Nancy has been with Universe Today since 2004, and has published over 6,000 articles on space exploration, astronomy, science and technology. She is the author of two books: "Eight Years to the Moon: the History of the Apollo Missions," (2019) which shares the stories of 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make landing on the Moon possible; and "Incredible Stories from Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos" (2016) tells the stories of those who work on NASA's robotic missions to explore the Solar System and beyond.
Follow Nancy on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Nancy_A and and Instagram at and https://www.instagram.com/nancyatkinson_ut/
The small dot above the star 1RSX J160929.1-210524 is a likely ~8 Jupiter-mass companion. Credit: Gemini Observatory
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Astronomers have unveiled what is likely the first picture of a planet around a normal star similar to the Sun. Using the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, astronomers from the University of Toronto imaged the young star 1RXS J160929.1-210524, which lies about 500 light-years from Earth and a candidate companion of that star. They also obtained spectra to confirm the nature of the companion, which has a mass about eight times that of Jupiter, and lies roughly 330 times the Earth-Sun distance away from its star. For comparison, the most distant planet in our solar system, Neptune, orbits the Sun at only about 30 times the Earth-Sun distance. The parent star is similar in mass to the Sun, but is much younger. “This is the first time we have directly seen a planetary mass object in a likely orbit around a star like our Sun,†said David Lafrenière, lead author of a paper detailing the discovery. “If we confirm that this object is indeed gravitationally tied to the star, it will be a major step forward.â€
Until now, the only planet-like bodies that have been directly imaged outside of the solar system are either free-floating in space (i.e. not found around a star), or orbit brown dwarfs, which are dim and make it easier to detect planetary-mass companions.
The existence of a planetary-mass companion so far from its parent star comes as a surprise, and poses a challenge to theoretical models of star and planet formation. “This discovery is yet another reminder of the truly remarkable diversity of worlds out there, and it’s a strong hint that nature may have more than one mechanism for producing planetary mass companions to normal stars,†said team member Ray Jayawardhana.
The team’s Gemini observations took advantage of adaptive optics technology to dramatically reduce distortions caused by turbulence in Earth’s atmosphere. The near-infrared images and spectra of the suspected planetary object indicate that it is too cool to be a star or even a more massive brown dwarf, and that it is young.
While it could be a chance alignment between the object and the young star, it will take up to two years to verify that the star and its likely planet are moving through space together. “Of course it would be premature to say that the object is definitely orbiting this star, but the evidence is extremely compelling. This will be a very intensely studied object for the next few years!†said Lafrenière.
Team member Marten van Kerkwijk described the group’s search method. “We targeted young stars so that any planetary mass object they hosted would not have had time to cool, and thus would still be relatively bright,†he said. “This is one reason we were able to see it at all.â€
The Jupiter-sized body has an estimated temperature of about 1800 Kelvin (about 1500ºC), much hotter than our own Jupiter, which has a temperature of about 160 Kelvin (-110ºC), and its likely host is a young star of type K7 with an estimated mass of about 85% that of the Sun.
“This discovery certainly has us looking forward to what other surprises nature has in stock for us,†said Van Kerkwijk.
Map projected images of lake-effect clouds at the winter north pole of Titan from the VIMS (left, both from 27 April 2007) and ISS (right, from 24 Feb 2007, top, and 13 April 2007, bottom) imagers on board the Cassini spacecraft.
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While browsing through Cassini images of Saturn’s moon Titan, astronomer Mike Brown and some colleagues noticed a recurring pattern of clouds appearing over the frigid moon’s north pole. While a large, stable cloud has been visible in every image of Titan’s north pole obtained since its discovery, Brown noticed bright “knots or streaks” in the cloud that appeared on some images but not others, or changed in images taken hours apart. Brown thought these bright features looked similar to cumulus clouds – or even like thunderheads. But how could tropical-like thunderheads be present on a moon where surface temperatures hover around -178°C (-289°F)? Brown believes these clouds are similar to winter-time lake-effect clouds found on Earth, and are due to convection and condensation occurring in the methane and ethane lakes on Titan.
“On the Earth, lake-effect clouds occur in the winter when cold air goes over warm water (like the Great Lakes) and picks up heat and moisture and then, often, deposits it all in the form of snow on the eastern shores,” Brown told Universe Today. “On Titan the winters are so long (the north pole has been in the dark for the past ~10 years!) that the lakes retain almost no heat. But as the spring sunlight starts to hit the lakes they begin to heat up just a tiny amount and this is enough to cause little blips of evaporation and clouds.”
So, while lake-effect clouds on Earth are predominantly a winter event, on Titan, lake-effect clouds occur as spring is approaching. The clouds appear only in images taken since February 2005, as the increasing amount of sunlight has heated the liquid hydrocarbon lakes slightly and evaporation takes place. “Every time the lakes warm up just a bit, a huge dollop of evaporation occurs, which re-cools the lake, and we see a cumulus cloud pop up. The lake then has to wait for some more sunlight before it happens again,” Brown wrote in his blog.
Brown, a professor of planetary astronomy at Caltech, is known primarily for his discoveries of trans-Neptunian objects like Eris and Sedna. But he enjoys dipping his toes in the water, so to speak, in other areas as well. That includes studying the meteorology of a moon that’s over 1,200 million kilometers away. “I think it’s pretty fun,” Brown admitted.
Since spring is approaching on Titan (equinox occurs in August 2009), the cloud activity is likely to increase. Fortuitously, Cassini is scheduled to fly by Titan frequently the next few years, and Brown and his team will be keeping an eye on these lake-effect-like clouds that may have a great influence on Titan’s weather.
“When Cassini was first conceived no one even knew that clouds existed on Titan!” said Brown. “But the trick is to put a spacecraft up that has highly versatile and flexible instruments and then you’ll be able to see things even if you hadn’t anticipated them.”
Brown and his team examined the north polar clouds of Titan using data from VIMS (Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer) and ISS (Imaging Science Subsystems) instruments on board the Cassini spacecraft and from adaptive optics observations from the Gemini observatory and full-disk spectroscopy of Titan from the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF).
Titan continues to surprise planetary scientists like Brown. “I love the similarities and differences with the Earth,” he said. “Titan is the only other place that we know of that has both liquids on its surface and a thick atmosphere, so we get a chance to watch something sort of Earth-like but with some very non-terrestrial behavior.”
Artist rendition of New Horizons in the Kuiper Belt. Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)
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Still seven years away from its rendezvous with Pluto, the New Horizons spacecraft was awoken from hibernation for the second annual checkout of all systems. The spacecraft and its team back on Earth will also undergo three months of operations as the New Horizons will make observations of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. But the first order of business was uploading an upgraded version of the software that runs the spacecraft’s Command and Data Handling system. “Our ‘brain transplant’ was a success,†says New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern. “The new software – which guides how New Horizons carries out commands and collects and stores data – is now on the spacecraft’s main computer and operating, over a billion miles from home!â€
The mission ops team at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, radioed the software load and the commands to start it earlier this week through NASA’s Deep Space Network of antennas to the spacecraft, now just more than 1.01 billion miles (1.62 billion kilometers) from Earth. In the next 10 days the team will beam up additional new software for both the spacecraft’s Autonomy and Guidance and Control systems.
Space Science Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Alice Bowman, New Horizons mission operations manager at APL, says the spacecraft and its computers are healthy. “The new software fixes a few bugs and enhances the way these systems operate, based on what we’ve learned in running the spacecraft in the nearly three years since launch,†she says. “They also configure the onboard systems to be ready to support the Pluto-Charon encounter rehearsals scheduled for next summer.â€
New Horizons is more than 200 million miles beyond Saturn’s orbit and more than 11 astronomical units (1.02 billion miles) from the Sun, flying about a million miles per day toward Pluto. Annual Checkout 2 (ACO-2) continues through mid-December; follow its progress through frequent updates on the New Horizons Twitter page.
From the people that brought you the X PRIZE and the Google Lunar X PRIZE comes something new that’s a little more down to Earth. However they also say it’s crazy. But if you’re handy with a video camera, care about the environment, and are interested in winning a nice chunk of spare change, this might be up your alley. The $25,000 “What’s your crazy green idea?†Video Contest was just announced, and the X PRIZE folks are looking to find out what crazy ideas are out there that could become the next big thing for the environoment. “Before something is a breakthrough, it’s a crazy idea,” they say, and the X PRIZE Foundation is looking for your crazy green ideas to become the next X PRIZE. Here’s a video for more information:
Here are the rules:
1. Submit a 2 minute video to this group by October 31, 2008 explaining what you think should be the next Energy and Environment X PRIZE. Here’s the link.
2. The three most viable ideas will be posted on the X PRIZE website on November 15.
3. The public will be given two weeks to vote for the winner on the same site. The most creative, revolutionary idea and video will receive $25,000 and it could become the next great X PRIZE.
Be sure that your video answers the following questions:
1. What is the Grand Challenge or world-wide problem that you are trying to solve?
2. What is the specific prize idea (goal, rules, judging criteria)?
3. How will this prize lead to benefits for humanity?
A dust devil dances in the distance from the Phoenix lander. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/U of AZ
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Not only has the Phoenix Mars Lander photographed several dust devils dancing across the arctic plain this week, but sensors that monitor various atmospheric conditions around the lander detected a dip in air pressure as one of the whirlwinds passed nearby. This is the first time dust devils have been detected in Phoenix images. Scientists believe the increasing difference between daytime high temperatures (about -30C) and night lows (around -90C) is the key to the formation of the dust devils. Click here to download a dust devil movie created from the images.
The Surface Stereo Imager camera on Phoenix took 29 images of the western and southwestern horizon on Sept. 8, during mid-day hours of the lander’s 104th Martian day. The next day, after the images had been transmitted to Earth, the Phoenix science team noticed a dust devil right away.
“It was a surprise to have a dust devil so visible that it stood with just the normal processing we do,” said Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station, lead scientist for the stereo camera. “Once we saw a couple that way, we did some additional processing and found there are dust devils in 12 of the images.” Another image of a dust devil from Phoenix. Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/U of AZ
At least six different dust devils appear in the images, some of them in more than one image. They range in diameter from about 2 meters (7 feet) to about 5 meters (16 feet).
The Phoenix team is not worried about any damage to the spacecraft from these swirling winds. “With the thin atmosphere on Mars, the wind loads we might experience from dust devil winds are well within the design of the vehicle,” said Ed Sedivy, Phoenix program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Denver, which made the spacecraft. “The lander is very rigid with the exception of the solar arrays, which once deployed, latched into position and became a tension structure.”
Phoenix monitors air pressure every day, and on the same day the camera saw dust devils, the pressure meter recorded a sharper dip than ever before. The change was still less than the daily change in air pressure from daytime to nighttime, but over a much shorter time.
“Throughout the mission, we have been detecting vortex structures that lower the pressure for 20 to 30 seconds during the middle part of the day,” said Peter Taylor of York University, Toronto, Canada, a member of the Phoenix science team. “In the last few weeks, we’ve seen the intensity increasing, and now these vortices appear to have become strong enough to pick up dust.”
The same day as the dust devils were seen, the photographed swinging of Phoenix’s telltale wind gauge indicated wind speeds exceeding 5 meters per second (11 miles per hour). Download a movie of the telltail wind gauge.
Images from spacecraft orbiting Mars had previously indicated that dust devils exist in the region where Phoenix landed.
“We expected dust devils, but we are not sure how frequently,” said Phoenix Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “It could be they are rare and Phoenix got lucky. We’ll keep looking for dust devils at the Phoenix site to see if they are common or not.”
The dust devils that Phoenix has observed so far are much smaller than dust devils that NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit has photographed much closer to the equator.
Hurricane Ike is bearing down on the US gulf coast, and even before landfall, is causing problems. Nearly 1 million people along the Texas coast have been ordered to evacuate, the other 3 million people in the Houston metro area have been asked not to leave, in hopes of avoiding the panic of three years ago, when evacuations ordered in advance of Hurricane Rita sent millions onto highways causing traffic jams and deadly accidents. The airports in Houston will close tomorrow, and NASA’s Johnson Space Center closed today. Image of Ike taken from the ISS. Credit: NASA Astronauts on board the International Space Station had this view of Ike from their orbital perch 220 statute miles above the Earth. (See below for a larger, close-up image.) Mission managers for the ISS have taken up residence in a hotel far inland, armed with laptops and a secure high speed internet connection in order to maintain contact with the orbiting space station. Ike is currently a Category 2 hurricane according to the National Hurricane Center, but forecasters were predicting that Ike might reach Category 3 strength in the warm waters of the Gulf prior to its projected landfall on the central Texas coastline.
TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) spacecraft observed this view of Hurricane Ike on September 10, 2008 at 1745 UTC. The storm was a category 2 hurricane with sustained winds of 85 knots (97.75 mph) and a pressure reading of 958 millibars. At this time, the storm has two nearby well-defined wind maxima of roughly equal strength. There is a 17 km tower in the outer eye.
Click here for an animation from the TRMM spacecraft data.
The astronauts on board the International Space Station had this incredible view of the hurricane as it approached the Gulf Coast.
Ike was a Category 4 storm before its passage over Cuba stripped it of some of its power. It re-emerged in the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 1 storm and re-strengthened.
As of 10:00 a.m., Sept. 11, hurricane warnings are up from Morgan City Louisiana to Baffin Bay, Texas. Hurricane conditions could reach the coast within the warning area by late Friday, Sept. 12.
Ike is a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds near 100 mph. He is forecast to strengthen to a Category 3 storm before reaching the Texas coastline. Ike is moving west-northwest near 10 mph and will be near the coast late on Sept. 12, however, because Ike is large, tropical storm force winds will be felt far in advance.
Sources: NASA’s ISS Page, NASA Earth Observatory Page, The Weather Channel. Here are even more hurricane photos and hurricane images.
ESA Astronaut Frank DeWinne on board the ISS. Credit: ESA
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The European Space Agency needs a bang-up, attention-grabbing moniker for the next long duration European mission to the International Space Station, and they are holding a competition for the public to submit a suitable name. In May 2009, ESA astronaut Frank De Winne, of Belgium will fly to the ISS for a six month mission. ESA is holding a competition to find a name for the mission. Have any great ideas? Here are the parameters for the competition:
The name has to reflect the following aspects:
1. Europe is exploring space, and humans are explorers by nature. Europe has a legacy in exploring Earth and will live up to the expectations in exploring Space.
2. Europe has its own Columbus laboratory permanently in space on the ISS. Europe uses its Columbus laboratory on the ISS for science, technology and education for the benefit of life on Earth.
3. From space our planet looks blue because of the water. Water is the basis of life; Clean water is the basis for healthy life of all humans on Earth.
Wow, that’s a tough set of parameters. Now, here’s a few rules: (for the full rules see HERE)
1. The competition is open to all citizens of the ESA Member States (sorry US and Canada folks, you’re out of luck on this one.)
2. The proposals have to arrive in the [email protected] mailbox the latest by 18:00 CEST, 15 October 2008.
3. The proposal should be maximum of one page, with 12 pt single spacing
4. The name should be a word (or a short combination of words), not a personal name (unless it is a mythological name which has a commonly known symbolic meaning).
Again, here’s the full rules. Have fun and go for it!
Team members gather to inspect and collect a meteorite being placed in a Teflon bag. Photo credit: M. Keiding, 2007
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Antarctica’s distinctive, unforgiving environment is truly unique. But add to that setting the otherworldly task of looking for meteorites — bits and pieces from the far reaches of our solar system that are strewn about Antarctica’s icy surface,– and Earth’s southern-most continent can provide a truly unparalleled scientific experience. “I had the privilege to explore a part of the world that few people get to,” said Dr. Lucy McFadden, a research professor in the astronomy department at the University of Maryland, College Park. She also is a scientist in the education and public outreach area for NASA’s Dawn mission that is traveling to study the asteroids Ceres and Vesta. McFadden had the opportunity to travel to Antarctica and spend over six weeks hunting for meteorites, specifically looking for meteorites from Ceres and Vesta. She shared her experiences recently in an online “webinar,” answering questions about her journey. “I love sharing my adventures,” she said. “My excitement about exploring the solar system was renewed because I had the opportunity to explore Earth as a planet.”
Although meteorites fall uniformly all over the Earth –estimates are between 30-80 tons a year, — most are in the form of dust. For the bigger rock-sized pieces, many fall in the ocean and those that fall on land can be buried by shifting terrain, broken down by chemical weathering, or are easily confused with Earth rocks. But Antarctica’s blue ice sheets are clear and barren, making it easy to spy a dark rock that’s likely a sample from space.
Aerial view of Antarctica. Photo credit: L. McFadden 2008
However, there’s another reason Antarctica is such a great place to look for meteorites. “There’s something special about Antarctica. Meteorites collect in certain areas there,” McFadden said. “The ice sheets are always moving, and the meteorites move with them. But the rocks get trapped by the barriers of the mountains, and that’s where the meteorites are found. Once you get a meteorite up against a barrier, the constant blowing of the polar winds ablates the ice, and rocks effectively come to the surface.” Over periods of tens or hundreds of thousands of years, very significant concentrations can build up in these areas.
Since 1976, the U.S. National Science Foundation has supported an annual search for meteorites during the Antarctic summer, through a program called ANSMET, the Antarctic Search for Meteorites. McFadden was part of an eight-member meteorite hunting team in November 2007 to January 2008.
McMurdo Station. Photo credit: L. McFadden, 2008
A C-17 cargo plane brought the team to Antarctica’s McMurdo Station. But one doesn’t just go out and start hunting for rocks without instructions on how to survive Antarctica’s harsh environment. The team underwent a week of training that included lessons on proper clothing. “I had to learn which coat to put on when, which hat and gloves to wear and be sure to have my boots on,” said McFadden. “It brought me back to kindergarten.” Also, learning snowmobile operation and repair is a must, as that would be their mode of transportation during their expeditions. “We were trained how to stay away from the crevasses in the ice and trained for rescue in case someone fell in,” she said.
A plane then brought the team, the snowmobiles, fuel and gear to their field site on the Miller Range to set up camp. They erected tents – their homes for six weeks, and had to chip ice to get water for drinking and cooking. Typical daytime temperature was about 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-6 C) when there wasn’t a storm. High winds at field camp. Photo credit: L. McFadden, 2007
At 70 degrees south latitude, the Antarctic summer sun never set. But the surroundings were desolate, to say the least. The region is mountainous, but constantly snow and ice covered. “I felt a sense of vulnerability of us humans,” McFadden said. “This is not a hospitable environment.” She also worried about the possibility of getting lost in the barren landscape with few landmarks. But with them was a seasoned, expert guide, John Schutt.
So what’s the trick of finding meteorites in Antarctica? “We practiced around the camp first, and walked up to all the rocks in the area,” said McFadden. “There are other rocks on the ground from rockslides from the mountains, so you have to learn what the local rocks look like.” Dr. Ralph Harvey, the head of the ANSMET program taught the team the art of meteorite hunting.
“When you find a field of rocks, you have to look closely and separate out the regular rocks from meteorites,” McFadden said. Most meteorites are black because they have a fusion crust: a thin glassy rind that forms on meteorites when they are coming through the atmosphere. The friction heats them up and the outside of the meteorite melts just a little.
“We looked at each rock,” said McFadden. “If we thought we found a meteorite, we waved our arms and everyone would come over and look. If we determined it was a meteorite, we would pick it up with tongs and put it in a Teflon bag and mark it. Then we planted a flag where we found a meteorite. It was very satisfying to look back where we’d been and see all the flags.”
Flags marking meteorite finds. credit: M. Keiding and ANSMET 2007-2008.
They followed a certain procedure to make notes on each meteorite, take pictures, note the position of each sample with a Global Positioning System monitor, and then wrap the meteorites in a certain way and put them in backpacks. “It was a big process to catalogue and account for all of them,” McFadden said.
At the end of the day they collected all the rocks from the backpacks and put them in bags in a specialized container to keep them cold. This would avoid contamination from any snow that might be attached to the rocks, until they are brought to Johnson Space Center where they are catalogued and then distributed to scientists around the world. A large meteorite found by the team. Photo credit: ANSMET 2007 Case Western Reserve University
Each of the meteorites tells a story about the processes of the early solar system. Scientists who study meteorites can find clues to the conditions as our solar system evolved, and find out more about the asteroids, moons and planets the meteorites originate from. Meteorites represent a “free” sample return mission for scientists.
The team didn’t do any scientific analysis out in the field, just collected the samples for transport to the laboratories in Houston. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t examine the rocks!
The team found lots of carbonaceous chondrites with very irregular and jagged shapes, some that may have come from the Moon, and others with a green mineral called olivine that may have come from Mars. One meteorite found made the team think of the famous ALH 84001 meteorite found in the Allan Hills region of Antarctica, that made headlines in 1996 when it was announced that the meteorite may contain evidence for traces of life from Mars. “We wondered if this one meteorite was related to ALH 84001,” said McFadden. But the team won’t know the answer until geochemical analyses are performed.
As for her search for samples from Ceres and Vesta, McFadden said, “I think we might have been successful in finding samples from Vesta, but I was really interested in looking for samples from Ceres. However, I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. As far as we know we don’t have samples from Ceres.” Small meteorite. Photo credit: ANSMET 2007 Case Western Reserve University
How do scientists know a meteorite came from a specific asteroid? “The whole study of meteoritics addresses that through laboratory studies of many different attributes of rocks,” said McFadden. “We know we have rocks in our meteorite collection from Vesta because about one in every seven meteorites we find has characteristics, or spectral signature, that matches Vesta as viewed through a telescope. We look at Vesta and see a huge impact basin that the meteorites probably came from.”
But Ceres is a different matter. “We don’t know much about Ceres,” she said. “The spectral signature of Ceres doesn’t match anything we have in the meteorite collection. But maybe they’ll find one in the samples we brought back or eventually find one on a future expedition.”
Snowmobiles, the vehicle of choice for Antarctic meteorite hunting. Photo credit: L. McFadden, 2007
With stormy periods when they had to huddle in their tents, McFadden’s team had 22 full days of meteorite searching, and eight half days. They went out at 9:00 am, returning at 5:00 pm. “We had six guys and two women,” said McFadden. It’s different for each expedition. We didn’t know each other before hand, but we worked well together. We had this common experience and we had to look out for each other. But it was also very lonely; there wasn’t that much opportunity to interact. We were exhausted each night.”
They did have opportunities for recreation such as skiing, playing games or reading books. One particularly nice day they made a couch from snow and sat outside for awhile. Planes occasionally brought re-supply of food, letters, and other supplies. They were in Antarctica for Christmas, so they decorated and had a potluck supper. “The isolation and cold weather got to us after awhile, but we loved our time out there,” McFadden said. “We looked forward to going home, but we had a tremendous experience. We all appreciated the beauty of Antarctica.” Aerial view near McFadden's field camp in the Miller Range. Photo credit: M. Keiding, 2007
Their expedition found 710 meteorites, some as small as a little finger nail (about 1.0 x 0.5 x 0.5 cm) 3a), and others about 8 pounds and too big to hold in one hand (about 25 cm x 15 cm x 12).
“We had good hunting,” she said. “It wasn’t a record. Some days we wanted to keep going, but our guide had to keep us in check and keep us safe. In that climate you do have to stop and take care of yourself.”
Over the more than 25 years of these expeditions, over 26,000 meteorites have been found, expanding the volume of extraterrestrial materials that can be studied here on Earth to provide a context for our remote sensing explorations out in the solar system, such as the Dawn mission. “My experience searching for meteorites inspired me to continue trying to understand the meteorites themselves and pair that with my exploration with the Dawn spacecraft that is searching out in the solar system,” said McFadden.
And now another team of scientists is preparing to return to Antarctica in November this year to continue the hunt.
Dr. Lucy McFadden, Dawn Co-Investigator and Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) lead Photo credit: M. Keiding, 2007
McFadden responded to the question of why teams keep going back every year to look for meteorites. “There is the potential to find new types of meteorites. In 2006, they found a type of meteorite that had never been seen before. They believe it’s from another body in our solar system that was probably the size of the moon, but its isotopic signature is decidedly different from the moon or Mars. So we have indeed found evidence of planetesimals that are new to us that are out there in the asteroid belt. That’s very exciting and that keeps us going.”
Artist concept of a fission surface power system on the surface of the moon. Credit: NASA
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When astronauts return to the moon for long duration missions, they will need reliable sources of power. Solar energy will be plentiful for the 14 Earth-day- long lunar daytime, but what about the equally as long lunar night? NASA engineers are exploring the possibility of nuclear fission to provide the necessary power. If you’re having visions of a Three Mile Island nuclear reactor on the moon, put your fears to rest. A nuclear reactor used in space is much different than Earth-based systems, says Lee Mason of the NASA Glenn Research Center, who is the principal investigator for testing a fission powered system for the moon. There are no large concrete cooling towers, and the reactor is about the size of an office trash can. Of course, it won’t produce as much energy as the big reactors on Earth, but it should be more than adequate for the projected power needs of a lunar outpost.
“Our goal is to build a technology demonstration unit with all the major components of a fission surface power system and conduct non-nuclear, integrated system testing in a ground-based space simulation facility,” said Mason. “Our long-term goal is to demonstrate technical readiness early in the next decade, when NASA is expected to decide on the type of power system to be used on the lunar surface.”
A fission surface power system on the moon has the potential to generate a steady 40 kilowatts of electric power, enough for about eight houses on Earth. It works by splitting uranium atoms in a reactor to generate heat that then is converted into electric power. The fission surface power system can produce large amounts of power in harsh environments, like those on the surface of the moon or Mars, because it does not rely on sunlight. The primary components of fission surface power systems are a heat source, power conversion, heat rejection and power conditioning, and distribution.
Glenn recently contracted for the design and analysis of two different types of advanced power conversion units as an early step in the development of a full system-level technology demonstration. These power conversion units are necessary to process the heat produced by the nuclear reactor and efficiently convert it to electrical power.
Two different companies have designed concepts that can produce a total of 12 kilowatts of power. One uses piston engines and the other a high speed turbine coupled with a rotary alternator.
“Development and testing of the power conversion unit will be a key factor in demonstrating the readiness of fission surface power technology and provide NASA with viable and cost-effective options for nuclear power on the moon and Mars,” said Don Palac, manager of Glenn’s Fission Surface Power Project.
A contractor will be selected after a year of design and analysis. Testing of the non-nuclear system is expected to take place in 2012 or 2013 to verify the performance and safety of the systems and determine if these systems can easily be used on the moon, or even on Mars.
It’s Wednesday, so that means its time for another “Where In The Universe” (WITU) challenge to test your visual knowledge of the cosmos. This one might be relatively easy, but I’m feeling generous today. Guess what this image is, and give yourself extra points if you can guess which spacecraft is responsible for the image. As always, don’t peek below before you make your guess. Comments on how you did are welcome.
Ready? Go!
This is the Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392), so named because it resembles a person’s head surrounded by a parka hood. But its also known as the Clownface Nebula. In 2000, the Hubble Space Telescope produced this image. NGC 2392 lies about 3000 light-years away and is visible with a small telescope, found in the constellation of Gemini.
The gas clouds in this nebula are unusual and complex, and aren’t fully understood. Its a planetary nebula, and the gas seen above composed the outer layers of a Sun-like star only 10,000 years ago. The inner filaments visible above are being ejected by strong wind of particles from the central star. The outer disk contains unusual light-year long orange filaments.
