Martian dust storm. NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission also has returned new insights into the deeply layered terrain and mineral composition of the Martian surface, and to highly magnetized crustal features that provide important clues about the planet's interior.These findings are among the early results from the Mars- orbiting mission being reported in today's issue of Science magazine.This first set of formal results comes from data obtained in October and November 1997, while the spacecraft was just beginning to use the drag of Mars' upper atmosphere to lower and circularize its orbit in a process called aerobraking. At the time, a dust storm was brewing on Mars and had grown to about the size of the South Atlantic Ocean.The Global Surveyor data suggest that it began as a set of small dust storms along the edge of the planet's southern polar cap, according to Dr. Arden Albee of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, the Mars Global Surveyor mission scientist. By Thanksgiving, it had expanded into a large regional dust storm in Noachis Terra that covered almost 180 degrees longitude, while spanning 20 degrees south latitude to nearly the tip of the Martian equator."As this storm obscured the Martian landscape, we followed it in detail using several instruments onboard Mars Global Surveyor," Albee said. "The thermal emission spectrometer mapped the temperature and opacity of the atmosphere while the camera followed the visual effects. The effects of the storm extended to great heights of about 130 kilometers (80 miles) and resulted in great increases in both atmospheric density and variability from orbit to orbit. These atmospheric measurements have great significance for future Mars missions that will be using aerobraking techniques too."Before the storm, atmospheric dust was generally distributed very uniformly, Albee said. Observations of the limb of the planet in the northern hemisphere revealed both low-lying dust hazes and detached water-ice clouds at altitudes of up to 55 kilometers (34 miles). Movement of these clouds was tracked by the spectrometer as the planet rotated. Atmospheric turbulence disrupted these cloud patterns as the small storms began to rise and kick more dust into the air. As the storm began to abate, small local storms began to crop up again along the edges of the south polar cap, and ice clouds formed in depressions as the carbon dioxide cap continued to retreat.In addition to these unprecedented observations of a full- blown Martian dust storm, measurements from the spacecraft's magnetometer and electron reflectometer have yielded new findings about Mars' strong, localized magnetic fields. These patches of the crust, which register high levels of magnetism, are beginning to unlock some of the mysteries surrounding Mars' internal dynamo and when it died, said Dr. Mario Acuna of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD."These locally magnetized areas on Mars could not form without the presence of an overall global magnetic field that was perhaps as strong as Earth's is today," says Acuna. "Since the internal dynamo that powered the global field is extinct, these local magnetic fields act as fossils, preserving a record of the geologic history and thermal evolution of Mars."Magnetic fields are created by the movement of electrically conducting fluids, and a planet can generate a global magnetic field if its interior consists of molten metal hot enough to undergo convective motion, similar to the churning motion seen in boiling water."The small size and highly magnetic nature of these crustal features, which measure on the order of 50 kilometers (30 miles), are found within the ancient cratered terrain rather than within the younger volcanic terrain," Acuna said. "By correlating crustal age with magnetization, we have a perfect window on Mars' past, which will help us to determine when Mars' internal dynamo ceased operating."High-resolution images of dunes, sandsheets and drifts also are helping reveal earlier chapters of Martian history. Landforms shaped by erosion are almost everywhere, according to Albee, and many bear a striking resemblance to Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Rocky ridges poke through the Martian dust just as the jagged edges of cliffs pierce through a blanket of snow in the Rockies. Martian dust appears to have spilled down the sides of ridges just as fresh snow slides down a ski slope."One almost expects to see ski tracks crisscrossing the area," Albee added. "These images present a sharp contrast to the images of boulder-strewn deserts found at the Viking and Pathfinder landing sites."Newly released images from the Mars Global Surveyor camera, developed by principal investigator Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., San Diego, can be viewed on the Internet at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/marsnews/orhttp://www.msss.com/The Martian crust also exhibits much more layering at great depth than was expected. The steep walls of canyons, valleys and craters show the Martian crust to be stratified at scales of a few tens of yards, which is an exciting discovery, Albee noted. "At this point we simply do not know whether these layers represent piles of volcanic flows or sedimentary rocks that might have formed in a standing body of water," he said.The thermal emission spectrometer, led by principal investigator Dr. Philip Christensen of Arizona State University, is beginning to obtain a few infrared emission spectra of the surface, although it is still too cold on the surface for the best results. The best spectra clearly indicate the presence of pyroxene and plagioclase, minerals which are common in volcanic rocks, with a variable amount of dust component. No evidence was found for carbonate minerals, clay minerals or quartz. If present in these rocks, their abundance must be less than about 10 percent.Their absence indicates that carbonates are not ubiquitous over the surface of the planet, but they may still be found in specific locations that either favored their initial deposition or their subsequent preservation. This finding could have important implications for identifying areas that may preserve signs of ancient life on Mars, since carbonate minerals are commonly formed in biological processes, Albee said.Striking results also have been obtained from Global Surveyor's laser altimeter over Mars' northern hemisphere, which is exceptionally flat with slopes and surface roughness increasing toward the equator, according to principal investigator Dr. David Smith of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD. The initial data for this region helps scientists interpret a variety of landforms, including the northern polar cap, gigantic canyons, ridges, craters of all sizes and shield volcanoes. Most surprising are views of extraordinarily mundane regions -- as flat as the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah - that extend over vast northern regions of the planet.Mars Global Surveyor will complete the first phase of its two-part aerobraking strategy at the end of March, at which time the science instruments will be turned on again for most of the next six months. Over this period, the spacecraft will stay in an 11 1/2-hour orbit and collect an additional bounty of data at a closest approach of about 170 kilometers (106 miles) above the surface, much closer than the spacecraft will pass over the planet once it has reached its formal mapping orbit in March 1999. This closer orbit will allow the science teams to take more detailed measurements of the Martian atmosphere and surface without magnetic interference from the solar wind."When we decided to slow the pace of aerobraking to reduce the force on the solar panel that was damaged after launch, we knew we would get a bonus - the ability to collect much more science data closer to the planet than will be possible during the prime mapping mission," said Glenn E. Cunningham, Mars Global Surveyor project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. "Additionally, the six-month period between the end of March and early September will yield an extraordinary opportunity as the lowest point of the orbit migrates over the northern polar cap. All of this information that is coming back now is really icing on the cake, a spectacular precursor to the global mapping data expected to start flowing next year."Mars Global Surveyor is part of a sustained program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program. The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, which developed and operates the spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-prepares-for-last-chance-meteor-shower

NASA Prepares for 'Last Chance' Meteor Shower

The early morning hours of Nov. 19 may be your last chance to see the spectacular Leonid meteor shower in its full glory, according to astronomers.

The early morning hours of Nov. 19 may be your last chance to see the spectacular Leonid meteor shower in its full glory, according to astronomers."Even with the full Moon, this year's Leonids will probably be better than any other for the next hundred years," said Dr. Don Yeomans, an astronomer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "If you're ever going to see them, this might be the year to try." NASA is taking advantage of the event for several research efforts around the world.The shower is predicted to have two peaks, each a couple of hours long, during which the most meteors can be seen. The shower's second peak, most prominent in North American skies, is expected at around 2:30 a.m. (Pacific time) Nov. 19, and promises the rare spectacle of a few meteors every minute or even more. "Observers in good locations away from city lights might see a few hundred per hour. You'll only get to see the bright ones because the moonlight will wash out the ones that aren't as bright," said Yeomans. Last year, observers did not have to contend with the Moon and saw meteors at a pace of several hundred per hour.An earlier peak is expected over Europe and Africa the night of Nov. 18, and observers in North America might see a few grazers -- meteors skimming the top of the atmosphere -- from this first peak starting around 8:30 p.m. (Pacific time) Nov. 18.The Leonids are grains of dust from comet Tempel-Tuttle colliding into Earth's atmosphere. Most Leonid particles are tiny and will vaporize very high in the atmosphere due to their extreme speed (about 71 kilometers or 44 miles per second), so they present no threat to people on the ground or even in airplanes. As it progresses in its 33-year orbit, the comet releases dust particles every time it comes near the Sun. Earth intersects the comet's debris trail every year in mid-November, but the intensity of each year's Leonid meteor shower depends on whether Earth ploughs through a particularly concentrated stream of dust within the broader debris trail.The dust that Tempel-Tuttle shed in 1866 makes up the stream predicted to give Americans a good show this year. Last year, people in Asia saw the plentiful collisions within that stream. A dust stream from 1767 provided last year's peak hour of viewing in North America and will provide this year's peak hour of viewing in Europe. After 2002, Earth won't hit either of those streams again for decades to come, and is not predicted to encounter a dense Leonid stream until 2098 or 2131.The golden rule for watching the Leonids -- or any meteor shower -- is to be comfortable. Be sure to wrap up warmly -- a sleeping bag placed atop a lawn chair facing east is a good way to enjoy the show. Put your chair in a clear, dark place with a view of as much of the sky as possible. Don't stare at any one place. Keep your eyes moving across the sky. Most Leonids will appear as fleeting streaks of light, but watch for the bigger ones that produce fireballs and trails. Some trails will remain visible for several minutes or more.The Leonids get their name from the constellation where they appear to originate; the meteors will be radiating from the Sickle pattern in the constellation Leo the Lion, which will be rising out of the east-northeast sky. Don't look directly at the constellation, but at the area above and around it. And, though you don't need them to see the Leonids, a pair of binoculars could come in handy.Researchers think meteors might have showered the Earth with the molecules necessary for life's origin. A two-aircraft campaign, led by astronomer Dr. Peter Jenniskens of the SETI Institute and NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., will investigate this possibility. "We are looking for clues about the diversity of comets and their impact on the chemistry of life's origin on Earth," Jenniskens said."We are eager to get another chance to find clues to two puzzling questions: What material from space rains down on Earth, and what happens to the (meteor's) organic matter when it interacts with the atmosphere?" said Dr. Michael Meyer, senior scientist for astrobiology at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.On Nov. 15, a team of 42 astrobiologists from seven countries will depart from southern California's Edwards Air Force Base on a mission to Spain to observe this year's two Leonid storm peaks. The DC-8 Airborne Laboratory, operated by NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif., will carry high-speed cameras; a radio receiver to listen to upper atmosphere molecules; and a team of meteor observers, who will keep track of the meteor activity for satellite operators concerned about impact hazards."This final deployment of the Leonid Multi-instrument Airborne Campaign program promises an important and unique database for the development of instruments targeted at in situ sampling of cometary materials and for the future definition of comet missions," said Dr. John Hillman, lead scientist for planetary astronomy at NASA Headquarters. "It is hoped that these scientific data will provide new insights for the comparative studies of comets."Although the meteors are harmless to people, there is a slight chance that a satellite could be damaged if it was hit by a Leonid meteoroid. The meteoroids are too small to simply blow up a satellite. However, the Leonids are moving so fast they vaporize on impact, forming a cloud of electrified gas called plasma. Since plasma can carry an electric current, there is a risk that a Leonid-generated plasma cloud could cause a short circuit in a satellite, damaging sensitive electronic components.NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., is responsible for controlling a large number of satellites for NASA and other organizations and is taking precautions to mitigate the risk posed by the Leonids. These include pointing instrument apertures away from the direction of the Leonid stream, closing the doors on instruments where possible, turning down high voltages on systems to decrease the risk of a short circuit, and positioning satellites to minimize the cross-section exposed to the Leonids.Minimizing the threat meteoroids pose to satellites is the second major area of NASA's Leonid research. From five key points on the globe and from the International Space Station, NASA researchers will use special cameras to scan the skies and report activity around the clock during the Leonid shower. Led by Dr. Rob Suggs of the engineering directorate at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the research is part of a long-term goal to protect spacecraft from potentially damaging meteoroids.Using "night-vision" image-intensifier video systems and sky-watchers outfitted with Palm computer software developed to record visual counts, NASA engineers and astronomers will record their observations for later analysis. Another tool at Marshall's disposal is "forward-scatter radar" -- an early warning system built by Suggs, Dr. Jeff Anderson, also of Marshall's engineering directorate, and Dr. Bill Cooke, an astronomer at Marshall."Our system is pretty simple," said Suggs. "We use an antenna and a computer-controlled shortwave receiver to listen for 67 megahertz signals from distant TV stations." The transmitters are over the horizon and normally out of range. When a meteor streaks overhead, the system records a brief ping -- the echo of a TV signal bouncing off the meteor's trail. Like the image-intensified cameras, this system is capable of detecting meteors too dim to see with the unaided eye.The research data from the Leonids shower will be analyzed to help NASA engineers refine their forecasts for spacecraft; by better determining where, when and how the meteors will strike, NASA can improve protective measures to prevent or minimize damage to spacecraft.For more information, including predicted peak times for major cities and NASA media contacts, refer tohttp://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2002/1114leonid.html.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-orbiter-finds-martian-rock-record-with-10-beats-to-the-bar

NASA Orbiter Finds Martian Rock Record With 10 Beats to the Bar

Climate cycles persisting for millions of years on ancient Mars left a record of rhythmic patterns in thick stacks of sedimentary rock layers, revealed in three-dimensional detail by a telescopic camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Climate cycles persisting for millions of years on ancient Mars left a record of rhythmic patterns in thick stacks of sedimentary rock layers, revealed in three-dimensional detail by a telescopic camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.Researchers using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera report the first measurement of a periodic signal in the rocks of Mars. This pushes climate-cycle fingerprints much earlier in Mars' history than more recent rhythms seen in Martian ice layers. It also may rekindle debates about some patterns of rock layering on Earth.Layers of similar thickness repeat dozens to hundreds of times in rocks exposed inside four craters in the Arabia Terra region of Mars. In one of the craters, Becquerel, bundles of a 10-layer pattern repeat at least 10 times, which could correspond to a known 10-to-one pattern of changes in the tilt of the planet's rotation axis."Each layer has weathered into a stair step in the topography where material that's more resistant to erosion lies on top of material that's less resistant to erosion," said Kevin Lewis of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, who is the lead author of a report on the periodic layering published in the Dec. 5 edition of the journal Science.Some periodic change in the environment appears to have affected how resistant the rock-forming sediments became, perhaps from changes in what size of sand or silt particles were deposited by the wind, or from how the particles were cemented together after deposition.Some of the individual layers are less than three feet thick.The camera, called HiRISE for short, took pairs of images of each site from slightly different angles in orbit, providing the stereo information necessary for determining each layer's thickness."It's easy to be fooled without knowing the topography and measuring the layers in three dimensions," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, Tucson, principal investigator for the camera and a co-author of the new report. "With the stereo information, it is clear there's a repeating pattern to these layers."Geologists commonly find "rhythms," or repeating patterns, in sedimentary layers on Earth. Determining the source of the rhythms can be difficult. Some result from annual or tidal cycles, or from episodic flooding that may not be periodic at all, but the role of longer-term astronomical cycles has been debated. One step in showing that astronomical cycles can leave their mark in sediments came from finding repeating five-layer sets in some terrestrial bedrock, matching a known five-to-one ratio of two cyclical variations in Earth's orbit.Lewis and colleagues found something similar on Mars: "Our findings suggest that cycles of climate change led to the patterns we see recorded in the Mars rock layers today, possibly as a result of similar variations in Mars' orbit," he said. "Mars has a 10-to-one ratio in cycles of how its tilt changes -- smaller wobbles within larger packages. Sure enough, we see a 10-to-one ratio in one of these layered deposits. It's like trying to identify a song -- it's easier if there are multiple instruments playing different parts, rather than just a single rhythm."In addition to having rhythm of 10 beats to the bar instead of Earth's five-beat pattern, Mars has characteristics that make it a good laboratory for studying how astronomical cycles affect climate. The tilt of Mars' axis varies much more than the axis of Earth, because Earth's relatively large moon provides a stabilizing effect. And, at least for most of its history, Mars has lacked the oceans and thick atmosphere that, on Earth, modulate the effects of orbital variations and add their own cyclical patterns.The 10-beat pattern of Mars' wobble lasts about 1.2 million years. If the 10-layer bundles in Becquerel crater are indeed signatures of that cycle, the 10 or more bundles stacked on each other record about 12 million years when environmental conditions affecting sedimentation were generally steady except for effects of the changing tilt.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., Boulder, and is operated by the University of Arizona.For more about the mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mro.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/opportunity-rolls-onto-martian-ground

Opportunity Rolls Onto Martian Ground

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove down a reinforced fabric ramp at the front of its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars' Meridiani Planum this morning.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity drove down a reinforced fabric ramp at the front of its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars' Meridiani Planum this morning.Also, new science results from the rover indicate that the site does indeed have a type of mineral, crystalline hematite, that was the principal reason the site was selected for exploration.Controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory received confirmation of the successful drive at 3:01 a.m. Pacific Standard Time via a relay from the Mars Odyssey orbiter and Earth reception by the Deep Space Network. Cheers erupted a minute later when Opportunity sent a picture looking back at the now-empty lander and showing wheel tracks in the martian soil.For the first time in history, two mobile robots are exploring the surface of another planet at the same time. Opportunity's twin, Spirit, started making wheel tracks halfway around Mars from Meridiani on Jan. 15."We're two for two! One dozen wheels on the soil." JPL's Chris Lewicki, flight director, announced to the control room.Matt Wallace, mission manager at JPL, told a subsequent news briefing, "We knew it was going to be a good day. The rover woke up fit and healthy to Bruce Springsteen's 'Born to Run,' and it turned out to be a good choice."The flight team needed only seven days since Opportunity's landing to get the rover off its lander, compared with 12 days for Spirit earlier this month. "We're getting practice at it," said JPL’s Joel Krajewski, activity lead for the procedure. Also, the configuration of the deflated airbags and lander presented no trouble for Opportunity, while some of the extra time needed for Spirit was due to airbags at the front of the lander presenting a potential obstacle.Looking at a photo from Opportunity showing wheel tracks between the empty lander and the rear of the rover about one meter or three feet away, JPL's Kevin Burke, lead mechanical engineer for getting the rover off the lander, said "We're glad to be seeing soil behind our rover."JPL's Chris Salvo, flight director, reported that Opportunity will be preparing over the next couple days to reach out with it robotic arm for a close inspection of the soil.Gray granules covering most of the crater floor surrounding Opportunity contain hematite, said Dr. Phil Christensen, lead scientist for both rovers' miniature thermal emission spectrometers, which are infrared-sensing instruments used for identifying rock types from a distance. Crystalline hematite is of special interest because, on Earth, it usually forms under wet environmental conditions. The main task for both Mars Exploration Rovers in coming weeks and months is to read clues in the rocks and soil to learn about past environmental conditions at their landing sites, particularly about whether the areas were ever watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.The concentration of hematite appears strongest in a layer of dark material above a light-covered outcrop in the wall of the crater where Opportunity sits, Christensen said. "As we get out of the bowl we're in, I think we'll get onto a surface that is rich in hematite," he said.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional information about the project are available from JPL athttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.govand from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., athttp://athena.cornell.edu.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/complex-organics-bubble-up-from-enceladus

Complex Organics Bubble up from Enceladus

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has revealed complex organic molecules originating from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, strengthening the idea that this ocean world hosts conditions suitable for life.

Data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal complex organic molecules originating from Saturn's icy moon Enceladus, strengthening the idea that this ocean world hosts conditions suitable for life. Research results show much larger, heavier molecules than ever before.Powerful hydrothermal vents mix up material from the moon's water-filled, porous core with water from the moon's massive subsurface ocean - and it is released into space, in the form of water vapor and ice grains. A team led by Frank Postberg and Nozair Khawaja of the University of Heidelberg, Germany, continues to examine the makeup of the ejected ice and has recently identified fragments of large, complex organic molecules.Previously, Cassini had detected small, relatively common organic molecules at Enceladus that were much smaller. Complex molecules comprising hundreds of atoms are rare beyond Earth. The presence of the large complex molecules, along with liquid water and hydrothermal activity, bolsters the hypothesis that the ocean of Enceladus may be a habitable environment for life.The results arepublished today in Nature.Such large molecules can be created by complex chemical processes, including those related to life, or they can come from primordial material in some meteorites.At Enceladus, it's most likely they come from hydrothermal activity driving complex chemistry in the core of the moon, Postberg said."In my opinion, the fragments we found are of hydrothermal origin; in the high pressures and warm temperatures we expect there, it is possible that complex organic molecules can arise," Postberg said.The organic material is injected into the ocean by hydrothermal vents on the floor of Enceladus' ocean - something akin to the hydrothermal sites found at the bottom of the oceans on Earth, which are one of the possible environments that scientists investigate for the emergence of life on our own planet.On Enceladus, bubbles of gas, rising through miles of ocean, could bring up organic material from depths, where they could form a thin film floating on the ocean surface and in cracks of vents, in the interior of the moon, beneath its icy shell.After rising near the top of the ocean, the bubbles may burst or otherwise disperse the organics, where they were detected by Cassini."Continuing studies of Cassini data will help us unravel the mysteries of this intriguing ocean world," said Cassini Project Scientist Linda Spilker of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini spacecraft deliberately plunged into Saturn on Sept. 15, 2017. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the U.S. and several European countries.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/study-of-atmospheric-froth-may-help-gps-communications

Study of Atmospheric 'Froth' May Help GPS Communications

A new study of Earth's ionosphere, a part of the upper atmosphere, could have applications for better GPS communications.

--Irregularities in Earth's upper atmosphere can distort GPS signals--Scientists are studying these irregularities to help overcome their effects on communicationsWhen you don't know how to get to an unfamiliar place, you probably rely on a smart phone or other device with a Global Positioning System (GPS) module for guidance. You may not realize that, especially at high latitudes on our planet, signals traveling between GPS satellites and your device can get distorted in Earth's upper atmosphere.Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, in collaboration with the University of New Brunswick in Canada, are studying irregularities in the ionosphere, a part of the atmosphere centered about 217 miles (350 kilometers) above the ground that defines the boundary between Earth and space. The ionosphere is a shell of charged particles (electrons and ions), called plasma, that is produced by solar radiation and energetic particle impact.The new study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, compares turbulence in the auroral region to that at higher latitudes, and gains insights that could have implications for the mitigation of disturbances in the ionosphere. Auroras are spectacular multicolored lights in the sky that mainly occur when energetic particles driven from the magnetosphere, the protective magnetic bubble that surrounds Earth, crash into the ionosphere below it. The auroral zones are narrow oval-shaped bands over high latitudes outside the polar caps, which are regions around Earth's magnetic poles. This study focused on the atmosphere above the Northern Hemisphere."We want to explore the near-Earth plasma and find out how big plasma irregularities need to be to interfere with navigation signals broadcast by GPS," said Esayas Shume. Shume is a researcher at JPL and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and lead author of the study.If you think of the ionosphere as a fluid, the irregularities comprise regions of lower density (bubbles) in the neighborhood of high-density ionization areas, creating the effect of clumps of more and less intense ionization. This "froth" can interfere with radio signals including those from GPS and aircraft, particularly at high latitudes.The size of the irregularities in the plasma gives researchers clues about their cause, which help predict when and where they will occur. More turbulence means a bigger disturbance to radio signals."One of the key findings is that there are different kinds of irregularities in the auroral zone compared to the polar cap," said Anthony Mannucci, supervisor of the ionospheric and atmospheric remote sensing group at JPL. "We found that the effects on radio signals will be different in these two locations."The researchers found that abnormalities above the Arctic polar cap are of a smaller scale - about 0.62 to 5 miles (1 to 8 kilometers) - than in the auroral region, where they are 0.62 to 25 miles (1 to 40 kilometers) in diameter.Why the difference? As Shume explains, the polar cap is connected to solar wind particles and electric fields in interplanetary space. On the other hand, the region of auroras is connected to the energetic particles in Earth's magnetosphere, in which magnetic field lines close around Earth. These are crucial details that explain the different dynamics of the two regions.To look at irregularities in the ionosphere, researchers used data from the Canadian Space Agency satellite Cascade Smallsat and Ionospheric Polar Explorer (CASSIOPE), which launched in September 2013. The satellite covers the entire region of high latitudes, making it a useful tool for exploring the ionosphere.The data come from one of the instruments on CASSIOPE that looks at GPS signals as they skim the ionosphere. The instrument was conceived by researchers at the University of New Brunswick."It's the first time this kind of imaging has been done from space," said Attila Komjathy, JPL principal investigator and co-author of the study. "No one has observed these dimensional scales of the ionosphere before."The research has numerous applications. For instance, aircraft flying over the North Pole rely on solid communications with the ground; if they lose these signals, they may be required to change their flight paths, Mannucci said. Radio telescopes may also experience distortion from the ionosphere; understanding the effects could lead to more accurate measurements for astronomy."It causes a lot of economic impact when these irregularities flare up and get bigger," he said.NASA's Deep Space Network, which tracks and communicates with spacecraft, is affected by the ionosphere. Komjathy and colleagues also work on mitigating and correcting for these distortions for the DSN. They can use GPS to measure the delay in signals caused by the ionosphere and then relay that information to spacecraft navigators who are using the DSN's tracking data."By understanding the magnitude of the interference, spacecraft navigators can subtract the distortion from the ionosphere to get more accurate spacecraft locations," Mannucci said.Other authors on the study were Richard B. Langley of the Geodetic Research Laboratory, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada; and Olga Verkhoglyadova and Mark D. Butala of JPL. Funding for the research came from NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Deep Space Network for NASA.More information about NASA's Space Communications and Navigation program is at:http://www.nasa.gov/scan

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-to-host-talk-on-1997-earth-and-space-exploration

JPL to Host Talk on 1997 Earth and Space Exploration

"JPL Begins an Exciting Year of Earth and Space Exploration" will be the theme for a free public lecture outlining the year ahead for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, January 16, in JPL's von Karman Auditorium, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

"JPL Begins an Exciting Year of Earth and Space Exploration" will be the theme for a free public lecture outlining the year ahead for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The lecture will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, January 16, in JPL's von Karman Auditorium, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.1997 will be a year of extensive Earth and space exploration for JPL. KidSat, a payload of Earth-observing cameras controlled by students, will make its second flight on the space shuttle in January. One of the highlights of the year will occur on July 4, when the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft touches down on the red planet with a small rover robot. An orbiter spacecraft, Mars Global Surveyor will arrive at Mars in the fall. Cassini, the most sophisticated planetary spacecraft ever built, will be launched in October on a seven-year journey to Saturn.The year also marks the conclusion of the prime mission for the Galileo spacecraft studying the giant planet Jupiter and its moons. Projects such as the TOPEX/Poseidon ocean mapping satellite and the NASA Scatterometer (NSCAT) ocean wind-measuring instrument will continue JPL's extensive studies of Earth through its Mission to Planet Earth program.Among highlights from other sectors of NASA, in February the space agency will embark on the second servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. During the summer, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft will pass through the asteroid belt. In addition, the first element of NASA's international Space Station will be deployed.The lecture will be hosted by Randii Wessen, supervisor of JPL's Project Science Support Group at JPL and science system engineer for the Cassini mission to Saturn. Previously he has worked on the Galileo mission to Jupiter as deputy sequence team chief, and on the Voyager project in support of the Saturn, Uranus and Neptune encounters.This lecture is one of the von Karman Lecture Series held monthly by the JPL Public Information Office. Jet Propulsion Laboratory is located at 4800 Oak Grove Drive in Pasadena. A web site dedicated to the lecture series is located athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/lecture. For directions and other information, call the Public Information Office at (818) 354- 5011.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassini-reveals-saturns-cool-rings

Cassini Reveals Saturn's Cool Rings

The Cassini spacecraft has taken the most detailed temperature measurements to date of Saturn's rings.

The Cassini spacecraft has taken the most detailed temperature measurements to date of Saturn's rings. Data taken by the composite infrared spectrometer instrument on the spacecraft while entering Saturn's orbit show the cool and relatively warm regions of the rings.This false-color image shows that the temperatures on the unlit side of Saturn's rings vary from a relatively warm 110 Kelvin (-261 degrees Fahrenheit, shown in red), to a cool 70 Kelvin (-333 degrees Fahrenheit, shown in blue). The green represents a temperature of 90 Kelvin (-298 degrees Fahrenheit). Water freezes at 273 Kelvin (32 degrees Fahrenheit).The data show that the opaque region of the rings, like the outer A ring (on the far right) and the middle B ring, are cooler, while more transparent sections, like the Cassini Division (in red just inside the A ring) or the inner C ring (shown in yellow and red), are warmer. Scientists had predicted this might be the case, because the opaque ring areas would let less light through, and the transparent areas, more. These results also show, for the first time, that individual ringlets in the C ring and the Cassini Division are cooler than the surrounding, more transparent regions.The temperature data were taken on July 1, 2004, shortly after Saturn orbit insertion. Cassini is so close to the planet that no pictures of the unlit side of the rings are available, hence the temperature data was mapped onto a picture of the lit side of the rings. Saturn is overexposed and pure white in this picture. Saturn’s moon Enceladus is visible below the rings, toward the center.The composite infrared spectrometer, one of 12 instruments on Cassini, will measure infrared emissions from atmospheres, rings and surfaces. This spectrometer will create vertical profiles of temperature and gas composition for the atmospheres of Titan and Saturn. During Cassini’s four-year tour, the instrument will also gather information on the thermal properties and composition of Saturn’s rings and icy moons.Cassini-Huygens is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science and Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Composite Infrared Spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.For this image and for the latest news about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/cassini. For in-depth mission information, visithttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. For more information on the Composite Infrared Spectrometer, visithttp://cirs.gsfc.nasa.gov.Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382 JPL2004-215

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-mars-orbiters-see-clues-to-possible-water-flows

NASA Mars Orbiters See Clues to Possible Water Flows

NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars have returned clues for understanding seasonal features that are the strongest indication of possible liquid water that may exist today on the Red Planet.

NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars have returned clues for understanding seasonal features that are the strongest indication of possible liquid water that may exist today on the Red Planet.The features are dark, finger-like markings that advance down some Martian slopes when temperatures rise. The new clues include corresponding seasonal changes in iron minerals on the same slopes and a survey of ground temperatures and other traits at active sites. These support a suggestion that brines with an iron-mineral antifreeze, such as ferric sulfate, may flow seasonally, though there are still other possible explanations.Researchers call these dark flows "recurring slope lineae." As a result, RSL has become one of the hottest acronyms at meetings of Mars scientists."We still don't have a smoking gun for existence of water in RSL, although we're not sure how this process would take place without water," said Lujendra Ojha, a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and lead author of two new reports about these flows. He originally discovered them while an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, Tucson, three years ago, in images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.Ojha and Georgia Tech assistant professor James Wray more recently looked at 13 confirmed RSL sites using images from the same orbiter's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) instrument. They searched for minerals that RSL might leave in their wake as a way of understanding the nature of these features: water-related or not?They didn't find any spectral signature tied to water or salts. But they did find distinct and consistent spectral signatures of ferric and ferrous minerals at most of the sites. These iron-bearing minerals were more abundant or featured distinct grain sizes in RSL-related materials as compared to non-RSL slopes. These results are in a paper published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.Ojha said, "Just like the RSL themselves, the strength of the spectral signatures varies according to the seasons. They're stronger when it's warmer and less significant when it's colder."One possible explanation for these changes is a sorting of grain sizes, such as removal of fine dust from the surface, which could result from either a wet process or dry one. Two other possible explanations are an increase in the more-oxidized (ferric) component of the minerals, or an overall darkening due to moisture. Either of these would point to water, even though no water was directly detected. The spectral observations might miss the presence of water, because the dark flows are much narrower than the area of ground sampled with each CRISM reading. Also, the orbital observations have been made only in afternoons and could miss morning moisture.The leading hypothesis for these features is the flow of near-surface water, kept liquid by salts depressing the freezing point of pure water. "The flow of water, even briny water, anywhere on Mars today would be a major discovery, impacting our understanding of present climate change on Mars and possibly indicating potential habitats for life near the surface on modern Mars," said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Scientist Richard Zurek, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.In related research, reported in a paper to be published by the journal Icarus next month, the Georgia Tech scientists and colleagues at the University of Arizona; U.S. Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Ariz.; and Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, used the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter to look for patterns in where and when the dark seasonal flows exist on Mars. Their results indicate that many sites with slopes, latitudes and temperatures matching known RSL sites do not have any evident RSL.They hunted for areas that were ideal locations for RSL formation: areas near the southern mid-latitudes on rocky cliffs. They found 200, but barely any of them had RSL. "Only 13 of the 200 locations had confirmed RSL," said Ojha. "The fact that RSL occur in a few sites and not others indicates additional unknown factors such as availability of water or salts may play a crucial role in RSL formation."They compared new observations with images from previous years, revealing that RSL are much more abundant some years than others."NASA likes to 'follow the water' in exploring the Red Planet, so we'd like to know in advance when and where it will appear," Wray said. "RSL have rekindled our hope of accessing modern water, but forecasting wet conditions remains a challenge."JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built both orbiters. The University of Arizona operates the HiRISE camera, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., provided and operates CRISM.For more about NASA's Mars exploration missions, seehttp://www.nasa.gov/marsandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov. The new research reports about recurring slope lineae are available athttp://wray.eas.gatech.edu/Ojha_etal2013-acceptedGRL.pdfandhttp://wray.eas.gatech.edu/Ojha_etal2014-acceptedIcarus.pdf.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/dawn-finds-possible-ancient-ocean-remnants-at-ceres

Dawn Finds Possible Ancient Ocean Remnants at Ceres

Ceres' crust as we see it today, with its mixture of ice, salts and hydrated materials, represents most of the dwarf planet's ancient ocean, scientists say.

Minerals containing water are widespread on Ceres, suggesting the dwarf planet may have had a global ocean in the past. What became of that ocean? Could Ceres still have liquid today? Two new studies from NASA's Dawn mission shed light on these questions.The Dawn team found that Ceres' crust is a mixture of ice, salts and hydrated materials that were subjected to past and possibly recent geologic activity, and that this crust represents most of that ancient ocean. The second study builds off the first and suggests there is a softer, easily deformable layer beneath Ceres' rigid surface crust, which could be the signature of residual liquid left over from the ocean, too."More and more, we are learning that Ceres is a complex, dynamic world that may have hosted a lot of liquid water in the past, and may still have some underground," said Julie Castillo-Rogez, Dawn project scientist and co-author of the studies, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California.What's inside Ceres? Gravity will tell.Landing on Ceres to investigate its interior would be technically challenging and would risk contaminating the dwarf planet. Instead, scientists use Dawn's observations in orbit to measure Ceres' gravity, in order to estimate its composition and interior structure.The first of the two studies, led by Anton Ermakov, a postdoctoral researcher at JPL, used shape and gravity data measurements from the Dawn mission to determine the internal structure and composition of Ceres. The measurements came from observing the spacecraft's motions with NASA's Deep Space Network to track small changes in the spacecraft's orbit. This study is published in theJournal of Geophysical Research.Ermakov and his colleagues' research supports the possibility that Ceres is geologically active -- if not now, then it may have been in the recent past. Three craters -- Occator, Kerwan and Yalode -- and Ceres' solitary tall mountain, Ahuna Mons, are all associated with "gravity anomalies." This means discrepancies between the scientists' models of Ceres' gravity and what Dawn observed in these four locations can be associated with subsurface structures."Ceres has an abundance of gravity anomalies associated with outstanding geologic features," Ermakov said. In the cases of Ahuna Mons and Occator, the anomalies can be used to better understand the origin of these features, which are believed to be different expressions of cryovolcanism.The study found the crust's density to be relatively low, closer to that of ice than rocks. However, a study by Dawn guest investigator Michael Bland of the U.S. Geological Survey indicated that ice is too soft to be the dominant component of Ceres' strong crust. So, how can Ceres' crust be as light as ice in terms of density, but simultaneously much stronger? To answer this question, another team modeled how Ceres' surface evolved with time.A 'Fossil' Ocean at CeresThe second study, led by Roger Fu at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, investigated the strength and composition of Ceres' crust and deeper interior by studying the dwarf planet's topography. This study is published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science LettersBy studying how topography evolves on a planetary body, scientists can understand the composition of its interior. A strong, rock-dominated crust can remain unchanged over the 4.5-billion-year-old age of the solar system, while a weak crust rich in ices and salts would deform over that time.By modeling how Ceres' crust flows, Fu and colleagues found it is likely a mixture of ice, salts, rock and an additional component believed to be clathrate hydrate. A clathrate hydrate is a cage of water molecules surrounding a gas molecule. This structure is 100 to 1,000 times stronger than water ice, despite having nearly the same density.The researchers believe Ceres once had more pronounced surface features, but they have smoothed out over time. This type of flattening of mountains and valleys requires a high-strength crust resting on a more deformable layer, which Fu and colleagues interpret to contain a little bit of liquid.The team thinks most of Ceres' ancient ocean is now frozen and bound up in the crust, remaining in the form of ice, clathrate hydrates and salts. It has mostly been that way for more than 4 billion years. But if there is residual liquid underneath, that ocean is not yet entirely frozen. This is consistent with several thermal evolution models of Ceres published prior to Dawn's arrival there, supporting the idea that Ceres' deeper interior contains liquid left over from its ancient ocean.The Dawn mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit:https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/missionMore information about Dawn is available at the following sites:https://www.nasa.gov/dawnhttps://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-finds-russian-runoff-freshening-canadian-arctic

NASA Finds Russian Runoff Freshening Canadian Arctic

A NASA study allays concerns melting Arctic sea ice could be increasing Arctic freshwater enough to impact the global 'ocean conveyor belt' that redistributes Earth's heat.

PASADENA, Calif. - A new NASA and University of Washington study allays concerns that melting Arctic sea ice could be increasing the amount of freshwater in the Arctic enough to have an impact on the global "ocean conveyor belt" that redistributes heat around our planet.Lead author and oceanographer Jamie Morison of the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory in Seattle, and his team, detected a previously unknown redistribution of freshwater during the past decade from the Eurasian half of the Arctic Ocean to the Canadian half. Yet despite the redistribution, they found no change in the net amount of freshwater in the Arctic that might signal a change in the conveyor belt.The team attributes the redistribution to an eastward shift in the path of Russian runoff through the Arctic Ocean, which is tied to an increase in the strength of the Northern Hemisphere's west-to-east atmospheric circulation, known as the Arctic Oscillation. The resulting counterclockwise winds changed the direction of ocean circulation, diverting upper-ocean freshwater from Russian rivers away from the Arctic's Eurasian Basin, between Russia and Greenland, to the Beaufort Sea in the Canada Basin bordered by the United States and Canada. The stronger Arctic Oscillation is associated with two decades of reduced atmospheric pressure over the Russian side of the Arctic. Results of the NASA- and National Science Foundation-funded study are published Jan. 5 in the journal Nature.Between 2003 and 2008, the resulting redistribution of freshwater was equivalent to adding 10 feet (3 meters) of freshwater over the central Beaufort Sea.The freshwater changes were seen between 2005 and 2008 by combining ocean bottom pressure, or mass, data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites with ocean height data from NASA's ICESat satellite. By calculating the difference between the two sets of measurements, the team was able to map changes in freshwater content over the entire Arctic Ocean, including regions where direct water sample measurements are not available."Knowing the pathways of freshwater is important to understanding global climate because freshwater protects sea ice by helping create a strongly stratified cold layer between the ice and warmer, saltier water below that comes into the Arctic from the Atlantic Ocean," said Morison. "The reduction in freshwater entering the Eurasian Basin resulting from the Arctic Oscillation change could contribute to sea ice declines in that part of the Arctic.""Changes in the volume and extent of Arctic sea ice in recent years have focused attention on melting ice," said co-author and senior research scientist Ron Kwok of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., which manages Grace for NASA. "The Grace and ICESat data allow us to now examine the impacts of widespread changes in ocean circulation."Kwok said on whole, Arctic Ocean salinity is similar to what it was in the past, but the Eurasian Basin has become more saline, and the Canada Basin has freshened. In the Beaufort Sea, the water is the freshest it's been in 50 years of record keeping, with only a tiny fraction of that freshwater originating from melting ice and the vast majority coming from Russian river water.The Beaufort Sea stores more freshwater when an atmospheric pressure system called the Beaufort High strengthens, driving a counterclockwise wind pattern. Consequently, it has been argued that the primary cause of freshening is a strengthening of the Beaufort High, but salinity began to decline early in the 1990s, when the Beaufort High relaxed and the counterclockwise Arctic Oscillation pattern increased."We discovered a pathway that allows Russian river runoff to feed the Beaufort gyre," Kwok said. "The Beaufort High is important, but so are the hemispheric-scale effects of the Arctic Oscillation.""To better understand climate-related changes in sea ice and the Arctic overall, climate models need to more accurately represent the Arctic Oscillation's low pressure and counterclockwise circulation on the Russian side of the Arctic Ocean," Morison added.For more on Grace and ICESat, visit:http://www.csr.utexas.edu/grace/,http://grace.jpl.nasa.gov/,andhttp://icesat.gsfc.nasa.gov/icesat/.JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-evening-lectures-highlight-earth-exploration-missions

JPL Evening Lectures Highlight Earth Exploration Missions

"The Earth Observer: Understanding Our Planet from 400 Miles Up" will be the theme for two free public lectures, one on Thursday, April 16 at 7 p.m. in JPL's von Karman Auditorium, the other on Friday, April 17 at 7 p.m. in The Forum at Pasadena City College. Seating is limited and will be on a first-come, first- served basis.

"The Earth Observer: Understanding Our Planet from 400 Miles Up" will be the theme for two free public lectures, one on Thursday, April 16 at 7 p.m. in JPL's von Karman Auditorium, the other on Friday, April 17 at 7 p.m. in The Forum at Pasadena City College. Seating is limited and will be on a first-come, first- served basis.The lectures will be presented by Marguerite Syvertson, outreach coordinator for the Earth Science Flight Experiments Program and the Earth and Space Sciences Division. She has been involved as an engineer, scientist and outreach specialist in the development of the Earth Observing System (EOS).Over the next decade, NASA is preparing to launch a suite of missions that will greatly aid in a more comprehensive understanding of Earth and its processes. The Earth Observing System AM-1 satellite, scheduled for launch this summer, is the first of these missions and will provide unprecedented amounts of data about Earth's surface, oceans and atmosphere that will allow scientists to study and eventually model changes in Earth's environment and climate.EOS AM-1 will carry two instruments onboard: the Multi-Angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR) and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), which is provided by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry with scientific support provided by JPL. These instruments will monitor Earth's biosphere, volcanoes, oceans and clouds.Two more spacecraft, one carrying the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), which will study weather and climate, and the other carrying the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and the Tropospheric Emission Specrometer (TES), will study atmospheric composition and will be launched in 2000 and 2002 respectively.This lecture is part of the von Karman Lecture Series sponsored monthly by the JPL Media Relations Office. A web site on the lecture series is located athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/lecture. For directions and other information, call the Media Relations Office at (818) 354-5011.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/with-first-martian-samples-packed-perseverance-initiates-remarkable-sample-return-mission

With First Martian Samples Packed, Perseverance Initiates Remarkable Sample Return Mission

NASA, along with the European Space Agency, is developing a campaign to return the Martian samples to Earth.

On Sept. 1, NASA’s Perseverance rover unfurled its arm, placed a drill bit at the Martian surface, and drilled about 2 inches, or 6 centimeters, down to extract a rock core. The rover later sealed the rock core in its tube. This historic event marked the first time a spacecraft packed up a rock sample from another planet that could be returned to Earth by future spacecraft.Mars Sample Return is a multi-mission campaign designed to retrieve the cores Perseverance will collect over the next several years. Currently in the concept design and technology development phase, the campaign is one of the most ambitious endeavors in spaceflight history, involving multiple spacecraft, multiple launches, and dozens of government agencies.“Returning a sample from Mars has been a priority for the planetary science community since the 1980s, and the potential opportunity to finally realize this goal has unleashed a torrent of creativity,” saidMichael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program based at NASA Headquarters in Washington.The first cored sample of Mars rock is visible (at center) inside a titanium sample collection tube in this from the Sampling and Caching System Camera (known as CacheCam) of NASA's Perseverance rover. The image was taken on Sept. 6, 2021 (the 194th sol, or Martian day, of the mission), prior to the system attaching and sealing a metal cap onto the tube.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe benefit of analyzing samples back on Earth – rather than assigning the task to a rover on the Martian surface – is that scientists can use many kinds of cutting-edge lab technologies that are too big and too complex to send to Mars. And they can do analyses much faster in the lab while providing far more information on whether life ever existed on Mars.“I have dreamed of having Mars samples to analyze since I was a graduate student,” saidMeenakshi Wadhwa, principal scientist for the Mars Sample Return program, which is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “The collection of these well-documented samples will eventually allow us to analyze them in the best laboratories here on Earth once they are returned.”Mars Sample Returnwould involve several firsts aimed at settling an open question: Has life taken root anywhere in the solar system besides Earth? “I’ve been working my whole career for the opportunity to answer this question,” saidDaniel Glavin, an astrobiologist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Glavin is helping design systems to protect the Martian samples from contamination throughout their journey from Mars to Earth.Collecting samples from Mars and bringing them back to Earth will be a historic undertaking that started with the launch of NASA’s Perseverance rover on July 30, 2020. Perseverance collected its first rock core samples in September 2021.Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-CaltechBeing developed in collaboration with ESA (the European Space Agency), Mars Sample Return would require autonomously launching a rocket full of precious extraterrestrial cargo from the surface of Mars. Engineers would need to ensure that the rocket’s trajectory aligns with that of a spacecraft orbiting Mars so the sample capsule could be transferred to the orbiter. The orbiter would then return the sample capsule to Earth, where scientists would be waiting to safely contain it prior to transport to a secure biohazard facility, one that is under development now.Before bringing Martian samples to Earth, scientists and engineers must overcome several challenges. Here’s a look at one:Protecting Earth From MarsKeeping samples chemically pristine for rigorous study on Earth while subjecting their storage container to extreme sterilization measures to ensure nothing hazardous is delivered to Earth is a task that makes Mars Sample Return truly unprecedented.Billions of years ago the Red Planet may have had a cozy environment for life that thrives in warm and wet conditions. However, it’s highly unlikely that NASA will bring back samples with living Martian organisms, based on decades of data from orbiters, landers, and rovers at Mars. Instead, scientists are hoping to find fossilized organic matter or other signs of ancient microbial life.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERDespite the low risk of bringing anything alive to Earth, an abundance of caution is driving NASA to take significant measures to ensure the Martian samples remain securely sealed throughout their journey. After collecting rock cores throughout Jezero Crater and placing them inside tubes made mostly of titanium, one of the world’s strongest metals, Perseverance tightly seals the tubes to prevent the inadvertent release of even the smallest particle. The tubes are then stored in the rover’s belly until NASA decides on the time and place to drop them on the Martian surface.A sample return campaign would include an ESA sample fetch rover that would launch from Earth later this decade to pick up these samples collected by Perseverance. Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, are designing the wheels for the fetch rover. The rover would transfer samples to a lander, being developed at JPL. A robotic arm on the lander would pack the samples into the tip of a rocket that is being designed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.The rocket would deliver the sample capsule to Martian orbit, where an ESA orbiter would be waiting to receive it. Inside the orbiter, the capsule would be prepared for delivery to Earth by a payload being developed by a team led by NASA Goddard. This preparation would include sealing the sample capsule inside a clean container to trap any Martian material inside, sterilizing the seal, and using a robotic arm being developed at Goddard to place the sealed container into an Earth-entry capsule before the return trip to Earth.This illustration shows a concept for a set of future robots working together to ferry back samples from the surface of Mars collected by NASA'sMars Perseverance rover.Credit: NASA/ESA/JPL-CaltechFull Image DetailsOne of the primary tasks for NASA engineers is figuring out how to seal and sterilize the sample container without obliterating important chemical signatures in the rock cores inside. Among the techniques the team is currently testing is brazing, which involves melting a metal alloy into a liquid that essentially glues metal together. Brazing can seal the sample container at a temperature high enough to sterilize any dust that might remain in the seam.“Among our biggest technical challenges right now is that inches away from metal that’s melting at about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (or 538 degrees Celsius) we have to keep these extraordinary Mars samples below the hottest temperature they might have experienced on Mars, which is about 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius),” said Brendan Feehan, the Goddard systems engineer for the system that will capture, contain, and deliver the samples to Earth aboard ESA’s orbiter. “Initial results from the testing of our brazing solution have affirmed that we’re on the right path.”Careful design by Feehan and his colleagues would allow heat to be applied only to where it is needed for brazing, limiting heat flow to the samples. Additionally, engineers could insulate the samples in a material that will absorb the heat and then release it very slowly, or they could install conductors that direct the heat away from the samples.Whatever technique the team develops will be critical not only for the Martian samples, Glavin said, but for future sample-return missions to Europa or Enceladus, “where we could collect and return fresh ocean plume samples that could contain living extraterrestrial organisms. So we need to figure this out.”NASA’s rigorous efforts to eliminate risk of harmful contamination of Earth date to the international Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which calls on nations to prevent contaminating celestial bodies with organisms from Earth, and to prevent contamination of Earth through returned samples. To safely return a Martian sample to Earth, NASA is partnering not only with ESA, but also with at least19 U.S. government departments and agencies, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/martian-dust-storm-grows-global-curiosity-captures-photos-of-thickening-haze

Martian Dust Storm Grows Global; Curiosity Captures Photos of Thickening Haze

A storm of tiny dust particles has engulfed much of Mars over the last two weeks and prompted NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations

A storm of tiny dust particles has engulfed much of Mars over the last two weeksand prompted NASA's Opportunity roverto suspend science operations. But across the planet, NASA's Curiosity rover, which has been studying Martian soil at Gale Crater, is expected to remain largely unaffected by the dust. While Opportunity is powered by sunlight, which is blotted out by dust at its current location, Curiosity hasa nuclear-powered batterythat runs day and night.The Martian dust storm has grown in size and is now officially a "planet-encircling" (or "global") dust event, according to Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. He is deputy principal investigator of the Mars Color Imager camera (MARCI) on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.Though Curiosity is on the other side of Mars from Opportunity, dust has steadily increased over it, more than doubling over the weekend. The sunlight-blocking haze, called "tau," is now above 8.0 at Gale Crater -- the highest tau the mission has ever recorded. Tau was last measured near 11 over Opportunity, thick enough that accurate measurements are no longer possible for Mars' oldest active rover.For NASA's human scientists watching from the ground, Curiosity offers an unprecedented window to answer some questions. One of the biggest is: why do some Martian dust storms last for months and grow massive, while others stay small and last only a week?"We don't have any good idea," says Scott D. Guzewich, an atmospheric scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, leading Curiosity's dust storm investigation.Curiosity, he points out, plusa fleet of spacecraftin the orbit of Mars, will allow scientists for the first time to collect a wealth of dust information both from the surface and from space. The last storm of global magnitude that enveloped Mars was in 2007, five years before Curiosity landed there.In the animation above, Curiosity is facing the crater rim, about 18.6 miles (30 kilometers) away from where it stands inside the crater. Daily photos captured byits Mast Camera, or Mastcam, show the sky getting hazier. This sun-obstructing wall of haze isabout six to eight times thicker than normal for this time of season.Curiosity's engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have studied the potential for the growing dust storm to affect the rover's instruments, and say it poses little risk. The largest impact is to the rover's cameras, which require extra exposure time due to the low lighting. The rover already routinely points its Mastcam down at the ground after each use to reduce the amount of dust blowing at its optics. JPL leads the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity mission.Martian dust storms are common, especially during southern hemisphere spring and summer, when the planet is closest to the Sun. As the atmosphere warms, winds generated by larger contrasts in surface temperature at different locations mobilize dust particles the size of individual talcum powder grains. Carbon dioxide frozen on the winter polar cap evaporates, thickening the atmosphere and increasing the surface pressure. This enhances the process by helping suspend the dust particles in the air. In some cases, the dust clouds reach up to 40 miles (60 kilometers) or more in elevation.Though they are common, Martian dust storms typically stay contained to a local area. By contrast, the current storm, if it were happening on Earth, is bigger than North America and Russia combined, says Guzewich.The dust storm may seem exotic to some Earthlings, but it's not unique to Mars.Earth has dust storms, too, in desert regions such as NorthAfrica, the Middle East, and the southwest United States.But conditions here prevent them from spreading globally, said Ralph A. Kahn, a Goddard senior research scientist who studies the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. These include the structure of our thicker atmosphere and stronger gravity that helps settle dust. Earth also has vegetation cover on land that binds the soil with its roots and helps block the wind and rain that wash the particles out of the atmosphere.Updated on June 21, 2018 at 12:45 p.m. PDT to add information about the monitoring of the storm.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/shining-a-light-on-cool-pools-of-gas-in-the-galaxy

Shining a Light on Cool Pools of Gas in the Galaxy

The stuff of stars is not always easy to see. Thanks to the Herschel Space Observatory, invisible pools of gas in our galaxy are being mapped better than before.

Newly formed stars shine brightly, practically crying out, "Hey, look at me!" But not everything in our Milky Way galaxy is easy to see. The bulk of material between the stars in the galaxy -- the cool hydrogen gas from which stars spring -- is nearly impossible to find.A new study from the Hershel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation, is shining a light on these hidden pools of gas, revealing their whereabouts and quantities. In the same way that dyes are used to visualize swirling motions of transparent fluids, the Herschel team has used a new tracer to map the invisible hydrogen gas.The discovery reveals that the reservoir of raw material for making stars had been underestimated before -- almost by one third -- and extends farther out from our galaxy's center than known before."There is an enormous additional reservoir of material available to form new stars that we couldn't identify before," said Jorge Pineda of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., lead author of a new paper on the findings published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics."We had to go to space to solve this mystery because our atmosphere absorbs the specific radiation we wanted to detect," said William Langer of JPL, principal investigator of the Herschel project to map the gas. "We also needed to see far-infrared light to pinpoint the location of the gas. For both these reasons, Herschel was the only telescope for the job."Stars are created from clouds of gas, made of hydrogen molecules. The first step in making a star is to squeeze gas together enough that atoms fuse into molecules. The gas starts out sparse but, through the pull of gravity and sometimes other constricting forces, it collects and becomes denser. When the hydrogen gets dense enough, nuclear fusion takes place and a star is born, shining with starlight.Astronomers studying stars want to follow this journey, from a star's humble beginnings as a cloud of molecules to a full-blown blazing orb. To do so requires mapping the distribution of the stellar hydrogen fuel across the galaxy. Unfortunately, most hydrogen molecules in space are too cold to give off any visible light. They lurk unseen by most telescopes.For decades, researchers have turned to a tracer molecule called carbon monoxide, which goes hand-in-hand with the hydrogen molecules, revealing their location. But this method has limitations. In regions where the gas is just beginning to pool -- the earliest stage of cloud formation -- there is no carbon monoxide."Ultraviolet light destroys the carbon monoxide," said Langer. "In the space between stars, where the gas is very thin, there is not enough dust to shield molecules from destruction by ultraviolet light."A different tracer -- ionized carbon - does, however, linger in these large but relatively empty spaces, and can be used to pin down the hydrogen molecules. Researchers have observed ionized carbon from space before, but Herschel has, for the first time, provided a dramatically improved geographic map of its location and abundance in the galaxy."Thanks to Herschel's incredible sensitivity, we can separate material moving at different speeds," said Paul Goldsmith, a co-author and the NASA Herschel Project Scientist at JPL. "We finally can get the whole picture of what's available to make future generations of stars."Read a more in-depth story about this research from the European Space Agency athttp://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=51909. The technical paper is online athttp://arxiv.org/abs/1304.7770.Herschel is a European Space Agency mission, with science instruments provided by consortia of European institutes and with important participation by NASA. NASA's Herschel Project Office is based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, supports the United States astronomical community. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.More information is online athttp://www.herschel.caltech.edu,http://www.nasa.gov/herschelandhttp://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Herschel.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-spitzer-begins-warm-mission

NASA's Spitzer Begins Warm Mission

After more than five-and-a-half years of probing the cool cosmos, Spitzer has run out of the coolant that kept its infrared instruments chilled.

Spitzer Space Telescope Mission StatusPASADENA, Calif. -- After more than five-and-a-half years of probing the cool cosmos, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has run out of the coolant that kept its infrared instruments chilled. The telescope will warm up slightly, yet two of its infrared detector arrays will still operate successfully. The new, warm mission will continue to unveil the far, cold and dusty universe.Spitzer entered standby mode at 3:11 p.m. Pacific Time (6:11 p.m. Eastern Time or 22:11 Universal Time), May 15, as result of running out of its liquid helium coolant. Scientists and engineers will spend the next few weeks recalibrating the instrument at the warmer temperature, and preparing it to begin science operations.Additional information, including the following items, is at:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer-warm.html.--A full news release about Spitzer's warm mission and past accomplishments--A mock interview titled "If Spitzer Could Talk: An Interview with NASA's Coolest Space Mission"--A video about the Spitzer mission--An article about the late astronomer Lyman Spitzer, the mission's namesakeDetailed information about the Spitzer mission athttp://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzerandhttp://www.nasa.gov/spitzerWho's Who of the Spitzer mission:NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver, and Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., in Boulder, Colo., support mission and science operations. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built Spitzer's infrared array camera; the instrument's principal investigator was Giovanni Fazio of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. built Spitzer's infrared spectrograph; its principal investigator was Jim Houck of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. and the University of Arizona in Tucson, built the multiband imaging photometer for Spitzer; its principal investigator was George Rieke of the University of Arizona.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/spitzer-catches-star-cooking-up-comet-crystals

Spitzer Catches Star Cooking Up Comet Crystals

Scientists have long wondered how tiny silicate crystals, which need sizzling high temperatures to form, have found their way into frozen comets, born in the deep freeze of the solar system's outer edges.

Scientists have long wondered how tiny silicate crystals, which need sizzling high temperatures to form, have found their way into frozen comets, born in the deep freeze of the solar system's outer edges. The crystals would have begun as non-crystallized silicate particles, part of the mix of gas and dust from which the solar system developed.A team of astronomers believes they have found a new explanation for both where and how these crystals may have been created, by using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to observe the growing pains of a young, sun-like star. Their study results, which appear in the May 14 issue of Nature, provide new insight into the formation of planets and comets.The researchers from Germany, Hungary and the Netherlands found that silicate appears to have been transformed into crystalline form by an outburst from a star. They detected the infrared signature of silicate crystals on the disk of dust and gas surrounding the star EX Lupi during one of its frequent flare-ups, or outbursts, seen by Spitzer in April 2008. These crystals were not present in Spitzer's previous observations of the star's disk during one of its quiet periods."We believe that we have observed, for the first time, ongoing crystal formation," said one of the paper's authors, Attila Juhasz of the Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. "We think that the crystals were formed by thermal annealing of small particles on the surface layer of the star's inner disk by heat from the outburst. This is a completely new scenario about how this material could be created."Annealing is a process in which a material is heated to a certain temperature at which some of its bonds break and then re-form, changing the material's physical properties. It is one way that silicate dust can be transformed into crystalline form.Scientists previously had considered two different possible scenarios in which annealing could create the silicate crystals found in comets and young stars' disks. In one scenario, long exposure to heat from an infant star might anneal some of the silicate dust inside the disk's center. In the other, shock waves induced by a large body within the disk might heat dust grains suddenly to the right temperature to crystallize them, after which the crystals would cool nearly as quickly.What Juhasz and his colleagues found at EX Lupi didn't fit either of the earlier theories. "We concluded that this is a third way in which silicate crystals may be formed with annealing, one not considered before," said the paper's lead author, Peter Abraham of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences' Konkoly Observatory, Budapest, Hungary.EX Lupi is a young star, possibly similar to our sun four or five billion years ago. Every few years, it experiences outbursts, or eruptions, that astronomers think are the result of the star gathering up mass that has accumulated in its surrounding disk. These flare-ups vary in intensity, with really big eruptions occurring every 50 years or so.The researchers observed EX Lupi with Spitzer's infrared spectrograph in April 2008. Although the star was beginning to fade from the peak of a major outburst detected in January, it was still 30 times brighter than when it was quiet. When they compared this new view of the erupting star with Spitzer measurements made in 2005 before the eruption began, they found significant changes.In 2005, the silicate on the surface of the star's disk appeared to be in the form of amorphous grains of dust. In 2008, the spectrum showed the presence of crystalline silicate on top of amorphous dust. The crystals appear to be forsterite, a material often found in comets and in protoplanetary disks. The crystals also appear hot, evidence that they were created in a high-temperature process, but not by shock heating. If that were the case, they would already be cool."At outburst, EX Lupi became about 100 times more luminous," said Juhasz. "Crystals formed in the surface layer of the disk but just at the distance from the star where the temperature was high enough to anneal the silicate--about 1,000 Kelvin (1,340 degrees Fahrenheit)--but still lower than 1,500 Kelvin (2,240 degrees Fahrenheit). Above that, the dust grains will evaporate." The radius of this crystal formation zone, the researchers note, is comparable to that of the terrestrial-planet region in the solar system."These observations show, for the first time, the actual production of crystalline silicates like those found in comets and meteorites in our own solar system," said Spitzer Project Scientist Michael Werner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "So what we see in comets today may have been produced by repeated bursts of energy when the sun was young."JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.More information about Spitzer is athttp://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzerandhttp://www.nasa.gov/spitzer.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/comet-pan-starrs-marches-across-the-sky

Comet Pan-STARRS Marches Across the Sky

Comet Pan-STARRS poses with a spiral galaxy in new snapshots from NASA's NEOWISE mission.

NASA's NEOWISE mission captured a series of pictures of comet C/2012 K1 -- also known as comet Pan-STARRS -- as it swept across our skies in May 2014.The comet is named after the astronomical survey project called the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System in Hawaii, which discovered the icy visitor in May 2012.Comet Pan-STARRS hails from the outer fringes of our solar system, from a vast and distant reservoir of comets called the Oort cloud.The comet is relatively close to us -- it was only about 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) from Earth when this picture was taken. It is seen passing a much more distant spiral galaxy, called NGC 3726, which is about 55 million light-years from Earth, or 2 trillion times farther away than the comet.Two tails can be seen lagging behind the head of the comet. The bigger tail is easy to see and is comprised of gas and smaller particles. A fainter, more southern tail, which is hard to spot in this image, may be comprised of larger, more dispersed grains of dust.Comet Pan-STARRS is on its way around the sun, with its closest approach to the sun occurring in late August. It was visible to viewers in the northern hemisphere through most of June. In the fall, after the comet swings back around the sun, it may be visible to southern hemisphere viewers using small telescopes.The image was made from data collected by the two infrared channels on board the NEOWISE spacecraft, with the longer-wavelength channel (centered at 4.5 microns) mapped to red and the shorter-wavelength channel (3.4 microns) mapped to cyan. The comet appears brighter in the longer wavelength band, suggesting that the comet may be producing significant quantities of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide.Originally called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the NEOWISE spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011 after its primary mission was completed. In September 2013, it was reactivated, renamed NEOWISE and assigned a new mission to assist NASA's efforts to identify the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. NEOWISE is also characterizing previously known asteroids and comets to better understand their sizes and compositions.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the NEOWISE mission for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observation Program of its Planetary Science Division in Washington. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.More information on NEOWISE is online at:http://www.nasa.gov/wisehttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/science-of-psyche-unique-asteroid-holds-clues-to-early-solar-system

Science of Psyche: Unique Asteroid Holds Clues to Early Solar System

Set to launch next year, NASA’s Psyche mission marks the first time the agency has set out to explore an asteroid richer in metal than rock or ice.

More than 150 years have passed since novelist Jules Verne wrote “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” but reality has yet to catch up with that science fiction adventure. While humans can’t bore a path to our planet’s metallic core, NASA has its sights set on visiting a giant asteroid that may be the frozen remains of the molten core of a bygone world.CalledPsyche, this asteroid orbits the Sun in the main asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. Using data gathered from Earth-based radar and optical telescopes, scientists believe that Psyche is made largely of metal. It could be part or all of the iron-rich interior of an early planetary building block that was stripped of its outer rocky shell as it repeatedly collided with other large bodies during the early formation of the solar system.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERThe asteroid, which is about 173 miles (280 kilometers) at its widest point, could also be something else. It could be the leftover piece of a completely different kind of iron-rich body that formed from metal-rich material somewhere in the solar system.NASA’s Psyche mission hopes to find out. Set for an August 2022 launch, the spacecraft will for two years orbit the asteroid it was named after, taking pictures, mapping the surface, and looking for evidence of an ancient magnetic field. Psyche also will study the neutrons and gamma rays coming from the asteroid’s surface to help determine its elemental composition.At NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an engineer inspects the gamma ray and neutron spectrometer as it is integrated into the agency's Psyche spacecraft. The instrument will help determine the elements that make up its target.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechFull Image DetailsThe first mission to explore an asteroid with a surface that contains substantial amounts of metal rather than rock or ice, Psyche seeks to better understand iron cores, an unexplored building block of planet formation. The mission also potentially provides the first opportunity to directly examine the inside of a rocky planet by offering a look at the interior of a previously layered planetary body that otherwise could never be seen. What scientists learn could shed additional light on how Earth and other rocky planets formed.“There are a lot of basic questions about Psyche that are unanswered,” said the mission’s principal investigator, Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University. “And with every detail that gets added from data we can collect from Earth, it just becomes harder to make a sensible story. We really don’t know what we’re going to see until we visit, and we’re going to be surprised.”For instance, previous ground-based observations led scientists to believe that the asteroid was as much as 90% metal.Recent researchled by Elkins-Tanton used updated density measurements to estimate that the asteroid is more likely between 30% and 60% metal.And scientists are puzzled why Psyche appears to be low in iron oxides, which are chemical compounds made of iron and oxygen. Mars, Mercury, Venus, and Earth all have them. “So if we’re correct that Psyche is a mixture of metal and rock, and the rock has very little iron oxide, then there’s got to be a strange story about how it was created – because it doesn’t fit the standard stories of planetary creations,” Elkins-Tanton said.Mystery of PsycheScientists also don’t know where Psyche formed. It might have originated inside the main asteroid belt, but it’s also possible that it was born in the same zone as the inner planets like Earth – or in outer solar system, where giant planets like Jupiter now reside. Neither origin story follows a simple path to where Psyche lives now, 280 million miles (450 million kilometers) from the Sun.Asteroids in general can offer insight into planet formation and how the early solar system worked 4.6 billion years ago. But Psyche is particularly interesting to scientists because of how unusual it is, with its metal content, high density, and low concentration of iron oxides.“The fact that it’s so unusual is telling us a new story that we haven’t seen before about how asteroids evolved,” said Bill Bottke, Psyche mission scientist of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “That’s a piece of the story we don’t have right now. By getting that piece together with all the others we have, we continue to refine our story of how the solar system formed and evolved early on.”This illustration depicts NASA’s Psyche spacecraft, set to launch in August 2022.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASUTools of the TradeTo help figure out the asteroid’s origins, the mission’sscience investigationwill rely on a magnetometer, a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer, and a multispectral imager. Scientists know that the asteroid doesn’t generate a magnetic field the way Earth does, but if Psyche had a magnetic field in the past, it could still be recorded in the asteroid’s material today. With sensors mounted onto a 6-foot (2-meter) boom, the magnetometer can determine whether Psyche is still magnetized. If so, that would confirm that the asteroid is part of the core of an early planetesimal, the building block of an early planet.The orbiter’s gamma ray and neutron spectrometer instrument will help scientists determine the asteroid’s chemical elements. As cosmic rays and high-energy particles impact Psyche’s surface, the elements that make up the surface material absorb the energy. The neutrons and gamma rays they emit in response can be detected by the spectrometer, allowing scientists to match their properties to those emitted by known elements to determine what Psyche is made of.Meanwhile, a pair of color cameras make up the multispectral imager. The imager is sensitive to light just beyond what humans can see, using filters in the ultraviolet and near-infrared wavelengths. The light reflected in these filters could help determine the mineralogy of any rocky material that may exist on Psyche’s surface.The spacecraft’s telecommunications system will help with the science as well. The X-band radio system is primarily used to send commands to the spacecraft and receive engineering and science data from it. But scientists can also analyze subtle changes in these radio waves to measure the body’s rotation, wobble, mass, and gravity field, providing additional clues about the composition and structure of Psyche’s interior.Eyes on PsycheBut before any of this science analysis gets underway, there will be pictures. By late 2025, three years after launch, Psyche will be within sight of the asteroid, and the imager team will be on high alert.“Even before we get into orbit, we’ll start getting much better pictures than we can from telescopes on Earth. We’ll start to resolve features, see big craters, crater basins – maybe mountain ranges. Who knows what we’ll see?” said Jim Bell of Arizona State University, deputy principal investigator of Psyche and imager team lead. “All we know is that the reality of Psyche is going to be even weirder and more beautiful than we can imagine.”More About the MissionASU leads the Psyche mission. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. The mission phase known as assembly, test and launch operations is currently underway at JPL. By next spring, Psyche will be fully assembled and ready to ship to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.JPL also is providing a technology demonstration instrument called Deep Space Optical Communications that will also fly on Psyche, which will test high-data-rate laser communications that could be used by future NASA missions.Psyche is the 14th mission selected as part ofNASA’s Discovery Program.For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to:http://www.nasa.gov/psychehttps://psyche.asu.edu/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/upgrade-helps-nasa-study-mineral-veins-on-mars

Upgrade Helps NASA Study Mineral Veins on Mars

Diverse composition of mineral veins at the "Garden City" site investigated by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover suggests multiple episodes of groundwater activity.

Scientists now have a better understanding about a site with the most chemically diverse mineral veins NASA's Curiosity rover has examined on Mars, thanks in part to a valuable new resource scientists used in analyzing data from the rover.Curiosity examined bright and dark mineral veins in March 2015 at a site called "Garden City," where some veins protrude as high as two finger widths above the eroding bedrock in which they formed.The diverse composition of the crisscrossing veins points to multiple episodes of water moving through fractures in the bedrock when it was buried. During some wet periods, water carried different dissolved substances than during other wet periods. When conditions dried, fluids left clues behind that scientists are now analyzing for insights into how ancient environmental conditions changed over time."These fluids could be from different sources at different times," said Diana Blaney, a Curiosity science team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "We see crosscutting veins with such diverse chemistry at this localized site. This could be the result of distinct fluids migrating through from a distance, carrying chemical signatures from where they'd been."Researchers used Curiosity's laser-firing Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to record the spectra of sparks generated by zapping 17 Garden City targets with the laser. The unusually diverse chemistry detected at Garden City includes calcium sulfate in some veins and magnesium sulfate in others. Additional veins were found to be rich in fluorine or varying levels of iron.As researchers analyzed Curiosity's observations of the veins, the ChemCam team was completing the most extensive upgrade to its data-analysis toolkit since Curiosity reached Mars in August 2012. They more than tripled -- to about 350 -- the number of Earth-rock geochemical samples examined with a test version of ChemCam. This enabled an improvement in their data interpretation, making it more sensitive to a wider range of possible composition of Martian rocks.Blaney said, "The chemistry at Garden City would have been very enigmatic if we didn't have this recalibration."The Garden City site is just uphill from a mudstone outcrop called "Pahrump Hills," which Curiosity investigated for about six months after reaching the base of multi-layered Mount Sharp in September 2014. The mission is examining ancient environments that offered favorable conditions for microbial life, if Mars has ever hosted any, and the changes from those environments to drier conditions that have prevailed on Mars for more than 3 billion years. Curiosity has found evidence that base layers of Mount Sharp were deposited in lakes and rivers. The wet conditions recorded by the Garden City veins existed in later eras, after the mud deposited in lakes had hardened into rock and cracked.Eye-catching geometry revealed in images of the veins offers additional clues. Younger veins continue uninterrupted across intersections with veins that formed earlier, indicating relative ages.ChemCam provides the capability of making distinct composition readings of multiple laser targets close together on different veins, rather than lumping the information together. The chemistry of these veins is also related to mineral alteration observed at other places on and near Mount Sharp. What researchers learned here can be used to help understand a very complex fluid chemical history in the region. Since leaving Garden City, Curiosity has climbed to higher, younger layers of Mount Sharp.Today, Blaney presented findings from ChemCam's Garden City investigations at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Science, in National Harbor, Maryland.The U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, developed ChemCam in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency. More information is available at:http://www.msl-chemcam.comNASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory built Curiosity and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more the mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mslhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mslYou can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosityhttp://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-curiosity-drives-on-after-crossing-martian-dune

NASA's Curiosity Drives On After Crossing Martian Dune

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is continuing its traverse toward enticing science destinations after climbing over a dune spanning a gap in a ridge.

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is continuing its traverse toward enticing science destinations after climbing over a dune spanning a gap in a ridge.The rover covered 135 feet (41.1 meters) on Feb. 9, in its first drive since the 23-foot (7-meter) crossing of the dune on Feb. 6. That put Curiosity's total odometry since its August 2012 landing at 3.09 miles (4.97 kilometers).An animated sequence of images from the low-slung Hazard-Avoidance Camera on the rear of the vehicle documents the up-then-down crossing of the dune.NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.For more information about Curiosity, visithttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl,http://www.nasa.gov/mslandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. You can follow the mission on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/marscuriosityand on Twitter at:http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/spider-experiment-touches-down-in-antarctica

SPIDER Experiment Touches Down in Antarctica

An instrument called SPIDER just landed after 16 days drifting in the wind above Antarctica, searching for signs of inflation in the earliest moments of the universe.

After spending 16 days suspended from a giant helium balloon floating 115,000 feet (35,000 meters) above Antarctica, a scientific instrument dubbed SPIDER has landed in a remote region of the frozen continent. Conceived of and built by an international team of scientists, the instrument was launched from McMurdo Station on New Year's Day. The California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in Pasadena, California, designed, fabricated and tested the six refracting telescopes the instrument uses to map the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the thermal afterglow of the Big Bang that created our universe.SPIDER's goal: to search the CMB for the signal of inflation, an explosive event that blew our observable universe up from a volume smaller than a single atom in the first "fraction of an instant" after its birth.The instrument appears to have performed well during its flight, said Jamie Bock, head of the SPIDER receiver team at Caltech and JPL. "Of course, we won't know everything until we get the full data back as part of the instrument recovery."Read the full story and see a slideshow from Caltech at:http://www.caltech.edu/content/spider-experiment-touches-down-antarctica#moreThe SPIDER project originated in the early 2000s with the late Andrew Lange's Observational Cosmology Group at Caltech, and collaborators. The experiment is now led by William Jones of Princeton University, who was a graduate student of Lange's.SPIDER is funded in part by NASA. The NASA Balloon Program Office at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia has oversight of all NASA balloon flight operations, including SPIDER. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/red-freckles-on-europa-suggest-lava-lamp-action

Red Freckles on Europa Suggest 'Lava Lamp' Action

Reddish spots on the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa may indicate pockets of warmer ice rising from below.

Reddish spots on the icy surface of Jupiter's moon Europa may indicate pockets of warmer ice rising from below. This upwelling could provide an elevator ride to the surface for material in an ocean beneath the ice, say scientists studying data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft.A Galileo color image of the spots, which are called by the Latin term for freckles, "lenticulae," is being presented at a conference this week by Colorado researchers and is available online from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory athttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03878."Europa acts like a planetary lava lamp, carrying material from near the surface down to the ocean, and, if they exist, potentially transporting organisms up toward the surface," said Dr. Robert Pappalardo, a planetary scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder.The Galileo spacecraft, orbiting Jupiter since 1995, has produced strong evidence that Europa has a deep ocean of melted saltwater underneath a surface layer of ice. Information about the mission and its discoveries is online athttp://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. During the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, Oct. 27 through Oct. 30 in Denver, scientists are discussing interpretations of Europa data and proposals for future exploration of that world. A University of Colorado press release about presentations there by Pappalardo and colleagues is online athttp://www.colorado.edu/NewsServices/NewsReleases/2002/2054.html.The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Galileo for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. For more about Galileo, visithttp://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/space-samples-link-nasas-apollo-11-and-mars-2020

Space Samples Link NASA's Apollo 11 and Mars 2020

While separated by half a century, NASA's Apollo 11 and Mars 2020 missions share same historic goal: returning samples to Earth.

On July 24, 1969, Apollo 11 command module Columbia splashed down in the Pacific, fulfilling President Kennedy's goal to land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth. Among the mission's many firsts was the acquisition and return of the first samples from another celestial body. Findings based on the 47 pounds (21.5 kilograms) of lunar rock and soil rewrotethe textbooks on both the Moon and solar system, and the samples are still being studied today by researchers using new and more sensitive instruments.With its launch window opening on July 17, 2020 - less than a year from today -NASA's Mars 2020 rover will mark another first: The roverwill not only seek signs of ancient habitable conditions and past microbial life but will collect rock and soil samples, storing them on the planet's surface for a future mission to retrieve."Apollo 11demonstrated the immense value of returning samples from other worlds for analysis here on Earth," said Thomas Zurbuchen,NASA's associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. "Today, we are standing on the shoulders of Apollo, preparing for the launch of the initial step in humanity's first roundtrip and sample return from another planet - Mars."The 2020 rover will land atJezero Crateron Feb. 18, 2021, equipped with a system to cache science samples in tubes that will be delivered to a safe drop-off site.Two subsequent missions, currently in the concept stage, would be needed to bring the Mars 2020 samples home.One mission would land a rocket (the Mars Ascent Vehicle) and a spacecraft carrying a rover about the size of NASA's Opportunity Mars rover at Jezero Crater. The rover would gather the cached samples and carry them back to the ascent vehicle, which would then launch the samples into Mars orbit. The other mission (which would already be in orbit around Mars when the ascent vehicle launches) would rendezvous with and capture the orbiting samples, before returning them to Earth."NASA and the European Space Agency are solidifying these exciting mission concepts to retrieve the samples," said Zurbuchen. "Just as the first samples returned to Earth from the Moon's Sea of Tranquility made history, the first samples returned to Earth from another planet will make history and amaze us all over again. And those samples will come from Mars' Jezero Crater."While the significance of being part of the first step in a sample return mission from another planet is not lost on anyone involved with Mars 2020, it has a special significance to John McNamee, Mars 2020 project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California."I was at the Cape and saw the launch of Apollo 11," said McNamee. "I remember the sense of awe and pride I felt watching that Saturn V majestically rise from the pad. I knew I was watching exploration history. To be a part of a team determined to do their part to bring back samples from another planet gives me that same feeling."JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. NASA will use Mars 2020 and other missions, including to the Moon, to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. The agency plans to establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon through NASA's Artemis lunar exploration plans.To submit your name to travel to Mars with NASA's 2020 mission and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to the Red Planet, go here by Sept. 30, 2019:https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020PassFor more information about the mission, go to:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/student-built-buoy-launches-ocean-studies

Student-Built Buoy Launches Ocean Studies

A student-built buoy, launched this month, will send back data on ocean temperatures that will be available to scientists and students around the world.

Over the holidays, high-school sophomore Katie Nance painted her room a cool shade of blue. But she and her schoolmates chose something much bolder for the ocean buoy they recently constructed for an international oceanography program. Their bright red buoy is being launched off the coast of Antarctica this month. If all goes well, the buoy will phone home, thanks to a satellite connection, sending back data on ocean temperatures that will be available to scientists and students around the world.The buoy project is part of an education program called Argonautica organized by the French space agency, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales. With help from JPL, a small group of students from a local French/American school, the Lycee International de Los Angeles, has become the first U.S. participant. The roughly dozen team members were drawn from different classes, ranging in age from 9 to 17. Dr. Mohamed Abid, a senior systems engineer for NASA's Ocean Surface Topography Mission, served as their advisor.Argonautica is designed to help students learn about the oceans and the role of satellites in oceanography. Participants are given an empty plastic shell from which they have to construct a functional buoy fitted with sensors capable of withstanding harsh ocean conditions plus an anchor to keep the buoy in position as it drifts with the currents.The first challenge, says seventh grader Turner Edwards, "was figuring out what we wanted to measure. Some wanted to measure the salt in the water, some temperature, and some currents. It was hard to decide."They had expert help. Abid is the author of a new book titled "Spacecraft Sensors." "We had a number of options," he says, "so we made lists of the pros and cons of our different choices. We finally chose the temperature sensor." The next steps were to understand how the sensors work, test them and make sure they will survive in salt water.For Nance, the hardest part of the project was all the calculations that needed to be done. "We had to figure out where we were going to put the sensors, how much weight needed to be in the anchor, how many volts we needed for the Argos card -- the satellite transmitter."Last December after more than a year of work, the Argonautica team completed their buoy with seven temperature sensors and an anchor, which they constructed from plastic pipe and cement. The final step was the red paint. "It looked really good," says Nance, "but there's not much you can do with a buoy."Isabelle Autissier, a well-known French sailor, is launching the buoy from her ship Ada2. She is on an expedition to retrace the routes of some early Antarctic explorers, including Jean-Baptiste Charcot and Ernest Shackleton. Students will be able to track their buoy and other Argonautica-built buoys from the French space agency's education website and correlate the data they collect with measurements of sea surface height made by the Jason satellite, a joint U.S./French mission."This was so much fun to build and put together," says Nance. "We were so proud of ourselves. The best part was working as a team." Edwards agrees, "It was really fun to collaborate. It was nice to come from nothing and do a project from start to finish.""It's great to see what they can accomplish," says Abid. "Now that they can see what they can do, their expectations get higher. They believe that next time they can build something even more complex."In France, about 60 school groups participate in Argonautica each year, and the program is expanding in Europe. "We think it is a great program and wanted to bring it to the States," says Annie Richardson, who coordinated the effort in Los Angeles. Richardson is an outreach coordinator at JPL for the Jason mission and the upcoming Ocean Surface Topography Mission. "Many of the Argonautica materials are in French, so we started our pilot project with a small group of students who speak French, but we hope to expand the program to include more schools. We're also developing a pilot Argonautica program for the Boys and Girls Club."More information about Argonautica can be found athttp://www.cnes.fr/html/_98_3112_3147_.php. More information about ocean surface topography is availabe athttp:/sealevel.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/dust-cover-jettisoned-from-nasas-kepler-telescope

Dust Cover Jettisoned From NASA's Kepler Telescope

Engineers have successfully ejected the dust cover from NASA's Kepler telescope, a spaceborne mission soon to begin searching for worlds like Earth.

Engineers have successfully ejected the dust cover from NASA's Kepler telescope, a spaceborne mission soon to begin searching for worlds like Earth."The cover released and flew away exactly as we designed it to do," said Kepler Project Manager James Fanson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This is a critical step toward answering a question that has come down to us across 100 generations of human history -- are there other planets like Earth, or are we alone in the galaxy?"Kepler, which launched on March 6 from Cape Canaveral, Fla., will spend three-and-a-half years staring at more than 100,000 stars in our Milky Way galaxy for signs of Earth-size planets. Some of the planets are expected to orbit in a star's "habitable zone," a warm region where water could pool on the surface. The mission's science instrument, called a photometer, contains the largest camera ever flown in space -- its 42 charge-coupled devices (CCDs) will detect slight dips in starlight, which occur when planets passing in front of their stars partially block the light from Kepler's view.The telescope's oval-shaped dust cover, measuring 1.7 meters by 1.3 meters (67 inches by 52 inches), protected the photometer from contamination before and after launch. The dust cover also blocked stray light from entering the telescope during launch -- light that could have damaged its sensitive detectors. In addition, the cover was important for calibrating the photometer. Images taken in the dark helped characterize noise coming from the instrument's electronics, and this noise will later be removed from the actual science data."Now the photometer can see the stars and will soon start the task of detecting the planets," said Kepler's Science Principal Investigator William Borucki at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "We have thoroughly measured the background noise so that our photometer can detect minute changes in a star's brightness caused by planets."At 7:13 p.m. PDT on April 7, engineers at Kepler's mission operations center at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, Colo., sent commands to pass an electrical current through a "burn wire" to break the wire and release a latch holding the cover closed. The spring-loaded cover swung open on a fly-away hinge, before drifting away from the spacecraft. The cover is now in its own orbit around the sun, similar to Kepler's sun-centric orbit. See an animation of the event athttp://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/multimedia/videos/cover.html.With the cover off, starlight is entering the photometer and being imaged onto its focal plane. Engineers will continue calibrating the instrument using images of stars for another several weeks, after which science observations will begin.Kepler is a NASA Discovery mission. NASA's Ames Research Center Ames is the home organization of the science principal investigator, and is responsible for the ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo., is responsible for developing the Kepler flight system and supporting mission operations.For more information about the Kepler mission, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/kepler.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-new-wind-watcher-ready-for-weather-forecasters

NASA's New Wind Watcher Ready for Weather Forecasters

In an early holiday gift to the world's weather and marine forecasting agencies, ocean-winds data from NASA's newest Earth-observing mission are being released two months ahead of schedule.

In an early holiday gift to the world's weather and marine forecasting agencies, ocean-winds data from NASA's newest Earth-observing mission, the International Space Station-Rapid Scatterometer (ISS-RapidScat), are being released two months ahead of schedule.RapidScat launched to the International Space Station on Sept. 21 on a two-year mission to boost global monitoring of ocean winds for improved weather forecasting and climate studies. The JPL-developed space-based scatterometer is a remote-sensing instrument that uses radar pulses reflected from the ocean's surface at different angles to calculate surface wind speed and direction. This information will improve weather and marine forecasting and hurricane monitoring.Working at an accelerated pace, scientists and engineers have successfully cross-calibrated ISS-RapidScat's ocean winds data with data from NASA's QuikScat satellite and validated the data against ground measurements. The team reports the RapidScat data are meeting all planned wind performance requirements and are ready to begin extending the long-term climate data record of ocean-surface winds begun by QuikScat in 1999.The team includes scientists and engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; and Remote Sensing Systems, Santa Rosa, California."RapidScat is a short mission by NASA standards," said RapidScat Project Scientist Ernesto Rodriguez of JPL. "Its data will be ready to help support U.S. weather forecasting needs during the tail end of the 2014 hurricane season. The dissemination of these data to the international operational weather and marine forecasting communities ensures that RapidScat's benefits will be felt throughout the world."The agencies that will receive near-real-time RapidScat data include NOAA, the U.S. Navy, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). The data will also be distributed to RapidScat science team members. The spatial sampling - how far apart the samples are-- of RapidScat data is currently 15.5 miles (25 kilometers). A version to be released in the near future will double its spatial resolution - meaning it will shrink the distance between samples by half."The initial quality of the RapidScat wind data and the timely availability of products so soon after launch are remarkable," said Paul Chang, ocean vector winds science team lead at NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service (NESDIS)/Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR), Silver Spring, Maryland. "NOAA is looking forward to using RapidScat data to help support marine wind and wave forecasting and warning, and to exploring the unique sampling of the ocean wind fields provided by the space station's orbit."ISS-RapidScat's berth on the space station's Columbus module puts it in an orbit unique from any other wind-measuring instrument currently in orbit. This vantage point will give scientists the first near-global direct observations of how ocean winds vary over the course of the day due to solar heating. Because it crosses the path of every other scatterometer currently in orbit, ISS-RapidScat will also be able to ensure that all spaceborne scatterometer data sets are accurate and consistent with each other, a process known as cross-calibration.ISS-RapidScat is a partnership between JPL and the International Space Station Program Office at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, with support from the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Other ongoing mission partners include NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Alabama; and the European Space Agency.For more information on ISS-RapidScat, visit:http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/RapidScat/http://www.nasa.gov/rapidscatFor more information on Earth science activities aboard the space station, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/issearthscienceISS-RapidScat is the third of five NASA Earth science missions scheduled to launch into space within 12 months, the most new Earth-observing mission launches in one year in more than a decade. NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.For more information about NASA's Earth science activities in 2014, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ice-in-ceres-shadowed-craters-linked-to-tilt-history

Ice in Ceres' Shadowed Craters Linked to Tilt History

The tilt of Ceres' rotation axis could be related to ice in shadowed regions, research from NASA's Dawn mission suggests.

Dwarf planet Ceres may be hundreds of millions of miles from Jupiter, and even farther from Saturn, but the tremendous influence of gravity from these gas giants has an appreciable effect on Ceres' orientation. In a new study, researchers from NASA's Dawn mission calculate that the axial tilt of Ceres -- the angle at which it spins as it journeys around the sun -- varies widely over the course of about 24,500 years. Astronomers consider this to be a surprisingly short period of time for such dramatic deviations.Changes in axial tilt, or "obliquity," over the history of Ceres are related to the larger question of where frozen water can be found on Ceres' surface, scientists report in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Given conditions on Ceres, ice would only be able to survive at extremely cold temperatures -- for example, in areas that never see the sun."We found a correlation between craters that stay in shadow at maximum obliquity, and bright deposits that are likely water ice," said Anton Ermakov, postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, and lead author of the study. "Regions that never see sunlight over millions of years are more likely to have these deposits."Cycles of ObliquityThroughout the last 3 million years, Ceres has gone through cycles where its tilt ranges from about 2 degrees to about 20 degrees, calculations indicate."We cannot directly observe the changes in Ceres' orientation over time, so we used the Dawn spacecraft's measurements of shape and gravity to precisely reconstruct what turned out to be a dynamic history," said Erwan Mazarico, a co-author at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.The last time the dwarf planet reached a maximum tilt, which was about 19 degrees, was 14,000 years ago, researchers said. For comparison, Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees. This significant tilt causes our planet to experience seasons: The northern hemisphere experiences summer when it is oriented toward the sun, and winter when it's pointed away from the sun. By contrast, Ceres' current tilt is about 4 degrees, so it will not have such strong seasonal effects over the course of a year there (which is about 4.6 Earth years).How Obliquity Relates to IceWhen the axial tilt is small, relatively large regions on Ceres never receive direct sunlight, particularly at the poles. These persistently shadowed regions occupy an area of about 800 square miles (2,000 square kilometers). But when the obliquity increases, more of the craters in the polar regions receive direct exposure to the sun, and persistently shadowed areas only occupy 0.4 to 4 square miles (1 to 10 square kilometers). These areas on Ceres' surface, which stay in shadow even at high obliquity, may be cold enough to maintain surface ice, Dawn scientists said.These craters with areas that stay in shadow over long periods of time are called "cold traps," because they are so cold and dark that volatiles -- substances easily vaporized -- that migrate into these areas can't escape, even over a billion years.A 2016 study by the Dawn team in Nature Astronomyfound bright material in 10 of these craters, and data from Dawn's visible and infrared mapping spectrometer indicate that one of them contains ice.The new study focused on polar craters and modeled how shadowing progresses as Ceres' axial tilt varies. In the northern hemisphere, only two persistently shadowed regions remain in shadow at the maximum 20-degree tilt. Both of these regions have bright deposits today. In the southern hemisphere, there are also two persistently shadowed regions at highest obliquity, and one of them clearly has a bright deposit.Shadowed Regions in ContextCeres is the third body in the solar system found to have permanently shadowed regions. Mercury and Earth's moon are the other two, and scientists believe they received their ice from impacting bodies. However, Mercury and the moon do not have such wide variability in their tilts because of the stabilizing gravitational influence of the sun and Earth, respectively. The origin of the ice in Ceres' cold traps is more mysterious -- it may come from Ceres itself, or may be delivered by impacts from asteroids and comets. Regardless, the presence of ice in cold traps could be related to a tenuous water atmosphere, which was detected by ESA's Herschel Space Observatory in 2012-13. Water molecules that leave the surface would fall back onto Ceres, with some landing in cold traps and accumulating there."The idea that ice could survive on Ceres for long periods of time is important as we continue to reconstruct the dwarf planet's geological history, including whether it has been giving off water vapor," said Carol Raymond, deputy principal investigator of the Dawn mission and study co-author, based at JPL.Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/missionMore information about Dawn is available at the following sites:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.govhttp://www.nasa.gov/dawn

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-spacecraft-nears-historic-dwarf-planet-arrival

NASA Spacecraft Nears Historic Dwarf Planet Arrival

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned new images captured on approach to its historic orbit insertion at the dwarf planet Ceres, scheduled for Friday, March 6.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has returned new images captured on approach to its historic orbit insertion at the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn will be the first mission to successfully visit a dwarf planet when it enters orbit around Ceres on Friday, March 6."Dawn is about to make history," said Robert Mase, project manager for the Dawn mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Our team is ready and eager to find out what Ceres has in store for us."Recent images show numerous craters and unusual bright spots that scientists believe tell how Ceres, the first object discovered in our solar system's asteroid belt, formed and whether its surface is changing. As the spacecraft spirals into closer and closer orbits around the dwarf planet, researchers will be looking for signs that these strange features are changing, which would suggest current geological activity."Studying Ceres allows us to do historical research in space, opening a window into the earliest chapter in the history of our solar system," said Jim Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division at the agency's Headquarters in Washington. "Data returned from Dawn could contribute significant breakthroughs in our understanding of how the solar system formed."Dawn began its final approach phase toward Ceres in December. The spacecraft has taken several optical navigation images and made two rotation characterizations, allowing Ceres to be observed through its full nine-hour rotation. Since Jan. 25, Dawn has been delivering the highest-resolution images of Ceres ever captured, and they will continue to improve in quality as the spacecraft approaches.Sicilian astronomer Father Giuseppe Piazzi spotted Ceres in 1801. As more such objects were found in the same region, they became known as asteroids, or minor planets. Ceres was initially classified as a planet and later called an asteroid. In recognition of its planet-like qualities, Ceres was designated a dwarf planet in 2006, along with Pluto and Eris.Ceres is named for the Roman goddess of agriculture and harvests. Craters on Ceres will similarly be named for gods and goddesses of agriculture and vegetation from world mythology. Other features will be named for agricultural festivals.Launched in September 2007, Dawn explored the giant asteroid Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012, capturing detailed images and data about that body. Both Vesta and Ceres orbit the sun between Mars and Jupiter, in the main asteroid belt. This two-stop tour of our solar system is made possible by Dawn's ion propulsion system, its three ion engines being much more efficient than chemical propulsion."Both Vesta and Ceres were on their way to becoming planets, but their development was interrupted by the gravity of Jupiter," said Carol Raymond, Dawn deputy principal investigator at JPL. "These two bodies are like fossils from the dawn of the solar system, and they shed light on its origins."Ceres and Vesta have several important differences. Ceres is the most massive body in the asteroid belt, with an average diameter of 590 miles (950 kilometers). Ceres' surface covers about 38 percent of the area of the continental United States. Vesta has an average diameter of 326 miles (525 kilometers), and is the second most massive body in the belt. The asteroid formed earlier than Ceres and is a very dry body. Ceres, in contrast, is estimated to be 25 percent water by mass."By studying Vesta and Ceres, we will gain a better understanding of the formation of our solar system, especially the terrestrial planets and most importantly the Earth," said Raymond. "These bodies are samples of the building blocks that have formed Venus, Earth and Mars. Vesta-like bodies are believed to have contributed heavily to the core of our planet, and Ceres-like bodies may have provided our water.""We would not be able to orbit and explore these two worlds without ion propulsion," Mase said. "Dawn capitalizes on this innovative technology to deliver big science on a small budget."In addition to the Dawn mission, NASA will launch in 2016 its Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft. This mission will study a large asteroid in unprecedented detail and return samples to Earth.NASA also places a high priority on tracking and protecting Earth from asteroids. NASA's Near-Earth Object (NEO) Program at the agency's headquarters manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. NASA is pursuing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), which will identify, redirect and send astronauts to explore an asteroid. Among its many exploration goals, the mission could demonstrate basic planetary defense techniques for asteroid deflection.Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft.The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/missionFor more information about Dawn, visit:http://dawn.jpl.nasa.govFor more information on OSIRIS-REx and ARM visit:http://www.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/santas-revealing-home-photos-released-by-nasa

Santa's Revealing Home Photos Released by NASA

He may see us when we're sleeping, know when we're awake, and know if we've been bad or good, but thanks to new images from NASA, we can now catch a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of Santa Claus' summer estates.

He may see us when we're sleeping, know when we're awake, and know if we've been bad or good, but thanks to new images from NASA, we can now catch a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse of some of Santa Claus' summer estates. In new, exclusive images obtained for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (Aster) instrument on NASA's Terra satellite, two of the 11 U.S. towns that bear St. Nick's name are revealed in all their splendor. The images are available on the JPL Planetary Photojournal at:http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03891.Santa Claus, Ga., (left) and Santa Claus, Ind. (right) are typical of Santa's summer retreats, offering Santa, Ms. Claus, the reindeer and the elves the usual amenities and a toasty respite from their chilly North Pole environs during the off season. These images, obtained for Santa by NASA at the request of Rudolph, provide Santa's chief navigator with detailed, aerial maps to guide Santa's merry bunch south after their exhausting annual round-the-world tours. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, et al., find the rural atmosphere of both towns particularly inviting.The two towns are the only Santa Claus towns in the United States that have post offices and zip codes. Santa Claus, Ga., located in Toombs County, has a population of 237. Santa Claus, Ind., located in Spencer County, has a population of 2,041.While it may not be able to detect the tiny hoof prints of Santa's reindeer, the Aster instrument does a remarkably jolly ol' job of imaging Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. Aster is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched in December 1999 on NASA's Terra satellite. It features 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and has a high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet). This broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications include monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; evaluating wetlands; monitoring thermal pollution and coral reef degradation; mapping the surface temperature of soils; and measuring surface heat balance.Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry built the Aster instrument. JPL is responsible for the American portion of the joint U.S./Japan science team that validates and calibrates the instrument and its data products.More information about Aster is available at:http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/.NASA's Earth Science Enterprise is a long-term research effort to understand and protect our home planet. Through the study of Earth, NASA will help to provide sound science to policy and economic decision-makers so as to better life here, while developing the technologies needed to explore the universe and search for life beyond our home planet.The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/2001-mars-odyssey-set-to-find-out-what-mars-is-made-of

2001 Mars Odyssey Set to Find out What Mars is Made of

When NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey launches in April to explore the fourth planet from the Sun, it will carry a suite of scientific instruments designed to tell us what makes up the Martian surface, and provide vital information about potential radiation hazards for future human explorers.

When NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey launches in April to explore the fourth planet from the Sun, it will carry a suite of scientific instruments designed to tell us what makes up the Martian surface, and provide vital information about potential radiation hazards for future human explorers."The launch of 2001 Mars Odyssey represents a milestone in our exploration of Mars -- the first launch in our restructured Mars Exploration Program we announced last October," said Dr. Ed Weiler, Associate Administrator for Space Science, NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C. "Mars continues to surprise us at every turn. We expect Odyssey to remove some of the uncertainties and help us plan where we must go with future missions."Set for launch April 7 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Odyssey is NASA's first mission to Mars since the loss of two spacecraft in 1999. Other than our Moon, Mars has attracted more spacecraft exploration attempts than any other object in the solar system, and no other planet has proved as daunting to success. Of the 30 missions sent to Mars by three countries over 40 years, fewer than one-third have been successful.The Odyssey team conducted vigorous reviews and incorporated "lessons learned" in the mission plan. "The project team has looked at the people, processes, and design to understand and reduce our mission risk," said George Pace, 2001 Mars Odyssey project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. "We haven't been satisfied with just fixing the problems from the previous missions. We've been trying to anticipate and prevent other things that could jeopardize the success of the mission."Odyssey is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term robotic exploration initiative launched in 1996 with Mars Pathfinder and Mars Global Surveyor. "The scientific trajectory of the restructured Mars Exploration Program begins a new era of reconnaissance with the Mars Odyssey orbiter," said Dr. Jim Garvin, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. "Odyssey will help identify and ultimately target those places on Mars where future rovers and landers must visit to unravel the mysteries of the red planet."NASA's latest explorer carries three scientific instruments to map the chemical and mineralogical makeup of Mars: a thermal-emission imaging system, a gamma ray spectrometer and a Martian radiation environment experiment. The imaging system will map the planet with high-resolution thermal images and give scientists an increased level of detail to help them understand how the mineralogy of the planet relates to the landforms. The part of Odyssey's imaging system that takes pictures in visible light will see objects with a clarity that fills the gaps between the Viking orbiter cameras of the 1970s and today's high-resolution images from Mars Global Surveyor.Like a virtual shovel digging into the surface, Odyssey's gamma ray spectrometer will allow scientists to peer into the shallow subsurface of Mars, the upper few centimeters of the crust, to measure many elements, including the amount of hydrogen that exists. Since hydrogen is mostly likely present in the form of water ice, the spectrometer will be able to measure permanent ground ice and how that changes with the seasons."For the first time at Mars, we will have a spacecraft that is equipped to find evidence for present near-surface water and to map mineral deposits from past water activity," said Dr. Steve Saunders, 2001 Mars Odyssey project scientist at JPL. "Despite the wealth of information from previous missions, exactly what Mars is made of is not fully known, so this mission will give us a basic understanding about the chemistry and mineralogy of the surface."The Martian radiation environment experiment will be the first to look at radiation levels at Mars as they relate to the potential hazards faced by future astronauts. The experiment will take data on the way to Mars and in orbit around the red planet. After completing its primary mission, the Odyssey orbiter will provide a communications relay for future American and international landers, including NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers, scheduled for launch in 2003.The 2001 Mars Odyssey mission press kit is available online athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/odysseylaunch.pdf.The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Principal investigators at Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and NASA's Johnson Space Center will operate the science instruments. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, Colo., is the prime contractor for the project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations will be conducted jointly from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and Lockheed Martin.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/longest-lived-mars-orbiter-is-back-in-service

Longest-Lived Mars Orbiter is Back in Service

NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has resumed its science observations and its role as a Mars rover's relay, thanks to a spare part that had been waiting 11 years to be put to use.

Mission Status ReportPASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has resumed its science observations and its role as a Mars rover's relay, thanks to a spare part that had been waiting 11 years to be put to use.Odyssey's flight team returned the orbiter to full service this week after a careful two-week sequence of activities to recover from a fault that put Odyssey into reduced-activity "safe" mode. Odyssey switched to safe mode when one of the three primary reaction wheels used for attitude control stuck for a few minutes on June 8, Universal Time (June 7, Pacific Time).Engineers assessed the sticking wheel as unreliable and switched the spacecraft from that one to a spare that had been unused since before the mission's April 7, 2001, launch."Odyssey is now back in full, nominal operation mode using the replacement wheel," said Steve Sanders, lead engineer for the Odyssey team at Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. Lockheed Martin collaborates with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., in operation of Odyssey, which has worked at Mars longer than any other Mars mission in history.Observations of Mars resumed June 25 with Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System and its Gamma Ray Spectrometer. As a relay, Odyssey received data from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity today, June 27, and transmitted the data to Earth. Other priority activities include preparing Odyssey to serve as a communications relay for NASA Mars Science Laboratory mission.Odyssey uses a set of three reaction wheels to control its attitude, or which way it is facing relative to the sun, Earth or Mars. Increasing the rotation rate of a reaction wheel causes the spacecraft itself to rotate in the opposite direction. The configuration in use from launch until this month combined the effects of three wheels at right angles to each other to provide control in all directions. The replacement wheel is skewed at angles to all three others so that it can be used as a substitute for any one of them. Odyssey can also use thrusters for attitude control, though that method draws on the limited supply of propellant rather than on electricity from the spacecraft's solar array.Odyssey is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington by JPL, a division the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. For more about the Mars Odyssey mission, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/odyssey.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/tall-boulder-rolls-down-martian-hill-lands-upright

Tall Boulder Rolls Down Martian Hill, Lands Upright

A new photo from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows an oblong boulder about 20 feet (6 meters) tall standing upright on Mars after tumbling downhill, leaving a trail.

A track about one-third of a mile (500 meters) long on Mars shows where an irregularly shaped boulder careened downhill to its current upright position, seen in a July 3, 2014, image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.The image is available online at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA18594The shadow cast by the rock in mid-afternoon sunlight reveals it is about 20 feet (6 meters) tall. In the downward-looking image, the boulder is only about 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide. It happened to come to rest with its long dimension vertical. The trail it left on the slope has a pattern that suggests the boulder couldn't roll smoothly or straight due to its shape.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. HiRISE, one of six science instruments on the orbiter, is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.For more information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been studying Mars from orbit since 2006, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mroFor more information about HiRISE, visit:http://www.uahirise.org/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/just-five-things-about-grace-follow-on

Just Five Things About GRACE Follow-On

There are a lot more than five things to say about the GRACE Follow-On mission, but here are a few favorite facts.

Scheduled to launch no earlier than May 22, the twin satellites of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO) mission, a collaboration between NASA and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), will continue the work of monitoring changes in the world's water cycle and surface mass, which was so well performed by the original GRACE mission. There are far more than five things to say about this amazing new-old mission; but here are a few favorite facts.1 Percent (or Less)GRACE-FO tracks liquid and frozen water by measuring month-to-month changes in Earth's gravitational pull very precisely. More than 99 percent of our planet's gravitational pull doesn't change from one month to the next, because it represents the mass of the solid Earth itself. But a tiny fraction of Earth's mass is constantly on the move, and it is mostly water: Rain is falling, dew is evaporating, ocean currents are flowing, ice is melting and so on. GRACE-FO's maps of regional variations in gravity will show us where that small fraction of overall planetary mass is moving every month.2 Satellites, One InstrumentUnlike other Earth-observing satellites, which carry instruments that observe some part of the electromagnetic spectrum, the two GRACE-FO satellites themselves are the instrument. The prime instrument measures the tiny changes in the distance between the pair, which arise from the slightly varying gravitational forces of the changing mass below. Researchers produce monthly maps of water and mass change by combining this information with GPS measurements of exactly where the satellites are and accelerometer measurements of other forces acting upon the spacecraft, such as atmospheric drag.3 Gravity Missions, Including One on the MoonThe same measurement concept used on GRACE and GRACE-FO was also used to map the Moon's gravity field. NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) twins orbited the moon for about a year, allowing insights into science questions such as what Earth's gravitational pull contributed to the Moon's lopsided shape. The intentionally short-lived GRAIL satellites were launched in September 2011 and decommissioned in December 2012.4 Thousand-Plus Customers ServedGRACE observations have been used in more than 4,300 research papers to date -- a very high number for a single Earth science mission. Most papers have multiple coauthors, meaning the real number of scientist-customers could be higher, but we chose a conservative estimate. As GRACE-FO extends the record of water in motion, there are sure to be more exciting scientific discoveries to come.5 Things We Didn't Know Before GRACEHere's a list-within-a-list of five findings from those 4,300-plus papers. Watch theGRACE-FO websiteto learn what the new mission is adding to this list.•Melting ice sheets and dwindling aquifers are contributing to Earth's rotationalwobbles.• A few years of heavy precipitation can cause so much water to be stored on land thatglobal sea level rise slowsor evenstops briefly.•A third of the world's underground aquifersare being drained faster than they can be replenished.• In the Amazon,small fires below the tree canopymay destroy more of the forest than deforestation does -- implying that climatic conditions such as drought may be a greater threat to the rainforest than deforestation is.•Australia seesaws up and downby two or three millimeters each year because of changes to Earth's center of mass that are caused by the movement of water.Bonus: The Fine PrintJPL manages the GRACE-FO mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, under the direction of the Earth Systematic Missions Program Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The spacecraft were built by Airbus Defence and Space in Friedrichshafen, Germany, under subcontract to JPL. GFZ contracted GRACE-FO launch services from Iridium. GFZ has subcontracted mission operations to the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which operates the German Space Operations Center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-hosts-media-teleconference-to-announce-latest-kepler-discoveries

NASA Hosts Media Teleconference to Announce Latest Kepler Discoveries

NASA will host a news teleconference at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST), Wednesday, Feb. 26, to announce new discoveries made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.

NASA will host a news teleconference at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST), Wednesday, Feb. 26, to announce new discoveries made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.The briefing participants are:-- Douglas Hudgins, exoplanet exploration program scientist, NASA's Astrophysics Division in Washington-- Jack Lissauer, planetary scientist, NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.-- Jason Rowe, research scientist, SETI Institute, Mountain View, Calif.-- Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.Launched in March 2009, Kepler was the first NASA mission to find Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone -- the range of distance from a star in which the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might sustain liquid water. The telescope has since detected planets and planet candidates spanning a wide range of sizes and orbital distances. These findings have led to a better understanding of our place in the galaxy.The public is invited to listen to the teleconference live via UStream at:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-arcandhttp://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2Questions can be submitted on Twitter using the hashtag #AskNASA.Audio of the teleconference also will be streamed live at:http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudioA link to relevant graphics will be posted at the start of the teleconference on NASA's Kepler site:http://www.nasa.gov/keplerAmes is responsible for Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and was funded by the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-to-discuss-latest-emit-findings-helps-address-climate-change

NASA to Discuss Latest EMIT Findings, Helps Address Climate Change

Built to help scientists understand how dust affects climate, the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation has demonstrated another crucial capability.

NASA will host a media teleconference at 3 p.m. EDT (12 p.m. PDT) Tuesday, Oct. 25, to discuss the latest findings of the agency’s Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), including a new, unanticipated capability which will help better understand impacts of climate change.Audio of the teleconference will be streamed live on NASA’swebsite.EMIT was installed on the International Space Station in July. Its primary mission is to map the prevalence of key minerals in the planet’s deserts in order to advance understanding ofairborne dust’s effects on climate. However, the imaging spectrometer, which was designed and built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, has also demonstrated a new crucial ability that the following teleconference participants will discuss:Karen St. Germain, Earth Science Division director at NASA Headquarters in WashingtonRobert Green, EMIT principal investigator, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Southern CaliforniaAndrew Thorpe, research technologist, JPLKirt Costello, chief scientist, NASA’s International Space Station ProgramGet the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERMedia interested in participating should request the dial in-details at least two hours prior to the start of the call by sending their full name, media affiliation, email address, and phone number toRexana Vizzaat rexana.v.vizza@jpl.nasa.gov on Tuesday, Oct. 25.For more information about EMIT, visit:https://earth.jpl.nasa.gov/emit/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-takes-part-in-airborne-study-of-southern-ocean

NASA Takes Part in Airborne Study of Southern Ocean

NASA's PRISM instrument is part of a flying lab that is studying the Southern Ocean's appetite for carbon dioxide.

A team of scientists has launched a series of research flights over the remote seas surrounding Antarctica in an effort to better understand how much carbon dioxide the icy waters are able to lock away.Called ORCAS, the field campaign will provide a rare look at how oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged between the air and the Southern Ocean. The campaign is led by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Michelle Gierach of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, is a principal investigator, along with other scientists from a range of universities and research institutions.Carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas contributing to human-caused climate change. As more carbon dioxide has been released into the atmosphere by the burning of fossil fuels, the ocean has stepped up the amount of the gas it absorbs from the air. But it's unclear whether the ocean can keep pace with continued emissions.Previous studies have disagreed about whether the Southern Ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide is speeding up or slowing down. The measurements and air samples collected by ORCAS -- which stands for the O2/N2Ratio and CO2Airborne Southern Ocean Study -- will give scientists critical data to help clarify what's happening in the remote region.The researchers plan to make 14 flights out of Punta Arenas, Chile, across parts of the Southern Ocean during the campaign, which ends Feb. 28. A suite of instruments will measure the distribution of oxygen and carbon dioxide, as well as other gases produced by marine microorganisms, microscopic airborne particles and clouds. The flights also will observe ocean color -- which can indicate how much and what type of phytoplankton is in the water -- using NASA's Portable Remote Imaging Spectrometer (PRISM). The scientists hope that adding these other measurements to the carbon dioxide data will give them new insight on chemical, physical and biological processes that are affecting the ocean's ability to absorb the greenhouse gas."The Southern Ocean is very inaccessible, and existing measurements represent only a few tiny dots on a huge map," said NCAR's Britton Stephens, co-lead principal investigator for ORCAS. "Understanding the Southern Ocean's role is important, because ocean circulation there provides a major opportunity for the exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the vast reservoir of the deep ocean."For more information about ORCAS:http://bitly.com/orcasresearchFor more information about NASA's Earth science activities, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/earth

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/curiosity-adds-reverse-driving-for-wheel-protection

Curiosity Adds Reverse Driving for Wheel Protection

Terrain that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is now crossing is as smooth as team members had anticipated based on earlier images from orbit.

Mars Science Laboratory Mission Status ReportTerrain that NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is now crossing is as smooth as team members had anticipated based on earlier images from orbit.On Tuesday, Feb. 18, the rover covered 329 feet (100.3 meters), the mission's first long trek that used reverse driving and its farthest one-day advance of any kind in more than three months.The reverse drive validated feasibility of a technique developed with testing on Earth to lessen damage to Curiosity's wheels when driving over terrain studded with sharp rocks. However, Tuesday's drive took the rover over more benign ground."We wanted to have backwards driving in our validated toolkit because there will be parts of our route that will be more challenging," said Curiosity Project Manager Jim Erickson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.The rover team used images taken from orbit to reassess possible routes, after detecting in late 2013 that holes in the vehicle's aluminum wheels were accumulating faster than anticipated. Getting to the chosen route, which appeared to be less hazardous for the wheels, required crossing a 3-foot-tall (1-meter-tall) dune. Curiosity crossed the dune on Feb. 9.Erickson said, "After we got over the dune, we began driving in terrain that looks like what we expected based on the orbital data. There are fewer sharp rocks, many of them are loose, and in most places there's a little bit of sand cushioning the vehicle."The mission's destinations remain the same: a science waypoint first and then the long-term goal of investigating the lower slopes of Mount Sharp, where water-related minerals have been detected from orbit.The science waypoint, which may be where Curiosity next uses its sample-collecting drill, is an intersection of different rock layers about two-thirds of a mile (about 1.1 kilometers) ahead on the planned route. This location, formerly called KMS-9 from when it was one of many waypoint candidates, is now called "Kimberley," for the geological mapping quadrant that contains it. The mapping quadrant was named for the northwestern Australia region with very old rocks.While the rover is headed for the Kimberley waypoint and during the time it spends doing science investigations there, the team will use orbital imagery to choose a path for continuing toward the long-term destination."We have changed our focus to look at the big picture for getting to the slopes of Mount Sharp, assessing different potential routes and different entry points to the destination area," Erickson said. "No route will be perfect; we need to figure out the best of the imperfect ones."Curiosity has driven 937 feet (285.5 meters) since the Feb. 9 dune-crossing, for a total odometry of 3.24 miles (5.21 kilometers) since its August 2012 landing.NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about Curiosity, visithttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl,http://www.nasa.gov/mslandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/. You can follow the mission on Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/marscuriosityand on Twitter at:http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-perseverance-rover-collects-first-mars-rock-sample

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Collects First Mars Rock Sample

The rock core is now enclosed in an airtight titanium sample tube, and will be available for retrieval in the future.

NASA’s Perseverance rover today completed the collection of the first sample of Martian rock, a core from Jezero Crater slightly thicker than a pencil. Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Southern California received data that confirmed the historic milestone.The core is now enclosed in an airtight titaniumsample tube, making it available for retrieval in the future. Through the Mars Sample Return campaign, NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are planning a series of future missions to return the rover’s sample tubes to Earth for closer study. These samples would be the first set of scientifically identified and selected materials returned to our planet from another.“NASA has a history of setting ambitious goals and then accomplishing them, reflecting our nation’s commitment to discovery and innovation,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This is a momentous achievement and I can’t wait to see the incredible discoveries produced by Perseverance and our team.”Along with identifying and collecting samples of rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) while searching for signs of ancient microscopic life, Perseverance’s mission includes studying the Jezero region to understand the geology and ancient habitability of the area, as well as to characterize the pastclimate.“For all of NASA science, this is truly a historic moment,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Just as the Apollo Moon missions demonstrated the enduring scientific value of returning samples from other worlds for analysis here on our planet, we will be doing the same with the samples Perseverance collects as part of our Mars Sample Return program. Using the most sophisticated science instruments on Earth, we expect jaw-dropping discoveries across a broad set of science areas, including exploration into the question of whether life once existed on Mars.”Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERFirst SampleThe sample-taking process began on Wednesday, Sept. 1, when the rotary-percussive drill at the end of Perseverance’srobotic armcored into a flat, briefcase-size Mars rock nicknamed “Rochette.”After completing the coring process, the arm maneuvered the corer, bit, and sample tube so the rover’sMastcam-Zcamera instrument could image the contents of the still-unsealed tube and transmit the results back to Earth. After mission controllers confirmed the cored rock’s presence in the tube, they sent a command to complete processing of the sample.Today, at 12:34 a.m. EDT, Perseverance transferred sample tube serial number 266 and its Martian cargo into the rover’s interior to measure and image the rock core. It then hermetically sealed the container, took another image, and stored the tube.“With over 3,000 parts, the Sampling and Caching System is the most complex mechanism ever sent into space,” said Larry D. James, interim director of JPL. “Our Perseverance team is excited and proud to see the system perform so well on Mars and take the first step for returning samples to Earth. We also recognize that a worldwide team of NASA, industry partners, academia, and international space agencies contributed to and share in this historic success.”First Science CampaignPerseverance is currently exploring the rocky outcrops and boulders of “Artuby,” a ridgeline of more than a half-mile (900 meters) bordering two geologic units believed to contain Jezero Crater’s deepest and most ancient layers of exposed bedrock.“Getting the first sample under our belt is a huge milestone,” said Perseverance Project Scientist Ken Farley of Caltech. “When we get these samples back on Earth, they are going to tell us a great deal about some of the earliest chapters in the evolution of Mars. But however geologically intriguing the contents of sample tube 266 will be, they won’t tell the complete story of this place. There is a lot of Jezero Crater left to explore, and we will continue our journey in the months and years ahead.”The rover’s initial science foray, which spans hundreds of sols (Martian days), will be complete when Perseverance returns to its landing site. At that point, Perseverance will have traveled between 1.6 and 3.1 miles (2.5 and 5 kilometers) and may have filled as many as eight of its 43 sample tubes.After that, Perseverance will travel north, then west, toward the location of its second science campaign: Jezero Crater’s delta region. The delta is the fan-shaped remains of the spot where an ancient river met a lake within the crater. The region may be especially rich in clay minerals. On Earth, such minerals can preserve fossilized signs of ancient microscopic life and are often associated with biological processes.More About PerseveranceA key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars isastrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includesArtemismissions to the Moon that will help prepare for the first human exploration mission to the Red Planet.JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more about Perseverance:mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/andnasa.gov/perseverance

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cheers-voyager-35-years-of-exploration

Cheers, Voyager: 35 Years of Exploration

Thirty-five years ago today, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft launched on its mission of exploration. JPL hosted a birthday party in its honor.

What would a birthday party be without cake, music and toasts? Thirty-five years ago today, NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft launched on its mission of exploration. It is now the most distant human-made object and the second-longest operating spacecraft. (Voyager 2 is the longest.) NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., which manages the Voyager spacecraft, held a celebration today.The celebration included remarks by Charles Elachi, the director of JPL; Ed Stone, the Voyager project scientist; Ann Druyan, the creative director of the interstellar message project inscribed on the Golden Record that each Voyager spacecraft bears; Stephanie Wilson, an astronaut and former JPL employee; local dignitaries and others who have played key roles in operating the spacecraft through the years. A band led by a Voyager engineer also played "Johnny B. Goode," one of the songs from the Golden Record. The Golden Record is a 12-inch, gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.The Voyager spacecraft were built by JPL, which continues to operate both. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology. The Voyager missions are a part of the NASA Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington.For more information about the Voyager spacecraft, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/voyagerandhttp://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/magellan-command-error-cause-lost-of-four-mapping-orbits

Magellan Command Error Cause Lost of Four Mapping Orbits

The Magellan spacecraft was back to routine radar mapping of Venus Monday following a command error incident during the weekend that caused the loss of four mapping orbits, project officials reported.

The Magellan spacecraft was back to routine radar mapping of Venus Monday following a command error incident during the weekend that caused the loss of four mapping orbits, project officials reported.A Magellan Project spokesman at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the command error caused the spacecraft to enter a safe mode at 7:11 p.m. PST Friday.The routine command was to update the spacecraft's computer for radar pointing. A timing procedure was not followed and the command files were transmitted too close together.As a result the spacecraft's computer invoked a safing procedure which include pointing the high-gain antenna toward Earth, turning off the radar sensor, tape recorders and the high-data rate transmitter.Contact with the spacecraft was not lost and engineering telemetry was transmitted at 40 bits per second.At the time of the incident, the spacecraft had just completed mapping over the western part of Aphrodite, the large equatorial upland of Venus. The mapping data was on the tape recorder ready for playback.Engineers worked through the night and returned the spacecraft to normal operations. At 8:08 a.m. PST Saturday, theonboard computer sequence resumed with the playback of the mapping orbit obtained immediately prior to the command error.The first star calibration performed after operations resumed showed the spacecraft's pointing error was only sixone-hundredths of a degree away from its target.Even with the loss, project flight controllers said the project has received 97.2 percent of the radar image data since planned mapping was started on Sept. 15.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/watching-plants-water-use-is-no-sweat-for-ecostress

Watching Plants' Water Use Is No Sweat for ECOSTRESS

Just like you, plants need to stay hydrated when it gets hot. ECOSTRESS will look at how plants are using water in a warming world.

When you're working outside on a hot day, you probably have trouble staying hydrated. Heat affects how plants work just as it affects how you work. How plants respond to today's warming world is one of the key science questions NASA's new Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) mission aims to answer.The primary work of plants is to feed themselves and grow, and this starts with pores in their leaves. They pump water up from their roots, "sweat out" (transpire) extra water vapor through these pores to cool, and take in carbon dioxide through the same pores. They use this carbon dioxide and water to make carbohydrates for food.ECOSTRESS is a new NASA Earth science mission to study how effectively plants use water by measuring their temperature from space. ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) is set to launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in summer 2018, and will be affixed to the outside of the International Space Station where it will make its temperature measurements.Again like people, plants respond differently to hot and dry weather. Some naturally close their pores every hot afternoon to conserve water -- even though closing their pores shuts down photosynthesis. Others don't close their pores, or close them infrequently. Some plants use more water in hot weather; others don't. Scientists have seen these differences in transpiration during laboratory and local field studies, but they don't know the water-use efficiency of every plant or global ecosystem.As Earth's climate changes, some global regions are undergoing longer and more frequent droughts and heat waves, with more extreme conditions expected in the future. If plants in these regions can't keep their pores open long enough to take in carbon dioxide and feed themselves, some will die of carbon starvation. Other plants will thrive in their changing environment. But which plants will do which?Finding Plants That Cope WellTo answer that question, along with other urgent questions like how best to manage agricultural irrigation, we need to understand plants' daily patterns of transpiration. That's where ECOSTRESS comes in.No satellite currently in orbit measures transpiration globally throughout the day with enough detail to make out differences on the scale of a single farmer's field. Most Earth-observing satellites are in a sun-synchronous orbit that passes over every region of Earth at the same times of day - for example, always crossing North America around 10 a.m. local time. A single daytime snapshot, especially one from the morning when most plants are busily at "work," provides limited information on how they perform during the rest of the day. Satellites in a geostationary orbit always look at the same Earth area, but at 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) above Earth, they are too far away for any existing instrument to identify differences in transpiration at the field scale."The space station opens the door to do new science," said ECOSTRESS Principal Investigator Simon Hook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "You're in low Earth orbit, so you can produce detailed images, but at different times of day, so you can look at the diurnal cycle." The orbit of the space station passes over every Earth area between about 50 degrees North and South latitudes every few days, at different times of day for each overpass.Compared with other satellite measurements, "ECOSTRESS gives you a pre-alert -- an early warning about plant stress," said Woody Turner, the program scientist for biological diversity at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Satellite data on plant color, for example, shows regions where plants are so stressed that they've turned brown. By that time, however, some plants are already dead, and others are too stressed to save. ECOSTRESS's temperature measurements will show where plants are still green and healthy but struggling to stay cool and conserve water. The data could give agricultural water managers time to intervene with the right amount of water when it's most needed.What ECOSTRESS DoesThe ECOSTRESS radiometer measures the thermal infrared energy (heat) coming from the surface very accurately, to within a few tenths of a degree, from an area (pixel) of about 130 by 230 feet (40 by 70 meters). Combined with existing satellite data on weather, these precise temperature measurements allow scientists to determine how much water plants are releasing through transpiration. "The images from ECOSTRESS are sufficiently detailed that we can actually see variations in temperature within a single farmer's field," Hook said.The ECOSTRESS mission is a pathfinder mission to demonstrate how these types of data can be used. It will last at least a year, giving scientists the ability to see when transpiration does and does not occur throughout the day around the globe. Ground measurements taken at the same time as the satellite overpass will serve to confirm the accuracy of the new data set.Turner noted that plant water use is a critical data point in answering broad questions about Earth's water cycle, carbon cycle, and even weather, because plants move water vapor and carbon from the soil to atmosphere and vice versa. "It integrates the water and carbon cycles, so it has wider implications besides the critical implications for agriculture and water management."When it comes to agriculture, ECOSTRESS could hardly be timelier, Turner said. "Extreme weather is in the forecast for a warming world, and being better able to manage water in a time of increasing water scarcity or stress is really critical. We have to grow food regardless, so it's best if we do it efficiently."

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-dawn-spacecraft-begins-new-vesta-mapping-orbit

NASA's Dawn Spacecraft Begins New Vesta Mapping Orbit

NASA's Dawn spacecraft has completed a gentle spiral into its new science orbit for an even closer view of the giant asteroid Vesta.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Dawn spacecraft has completed a gentle spiral into its new science orbit for an even closer view of the giant asteroid Vesta. Dawn began sending science data on Sept. 29 from this new orbit, known as the high altitude mapping orbit (HAMO).In this orbit, the average distance from the spacecraft to the Vesta surface is 420 miles (680 kilometers), which is four times closer than the previous survey orbit. The spacecraft will operate in the same basic manner as it did in the survey orbit. When Dawn is over Vesta's dayside, it will point its science instruments to the giant asteroid and acquire data, and when the spacecraft flies over the nightside, it will beam that data back to Earth.Perhaps the most notable difference in the new orbit is the frequency with which Dawn circles Vesta. In survey orbit, it took Dawn three days to make its way around the asteroid. Now in HAMO, the spacecraft completes the same task in a little over 12 hours. HAMO is scheduled to last about 30 Earth days, during which Dawn will circle Vesta more than 60 times. For about 10 of those 30 days, Dawn will peer straight down at the exotic landscape below it during the dayside passages. For about 20 days, the spacecraft will view the surface at multiple angles.Scientists will combine the pictures to create topographic maps, revealing the heights of mountains, the depths of craters and the slopes of plains. This will help scientists understand the geological processes that shaped Vesta.HAMO, the most complex and intensive science campaign at Vesta, has three primary goals: to map Vesta's illuminated surface in color, provide stereo data, and acquire visible and infrared mapping spectrometer data. In addition, it will allow improved measurements of Vesta's gravity.Dawn launched in September 2007 and arrived at Vesta in July 2011. Since beginning its first survey orbit in August, Dawn has been extensively imaging this intriguing world, sending back a bounty of images and other data. NASA-funded scientists and European scientists on the Dawn mission team will present a wealth of new findings at the joint meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences and the European Planetary Science Congress next week at La Cite Internationale des Congres Nantes Metropole, Nantes, France.These findings about the giant asteroid Vesta will include information about the new coordinate system and official names of Vesta's prominent features.A Dawn mission news conference will be held Monday, Oct. 3, 2011 at 12:15 p.m. CEST (3:15 a.m. PDT/6:15 a.m. EDT). The Division for Planetary Sciences will provide live Web streaming of this news conference, at:http://meetings.copernicus.org/epsc-dps2011/webstreaming/monday.html"The team has been in awe of what they have seen on the surface of Vesta," said Christopher Russell, Dawn principal investigator, at UCLA. "We are sharing those discoveries with the greater scientific community and with the public."Following a year at Vesta, the spacecraft will depart in July 2012 for Ceres, where it will arrive in 2015. Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.The image and more information about the Dawn mission are online at:http://www.nasa.gov/dawn. To follow the mission on Twitter, visit:http://www.twitter.com/NASA_Dawn

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/arctic-ice-melt-is-changing-ocean-currents

Arctic Ice Melt Is Changing Ocean Currents

Using 12 years of satellite data, NASA scientists have measured how the influx of cold, fresh water is affecting the Beaufort Gyre, a major Arctic current.

A major ocean current in the Arctic is faster and more turbulent as a result of rapid sea ice melt, a new study from NASA shows. The current is part of a delicate Arctic environment that is now flooded with fresh water, an effect of human-caused climate change.Using 12 years of satellite data, scientists have measured how this circular current, called the Beaufort Gyre, has precariously balanced an influx of unprecedented amounts of cold, fresh water - a change that could alter the currents in the Atlantic Ocean and cool the climate of Western Europe.The Beaufort Gyre keeps the polar environment in equilibrium by storing fresh water near the surface of the ocean. Wind blows the gyre in a clockwise direction around the western Arctic Ocean, north of Canada and Alaska, where it naturally collects fresh water from glacial melt, river runoff and precipitation. This fresh water is important in the Arctic in part because it floats above the warmer, salty water and helps to protect the sea ice from melting, which in turn helps regulate Earth's climate. The gyre then slowly releases this fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean over a period of decades, allowing the Atlantic Ocean currents to carry it away in small amounts.But the since the 1990s, the gyre has accumulated a large amount of fresh water - 1,920 cubic miles (8,000 cubic kilometers) - or almost twice the volume of Lake Michigan. The new study, published in Nature Communications, found that the cause of this gain in freshwater concentration is the loss of sea ice in summer and autumn. This decades-long decline of the Arctic's summertime sea ice coverhas left the Beaufort Gyre more exposed to the wind, which spins the gyre faster and traps the fresh water in its current.Persistent westerly winds have also dragged the current in one direction for over 20 years, increasing the speed and size of the clockwise current and preventing the fresh water from leaving the Arctic Ocean. This decades-long western wind is unusual for the region, where previously, the winds changed direction every five to seven years.Scientists have been keeping an eye on the Beaufort Gyre in case the wind changes direction again. If the direction were to change, the wind would reverse the current, pulling it counterclockwise and releasing the water it has accumulated all at once."If the Beaufort Gyre were to release the excess fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean, it could potentially slow down its circulation. And that would have hemisphere-wide implications for the climate, especially in Western Europe," said Tom Armitage, lead author of the study and polar scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.Fresh water released from the Arctic Ocean to the North Atlantic can change the density of surface waters. Normally, water from the Arctic loses heat and moisture to the atmosphere and sinks to the bottom of the ocean, where it drives water from the north Atlantic Ocean down to the tropics like a conveyor belt.This important current is called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and helps regulate the planet's climate by carrying heat from the tropically-warmed water to northern latitudes like Europe and North America. If slowed enough, it could negatively impact marine life and the communities that depend on it."We don't expect a shutting down of the Gulf Stream, but we do expect impacts. That's why we're monitoring the Beaufort Gyre so closely," said Alek Petty, a co-author on the paper and polar scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.The study also found that, although the Beaufort Gyre is out of balance because of the added energy from the wind, the current expels that excess energy by forming small, circular eddies of water. While the increased turbulence has helped keep the system balanced, it has the potential to lead to further ice melt because it mixes layers of cold, fresh water with relatively warm, salt water below. The melting ice could, in turn, lead to changes in how nutrients and organic material in the ocean are mixed, significantly affecting the food chain and wildlife in the Arctic. The results reveal a delicate balance between wind and ocean as the sea ice pack recedes under climate change."What this study is showing is that the loss of sea ice has really important impacts on our climate system that we're only just discovering," said Petty.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/the-longest-day

The Longest Day

The longest day of the year should be the perfect time to get a tan, right? But does all that exposure to the Sun also make us more vulnerable to the effects of solar storms?

The longest day of the year should be the perfect time to get a tan, right? But does all that exposure to the Sun also make us more vulnerable to the effects of solar storms?The longest day, also called the summer solstice, falls on June 21 this year. The northern hemisphere is most tilted toward the Sun exactly at 6:24 a.m. PDT. The Sun rises and sets farther north on the horizon than at any other time of year, providing the northern hemisphere with the most hours of sunlight in a single day. Subsequently, the Sun will rise further south each day until the winter solstice in December. The word solstice is from Latin words meaning "the Sun" and "to stop," because early observers thought that the Sun appeared to stop dead, then turn around, in its seasonal movement north and south along the horizon at sunrise and sunset.In the northern hemisphere, the Sun is higher in the sky throughout the day and its rays strike Earth at a more direct angle, causing the efficient warming we call summer. In the winter, just the opposite occurs: The Sun is at its southernmost point and is low in the sky. Its rays hit the northern hemisphere at an oblique angle, creating the feeble winter sunlight. Below the equator, the seasons are reversed.Every once in a while, the Sun hiccups out a burst of magnetic energy from its almost invisible outer layer. These solar storms take just a couple of days to travel to Earth, where they can cause satellites to short out, confuse cell phone or pager systems and produce beautiful nighttime auroras in the high latitudes. Solar storms are not dangerous to humans on Earth - they can't even make a person more tan. However, astronauts in on the space shuttle or on the space station can be exposed to hazardous doses of radiation during intense events.So on the day of the summer solstice, when our hemisphere is looking the Sun straight in the face, should we be more battered than usual by solar weather?"The number of solar storms doesn't increase around the time of the June solstice, but over the past five or six years, the intensity of the storms does tend to be high at this time of year," said Dr. Walter Gonzalez, a visiting researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the head of the space science program at Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. "We're not really sure why this happens, so this is one of the things we are investigating.""Earth also sees more solar storms near the days of the equinoxes, in March and September," said Dr. Bruce Tsurutani of JPL. "But there is nothing at the winter solstice, in December. That is a minimum."So what is the solar weather going to be like on this year's longest day? "If NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory detects a coronal mass ejection coming toward the Earth, we will have a two- to three-day warning of a possible solar storm," said Gonzalez. "When the solar gas reaches the Advance Composition Explorer spacecraft, positioned just upstream of the Earth, we will know the intensity of the impending storm one hour beforehand.""If the Sun is active on that particular day and if Earth's magnetosphere gets disturbed, the longest day of the year might be very intense," Gonzalez said.To keep up with the latest Sun activity, visithttp://www.spaceweather.com.Contacts: JPL/Martha Heil (818) 354-0850

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jupiters-white-ovals-take-scientists-by-storm

Jupiter's 'White Ovals' Take Scientists by Storm

As powerful hurricanes pummel coastal areas on Earth, NASA space scientists are studying similar giant, swirling storms on distant Jupiter that have combined to spawn a storm as large as Earth itself.

As powerful hurricanes pummel coastal areas on Earth, NASA space scientists are studying similar giant, swirling storms on distant Jupiter that have combined to spawn a storm as large as Earth itself.Three separate cold storms, called "white ovals" because of their color and egg shapes, have been observed in one band around Jupiter's mid-section for half a century. Two of the storms recently merged to form a larger white oval, according to scientists studying data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope and the agency's Infrared Telescope Facility atop Mauna Kea, HI."The newly merged white oval is the strongest storm in our solar system, with the exception of Jupiter's 200-year-old 'Great Red Spot' storm," according to Dr. Glenn Orton, senior research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, CA. "This may be the first time humans have ever observed such a large interaction between two storm systems."Each of the white ovals that merged were about two-thirds the diameter of the Earth before the merger, when they combined to form a feature as large as Earth. Although scientists have observed the end result of the merger of the two white ovals, the actual "collision" took place under cover of darkness while Jupiter was turned away from view.This new, powerful white oval has a mysterious trait, according to Orton. "We can see it, along with the other white ovals, at visible light and some infrared wavelengths, but we cannot see the new white oval at certain infrared wavelengths that peer underneath the storm's upper cloud layers," Orton said. This might mean the storm is in a transition stage, undergoing a rebirth after the merging of the two storms."With mature white ovals, we can see the upwelling of winds in the center, which in turn leads to downwelling around it," Orton said. The new white oval has a very cold center at a temperature of -157 C (-251 F), about one degree colder than its surroundings. "Because of this, the oval may have generated a thick cloud system which obscures the downwelling," Orton said, which could explain the new oval's "disappearing act" at some wavelengths.Adding to the mystery is the fact that a nearby storm rotating in the opposite direction to the new white oval used to be warmer than its surrounding. "This probably means that the feature contained mostly downwelling winds," said Orton. However, Galileo's photopolarimeter radiometer instrument showed this feature had cooled down to temperatures that were about the same as its surroundings.Orton suspects that this storm somehow lost power and is no longer spinning as fast or downwelling as strongly as a year ago. This storm was once positioned between the two smaller white ovals that merged, and Orton theorized that when this storm system lost power, it removed the buffering mechanism that kept the two original white ovals apart.Orton and his colleague, Dr. Brendan Fisher, a California Institute of Technology postdoctoral fellow at JPL, based their conclusions about the temperatures using data gathered by Galileo on July 20, 1998, during the spacecraft's 17th orbit of Jupiter and its moons. Although much data from the flyby of Europa in that time period was lost because of a problem with the spacecraft's gyroscope, Galileo's photopolarimeter radiometer gathered the new data on the white ovals before the anomaly occurred.The photopolarimeter radiometer measures temperature profiles and energy balance of Jupiter's atmosphere, helping scientists study the huge planet's cloud characteristics and composition. Scientists believe that the bright, visible clouds of the white ovals are composed of ammonia.Galileo has been in orbit around Jupiter and its moons for 2-1/2 years, and is currently in the midst of a two-year extended mission, known as the Galileo Europa Mission. JPL manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of Caltech, Pasadena, CA.Images and information on the Galileo mission are available on the Internet at the Galileo website:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo. The images are also available athttp://www.jpl.nasa.govandhttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/spacecraft-earth-to-perform-asteroid-flyby-this-fall

Spacecraft Earth to Perform Asteroid 'Flyby' This Fall

NASA spacecraft have already flown past comets and asteroids, and now Earth itself will "fly by" an object that will provide NASA scientists a unique observing opportunity.

Since the dawn of the space age, humanity has sent 16 robotic emissaries to fly by some of the solar system's most intriguing and nomadic occupants -- comets and asteroids. The data and imagery collected on these deep-space missions of exploration have helped redefine our understanding of how Earth and our part of the galaxy came to be. But this fall, Mother Nature is giving scientists around the world a close-up view of one of her good-sized space rocks -- no rocket required."On November 8, asteroid 2005 YU55 will fly past Earth and at its closest approach point will be about 325,000 kilometers [201,700 miles] away," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "This asteroid is about 400 meters [1,300 feet] wide – the largest space rock we have identified that will come this close until 2028."Despite the relative proximity and size, Yeomans said, "YU55 poses no threat of an Earth collision over, at the very least, the next 100 years. During its closest approach, its gravitational effect on the Earth will be so miniscule as to be immeasurable. It will not affect the tides or anything else."Then why all the hubbub for a space rock a little bit wider than an aircraft carrier? After all, scientists estimate that asteroids the size of YU55 come this close about every 25 years."While near-Earth objects of this size have flown within a lunar distance in the past, we did not have the foreknowledge and technology to take advantage of the opportunity," said Barbara Wilson, a scientist at JPL. "When it flies past, it should be a great opportunity for science instruments on the ground to get a good look."2005 YU55 was discovered in December 2005 by Robert McMillan, head of the NASA-funded Spacewatch Program at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The space rock has been in astronomers' crosshairs before. In April 2010, Mike Nolan and colleagues at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico generated some ghostly images of 2005 YU55 when the asteroid was about 2.3 million kilometers (1.5 million miles) from Earth. (See related story: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-144)"The best resolution of the radar images was 7.5 meters [25 feet] per pixel," said JPL radar astronomer Lance Benner. "When 2005 YU55 returns this fall, we intend to image it at 4-meter resolution with our recently upgraded equipment at the Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California. Plus, the asteroid will be seven times closer. We're expecting some very detailed radar images."Radar astronomy employs the world's most massive dish-shaped antennas. The antennas beam directed microwave signals at their celestial targets -- which can be as close as our moon and as far away as the moons of Saturn. These signals bounce off the target, and the resulting "echo" is collected and precisely collated to create radar images, which can be used to reconstruct detailed three-dimensional models of the object. This defines its rotation precisely and gives scientists a good idea of the object's surface roughness. They can even make out surface features."Using the Goldstone radar operating with the software and hardware upgrades, the resulting images of YU55 could come in with resolution as fine as 4 meters per pixel," said Benner. "We're talking about getting down to the kind of surface detail you dream of when you have a spacecraft fly by one of these targets."At that resolution, JPL astronomers can see boulders and craters on the surfaces of some asteroids, and establish if an asteroid has a moon or two of its own. (Note: the 2010 Arecibo imaging of YU55 did not show any moons). But beyond the visually intriguing surface, the data collected from Goldstone, Arecibo, and ground-based optical and infrared telescopes are expected to detail the mineral composition of the asteroid."This is a C-type asteroid, and those are thought to be representative of the primordial materials from which our solar system was formed," said Wilson. "This flyby will be an excellent opportunity to test how we study, document and quantify which asteroids would be most appropriate for a future human mission."Yeomans reiterated Wilson's view that the upcoming pass of asteroid 2005 YU55 will be a positive event, which he describes as an "opportunity for scientific discovery." Yeomans adds, "So stay tuned. This is going to be fun."The 70-meter (230-foot) Goldstone antenna in California's Mojave Desert, part of NASA's Deep Space Network, is one of only two facilities capable of imaging asteroids with radar. The other is the National Science Foundation's 1,000-foot-diameter (305 meters) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The capabilities of the two instruments are complementary. The Arecibo radar is about 20 times more sensitive and can detect asteroids about twice as far away, but because the main dish is stationary it can only see about one-third of the sky. Goldstone is fully steerable and can see about 80 percent of the accessible sky, so it can track objects several times longer per day and can image asteroids at finer spatial resolution. To date, Goldstone and Arecibo have observed 272 near-Earth asteroids and 14 comets with radar. JPL manages the Goldstone Solar System Radar and the Deep Space Network for NASA.NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes. The Near-Earth Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them, and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch.More information about asteroid radar research is at:http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/.More information about the Deep Space Network is at:http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-advisory-council-calls-for-aggressive-mars-exploration-update

NASA's Advisory Council Calls for Aggressive Mars Exploration Update

A task force of NASA's Advisory Council has called for an aggressive unmanned exploration of Mars as precurser to manned exploration of the planet in the next century.

A task force of NASA's Advisory Council has called for an aggressive unmanned exploration of Mars as precurser to manned exploration of the planet in the next century.The Space Goals Task Force focused heavily on recommendations of the earlier National Commission on Space which also highlighted Mars exploration.Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been studying ways of returning Martian soil and rock samples to earth by means of robotic rover that could explore parts of the Martian surface.A recent study bringing the Apollo Lunar rover technology to state-of-the-art has resulted in recommendations for Mars Rover 1996 Mission Concept. The study, prepared by JPL group led by James Randolph, defined design concept for Mars rover vehicle which would explore the face of Mars for five years or more.The current rover technology includes stereo camera vision system, sensors, computer brain, controlled manipulators and drill system for acquiring samples.The proposed vehicle would have mass of no more than 700 kilograms (1,540 pounds), be six meters long and two meters across.It would have mobility, guidance and control system that could be expected to traverse safely at least one kilometer (0.62 of mile) per day for five years over Martian equatorial terrain, climb vertical steps one meter high and cross crevasses one meter wide. The vehicle also could climb smooth grades of 60 degrees and 35 degree grades on loose sand.The rover would provide volume of 1.2 cubic meters for science payload of 100 kg (220 pounds). There would be an average of 50 watts of electrical power for the science package during data acquisition -- not while moving -- and 25 watts of standby power for the science package. Power would be provided by radioisotope thermoelectric generator.The study results state that the robot would probably require stereo imaging, but some novel laser ranging or designation technique may also be considered.Two guidance systems were considered in the study. One is Computer-Aided Remote Driving (CARD), which allows human operator to designate an extended path for vehicle based on stereo images. laser range finder would measure the distances between the rover and any obstacles not previously considered and planned for. Images of the local terrain around the rover would be taken by the stereo cameras and sent to earth. After analyses by earth-based operators, the data would be returned to the rover's on-board computer and would instruct it to travel over the safest course toward given destination.An alternative is semi-autonomous control using an orbiter to map and relay to earth so operators could plan traversals of perhaps 10 km for the rover to execute at time. The use of orbiter support images to help plan where the orbiter could go could increase daily traverse distances as much as ten times.The orbiter also would be radio relay that would allow communications with the vehicle when it otherwise would be beyond the view of earth.The proposed rover configuration includes three cabs, each with two independently powered wheels, connected by flexible ties which permit pitch, yaw and roll motions. The rover is steered by counter rotation of the two end cabs. The vehicle's wheels are one meter in diameter and its axle spacing is 1.6 meters to allow climbing l.5 meter obstacle.Brian Wilcox, supervisor of Robotics and Teleoperators Research Group at JPL, said rover could be sent to Mars using single launch of the space shuttle. The mission would employ soft lander similar to the Viking landers."The possibility of Martian rover makes sense," he said, "because it will take substantial effort to land men on Mars. One can expect delay of perhaps 10 years or more between the landing of rover for unmanned exploration and the time when the first manned expedition arrives."A mission scenario now under consideration calls for five-year rover mission, or longer. After the first year it would return rock and soil specimens to sample return vehicle which would then be launched to earth.Wilcox stressed the value of another Mars mission. "The Viking experience was that we found planet which, far from being an essentially dead hulk as is the moon, has rich geologic history. It has volcanoes; it has river valleys; apparently at one time it had flowing water; it has sand dunes; it has lava beds; it has all the structures and tectonic richness that planet like earth would have.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-presents-new-information-on-crustal-deformation

JPL Presents New Information on Crustal Deformation

New information on the rate of crustal deformation along earthquake faults in central and southern California was presented Thursday by Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist before science conference in San Francisco.

New information on the rate of crustal deformation along earthquake faults in central and southern California was presented Thursday by Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist before science conference in San Francisco.Kristine M. Larson based her estimates on Global Positioning System (GPS) data collected between June 1986 and March 1989. Her paper was presented before the 1989 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union.The data sets spanned both large and small tectonic features which make up the North American-Pacific plate boundary.Her paper covers three networks: one spanning the San Andreas fault and California coastal range, another crossing the Santa Barbara Channel and the third designed to measure deformation, if any, between the southern California coast and the offshore islands of San Clemente, Santa Catalina and San Nicolas.GPS measurements of relative motion across the San Andreas of 33 plus or minus 5) millimeters per year are consistent in magnitude and orientation with previous geologic and geodesic estimates, she said. The offshore regions are deforming at rates on the order of 10 mm per year, again with an uncertainty of 5 mm per year.Larson was scheduled to present her paper at an afternoon meeting Thursday, Dec. 7.The study was performed at JPL under contract with NASA. The data was collected by the United States Geological Survey, National Geodetic Survey, UCLA, UCSD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Caltech and JPL.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-invites-you-to-picture-earth-for-earth-day

NASA Invites You to 'Picture Earth' for Earth Day

Our magnificent planet is always ready for its close-up. For Earth Day, NASA wants to see your take.

Our magnificent planet is always ready for its close-up. On Earth Day, April 22, NASA wants to see your take.NASA invites you to celebrate the planet we call home with our #PictureEarth social media event. Post a close-up photo on social media of your favorite natural features, such as crashing waves, ancient trees, blooming flowers or stunning sunsets. Use the hashtag #PictureEarth and upload the photo on April 22. Be sure to include the location where the photo was taken in the text of your social media post.On Earth Day, we will share some of NASA's most stunning images of Earth from space to inspire you. We'll check Instagram, Twitter and our NASA Earth Facebook event page to find your images and select photos from around the world to showcase later in videos and composite images.NASA satellite and airborne instruments picture Earth every day to increase our knowledge of our home and improve lives. These images, shared with scientists and the public worldwide, may use visible light, like a photographer's camera, or peer into infrared, microwave and radio wavelengths that are invisible to human eyes.Scientists use data from all of our instruments, and from Earth-observing spacecraft from other nations, to build a picture of the planet that grows more and more complete over time. On April 26, our next addition to our Earth-observing fleet, theOrbiting Carbon Observatory 3, is set to launch to the International Space Station. The new knowledge made possible by this fleet helps create solutions to important global issues such as changing freshwater availability, food security and human health.For more information about NASA's #PictureEarth, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/earth/picture-earth-for-earth-day-2019orhttps://www.nasa.gov/earth/retrata-la-tierra-para-el-d-a-de-la-tierra-2019For more information about NASA's Earth science programs, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/earth

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/space-shuttle-columbia-crew-memorialized-on-mars

Space Shuttle Columbia Crew Memorialized on Mars

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe today announced plans to name the landing site of the Mars Spirit rover in honor of the astronauts who died in the tragic accident of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe today announced plans to name the landing site of the Mars Spirit rover in honor of the astronauts who died in the tragic accident of the Space Shuttle Columbia in February. The area in the vast flatland of the Gusev Crater where Spirit landed this weekend will be called the Columbia Memorial Station.Since its historic landing, Spirit has been sending extraordinary images of its new surroundings on the red planet over the past few days. Among them, an image of a memorial plaque placed on the spacecraft to Columbia's astronauts and the STS-107 mission.The plaque is mounted on the back of Spirit's high-gain antenna, a disc-shaped tool used for communicating directly with Earth. The plaque is aluminum and approximately six inches in diameter. The memorial plaque was attached March 28, 2003, at the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Chris Voorhees and Peter Illsley, Mars Exploration Rover engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., designed the plaque."During this time of great joy for NASA, the Mars Exploration Rover team and the entire NASA family paused to remember our lost colleagues from the Columbia mission. To venture into space, into the unknown, is a calling heard by the bravest, most dedicated individuals," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe." As team members gazed at Mars through Spirit's eyes, the Columbia memorial appeared in images returned to Earth, a fitting tribute to their own spirit and dedication. Spirit carries the dream of exploration the brave astronauts of Columbia held in their hearts." Spirit successfully landed on Mars Jan. 3. It will spend the next three months exploring the barren landscape to determine if Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life. Spirit's twin, Opportunity, will reach Mars on Jan. 25 to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet.A copy of the image is available on the Internet at:http://www.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-misr-views-americas-national-parks-in-3-d

NASA's MISR Views America's National Parks in 3-D

In honor of the U.S. National Park Service's 100th anniversary, new 3-D images from NASA's MISR instrument showcase some of our nation's natural treasures.

Just in time for the U.S. National Park Service's Centennial celebration on Aug. 25, the Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite is releasing four new anaglyphs that showcase 33 of our nation's national parks, monuments, historical sites and recreation areas in glorious 3-D.MISR views Earth with nine cameras pointed at different angles, giving it the unique capability to produce anaglyphs -- stereoscopic images that allow the viewer to experience the landscape in three dimensions. The anaglyphs were made by combining data from MISR's vertical-viewing and 46-degree forward-pointing camera.If you'd like to experience the images with the 3-D effect, you will need red-blue glasses; make sure you place the red lens over your left eye. The images have been rotated so that north is to the left in order to enable 3-D viewing because the Terra satellite flies from north to south. All of the images are 235 miles (378 kilometers) wide from west to east.Instructions for making 3-D glasses are online at:http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/mars3d/3DGlasses.cfmSouthwest Splendor (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia20889)Acquired June 18, 2016Highlights visible in the Southwest Splendor anaglyph include Walnut Canyon National Monument, Arizona; Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Arizona; Wupatki National Monument, Arizona; Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona; Pipe Spring National Monument, Arizona; Zion National Park, Utah; Cedar Breaks National Monument, Utah; Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah; Capitol Reef National Park, Utah; Navajo National Monument, Arizona; Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Utah; Natural Bridges National Monument, Utah; Canyonlands National Park, Utah; and Arches National Park, Utah.Wyoming Wonders (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia20890)Acquired June 25, 2016In the Wyoming Wonders anaglyph, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming; John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, Wyoming; Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; and parts of Craters of the Moon National Monument, Idaho are visible.Pacific Northwest Panorama (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia20891)Acquired May 12, 2012Visible in the Pacific Northwest Panorama anaglyph are Lewis and Clark National Historic Park, Oregon; Mt. Rainier National Park, Washington; Olympic National Park, Washington; Ebey's Landing National Historical Reserve, Washington; San Juan Island National Historic Park, Washington; North Cascades National Park, Washington; Lake Chelan National Recreation Area, Washington; and Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Washington; as well as Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Washington, which is administered by the U.S. Forest Service.California Dreaming (http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia20892)Acquired July 7, 2016In the California Dreaming anaglyph, Sequoia National Park, California; Kings Canyon National Park, California; Manzanar National Historic Site, California; Devils Postpile National Monument, California; Yosemite National Park, California; and parts of Death Valley National Park, California are all visible.Credit: NASA/GSFC/LaRC/JPL-Caltech, MISR Team

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-wins-two-emmy-awards-for-interactive-mission-coverage

NASA Wins Two Emmy Awards for Interactive Mission Coverage

NASA-JPL's coverage of the Mars InSight landing earns one of the two wins, making this the NASA center's second Emmy.

NASA's efforts to engage a broader audience in exploration through the use of social media and online features was recognized with two Emmy Awards for interactive programming this weekend. During ceremonies held Sept. 14-15 at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences recognized NASA for its coverage of a Mars mission and the agency's first test of a spacecraft that will help bring crewed launches to the International Space Station back to U.S. soil.NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted, "Congrats to all involved and those who help tell the@NASAstory every day!"Part of the Creative Arts Emmys, the awards went out as follows:NASA and SpaceXOn Sept. 14, a team from NASA's Kennedy Space Center andSpaceXwon in the category of Outstanding Interactive Program for multimedia coverage of Demonstration Mission 1, a test flight of the SpaceX Crew Dragon to the International Space Station - the first human-rated spacecraft to lift off from U.S. soil since the end of the Space Shuttle program in 2011.Demonstration Mission 1 was made possible by NASA's Commercial Crew Program, which is paving the way for commercial transport of astronauts to the space station while the agency looks forward to deep space missions to the Moon and Mars. The nomination was the result of years of preparation for the historic launch and multiple live broadcasts from NASA and SpaceX facilities across the country during each phase of the Crew Dragon's mission to the International Space Station and its stunning return to Earth. Throughout NASA's coverage, the agency and SpaceX engaged social media users around the world and at local social media influencer gatherings at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.NASA's Jet Propulsion LaboratoryOn the second night, Sept. 15, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, won Outstanding Original Interactive Program for the agency's coverage - including news, web, education, television and social media efforts - of itsInSight(Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) mission to Mars.InSight is the first mission to study the deep interior of Mars, using an ultra-sensitive seismometer, a heat-flow probe and other instruments. InSight is managed for NASA by JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena. JPL won the 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for its coverage of the Cassini mission's Grand Finale at Saturn.An edited version of the two ceremonies will air on FXX Sept. 21. Selected Creative Arts Emmys will be shown as part of the live 71st Primetime Emmys broadcast on Sept. 22, which will air on Fox at 5 p.m. PDT (8 p.m. EDT).

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/utexas-nasa-study-sees-new-threat-to-east-antarctic-ice

UTexas-NASA Study Sees New Threat to East Antarctic Ice

Researchers have discovered two seafloor troughs that could allow warm ocean water to reach the base of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica's largest and most rapidly thinning glacier.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, NASA and other research organizations have discovered two seafloor troughs that could allow warm ocean water to reach the base of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica's largest and most rapidly thinning glacier. The discovery likely explains the glacier's extreme thinning and raises concern about its impact on sea level rise.The result, published in the journal Nature Geoscience today, March 16, has global implications because the ice flowing through Totten Glacier alone is equivalent to the entire volume of the more widely studied West Antarctic Ice Sheet. If Totten Glacier were to collapse completely, global sea levels would rise by at least 11 feet (3.3 meters). As in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, complete collapse of Totten Glacier may take centuries, although the timing of retreat in both places is the subject of intensive research.East Antarctica has appeared to be stable compared with the rapidly melting western side of the continent. The new finding shows that "Totten Glacier and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet are a much more interesting and dynamic part of the sea level rise story than we'd previously thought," said co-author Dustin Schroeder, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. Schroeder helped analyze data from an ice-penetrating radar to demonstrate that ocean water could access the glacier through the newfound troughs.In some areas of the ocean surrounding Antarctica, warm water can be found below cooler water because it is saltier, and therefore heavier, than the shallower water. Seafloor valleys that connect this deep warm water to the coast can especially compromise glaciers, but this process had previously been seen only under the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Deep warm water had been observed seaward of Totten Glacier, but there was no evidence that it could compromise coastal ice.The newly discovered troughs are deep enough to give the deep warm water access to the huge cavity under the glacier. The deeper of the two troughs extends from the ocean to the underside of Totten Glacier in an area not previously known to be floating.The data for this study were gathered as part of the International Collaboration for Exploration of the Cryosphere through Airborne Profiling (ICECAP) project, which, together with the East Antarctic component of NASA's Operation IceBridge mission, made the first comprehensive survey of the Totten Glacier Ice Shelf and nearby regions between 2008 and 2012. Other coauthors of the study come from research organizations and universities in Australia, France and England.For more information on the new study, see:http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2015/03/east-antarctica-melting-could-be-explained-by-oceanic-gatewaysTo learn more about Operation IceBridge and ICECAP, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/andhttp://www.ig.utexas.edu/research/projects/icecap/The paper is available at:http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2388.html

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-2020-comes-full-circle

NASA's Mars 2020 Comes Full Circle

Aiming to pinpoint the Martian vehicle's center of gravity, engineers took NASA's 2,300-pound Mars 2020 rover for a spin in the clean room at JPL.

Engineers took NASA's Mars 2020 for a spin on Aug. 29, 2019. The 2,300-pound (1,040-kilogram) Martian vehicle was rotated clockwise and counterclockwise at about 1 revolution per minute on what is called a spin table in the clean room of the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. (The rotation was speeded up in the video above.) The engineers were looking for the rover's center of gravity, or the point at which weight is evenly dispersed on all sides.Establishing the rover's center of gravityis a key part of the assembly process and helps ensure that the spacecraft travels smoothly from launch to entry, descent and landing on Mars as calculated. Engineers can add weights in order to help balance out the vehicle. In the end, they affixed nine tungsten weights totaling 44 pounds (20 kilograms) to the rover chassis at predetermined attachment points to get the center of gravity just right."The spin table process is similar to how a gas station would balance a new tire before putting it on your car," said Lemil Cordero, Mars 2020 mass properties engineer at JPL. "We rotate the rover back and forth and look for asymmetries in its mass distribution. Then, similar to your gas station putting small weights on the tire's rim to bring it into balance, we'll put small balance masses on the rover in specific locations to get its center of gravity exactly where we want it."This was the assembled rover's first spin table test to determine its center of gravity; a second and final spin table test will occur at a NASA facility at Cape Canaveral in Florida next spring.JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover for NASA. The rover will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in July 2020 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.When the rover lands atJezero Crateron Feb. 18, 2021, it will be the first spacecraft in the history of planetary exploration with the ability to accurately retarget its point of touchdown during the landing sequence.Charged with returning astronauts to the Moon by 2024, NASA's Artemislunar exploration planswill establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028. We will use what we learn on the Moon to prepare to send astronauts to Mars.To submit your name to travel to Mars with NASA's 2020 mission and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to the Red Planet, go here by Sept. 30, 2019:https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020PassFor more information about the mission, go to:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/tool-prepped-for-first-comet-orbiter

Tool Prepped for First Comet Orbiter

A lightweight NASA instrument from California has arrived in the Netherlands, one step closer in its journey to examine how gases escape from the nucleus of a comet.

A lightweight NASA instrument from California has arrived in the Netherlands, one step closer in its journey to examine how gases escape from the nucleus of a comet.The Microwave Instrument for the Rosetta Orbiter is one of 17 instruments that will fly aboard the European Space Agency's major mission to a comet. Rosetta will be the first spacecraft to orbit a comet, and the microwave instrument will be the first of its type to be sent to any solar system object other than Earth."We'll look at the abundance of the gases, their temperatures, the speed at which they're coming off, and the temperature of the comet's nucleus," said Dr. Margaret Frerking, the microwave instrument's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.The JPL-built device was incorporated into the main spacecraft structure in Alenia, Italy, and arrived in Noordwjik, Netherlands, to begin a series of tests by the European Space Agency. The next step in its journey is its path to Kourou, French Guinea, for its January 2003 launch into space. Rosetta will swing near Earth and two large asteroids before reaching its chosen dance partner, Comet Wirtanen, on Nov. 28, 2011. At that point in Wirtanen's 5.5-year orbit, the comet will be at about as far from the Sun as Jupiter and five times as far from the Sun as Earth.Rosetta will drop a lander onto Wirtanen's nucleus, and the orbiter will circle the comet at distances as close as 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).From the orbiter, the microwave instrument will monitor how the release of vapors from the comet's icy nucleus changes as Wirtanen moves closer to the Sun. Gases and dust escaping from the surface of a comet form a cloud-like "coma" around the nucleus and a tail pointed away from the Sun."The spacecraft will remain in orbit around Wirtanen for 20 months as the comet moves in from Jupiter's distance from the Sun to about Earth's distance," said JPL's Dr. Samuel Gulkis, principal investigator for the instrument. "During that time, the nucleus will warm significantly, and we'll be able to watch the whole process as the comet evolves from an inactive iceball to having a fully developed coma."The instruments onboard the orbiter will include a camera to study surface details, a microscope to analyze dust grains coming off the nucleus, spectrometers to examine surface and coma materials in various wavelengths, and an experiment to probe the comet's interior with radio waves.The microwave instrument is a very high frequency radio spectrometer, weighing about 20 kilograms (44 pounds). It is designed for studying water, carbon dioxide, ammonia and methanol gases, four of the most abundant gases from comets. The device is sensitive to slight differences in emission wavelengths from those gases, allowing it to measure the quantities coming off the nucleus, along with their temperatures and speeds."We want to get a good estimate of the amount of mass being lost by the comet so we can play that backward to get at what the comet was like shortly after it was formed," Gulkis said. That will help pin down ideas about how comets and planets were produced during the infancy of our solar system.The microwave instrument will also be able to measure both the surface temperature of the nucleus and the temperature just below the surface. "That temperature difference will tell us about the insulating properties of the surface and help us understand the thermal physics of what's going on inside the nucleus," Gulkis said.As Rosetta passes the stony asteroid Otawara and the carbon-rich asteroid Siwa on its roundabout route to Wirtanen, the microwave instrument will examine thermal properties of those minor planets' surfaces and check whether they have any permafrost layer leaking small quantities of water vapor into space.Online information is available about Rosetta athttp://sci.esa.int/rosetta/. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the instrument for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-names-manager-of-mars-reconnaissance-orbiter-project

JPL Names Manager of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project

James Graf of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been named manager of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.

James Graf of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., has been named manager of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission.As project manager, Graf will oversee all aspects of the development and operations of the mission, proposed for launch in August 2005. The mission will conduct remote sensing of the planet's surface to identify evidence of past or present water and will help identify safe and scientifically exciting landing sites for future robotic and perhaps someday human missions. The Reconnaissance Orbiter will also establish a telecommunications link for future missions."The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is a giant step forward in our capability to examine Mars. It will enable scientists to pull back the curtain on this very confusing and mysterious planet and study the surface in unprecedented detail," Graf said. "The imager on board the spacecraft should be able to resolve ground features to a resolution considerably higher than anything we've done before. For instance, we should be able to identify rocks down to two-thirds of a meter in diameter [about two feet]."Graf previously managed the Quick Scatterometer mission (QuikSCAT) and the development of its SeaWinds radar instrument. Graf has been with JPL for 25 years. He has a bachelor's degree in science and engineering from Princeton University, New Jersey and a master's in mechanical engineering from Colorado State University.Graf, his wife Kris, and their two children live in La Canada, Calif.JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-airs-images-cyclone-kenneth-over-mozambique

NASA's AIRS Images Cyclone Kenneth over Mozambique

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, aboard the Aqua satellite, captures the powerful storm just before landfall over the African nation.

Just weeks after Cyclone Idai left a path of destruction through Mozambique, Cyclone Kenneth is now battering the country in southeast Africa. It is likely the strongest storm on record to hit Mozambique, with wind speeds equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane at landfall. It is also the first time in recent history that the country has been hit by back-to-back hurricane-strength storms.NASA's Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured this infrared image of Kenneth just as the storm was about to make landfall on April 25. The large purple area indicates very cold clouds carried high into the atmosphere by deep thunderstorms. The orange areas are mostly cloud-free; the clear air is caused by air moving outward from the cold clouds near the storm's center, then downward into the surrounding areas.The image was taken at 1:30 p.m. local time, just before the cyclone made landfall in northern Mozambique's Cabo Delgado Province. With maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph), Kenneth was the first known hurricane-strength storm to make landfall in the province. Heavy rainfall and life-threatening flooding are expected over the next several days.AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), senses emitted infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to provide a three-dimensional look at Earth's weather and climate. Working in tandem, the two instruments make simultaneous observations down to Earth's surface, even in the presence of heavy clouds. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, three-dimensional map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations and many other atmospheric phenomena. Launched into Earth orbit in 2002, the AIRS and AMSU instruments fly onboard NASA's Aqua spacecraft and are managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, under contract with NASA. JPL is a division of Caltech.More information about AIRS and NASA's Disasters Program can be found here:https://airs.jpl.nasa.gov/https://disasters.nasa.gov/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpl-leads-educator-workshops-on-space-at

JPL Leads Educator Workshops on Space at

Educators will learn how to bring the wonders of space into classrooms on Earth at four workshops provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., as part of "Universe 2000," the 112th annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, taking place in Pasadena from July 13 to 19. JPL-led educator workshops include:

Educators will learn how to bring the wonders of space into classrooms on Earth at four workshops provided by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., as part of "Universe 2000," the 112th annual meeting of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, taking place in Pasadena from July 13 to 19. JPL-led educator workshops include:"Light, Waves and Interference" with Dr. Rudi Danner and Rhonda Hines, JPL: Learn how different NASA/JPL flight projects use the wave nature of light and radio waves for extremely accurate measurements."Scale of Stars and Planets" with Dr. Mary Urquhart, JPL and Sheri Klug, Arizona State University: A set of hands-on science/math lesson plans for grades 6-8 explores stars and their relationship to planets, with a special focus on scale. Scale models help students understand relative sizes and distances of solar system objects."Teaching Space Science with the Math and Science Standards" with Ken Berry, JPL: This session will cover many new space science discoveries and how to apply them to the California State and National Math and Science Standards."Saturn In Your Kitchen and Backyard" with Stephen Edberg and Shannon McConnell, JPL: Bring the high-tech world of space exploration into the classroom using everyday materials. These inquiry-based activities introduce students to astronomical concepts, planetary geology, and remote-sensing techniques.These workshops are part of the annual meetings "Universe in the Classroom: A Workshop on Teaching Astronomy in Grades 3-12," on July 13 and 14. Designed for teachers at all levels of expertise, librarians, curriculum specialists and youth group leaders, this two-day program includes such topics as black holes, constellations and how to make comets in the classroom. A symposium called "Cosmos in the Classroom: Teaching Astronomy to College Non-Science Majors," July 17-19, is designed to help teachers of introductory college astronomy put astronomy in a wider context.All these educator events take place at the Pasadena Convention Center, 300 East Green Street in Pasadena, 8:30 a.m.- 5:30 p.m. For details and fees, visithttp://www.aspsky.org/meetings.html, call (415) 337-1100, fax (415) 337-5205 or e-mail meeting@aspsky.org.The Astronomical Society of the Pacific is the world's largest astronomical society. JPL is a meeting sponsor, along with the Griffith Observatory, Meade Instruments Corp., Mount Wilson Observatory, the Planetary Society and The Teaching Company. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ultrasonic-welding-makes-parts-for-nasa-missions-commercial-industry

Ultrasonic Welding Makes Parts for NASA Missions, Commercial Industry

A manufacturing innovation that has applications for NASA spacecraft is being transferred to the private sector to support a variety of industries here on Earth.

A burst water main is always expensive and messy, but a pipe that fails in space can be mission-ending. That’s why NASA technologists work hard to make hardware as reliable as possible. Sometimes that means scrapping the old way of doing things and experimenting with a brand-new material – or fabrication process.This challenge spurred Scott Roberts, a technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, to turn to a new kind of welding in the 3D printing industry. The private sector was already using this technique, called ultrasonic additive manufacturing (UAM). With some additional innovation, Roberts thought it could be used to improve reliability in heat exchangers, a crucial component of any spacecraft. Improvements one company made to its UAM process to help Roberts build better spacecraft are now beginning to pay off in industries from aeronautics to oil drilling.“The problems I’m working on don’t solve one problem for one mission,” said Roberts. “They’re going to solve a class of problems for both NASA and industry.”What does 3D printing have to do with pipes?Temperature is a particularly difficult problem in space, where extremes can vary by hundreds of degrees. Heat exchangers help maintain a steady temperature inside a spacecraft by removing excess heat or drawing in more. Traditionally, these devices include a long, snaking pipe attached to a metal plate with brackets and epoxy. Although effective, they consist of many interconnected parts, introducing many potential points of failure.With ultrasonic additive manufacturing, however, the entire device can be crafted as a single piece. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding provided by JPL made it possible for Roberts to work with Columbus, Ohio-based Fabrisonic LLC on a new heat exchanger design. As a subcontractor for Sheridan Solutions LLC, Fabrisonic started with an existing process that builds up multiple thin layers of metal by fusing them together with high-frequency vibrations. To create the heat exchanger, a curved channel is carved into the layered metal and then enclosed under additional layers.The new design replaces dozens of small parts and joints that could fail during a long-term mission or under extreme conditions on Earth.How can vibrations fuse metal?Ultrasonic welding uses sound and friction to create a solid-state bond between layers of metal. It begins with a thin foil pressed onto another metal component such as a base plate. Constant pressure and ultrasonic vibrations cause friction between the facing sides, creating a shearing motion that raises temperatures and removes surface oxides, allowing direct contact of pure metal to pure metal. The result is a solid-state atomic bond that welds layers of metal together. Even layers of different metal can be bonded into a single piece.Relatively little heat is required because the bonding temperature for metals is significantly below their melting temperature. Fabrisonic can quickly piece together layers as large as six feet square, making it possible to create a part with a complex geometry in a matter of days, rather than the months required by traditional fabrication practices. This shortens the development cycle for a spacecraft or speeds the manufacture of commercial parts.CubeSats can be used for a variety of tasks, but their small size makes it a challenge to fit all the parts as well as the shielding needed to manage the extreme temperatures of space. NASA is interested in new manufacturing techniques that enable more efficient use of materials.Credit: NASAWhy combine different metals?Protecting electronic components from intense space radiation that can destroy them is challenging when everything on a spacecraft needs to be lightweight. It’s one problem Roberts is trying to solve using novel materials.Additional SBIR fundingprovided by NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, paid for Fabrisonic to add layers of the radiation-resistant metal tantalum in the middle of aluminum spacecraft parts.Unlike other forms of welding, UAM won’t cause the different metals to liquefy and mix together. Engineers can rely on the properties of each metal to remain constant and perform as expected, said Mark Norfolk, president of Fabrisonic. This quality demonstrated that NASA could realize its goal of combining the aluminum with tantalum.The ability to meld layers of different metals also has advantages for customers in the oil and gas industry, who now rely on various Fabrisonic parts for drilling, Norfolk noted. One is a well drill pipe – a hollow, thin-walled tubing that combines dissimilar materials and uses embedded sensors.Why put sensorsinsidemetal?New fiber optic sensors can detect metal strain or weaknesses and predict possible failures before they occur. But metal manufactured using traditional methods can only support these sensors on the exterior of the part. In an attempt to embed them, the heat used in the manufacturing process would destroy the delicate devices.OtherSBIR fundingfrom Langley helped Fabrisonic, again as a Sheridan subcontractor, test the effectiveness of sensors built into the interior of aluminum parts with ultrasonic welding. After some trial and error to find the best sensors for such an innovative application, engineers were able to obtain accurate, real-time data about the health and performance of the metal. Because the sensors are protected, they can function in harsh environments. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, which conducts energy and nuclear research, is successfully using Fabrisonic’s embedded sensors in its facilities. In NASA aeronautics testing, these Fabrisonic sensors help detect weaknesses and performance issues in commercial airframes.What if I want to print small parts myself?NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, meanwhile, funded Fabrisonic’s exploration of the use of advanced metallic materials and UAM for in-space manufacturing, this time as a subcontractor on Phase I and IISBIR contractswith a machine automation company called Ultra Tech Machinery Inc. The agency’s engineers worked with Fabrisonic to develop a small UAM printer for use on the space station. The company had a design ready but didn’t know if it would work. NASA specifications made it possible to build, test, and refine the most important component of the printer – the weld head. This part transfers the ultrasonic vibration onto the metal tape used in the printer.Miniaturizing this technology for fabricating smaller parts offers a more cost-effective approach than using an industrial UAM process. Commercial sales of the company’s resulting SonicLayer 1200 printer have generated $1 million in revenue, with one customer producing over 70,000 parts in-house.Commercial success has allowed the company to develop a diverse customer base and double in size, growing to 12 employees.“Without SBIR and other government support, Fabrisonic may not have crossed the chasm between startup and commercial success,” said Norfolk. “It has enabled important research and developments. It makes critical information available, such as materials characterization data and case studies that help spread technology.”NASA has a long history of transferring technology to theprivate sector. The agency’s Spinoff publication profiles NASA technologies that have transformed into commercial products and services, demonstrating the broader benefits of America’s investment in its space program. Spinoff is a publication of the Technology Transfer program in NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.For more information on how NASA brings space technology down to Earth, visit:spinoff.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/some-mars-minerals-with-watery-past-may-be-relatively-young

Some Mars Minerals with Watery Past May be Relatively Young

Alteration of minerals by water may have been common on Mars into the second half of the planet's age, a new analysis of observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests.

Minerals formed by water altering precursor geological materials are widespread on Mars. Most come from a wet era more than 3.7 billion years ago, early in the planet's 4.5-billion-year history. A new study shows that later alteration by water, within the last 2 billion years or so, may be more common than previously thought.Geologists Ralph Milliken and Vivian Sun of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, surveyed sites near the center of 633 Martian craters, including 265 with deposits of clays and other hydrated minerals detected in observations from orbit.At several of the sites, evidence pointed to local formation of the hydrated minerals inside relatively young craters. The study is reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets.The full story from Brown University is at:https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/12/marsFor more about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, visit:http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-stardust-spacecraft-completes-comet-flyby

NASA's Stardust Spacecraft Completes Comet Flyby

Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., watched as data downlinked from the Stardust spacecraft indicated it completed its closest approach with comet Tempel 1.

PASADENA, Calif. - Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., watched as data downlinked from the Stardust spacecraft indicated it completed its closest approach with comet Tempel 1. An hour after closest approach, the spacecraft turned to point its large, high-gain antenna at Earth. It is expected that images of the comet's nucleus collected during the flyby will be received on Earth starting at about midnight California time (3 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Feb. 15).Preliminary data already transmitted from the spacecraft indicate the time of closest approach was about 8:39 p.m. PST (11:39 p.m. EST), at a distance of 181 kilometers (112 miles) from Tempel 1.This is a bonus mission for the comet chaser, which previously flew past comet Wild 2 and returned samples from its coma to Earth. During this bonus encounter, the plan called for the spacecraft to take images of the comet's surface to observe what changes occurred since a NASA spacecraft last visited. (NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft executed an encounter with Tempel 1 in July 2005).Stardust-NExT is a low-cost mission that will expand the investigation of comet Tempel 1 initiated by NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages Stardust-NExT for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft and manages day-to-day mission operations.For more information about Stardust-NExT, visit:http://stardustnext.jpl.nasa.gov.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-aura-satellite-delivered-to-launch-site

NASA'S Aura Satellite Delivered to Launch Site

NASA's Aura spacecraft, the latest in the Earth Observing System series, has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., to begin launch preparations.

NASA's Aura spacecraft, the latest in the Earth Observing System series, has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., to begin launch preparations.Aura was transported from Northrop Grumman's Space Park manufacturing facility in Redondo Beach, Calif. The spacecraft will undergo final tests and integration with a Boeing Delta II rocket for a scheduled launch in June.Aura's four state-of-the-art instruments, including two built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will study the atmosphere's chemistry and dynamics. The spacecraft will provide data to help scientists better understand Earth's ozone, air quality and climate change. JPL's Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer is an infrared sensor designed to study Earth's troposphere-the lowest region of the atmosphere-and to look at ozone. JPL's Microwave Limb Sounder is an instrument intended to improve our understanding of ozone in Earth's stratosphere, vital in protecting us from solar ultraviolet radiation."The entire Aura team is very excited to see all our efforts come to fruition and is looking forward to a successful launch," said Rick Pickering, Aura project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.Aura fulfills part of NASA's commitment to study Earth as a global system and represents a key agency contribution to the U.S. Global Change Research Program. This mission will continue the global data collection underway by NASA's other Earth Observing System satellites: Terra, which monitors land; and Aqua, which observes Earth's water cycle.The Aura spacecraft is part of NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, a long-term research effort to determine how human-induced and natural changes affect the global environment.For more information about Aura on the Internet, visithttp://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov. For more information about the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer on the Internet, visithttp://tes.jpl.nasa.gov/. For more information about the Microwave Limb Sounder on the Internet, visithttp://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/.JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-study-suggests-shallow-lakes-in-europas-icy-crust-could-erupt

NASA Study Suggests Shallow Lakes in Europa’s Icy Crust Could Erupt

New research makes hypotheses that NASA’s Europa Clipper can test: Any plumes or volcanic activity at the Jovian moon’s surface are caused by shallow lakes in its icy crust.

This illustration depicts a plume of water vapor that could potentially be emitted from the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. New research sheds light on what plumes, if they do exist, could reveal about lakes that may be inside the moon’s crust.Credit: NASA/ESA/K. Retherford/SWRIFull Image DetailsIn the search for life beyond Earth, subsurface bodies of water in our outer solar system are some of the most important targets. That’s why NASA is sending the Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter’s moon Europa: There is strong evidence that under a thick crust of ice, the moon harbors a global ocean that could potentially be habitable.But scientists believe the ocean isn’t the only water onEuropa. Based on observations fromNASA’s Galileoorbiter, they believe salty liquid reservoirs may reside inside the moon’s icy shell – some of them close to the surface of the ice and some many miles below.The more scientists understand about the water that Europa may be holding, the more likely they will know where to look for it when NASA sendsEuropa Clipperin 2024 to conduct a detailed investigation. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and use itssuite of sophisticated instrumentsto gather science data as it flies by the moon about 50 times.Now, research is helping scientists better understand what the subsurface lakes in Europa may look like and how they behave. A key finding in a paperpublished recentlyin Planetary Science Journal supports the longstanding idea that water could potentially erupt above the surface of Europa either as plumes of vapor or as cryovolcanic activity (think: flowing, slushy ice rather than molten lava).The computer modeling in the paper goes further, showing that if there are eruptions on Europa, they likely come from shallow, wide lakes embedded in the ice and not from the global ocean far below.“We demonstrated that plumes or cryolava flows could mean there are shallow liquid reservoirs below, which Europa Clipper would be able to detect,” said Elodie Lesage, Europa scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the research. “Our results give new insights into how deep the water might be that’s driving surface activity, including plumes. And the water should be shallow enough that it can be detected by multiple Europa Clipper instruments.”This color view of Jupiter’s moon Europa was captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Scientists are studying processes that affect the moon’s surface as they prepare to explore the icy body.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI InstituteFull Image DetailsDifferent Depths, Different IceLesage’s computer modeling lays out a blueprint for what scientists might find inside the ice if they were to observe eruptions at the surface. According to her models, they likely would detect reservoirs relatively close to the surface, in the upper 2.5 to 5 miles (4 to 8 kilometers) of the crust, where the ice is coldest and most brittle.That’s because the subsurface ice there doesn’t allow for expansion: As the pockets of water freeze and expand, they could break the surrounding ice and trigger eruptions, much like a can of soda in a freezer explodes. And pockets of water that do burst through would likely be wide and flat like pancakes.Reservoirs deeper in the ice layer – with floors more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) below the crust – would push against warmer ice surrounding them as they expand. That ice is soft enough to act as a cushion, absorbing the pressure rather than bursting. Rather than acting like a can of soda, these pockets of water would behave more like a liquid-filled balloon, where the balloon simply stretches as the liquid within it freezes and expands.Learn more about Jupiter’s icy moon Europa with NASA’s fully interactiveEyes on the Solar System. Click anywhere on the moon to take it for a spin. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechSensing FirsthandScientists on the Europa Clipper mission can use this research when the spacecraft arrives at Europa in 2030. For example, the radar instrument – called Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) – is one of the key instruments that will be used to look for water pockets in the ice.“The new work shows that water bodies in the shallow subsurface could be unstable if stresses exceed the strength of the ice and could be associated with plumes rising above the surface,” said Don Blankenship, of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics in Austin, Texas, who leads the radar instrument team. “That means REASON could be able to see water bodies in the same places that you see plumes.”Europa Clipper will carry other instruments that will be able to test the theories of the new research. Thescience cameraswill be able to make high-resolution color and stereoscopic images of Europa; thethermal emission imagerwill use an infrared camera to map Europa’s temperatures and find clues about geologic activity – including cryovolcanism. If plumes are erupting, they could be observable by theultraviolet spectrograph, the instrument that analyzes ultraviolet light.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERMore About the MissionMissions such as Europa Clipper contribute to the field ofastrobiology, the interdisciplinary research field that studies the conditions of distant worlds that could harbor life as we know it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct a detailed exploration of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa’s habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with APL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.More information about Europa can be found here:europa.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-picks-contractor-to-chill-space-telescope-instrument

NASA Picks Contractor to Chill Space Telescope Instrument

NASA has awarded a subcontract to Northrop Grumman Space Technology in Redondo Beach, Calif., to develop an ultra-cold mechanical helium cryocooler for the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA has awarded a subcontract to Northrop Grumman Space Technology in Redondo Beach, Calif., to develop an ultra-cold mechanical helium cryocooler for the Mid-Infrared Instrument on the James Webb Space Telescope. The contract totals about $22 million.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is the U.S. partner in developing the instrument, along with a European consortium sponsored by the European Space Agency. With a planned 2013 launch, the Webb Space Telescope will study the earliest galaxies and some of the first stars formed after the Big Bang. The cryocooler delivery date is 2010.The Mid-Infrared Instrument must be cooled to 6 Kelvin (minus 449 degrees Fahrenheit), much colder than the planned 40 Kelvin (minus 388 Fahrenheit) temperature of the Webb Space Telescope. This will allow the instrument to detect room temperature heat emitted by stars, galaxies and other objects.Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., manages the James Webb Space Telescope for NASA. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.For more information about the James Webb Space Telescope, visithttp://www.jwst.nasa.gov/. More information about NASA and agency missions is athttp://www.nasa.gov/home.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/rosettas-lander-philae-wakes-from-comet-nap

Rosetta's Lander Philae Wakes From Comet Nap

Rosetta's Philae lander wakes up from hibernation on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

The European Space Agency's Rosetta's lander (Philae) is out of hibernation. The signals were received at ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany at 22:28 local time (CEST) on June 13. Since then, more than 300 data packets have been analyzed by the teams at the Lander Control Center at the German Aerospace Center."Philae is doing very well: It has an operating temperature of minus 35 degrees centigrade and has 24 watts available," said the German Aerospace Center's Philae Project Manager Stephan Ulamec. "The lander is ready for operations."For 85 seconds Philae "spoke" with its team on the ground, via Rosetta, in the first contact since going into hibernation in November 2014.When analyzing the status data, it became clear that Philae also must have been awake earlier. "We have also received historical data -- so far, however, the lander had not been able to contact us earlier," Ulamec said.Now the scientists are waiting for the next contact. There are still more than 8,000 data packets in Philae's mass memory, which will give the German Aerospace Center (DLR) team information on what happened to the lander in the past few days on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.Philae shut down on November 15, 2014, at 1:15 CET, after being in operation on the comet for about 60 hours. Since March 12, 2015, the communication unit on the Rosetta orbiter was turned on to listen out for the lander.Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center in Cologne; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen; French National Space Agency in Paris; and the Italian Space Agency in Rome.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the U.S. contributions to the Rosetta mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO instrument and hosts its principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. The Southwest Research Institute, located in San Antonio and Boulder, developed Rosetta's IES and Alice instruments and hosts their principal investigators, James Burch (IES) and Alan Stern (Alice).For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.govMore information about Rosetta is available at:http://www.esa.int/rosetta

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/sensor-on-mars-rover-to-measure-radiation-environment

Sensor on Mars Rover to Measure Radiation Environment

One of the experiments on NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission will measure the natural radiation environment to aid plans for future human missions.

About eight months before the NASA rover Curiosity touches down on Mars in August 2012, the mission's science measurements will begin much closer to Earth.The Mars Science Laboratory mission's Radiation Assessment Detector, or RAD, will monitor naturally occurring radiation that can be unhealthful if absorbed by living organisms. It will do so on the surface of Mars, where there has never before been such an instrument, as well as during the trip between Mars and Earth.RAD's measurements on Mars will help fulfill the mission's key goals of assessing whether Curiosity's landing region on Mars has had conditions favorable for life and for preserving evidence about life. This instrument also will do an additional job. Unlike any of the nine others in this robotic mission's science payload, RAD has a special task and funding from the part of NASA that is planning human exploration beyond Earth orbit. It will aid design of human missions by reducing uncertainty about how much shielding from radiation future astronauts will need. The measurements between Earth and Mars, as well as the measurements on Mars, will serve that purpose."No one has fully characterized the radiation environment on the surface of another planet. If we want to send humans there, we need to do that," said RAD Principal Investigator Don Hassler of the Boulder, Colo., branch of the Southwest Research Institute.Whether the first destination for human exploration beyond the moon is an asteroid or Mars, the travelers will need protection from the radiation environment in interplanetary space. Hassler said, "The measurements we get during the cruise from Earth to Mars will help map the distribution of radiation throughout the solar system and be useful in mission design for wherever we send astronauts."RAD will monitor high-energy atomic and subatomic particles coming from the sun, from distant supernovas and from other sources. These particles constitute the radiation that could be harmful to any microbes near the surface of Mars or to astronauts on a Mars mission. Galactic cosmic rays, coming from supernova explosions and other events extremely far from our own solar system, are a variable shower of charged particles. In addition, the sun itself spews electrons, protons and heavier ions in "solar particle events" fed by solar flares and ejections of matter from the sun's corona. Astronauts might need to move into havens with extra shielding on an interplanetary spacecraft or on Mars during solar particle events.Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere provide effective shielding for our home planet against the possible deadly effects of galactic cosmic rays and solar particle events. Mars, though, lacks a global magnetic field and has only about one percent as much atmosphere as Earth. Just to find high-enough radiation levels on Earth for checking and calibrating RAD, the instrument team needed to put it inside major particle-accelerator research facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and South Africa.An instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, which reached Mars in 2001, assessed radiation levels above the Martian atmosphere. Current estimates of the radiation environment at the planet's surface rely on modeling of how the thin atmosphere affects the energetic particles, but uncertainty in the modeling remains large. "A single energetic particle hitting the top of the atmosphere can break up into many particles -- a cascade of lower-energy particles that might be more damaging to life than a single high-energy particle," Hassler noted.The 1.7-kilogram (3.8-pound) RAD instrument has an upward-pointing, wide-angle telescope with detectors for charged particles with masses up to that of iron. It can also detect secondary neutrons coming from both the Mars atmosphere above and Mars surface material below. Hassler's international RAD team includes experts in instrument design, astronaut safety, atmospheric science, geology and other fields.Southwest Research Institute, in Boulder and in San Antonio, Texas, and Christian Albrechts University, in Kiel, Germany, built RAD with funding from the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and Germany's national aerospace research center: Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt. The team assembling and testing the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., installed RAD onto Curiosity last month for the late-2011 launch.RAD measurements during the trip from Earth to Mars will enable correlations with instruments on other spacecraft that monitor solar particle events and galactic cosmic rays in Earth's neighborhood, then will yield data about the radiation environment farther from Earth.Once on Mars, the rover's prime mission will last a full Martian year -- nearly two Earth years. A one-time set of measurements by RAD would not suffice for determining the radiation environment on the surface, because radiation levels vary on time frames both longer than a year and shorter than an hour. Operational planning for Curiosity anticipates that RAD will record measurements for 15 minutes of every hour throughout the prime mission.Radiation levels probably make the surface of modern Mars inhospitable for microbial life. The measurements from RAD will feed calculations of how deeply a possible future robot on a life-detection mission might need to dig or drill to reach a microbial safe zone. For assessing whether the surface radiation environment could have been hospitable for microbes in Mars' distant past, researchers will combine RAD's measurements with estimates of how the activity of the sun and the atmosphere of Mars have changed in the past few billion years."The primary science goal of Curiosity is to determine whether its landing site is, or ever was, a habitable environment, a place friendly to life," said JPL's Ashwin Vasavada, deputy project scientist for the Mars Science Laboratory. "That involves looking both for conditions that would support life as well as for those that would be hazardous to life or its chemical predecessors. Natural, high-energy radiation is just such a hazard, and RAD will give us the first look at the present level of this radiation and help us to better estimate radiation levels throughout Mars' history."JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about the mission, seehttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-rovers-get-new-manager-during-challenging-period

Mars Rovers Get New Manager During Challenging Period

NASA's long-lived Mars rovers demand lots of care as they age and the Martian winter approaches.

NASA's long-lived Mars rovers demand lots of care as they age and the Martian winter approaches.Dr. John Callas, newly named project manager for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, is coordinating the work to meet these challenges. He is a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. He was named project manager after earlier roles as science manager and deputy project manager for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers."It continues to be an exciting adventure with each day like a whole new mission," Callas said. "Even though the rovers are well past their original design life, they still have plenty of capability to conduct outstanding science on Mars. The JPL operations team and the remote science team working on the project are the best in the solar system at what they do. It is a pleasure and a privilege to lead such an outstanding team and great mission."One of Spirit's six wheels has stopped working. Dragging that wheel, the solar-powered rover must reach a slope where it can catch enough sunshine to continue operating during the Martian winter. The period of minimum sunshine is more than 100 days away, but Spirit gets only enough power for about one hour per day of driving on flat ground. And the supply is dropping fast.Spirit's right-front wheel became a concern once before, when it began drawing unusually high current five months after the January 2004 landing on Mars. Driving Spirit backwards redistributed lubricant and returned the wheel to normal operation. This week, during the 779th Martian day of what was originally planned as a 90-Martian-day mission, the motor that rotates that wheel stopped working."It is not drawing any current at all," said JPL's Jacob Matijevic, rover engineering team chief. One possibility engineers are considering is that the motor's brushes, contacts that deliver power to the rotating part of the motor, have lost contact. The motors that rotate Spirit's wheels have revolved more than 13 million times, far more than called for in the rovers' design.Spirit's solar panels have been generating about 350 watt-hours of electricity daily for the past week. That is down about 15 percent since February and less than one-half of their output during the Martian summer.The best spot for Spirit is the north-facing side of "McCool Hill," where it could spend the southern-hemisphere winter tilted toward the sun. Spirit finished studying a bright feature called "Home Plate" last week and is driving from there toward the hill. It has approximately 120 meters (about 390 feet) to go. Driving backwards with the right-front wheel dragging, the rover needs to stop and check frequently that the problem wheel has not snagged on anything and caused other wheels to slip excessively. Expected progress is around 12 meters (40 feet) per day under current conditions.Opportunity is closer to the equator, so does not need to winter on a slope like Spirit. Opportunity spent most of the past four months at "Erebus Crater." It examined layered outcrops, while the rover team determined and tested a strategy for dealing with degraded performance by a motor in the shoulder of its robotic arm. Opportunity left Erebus this week and is on a 2 kilometer (1.2 mile) journey to a giant crater called "Victoria."Callas has worked on the Mars rovers' mission since 2000 and five other Mars missions since joining JPL in 1987. He succeeds Jim Erickson, who switched to a leadership role with NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Callas grew up near Boston and graduated from Tufts University, Medford, Mass. He earned his doctorate in physics from Brown University, Providence, R.I.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter projects for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.For images and information about the rovers on the Web, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/roversFor information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/home

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/missing-water-mystery-solved-in-comprehensive-survey-of-exoplanets

Missing Water Mystery Solved in Comprehensive Survey of Exoplanets

Missing Water Mystery Solved in Vast Exoplanet Survey

A survey of 10 hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets conducted with NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes has led a team to solve a long-standing mystery -- why some of these worlds seem to have less water than expected. The findings offer new insights into the wide range of planetary atmospheres in our galaxy and how planets are assembled.Of the nearly 2,000 planets confirmed to be orbiting other stars, a subset of them are gaseous planets with characteristics similar to those of Jupiter. However, they orbit very close to their stars, making them blistering hot.Their close proximity to the star makes them difficult to observe in the glare of starlight. Due to this difficulty, Hubble has only explored a handful of hot Jupiters in the past. These initial studies have found several planets to hold less water than predicted by atmospheric models.The international team of astronomers has tackled the problem by making the largest-ever spectroscopic catalogue of exoplanet atmospheres. All of the planets in the catalog follow orbits oriented so the planet passes in front of their parent star, as seen from Earth. During this so-called transit, some of the starlight travels through the planet's outer atmosphere. "The atmosphere leaves its unique fingerprint on the starlight, which we can study when the light reaches us," explains co-author Hannah Wakeford, now at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.By combining data from NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, the team was able to attain a broad spectrum of light covering wavelengths from optical to infrared. The difference in planetary radius as measured between visible and infrared wavelengths was used to indicate the type of planetary atmosphere being observed for each planet in the sample, whether hazy or clear. A cloudy planet will appear larger in visible light than at infrared wavelengths, which penetrate deeper into the atmosphere. It was this comparison that allowed the team to find a correlation between hazy or cloudy atmospheres and faint water detection."I'm really excited to finally see the data from this wide group of planets together, as this is the first time we've had sufficient wavelength coverage to compare multiple features from one planet to another," says David Sing of the University of Exeter, U.K., lead author of the paper. "We found the planetary atmospheres to be much more diverse than we expected.""Our results suggest it's simply clouds hiding the water from prying eyes, and therefore rule out dry hot Jupiters," explained co-author Jonathan Fortney of the University of California, Santa Cruz. "The alternative theory to this is that planets form in an environment deprived of water, but this would require us to completely rethink our current theories of how planets are born."The results are being published in the December 14 issue of the British science journal Nature.The study of exoplanetary atmospheres is currently in its infancy. Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, will open a new infrared window on the study of exoplanets and their atmospheres.The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.For images and more information about this study and Hubble, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/hubblehttp://hubblesite.org/news/2015/44For more information about Spitzer, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/spitzerhttp://spitzer.caltech.edu

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/my-favorite-martian-image-the-ridges-of-south-seiitah

My Favorite Martian Image: the Ridges of ‘South Séítah’

NASA’s Perseverance rover captures a geologic feature with details that offer clues to the area’s mysterious past.

Ask any space explorer, and they’ll have a favorite photograph or two from their mission. For Jorge Núñez, an astrobiologist and planetary scientist working on the science team of NASA’s Perseverance rover, one of his current favorites is a rover’s-eye panorama of the “South Séítah” region of Mars’ Jezero Crater. Exploring the geologic unit was among the major objectives of the team’sfirst science campaignbecause it may contain some of the deepest, and potentially oldest, rocks in the giant crater.“Just like any excited tourist approaching the end of a major road trip, we stopped at a lookout to get a first view of our destination,” said Núñez, who is based at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. “This panorama is spectacular because you feel like you are there. It shows not only the incredible scale of the area, but also all the exploration possibilities South Séítah has to offer. With multiple intriguing rocky outcrops and ridgelines, each one is seemingly better than the last. If it’s not a field geologist’s dream, it’s pretty close.”Composed of 84 individual enhanced-color images that were later stitched together, the mosaic was taken on Sept. 12 (the 201st Martian day, or sol, of the mission) by the Mastcam-Z camera system as the rover was parked on an elevated overlook just outside its entry point into South Séítah. Perseverance had just completed a record 190-yard (175-meter) drive the previous sol.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERThe mosaic was taken at the highest magnification and stretched to allow subtle color differences in the rocks and soil to be visible to the naked eye. Left of center and halfway up the image are the gray, darker gray, and Swiss-coffee-colored rocky outcrops of the ridge nicknamed “Faillefeu” (after a medieval abbey in the French Alps). The distinctly thin, at times tilted layering evident in several of Faillefeu’s rocks would have been high on the science team’s list of things to explore, because tilted layering suggests the possibility of tectonic activity. But similar features – along with other compelling geology – were visible on another ridgeline that the mission’s science team opted to explore instead.The “Martre Ridge” (named after a commune in southeastern France) is like Faillefeu except three times as big. It contains not only low-lying flat rocks near the base of the ridge, but also rocky outcrops with thin layering at the base and massive caprocks near and at the ridge’s peak. The caprocks are usually made of harder, more resistant material than those stacked below them, suggesting potential differences in how the material was deposited.“Another cool thing about this image is that one can also see in the background, on the right, the path Perseverance took as it made its way to South Séítah,” said Núñez. “And finally, there is the peak of ‘Santa Cruz’ far in the distance. We’re currently not planning on going there; it’s too far out of our way. But it is geologically interesting, reinforcing just how much great stuff the team gets to pick and choose from here at Jezero. It also looks cool.”More About PerseveranceA key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars isastrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includesArtemismissions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more about Perseverance:mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/andnasa.gov/perseverance

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-survey-counts-potentially-hazardous-asteroids

NASA Survey Counts Potentially Hazardous Asteroids

Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system's population of potentially hazardous asteroids.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have led to the best assessment yet of our solar system's population of potentially hazardous asteroids. The results reveal new information about their total numbers, origins and the possible dangers they may pose.Potentially hazardous asteroids, or PHAs, are a subset of the larger group of near-Earth asteroids. The PHAs have the closest orbits to Earth's, coming within five million miles (about eight million kilometers), and they are big enough to survive passing through Earth's atmosphere and cause damage on a regional, or greater, scale.The new results come from the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE mission, called NEOWISE. The project sampled 107 PHAs to make predictions about the entire population as a whole. Findings indicate there are roughly 4,700 PHAs, plus or minus 1,500, with diameters larger than 330 feet (about 100 meters). So far, an estimated 20 to 30 percent of these objects have been found.While previous estimates of PHAs predicted similar numbers, they were rough approximations. NEOWISE has generated a more credible estimate of the objects' total numbers and sizes."The NEOWISE analysis shows us we've made a good start at finding those objects that truly represent an impact hazard to Earth," said Lindley Johnson, program executive for the Near-Earth Object Observation Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "But we've many more to find, and it will take a concerted effort during the next couple of decades to find all of them that could do serious damage or be a mission destination in the future."The new analysis also suggests that about twice as many PHAs as previously thought are likely to reside in "lower-inclination" orbits, which are more aligned with the plane of Earth's orbit. In addition, these lower-inclination objects appear to be somewhat brighter and smaller than the other near-Earth asteroids that spend more time far away from Earth. A possible explanation is that many of the PHAs may have originated from a collision between two asteroids in the main belt lying between Mars and Jupiter. A larger body with a low-inclination orbit may have broken up in the main belt, causing some of the fragments to drift into orbits closer to Earth and eventually become PHAs.Asteroids with lower-inclination orbits would be more likely to encounter Earth and would be easier to reach. The results therefore suggest more near-Earth objects might be available for future robotic or human missions."NASA's NEOWISE project, which wasn't originally planned as part of WISE, has turned out to be a huge bonus," said Amy Mainzer, NEOWISE principal investigator, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Everything we can learn about these objects helps us understand their origins and fate. Our team was surprised to find the overabundance of low-inclination PHAs. Because they will tend to make more close approaches to Earth, these targets can provide the best opportunities for the next generation of human and robotic exploration."The discovery that many PHAs tend to be bright says something about their composition; they are more likely to be either stony, like granite, or metallic. This type of information is important in assessing the space rocks' potential hazards to Earth. The composition of the bodies would affect how quickly they might burn up in our atmosphere if an encounter were to take place.The NEOWISE results have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.The WISE spacecraft scanned the sky twice in infrared light before entering hibernation mode in early 2011. It catalogued hundreds of millions of objects, including super-luminous galaxies, stellar nurseries and closer-to-home asteroids. The NEOWISE project snapped images of about 600 near-Earth asteroids, about 135 of which were new discoveries. Because the telescope detected the infrared light, or heat, of asteroids, it was able to pick up both light and dark objects, resulting in a more representative look at the entire population. The infrared data allowed astronomers to make good measurements of the asteroids' diameters and, when combined with visible light observations, how much sunlight they reflect.JPL manages, and operates the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The principal investigator, Edward Wright, is at UCLA. The mission was competitively selected under NASA's Explorers Program managed by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The science instrument was built by the Space Dynamics Laboratory, Logan, Utah, and the spacecraft was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. Science operations and data processing and archiving take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.More information is online athttp://www.nasa.gov/wiseandhttp://jpl.nasa.gov/wise.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-study-suggests-shallow-lakes-in-europas-icy-crust-could-erupt

NASA Study Suggests Shallow Lakes in Europa’s Icy Crust Could Erupt

New research makes hypotheses that NASA’s Europa Clipper can test: Any plumes or volcanic activity at the Jovian moon’s surface are caused by shallow lakes in its icy crust.

This illustration depicts a plume of water vapor that could potentially be emitted from the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. New research sheds light on what plumes, if they do exist, could reveal about lakes that may be inside the moon’s crust.Credit: NASA/ESA/K. Retherford/SWRIFull Image DetailsIn the search for life beyond Earth, subsurface bodies of water in our outer solar system are some of the most important targets. That’s why NASA is sending the Europa Clipper spacecraft to Jupiter’s moon Europa: There is strong evidence that under a thick crust of ice, the moon harbors a global ocean that could potentially be habitable.But scientists believe the ocean isn’t the only water onEuropa. Based on observations fromNASA’s Galileoorbiter, they believe salty liquid reservoirs may reside inside the moon’s icy shell – some of them close to the surface of the ice and some many miles below.The more scientists understand about the water that Europa may be holding, the more likely they will know where to look for it when NASA sendsEuropa Clipperin 2024 to conduct a detailed investigation. The spacecraft will orbit Jupiter and use itssuite of sophisticated instrumentsto gather science data as it flies by the moon about 50 times.Now, research is helping scientists better understand what the subsurface lakes in Europa may look like and how they behave. A key finding in a paperpublished recentlyin Planetary Science Journal supports the longstanding idea that water could potentially erupt above the surface of Europa either as plumes of vapor or as cryovolcanic activity (think: flowing, slushy ice rather than molten lava).The computer modeling in the paper goes further, showing that if there are eruptions on Europa, they likely come from shallow, wide lakes embedded in the ice and not from the global ocean far below.“We demonstrated that plumes or cryolava flows could mean there are shallow liquid reservoirs below, which Europa Clipper would be able to detect,” said Elodie Lesage, Europa scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and lead author of the research. “Our results give new insights into how deep the water might be that’s driving surface activity, including plumes. And the water should be shallow enough that it can be detected by multiple Europa Clipper instruments.”This color view of Jupiter’s moon Europa was captured by NASA’s Galileo spacecraft in the late 1990s. Scientists are studying processes that affect the moon’s surface as they prepare to explore the icy body.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI InstituteFull Image DetailsDifferent Depths, Different IceLesage’s computer modeling lays out a blueprint for what scientists might find inside the ice if they were to observe eruptions at the surface. According to her models, they likely would detect reservoirs relatively close to the surface, in the upper 2.5 to 5 miles (4 to 8 kilometers) of the crust, where the ice is coldest and most brittle.That’s because the subsurface ice there doesn’t allow for expansion: As the pockets of water freeze and expand, they could break the surrounding ice and trigger eruptions, much like a can of soda in a freezer explodes. And pockets of water that do burst through would likely be wide and flat like pancakes.Reservoirs deeper in the ice layer – with floors more than 5 miles (8 kilometers) below the crust – would push against warmer ice surrounding them as they expand. That ice is soft enough to act as a cushion, absorbing the pressure rather than bursting. Rather than acting like a can of soda, these pockets of water would behave more like a liquid-filled balloon, where the balloon simply stretches as the liquid within it freezes and expands.Learn more about Jupiter’s icy moon Europa with NASA’s fully interactiveEyes on the Solar System. Click anywhere on the moon to take it for a spin. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechSensing FirsthandScientists on the Europa Clipper mission can use this research when the spacecraft arrives at Europa in 2030. For example, the radar instrument – called Radar for Europa Assessment and Sounding: Ocean to Near-surface (REASON) – is one of the key instruments that will be used to look for water pockets in the ice.“The new work shows that water bodies in the shallow subsurface could be unstable if stresses exceed the strength of the ice and could be associated with plumes rising above the surface,” said Don Blankenship, of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics in Austin, Texas, who leads the radar instrument team. “That means REASON could be able to see water bodies in the same places that you see plumes.”Europa Clipper will carry other instruments that will be able to test the theories of the new research. Thescience cameraswill be able to make high-resolution color and stereoscopic images of Europa; thethermal emission imagerwill use an infrared camera to map Europa’s temperatures and find clues about geologic activity – including cryovolcanism. If plumes are erupting, they could be observable by theultraviolet spectrograph, the instrument that analyzes ultraviolet light.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERMore About the MissionMissions such as Europa Clipper contribute to the field ofastrobiology, the interdisciplinary research field that studies the conditions of distant worlds that could harbor life as we know it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct a detailed exploration of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa’s habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with APL for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. APL designed the main spacecraft body in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.More information about Europa can be found here:europa.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-rover-has-uncertain-future-as-sixth-anniversary-nears

NASA's Mars Rover has Uncertain Future as Sixth Anniversary Nears

NASA's Mars rover Spirit will mark six years of unprecedented science exploration and inspiration for the American public on Sunday.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Spirit will mark six years of unprecedented science exploration and inspiration for the American public on Sunday. However, the upcoming Martian winter could end the roving career of the beloved, scrappy robot.Spirit successfully landed on the Red Planet at 8:35 p.m. PST on Jan. 3, 2004, and its twin Opportunity arrived at 9:05 p.m. Jan. 24, 2004. The rovers began missions intended to last for three months but which have lasted six Earth years, or 3.2 Mars years. During this time, Spirit has found evidence of a steamy and violent environment on ancient Mars that was quite different from the wet and acidic past documented by Opportunity, which has been operating successfully as it explores halfway around the planet.A sand trap and balky wheels are challenges to Spirit's mobility that could prevent NASA's rover team from using a key survival strategy for the rover. The team may not be able to position the robot's solar panels to tilt toward the sun to collect power for heat to survive the severe Martian winter.Nine months ago, Spirit's wheels broke through a crusty surface layer into loose sand hidden underneath. Efforts to escape this sand trap barely have budged the rover. The rover's inability to use all six wheels for driving has worsened the predicament. Spirit's right-front wheel quit working in 2006, and its right-rear wheel stalled a month ago. Surprisingly, the right-front wheel resumed working, though intermittently. Drives with four or five operating wheels have produced little progress toward escaping the sand trap. The latest attempts resulted in the rover sinking deeper in the soil."The highest priority for this mission right now is to stay mobile, if that's possible," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He is principal investigator for the rovers.If mobility is not possible, the next priority is to improve the rover's tilt, while Spirit is able to generate enough electricity to turn its wheels. Spirit is in the southern hemisphere of Mars, where it is autumn, and the amount of daily sunshine available for the solar-powered rover is declining. This could result in ceasing extraction activities as early as January, depending on the amount of remaining power. Spirit's tilt, nearly five degrees toward the south, is unfavorable because the winter sun crosses low in the northern sky.Unless the tilt can be improved or luck with winds affects the gradual buildup of dust on the solar panels, the amount of sunshine available will continue to decline until May 2010. During May, or perhaps earlier, Spirit may not have enough power to remain in operation."At the current rate of dust accumulation, solar arrays at zero tilt would provide barely enough energy to run the survival heaters through the Mars winter solstice," said Jennifer Herman, a rover power engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.The team is evaluating strategies for improving the tilt even if Spirit cannot escape the sand trap, such as trying to dig in deeper with the wheels on the north side. In February, NASA will assess Mars missions, including Spirit, for their potential science versus costs to determine how to distribute limited resources. Meanwhile, the team is planning additional research about what a stationary Spirit could accomplish as power wanes."Spirit could continue significant research right where it is," said Ray Arvidson of Washington University in St. Louis, deputy principal investigator for the rovers. "We can study the interior of Mars, monitor the weather and continue examining the interesting deposits uncovered by Spirit's wheels."A study of the planet's interior would use radio transmissions to measure wobble of the planet's axis of rotation, which is not feasible with a mobile rover. That experiment and others might provide more and different findings from a mission that has already far exceeded expectations."Long-term change in the spin direction could tell us about the diameter and density of the planet's core," said William Folkner of JPL. He has been developing plans for conducting this experiment with a future, stationary Mars lander. "Short-period changes could tell us whether the core is liquid or solid," he said.In 2004, Opportunity discovered the first mineralogical evidence that Mars had liquid water. The rover recently finished a two-year investigation of a half-mile wide crater called Victoria and now is headed toward Endeavor crater, which is approximately seven miles from Victoria and nearly 14 miles across. Since landing, Opportunity has driven more than 11 miles and returned more than 132,000 images.JPL manages the rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.For more information about the rovers, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/roversorhttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-space-telescopes-find-patchy-clouds-on-exotic-world

NASA Space Telescopes Find Patchy Clouds on Exotic World

Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system.

PASADENA, Calif. -- Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes have created the first cloud map of a planet beyond our solar system, a sizzling, Jupiter-like world known as Kepler-7b.The planet is marked by high clouds in the west and clear skies in the east. Previous studies from Spitzer have resulted in temperature maps of planets orbiting other stars, but this is the first look at cloud structures on a distant world."By observing this planet with Spitzer and Kepler for more than three years, we were able to produce a very low-resolution 'map' of this giant, gaseous planet," said Brice-Olivier Demory of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Demory is lead author of a paper accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. "We wouldn't expect to see oceans or continents on this type of world, but we detected a clear, reflective signature that we interpreted as clouds."Kepler has discovered more than 150 exoplanets, which are planets outside our solar system, and Kepler-7b was one of the first. The telescope's problematic reaction wheels prevent it from hunting planets any more, but astronomers continue to pore over almost four years' worth of collected data.Kepler's visible-light observations of Kepler-7b's moon-like phases led to a rough map of the planet that showed a bright spot on its western hemisphere. But these data were not enough on their own to decipher whether the bright spot was coming from clouds or heat. The Spitzer Space Telescope played a crucial role in answering this question.Like Kepler, Spitzer can fix its gaze at a star system as a planet orbits around the star, gathering clues about the planet's atmosphere. Spitzer's ability to detect infrared light means it was able to measure Kepler-7b's temperature, estimating it to be between 1,500 and 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit (1,100 and 1,300 Kelvin). This is relatively cool for a planet that orbits so close to its star -- within 0.06 astronomical units (one astronomical unit is the distance from Earth and the sun) -- and, according to astronomers, too cool to be the source of light Kepler observed. Instead, they determined, light from the planet's star is bouncing off cloud tops located on the west side of the planet."Kepler-7b reflects much more light than most giant planets we've found, which we attribute to clouds in the upper atmosphere," said Thomas Barclay, Kepler scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "Unlike those on Earth, the cloud patterns on this planet do not seem to change much over time -- it has a remarkably stable climate."The findings are an early step toward using similar techniques to study the atmospheres of planets more like Earth in composition and size."With Spitzer and Kepler together, we have a multi-wavelength tool for getting a good look at planets that are trillions of miles away," said Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division in Washington. "We're at a point now in exoplanet science where we are moving beyond just detecting exoplanets, and into the exciting science of understanding them."Kepler identified planets by watching for dips in starlight that occur as the planets transit, or pass in front of their stars, blocking the light. This technique and other observations of Kepler-7b previously revealed that it is one of the puffiest planets known: if it could somehow be placed in a tub of water, it would float. The planet was also found to whip around its star in just less than five days.Explore all 900-plus exoplanet discoveries with NASA's "Eyes on Exoplanets," a fully rendered 3D visualization tool, available for download athttp://eyes.nasa.gov/exoplanets. The program is updated daily with the latest findings from NASA's Kepler mission and ground-based observatories around the world as they search for planets like our own.Other authors include: Julien de Wit, Nikole Lewis, Andras Zsom and Sara Seager of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jonathan Fortney of the University of California, Santa Cruz; Heather Knutson and Jean-Michel Desert of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena; Kevin Heng of the University of Bern, Switzerland; Nikku Madhusudhan of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; Michael Gillon of the University of Liège, Belgium; Vivien Parmentier of the French National Center for Scientific Research, France; and Nicolas Cowan of Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. Lewis is also a NASA Sagan Fellow.The technical paper is online athttp://www.mit.edu/~demory/preprints/kepler-7b_clouds.pdf.NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Spitzer, visit:http://spitzer.caltech.eduandhttp://www.nasa.gov/spitzer.Ames is responsible for Kepler's ground system development, mission operations and science data analysis. JPL managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is NASA's 10th Discovery Mission and was funded by the agency's Science Mission Directorate. For more information about the Kepler mission, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/keplerandhttp://www.kepler.nasa.gov.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-mars-rover-curiosity-tastes-scooped-sieved-sand

NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Tastes Scooped, Sieved Sand

At its current location for inspecting an active sand dune, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is adding some sample-processing moves not previously used on Mars.

At its current location for inspecting an active sand dune, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is adding some sample-processing moves not previously used on Mars.Sand from the second and third samples the rover is scooping from "Namib Dune" will be sorted by grain size with two sieves. The coarser sieve is making its debut, and using it also changes the way the treated sample is dropped into an inlet port for laboratory analysis inside the rover.Positioning of the rover to grab a bite of the dune posed a challenge, too. Curiosity reached this sampling site, called "Gobabeb," on Jan. 12."It was pretty challenging to drive into the sloping sand and then turn on the sand into the position that was the best to study the dunes," said Michael McHenry of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. He is the Curiosity mission's campaign rover planner for collecting these samples.Curiosity has scooped up sample material at only one other site since it landed on Mars in August 2012. It sampled dust and sand at a windblown drift site called "Rocknest" in October and November 2012. Between there and Gobabeb, the rover collected sample material for analysis at nine rock targets, by drilling rather than scooping.The mission's current work is the first close-up study of active sand dunes anywhere other than Earth. Namib and nearby mounds of dark sand are part of the "Bagnold Dune Field," which lines the northwestern flank of a layered mountain where Curiosity is examining rock records of ancient environmental conditions on Mars. Investigation of the dunes is providing information about how wind moves and sorts sand particles in conditions with much less atmosphere and less gravity than on Earth.Sand in dunes has a range of grain sizes and compositions. Sorting by wind will concentrate certain grain sizes and compositions, because composition is related to density, based on where and when the wind has been active. The Gobabeb site was chosen to include recently formed ripples. Information about these aspects of Mars' modern environment may also aid the mission's interpretation of composition variations and ripple patterns in ancient sandstones that formed from wind or flowing water.Curiosity scooped its first dune sample on Jan. 14, but the rover probed the dune first by scuffing it with a wheel. "The scuff helped give us confidence we have enough sand where we're scooping that the path of the scoop won't hit the ground under the sand," McHenry said.That first scoop was processed much as Rocknest samples were: A set of complex moves of a multi-chambered device on the rover's arm passed the material through a sieve that screened out particles bigger than 150 microns (0.006 inch); some of the material that passed the sieve was dropped into laboratory inlet ports from a "portioner" on the device; material blocked by the sieve was dumped onto the ground.The portioner is positioned directly over an opened inlet port on the deck of the rover to drop a portion into it when the processing device is vibrating and a release door is opened. Besides analyzing samples delivered to its internal laboratory instruments, Curiosity can use other instruments to examine sample material dumped onto the ground.Curiosity collected its second scoop of Gobabeb on Jan. 19. This is when the coarser sieve came into play. It allows particles up to 1 millimeter (1,000 microns or 0.04 inch) to pass through.Sand from the second scoop was initially fed to the 150-micron sieve. Material that did not pass through that sieve was then fed to the 1-millimeter sieve. The fraction routed for laboratory analysis is sand grains that did not pass through the finer sieve, but did pass through the coarser one."What you have left is predominantly grains that are smaller than 1 millimeter and larger than 150 microns," said JPL's John Michael Morookian, rover planning team lead for Curiosity.This fraction is dropped into a laboratory inlet by the scoop, rather than the portioner. Morookian decribed this step: "We start the vibration and gradually tilt the scoop. The material flows off the end of the scoop, in more of a stream than all at once."Curiosity reached the base of Mount Sharp in 2014 after fruitfully investigating outcrops closer to its landing site and then trekking to the layered mountain. On the lower portion of the mountain, the mission is studying how Mars' ancient environment changed from wet conditions favorable for microbial life to harsher, drier conditions. For more information about Curiosity, visit:http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/aura-post-launch-status-report

Aura Post-launch Status Report

Activation of the Aura spacecraft, launched July 15, is continuing, with the mission going very well so far.

Activation of the Aura spacecraft, launched July 15, is continuing, with the mission going very well so far.Just over an hour after launch, the spacecraft separated from the Boeing Delta II launch vehicle. This was followed shortly thereafter by deployment of the spacecraft's solar array and transition to Sun point mode. The next day, the spacecraft transitioned to Earth point mode, where it remained another day before transitioning to fine point mode, the mission's normal operating mode. S-band communications with the space network began immediately, followed by routine ground network contacts. X-band playbacks from the solid-state recorder to the ground network are now ongoing as well.All spacecraft subsystems have demonstrated readiness to support science operations, which cannot begin until the instruments are fully activated and Aura has reached its nominal orbit altitude.With respect to orbit altitude, four of six planned ascent burns have been completed. The fifth ascent burn is planned for Fri., August 6. The Aura ascent plan anticipates reaching a nominal altitude of 705 kilometers (about 438 miles) this month.All four instruments are powered and are systematically being activated; the following are some of the highlights that have occurred so far. The antenna launch latch for the Microwave Limb Sounder primary reflector has been released, and the receivers are undergoing characterization activities. Good output power from the Microwave Limb Sounder THz module gas laser local oscillator has been confirmed. The Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer translator has been unlatched, as has that instrument's pointing control system gimbals. The Sun-shield door for the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder has been released. Transition of the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer, High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument to science mode is paced by their significant outgassing requirements, which last about 30 days."From what we have seen so far, satellite performance appears very solid," said Rick Pickering, Aura project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "Also, the performance of the entire operations team has been tremendous. Not only are all the team members inherently sharp and well-trained, many of them have extensive experience with Aqua, which is paying great dividends."Aura, a mission dedicated to the health of Earth's atmosphere, will help us understand and protect the air we breathe. Aura will help answer three key scientific questions: Is Earth's protective ozone layer recovering? What are the processes controlling air quality? How is Earth's climate changing? NASA expects early scientific data from Aura within 30 to 90 days.Each of Aura's four instruments is designed to survey different aspects of Earth's atmosphere. Aura will survey the atmosphere from the troposphere, where mankind lives, through the stratosphere, where the ozone layer resides and protects life on Earth.With the launch of Aura, the first series of NASA's Earth Observing System satellites is complete. The other satellites are Terra, which monitors land, and Aqua, which observes Earth's water cycle.The High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder was built by the United Kingdom and the United States. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., developed and manages the Microwave Limb Sounder and Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer. The Ozone Monitoring Instrument was built by the Netherlands and Finland in collaboration with NASA. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the Aura mission.The Microwave Limb Sounder is intended to improve our understanding of ozone in Earth's stratosphere, which is vital in protecting us from solar ultraviolet radiation. The Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer is an infrared sensor designed to study Earth's troposphere and to look at ozone and other urban pollutants.For Aura information and images on the Internet, visit:http://www.gsfc.nasa.gov/topstory/2004/0517aura.html; andhttp://www.nasa.gov/aura.For more information about the Microwave Limb Sounder, visit:http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/.For more information about the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer, visit:http://tes.jpl.nasa.gov/.The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.Alan Buis 818/653-8339Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.Lynn Chandler 301/286-2806Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.Gretchen Cook-Anderson 202/358-0836Headquarters, Washington2004-192

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mystery-solved-bright-areas-on-ceres-come-from-salty-water-below

Mystery Solved: Bright Areas on Ceres Come From Salty Water Below

Data from NASA's recent Dawn mission answers two long-unresolved questions: Is there liquid inside Ceres, and how long ago was the dwarf planet geologically active?

NASA's Dawn spacecraft gave scientists extraordinary close-up views of the dwarf planet Ceres, which lies in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. By the time the mission ended in October 2018, the orbiter had dipped to less than 22 miles (35 kilometers) above the surface, revealing crisp details of the mysterious bright regions Ceres had become known for.Scientists had figured out that the bright areas were deposits made mostly of sodium carbonate - a compound of sodium, carbon, and oxygen. They likely came from liquid that percolated up to the surface and evaporated, leaving behind a highly reflective salt crust. But what they hadn't yet determined was where that liquid came from.By analyzing data collected near the end of the mission, Dawn scientists have concluded that the liquid came from a deep reservoir of brine, or salt-enriched water. By studying Ceres' gravity, scientists learned more about the dwarf planet's internal structure and were able to determine that the brine reservoir is about 25 miles (40 kilometers) deep and hundreds of miles wide.Ceres doesn't benefit from internal heating generated by gravitational interactions with a large planet, as is the case for some of the icy moons of the outer solar system. But the new research, which focuses on Ceres' 57-mile-wide (92-kilometer-wide) Occator Crater - home to the most extensive bright areas - confirms that Ceres is a water-rich world like these other icy bodies.NASA's Dawn spacecraft captured pictures, which were combined to create this false-color view of a region in Occator Crater on the dwarf planet Ceres.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDAFull Image DetailsThe findings, which also reveal the extent of geologic activity in Occator Crater, appear in a special collection of papers published by Nature Astronomy, Nature Geoscience, and Nature Communications on Aug. 10."Dawn accomplished far more than we hoped when it embarked on its extraordinary extraterrestrial expedition," said Mission Director Marc Rayman of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "These exciting new discoveries from the end of its long and productive mission are a wonderful tribute to this remarkable interplanetary explorer."This view across the southeastern floor of the large Occator Crater on the dwarf planet Ceres is based on images obtained during NASA's Dawn spacecraft second extended mission in 2018.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA/USRA/LPIFull Image DetailsSolving the Bright MysteryLong before Dawn arrived at Ceres in 2015, scientists had noticed diffuse bright regions with telescopes, but their nature was unknown. From its close orbit, Dawn captured images of two distinct, highly reflective areas within Occator Crater, which were subsequently named Cerealia Facula and Vinalia Faculae. ("Faculae" means bright areas.)Scientists knew that micrometeorites frequently pelt the surface of Ceres, roughing it up and leaving debris. Over time, that sort of action should darken these bright areas. So their brightness indicates that they likely are young. Trying to understand the source of the areas, and how the material could be so new, was a main focus of Dawn's final extended mission, from 2017 to 2018.The research not only confirmed that the bright regions are young - some less than 2 million years old; it also found that the geologic activity driving these deposits could be ongoing. This conclusion depended on scientists making a key discovery: salt compounds (sodium chloride chemically bound with water and ammonium chloride) concentrated in Cerealia Facula.On Ceres' surface, salts bearing water quickly dehydrate, within hundreds of years. But Dawn's measurements show they still have water, so the fluids must have reached the surface very recently. This is evidence both for the presence of liquid below the region of Occator Crater and ongoing transfer of material from the deep interior to the surface.The scientists found two main pathways that allow liquids to reach the surface. "For the large deposit at Cerealia Facula, the bulk of the salts were supplied from a slushy area just beneath the surface that was melted by the heat of the impact that formed the crater about 20 million years ago," said Dawn Principal Investigator Carol Raymond. "The impact heat subsided after a few million years; however, the impact also created large fractures that could reach the deep, long-lived reservoir, allowing brine to continue percolating to the surface."To learn more about Ceres, zoom in and give the dwarf planet a spin. Use the search function at bottom to explore about just about anything else in our solar system. View the full interactive experience atEyes on the Solar System. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechActive Geology: Recent and UnusualIn our solar system, icy geologic activity happens mainly on icy moons, where it is driven by their gravitational interactions with their planets. But that's not the case with the movement of brines to the surface of Ceres, suggesting that other large ice-rich bodies that are not moons could also be active.Some evidence of recent liquids in Occator Crater comes from the bright deposits, but other clues come from an assortment of interesting conical hills reminiscent of Earth's pingos - small ice mountains in polar regions formed by frozen pressurized groundwater. Such features have been spotted on Mars, but the discovery of them on Ceres marks the first time they've been observed on a dwarf planet.On a larger scale, scientists were able to map the density of Ceres' crust structure as a function of depth - a first for an ice-rich planetary body. Using gravity measurements, they found Ceres' crustal density increases significantly with depth, way beyond the simple effect of pressure. Researchers inferred that at the same time Ceres' reservoir is freezing, salt and mud are incorporating into the lower part of the crust.Dawn is the only spacecraft ever to orbit two extraterrestrial destinations - Ceres and the giant asteroid Vesta - thanks to its efficient ion propulsion system. When Dawn used the last of a key fuel, hydrazine, for a system that controls its orientation, it was neither able to point to Earth for communications nor to point its solar arrays at the Sun to produce electrical power. Because Ceres was found to have organic materials on its surface and liquid below the surface, planetary protection rules required Dawn to be placed in a long-duration orbit that will prevent it from impacting the dwarf planet for decades.JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages Dawn's mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. JPL is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Northrop Grumman in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.For a complete list of mission participants, visit:https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/dawn/overview/