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.
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Possible future Mars landing site in Oxia Planum. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona.
The joint ESA and Russian ExoMars rover’s top priority is to search the Martian surface for signs of life, past or present, and scientists think they know just the spot where – if life ever existed or exists on Mars – it might be found. Today the ExoMars team announced that the equatorial region named Oxia Planum has been recommended as the primary candidate for the landing site.
“Our preliminary analysis shows that Oxia Planum appears to satisfy the strict engineering constraints while also offering some very interesting opportunities to study, in situ, places where biosignatures might best be preserved,” said Jorge Vago, ESA’s project scientist.
An artist’s conception of the ExoMars 2018 rover on the Red Planet. Image credit: ESA
The rover is currently scheduled to launch in 2018 and land on Mars in 2019, but the timetable is still under review, depending on any issues with construction of the rover. While the final landing site won’t be selected by both ESA and Roscosmos until six months before launch, this recommendation will weigh heavily in the decision.
Some of the priority requirements for the landing site is that is must show abundant morphological and mineralogical evidence for long-duration, or frequently reoccurring water activity, and that there should be numerous sedimentary rock outcrops.
From orbital study by previous missions, Oxia Planum is known to contain clays, and there appears to be remnants of a possible fan or delta, as seen in the image above from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This would be one of the potential science targets.
The site selection process has been under way since late 2013, when the science community was asked to propose candidates. In October 2014, four candidates were chosen by the Landing Site Selection Working Group. Now this month, October 2015, the same group met to determine two candidate sites that conform best to both the engineering constraints of descent and landing, and the best possible scientific return of the mission. But their preference for now is Oxia Planum. The team will continue to debate the merits and safety of the proposed sites.
ExoMars rover 2018 landing site candidates. Credit: ESA/CartoDB.
ESA said that all four sites that have been under study – Aram Dorsum, Hypanis Vallis, Mawrth Vallis and Oxia Planum – show evidence of having been influenced by water in the past, and are likely representative of global processes operating in the Red Planet’s early history.
Additionally, all locations offer the opportunity of landing at a scientifically interesting site or finding one within a 1 km drive from the touchdown point, with numerous targets accessible along a typical 2 km traverse planned for the mission of 218 martian days (each 24 hours 37 minutes).
The ExoMars mission is a dual mission with one part launching in 2016 (the Trace Gas Orbiter plus an Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module) and the rover tentatively scheduled to launch in 2018. As final site selection comes closer, the scientists involved with the mission are anticipating the mission. Professor Andrew Coates who leads the ExoMars PanCam team for the 2018 rover tweeted this today:
ExoMars will land on clays in old region – possible delta – great place to drill, can't wait for PanCam images https://t.co/Hi0gHk46z1
This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the "Big Sky" site. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Every time the Curiosity rover takes a ‘selfie’ on Mars, we get the same questions: “How was this picture taken?” “Why isn’t the rover’s arm or the camera visible in this picture?” “In all of Curiosity’s selfies, the camera mast is never visible… why?” And (sigh) “What is NASA hiding???”
The answer is simple and quite logical. Look any selfie image you’ve taken. Does your hand show up in the picture?
No, because it is behind the camera.
The same is true with the rover’s arm. For the most part, it is behind the camera, so it isn’t part of the picture. In your own selfies, if you’ve done a good job of positioning things, your arm doesn’t appear in the photo either. For example, take a look at this selfie taken last night by Astronomy Cast co-host Pamela Gay of her co-host (and Universe Today publisher) Fraser Cain, along with their fellow speakers at the Next Frontiers Symposium at Ohio State University.
You’ll notice Pamela’s arm isn’t showing, even though she took the picture of herself, just like the rover takes pictures of itself.
Just think of the rover’s arm as the ultimate interplanetary selfie stick. The best selfie-stick pictures are where the stick doesn’t show up in the image and it appears you had your own photographer. That’s what happens with the Curiosity rover self-portraits.
It’s important to note that while the rover selfies look like they are just one single image taken by the wide-angle camera on the rover, it is actually a series of individual images stitched together. The picture above is made from dozens of images the rover took of itself with the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera at the end of the rover’s robotic arm. Curiosity moves its robotic arm around and over itself and the ground, taking pictures from every angle. These pictures are then stitched, just like panoramic images are put together to form a complete image of your total view. The rover’s arm isn’t long enough to make the camera’s field of view big enough to get the entire rover in one shot (similar to how it works if you hold your camera/phone close to your face you only get one feature, like your nose or eyes, not your entire body.)
Update: As for the questions of why the rover’s arm doesn’t show up in these rover selfie images, I conferred with Guy Webster from JPL and he said that portions of the arm do show up in some of the images used to create the selfie shots, but the portion of the arm pictured is very limited, and the team feels it would be even more confusing to include the small parts of the arm that are in some of the images and so have decided to leave it out entirely.
“Some of the component images do indeed show glimpses of the arm,” Webster said via email. “There’s selectivity in choosing which parts of which component frames to use in assembling the mosaic, to avoid having discontinuous bits of arm in the scene. That would cause confusion even quicker than making choices that leave out the arm.”
For example, here is one image from the series of pictures taken by the MAHLI to create the selfie, and it shows just a small piece of the arm, near the “shoulder”:
A small portion of the Curiosity rover’s robotic arm (the white ‘tube’ on the top left of the image) shows up in one of the original raw images used to create the montage ‘selfie.’ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.
You can see the entire collection of MAHLI images from Sol 1126 (Oct. 6, 2015) here. You can see how few images show parts of the arm, and how little of the arm shows up in the ones that do.
For the most part, though, because of the flexibility of the robotic arm and the way it is able to move, the arm ends up behind the camera. As Curiosity’s Engineering Camera Team Leader Justin Maki explains in the video below, “The rover is imaging the deck while the arm is behind the camera, and then to image the ground … again the arm is behind the camera when taking these pictures. When we stitch them all together, you don’t see the arm in any of the pictures.”
Click on the image to start the video (which shows very well why the arm isn’t in most of the shots):
It’s interesting to note, that while the lead image above — the latest rover selfie — does not include the rover’s robotic arm, the shadow of the arm is visible on the ground. You’ll notice there seems to be an extra “joint” in the arm, which is just part of the image editing, particularly the stacking of the images where the ground is, where the image editors used more than one image for that area. For the selfie image below, taken in 2012, the imaging team chose not to include any shadow of the arm.
A color self-portrait photo of Curiosity standing on Mars, on sol 84 (October 31, 2012). The photo is a mosaic of images shot with MAHLI, the camera on the end of the robotic arm. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS.
Why does the rover imaging team take these rover selfies? Are they just joining in on the selfie craze here on Earth?
These images are actually a great way for the rover team to look at all the components on Curiosity and make sure everything looks like it’s in good shape. The wheels are of particular interest because there has been some damage to them from driving over sharp rocks. These images also document various areas where the rover has worked, and often include things like the holes the rover has drilled into the Martian rocks and soil.
Emily Lakdawalla at The Planetary Society has written an extremely detailed post on how the rover takes self-portraits. She created this composite image of the 72 individual frames the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) had to take in order to cover the 360-degree view showing the rover’s underside, a “belly selfie“:
Curiosity’s arm-mounted MAHLI camera took 72 individual photos over a period of about an hour in order to cover the entire rover and a lower hemisphere including 360 degrees around the rover and more than 90 degrees of elevation. It took 2 tiers of 20 images to cover the entire horizon, and fewer images at lower elevations to cover the bottom of the image sphere. The arm was kept out of most of the images but it was impossible to keep the arm’s shadow from falling on the ground in positions immediately in front of the rover. Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/Emily Lakdawalla.
Here’s another longer video from JPL that explains all the rover’s cameras.
A mosaic of images from NASA’s Curiosity rover shows what appears to be a “selfie” with a Martian mountain (Aeolis Mons)in the background. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech /MSS/ Image editing by Jason Major.
Craters near Enceladus' north pole region appear to be 'melting' into each other. Image taken by Cassini spacecraft on October 14, 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
If you thought Saturn’s moon Enceladus couldn’t get any more bizzare — with its magnificent plumes, crazy tiger-stripe-like fissures and global subsurface salty ocean — think again. New images of this moon’s northern region just in from the Cassini spacecraft show surprising and perplexing features: a tortured surface where craters look like they are melting, and fractures that cut straight across the landscape.
“We’ve been puzzling over Enceladus’ south pole for so long, time to be puzzled by the north pole!” tweeted NASA engineer Sarah Milkovich, who formerly worked on the Cassini mission.
While the Cassini mission has been at the Saturn system since 2004 and flown by this moon several times, this is the spacecraft’s first close-up look at the north polar region of Enceladus. On October 14, 2015 the spacecraft passed at an altitude of just 1,839 kilometers (1,142 miles) above the moon’s surface.
See more imagery below:
Craters and a possible straight fracture line mar the surface of Enceladus in this raw image from the Cassini spacecraft taken on October 14, 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.
The reason Cassini hasn’t been able to see the northern terrain of Enceladus previously is that it was concealed by the darkness of winter. It’s now summer in the high northern latitudes, and scientists have been anxious to take a look at this previously unseen region. Gauging by the posts of “Wow!” and “Enceladus what are you doing??” by scientists on social media, the Cassini team is as excited and perplexed by these images as the rest of us.
“We’ve been following a trail of clues on Enceladus for 10 years now,” said Bonnie Buratti, a Cassini science team member and icy moons expert at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “The amount of activity on and beneath this moon’s surface has been a huge surprise to us. We’re still trying to figure out what its history has been, and how it came to be this way.”
Craters and fractures dot the landscape of the northern region of Enceladus in this raw image from the Cassini spacecraft taken on October 14, 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.
While these raw images just arrived this morning, already image editing enthusiasts have dived into the data to create composite and color images. Here are two from UT writer Jason Major and image contributor Kevin Gill:
A beautiful view of the night side of a crescent Enceladus, lovingly lit by Saturnshine. This was captured by the Cassini spacecraft during a close pass on Oct. 14, 2015. The 6.5-mile-wide Bahman cater is visible near the center. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute, image editing by Jason Major.Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus on October 14th, 2015 during Cassini’s latest encounter. Assembled from uncalibrated images using infrared, green, and ultraviolet light. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech/ISS/Kevin M. Gill
In an email, Cassini imaging team leader Carolyn Porco explained the flyby: “Our cameras were active during most of this encounter, allowing the imaging team and other remote-sensing instrument teams to observe the Saturn-opposing side of Enceladus on the inbound leg of the encounter, and a narrow, sunlit crescent outbound.”
From previous imagery and study of this moon, it has been suggested that the fractured and wrinkled terrain on Enceladus could be the scars of a shift in the moon’s spin rate. The moon has likely undergone multiple episodes of geologic activity spanning a considerable portion of its lifetime.
A complex region of craters and fractures near the north polar region on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Image from Cassini spacecraft taken on October 14, 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
While these images are incredible, get ready for even more. An even closer flyby of Enceladus is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 28, during which Cassini will come dizzyingly close to the icy moon, passing just 49 kilometers (30 miles) above the moon’s south polar region. NASA says that during this encounter, Cassini will make its deepest-ever dive through the moon’s plume of icy spray, collecting images and valuable data about what’s going on beneath the frozen surface. Cassini scientists are hopeful data from that flyby will provide evidence of how much hydrothermal activity is occurring in the moon’s ocean, and how the amount of activity impacts the habitability of Enceladus’ ocean.
Then another flyby — Cassini’s final scheduled close flyby of Enceladus — on Dec. 19 will examine how much heat is coming from the moon’s interior from an altitude of 4,999 kilometers (3,106 miles).
Enceladus hovers over Saturn’s rings in this raw image from the Cassini spacecraft taken on October 14, 2015. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute.
An interesting side note is that the Cassini mission launched 18 years ago today (October 15, 1997).
Again stay tuned for more, and you can see all of Cassini’s raw image here, and find out more details of the upcoming flybys at this CICLOPS page.
Astronaut Alan L. Bean holds a Special Environmental Sample Container filled with lunar soil collected during the second Apollo 12 extravehicular activity (EVA) conducted by astronauts Charles Conrad Jr., commander, and Bean, lunar module pilot. Conrad, who took this picture, is reflected in Bean's helmet visor. November 20, 1969. Credit: NASA/JSC.
When NASA recently posted over 8,000 images from the Apollo missions on Flickr, I just knew something good was going to happen! There are so many creative people out there that just need a little spark, a little inspiration and they’re off creating wonderful things. Three videos so far have surfaced based on the imagery from NASA’s Apollo Archive.
The first comes from Tom Kucy who posted his video titled “Ground Control” on You Tube and said this is a “small personal project, bringing NASA’s Apollo Archive photos to life.” This video is like a 2.5 minute mini-documentary of the Apollo missions. Kucy uses stunning photos and audio from the Apollo missions to create a truly stunning video. As one commenter said, “This happened prior to my birth, and I truly feel like I was there. Nice, nice work!”
Kucy also added that he has the intention of bringing more missions life, so stay tuned for more.
The second video was created by harrisonicus on Vimeo, who said he was looking through the Project Apollo Archive and “at one point, I began clicking through a series of pics quickly and it looked like stop motion animation. So, I decided to see what that would look like without me having to click through it.”
The third is a short gif video put together by planetary astronomer Alex Parker and posted on Twitter. He found new images of the damaged Apollo 13 Service Module, cleaned them up a bit and created this wonderful animation:
It’s a great new look at the service module, which was damaged when an oxygen tank in the module exploded. When the Apollo 13 crew jettisoned the crippled Service Module as they returned to Earth, they saw the extent of the damage from the explosion of the tank. “There’s one whole side of that spacecraft missing!” Jim Lovell radioed to Mission Control, his voice reflecting his incredulousness at seeing the damage of a 13-ft panel blown off the spacecraft.
Below are a few of our favorite images from the collection that we’ve found so far. Enjoy, and make sure you check out all the images for yourself!
The Apollo 15 Saturn V Space Vehicle is seen from a camera located at the mobile launcher’s 360-foot level at Launch Pad 39A during venting of the liquid oxygen during the “wet” portion of the Countdown Demonstration Test on July 13, 1971. Credit: NASA/KSCThe Lunar Module for the Apollo 17 mission undergoes final checkout in the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building prior to mating to the Saturn V launch vehicle. November 3, 1972.
Credit: NASA.The Earth as photographed from the Apollo 4 mission, the first, unmanned test flight of the Saturn V, which reached an apogee of 18,092 kilometers. November 9, 1967. Credit: NASA.Crescent Earth as viewed by the crew of Apollo 15. Credit: NASA.The Apollo 17 Lunar Module “Challenger” ascent stage after returning from the lunar surface, photographed from the Command Module “America” prior to rendezvous. Credit: NASA/KSC.
Moonlit lenticular clouds formed over Mount Shasta in northern California in October 2015. Credit and copyright: Brad Goldpaint/Goldpaint Photography.
Clouds and moonlight are usually the bane of astronomers and astrophotographers. But on a recent evening at Mount Shasta in northern California, the two combined for a stunning look at usual cloud formations called lenticular clouds.
Fortunately for us, photographer Brad Goldpaint from Goldpaint Photography was on hand to capture the event. His beautiful sunset and moonlit images show these strange UFO-reminscent clouds, and the timelapse video he created provides a great demonstration of just how they form.
See the video and more images below:
A few ingredients are needed for lenticular clouds to form: mountains, stable but moist air, and just the right temperature and dew point.
According to WeatherUnderground, these smoooth, lens-shaped clouds normally develop on the downwind side of a mountain or mountain range when the stable, moist air flows over the obstruction and a series of large oscillating waves waves may form. If the temperature at the crest of the wave drops to the dew point, moisture in the air may condense to form lens-like or lenticular clouds. Since the air is stable, the oval clouds can grow quite large appear to be hovering in one place. Hence, the UFO appearance.
In the video, even though the clouds appear to be moving fast, it is a timelapse, so it shows the cloud movement over the entire night, condensed down to 30 seconds. But the video does allow us to see the fluid dynamics or laminar flows in parallel layers that creates the lenticular clouds. Plus, the stars and moonlight add to the beauty of the scene.
Lenticular clouds form at sunset over Mount Shasta in northern California, October r2015. Credit and copyright: Brad Goldpaint/Goldpaint Photography.Lenticular clouds form over Mount Shasta in northern California, October, 2015. Credit and copyright: Brad Goldpaint/Goldpaint Photography.
A montage of images taken during the lunar eclipse on September 28, 2015, as see from Rambouillet, France. ISS transit duration (total): 1.7 seconds. This is the first time an ISS transit has been photographed during an eclipse. Credit and copyright: Thierry Legault.
To our knowledge, this is the first time anyone has ever photographed a transit of the International Space Station of the Moon DURING a lunar eclipse. And guess who did it?
Not surprisingly, it was the legendary astrophotographer Thierry Legault.
Usually, Thierry will travel up to thousands of miles to capture unique events like this, but this time, he only had to go 10 miles!
“Even if I caught a cold, I could not miss it,” Thierry told Universe Today in an email. “The Moon was very low on the horizon, only 16 degrees, so the seeing was not very good, but at least the sky was clear.”
Still, a stunning — and singularly unique — view of the “Super Blood Moon” eclipse!
See the video below:
It was a quick pass, with the ISS transit duration lasting a total of 1.7 seconds. Thierry uses CalSky to calculate where he needs to be to best capture an event like this, then studies maps, and has a radio synchronized watch to know very accurately when the transit event will happen.
In a previous article on Universe Today, Legault shared how he figures out the best places to travel to from his home near Paris to get the absolute best shots:
“For transits I have to calculate the place, and considering the width of the visibility path is usually between 5-10 kilometers, but I have to be close to the center of this path,” Legault explained, “because if I am at the edge, it is just like an eclipse where the transit is shorter and shorter. And the edge of visibility line of the transit lasts very short. So the precision of where I have to be is within one kilometer.”
Here’s the specs: ISS Speed: 25000 km/h (15500 mph). ISS Distance: 1100 km; Moon distance: 357,000 km (320x).
You can see other imagery from around the world of the lunar eclipse here, with images taken by Universe Today readers and staff.
Earlier this year, Thierry captured an ISS transit during the March 20, 2015 SOLAR eclipse, which you can see here.
Universe Today’s David Dickinson said he’s been trying to steer people towards trying to capture an ISS transit during a lunar eclipse for quite some time, and concurred that Thierry’s feat is a first. Dave made a video earlier this year to explain how people might photograph it during the April 2015 lunar eclipse, but unfortunately, no astrophotographers had any luck.
Thanks again to Thierry Legault for sharing his incredible work with Universe Today. Check out his website for additional imagery and information.
You can also see some of Legault’s beautiful and sometimes ground-breaking astrophotography here on Universe Today, such as images of the space shuttle or International Space Station crossing the Sun or Moon, or views of spy satellites in orbit.
If you want to try and master the art of astrophotography, you can learn from Legault by reading his book, “Astrophotography,” which is available on Amazon in a large format book or as a Kindle edition for those who might like to have a lit version while out in the field. It is also available at book retailers like Barnes and Noble and Shop Indie bookstores, or from the publisher, Rocky Nook, here.
This schlieren image of a T-38C was captured using the patent-pending BOSCO technique and then processed with NASA-developed code to reveal shock wave structures.
Credit: NASA.
NASA is using a 150-year-old photographic technique with a few 21st century tweaks to capture unique and stunning images of the shockwaves created by supersonic aircraft.
Called schlieren imagery, the technique can be used to visualize supersonic airflow with full-scale aircraft in flight. Usually, this can only be done in wind tunnels using scale models, but being able to study real-sized aircraft flying through Earth’s atmosphere provides better results, and can help engineers design better and quieter supersonic planes.
And a side benefit is that the images are amazing and dramatic, creating a little “shock” and awe.
This schlieren image dramatically displays the shock wave of a supersonic jet flying over the Mojave Desert. Researchers used NASA-developed image processing software to remove the desert background, then combined and averaged multiple frames to produce a clear picture of the shock waves. Credit: NASA.
Earlier this year, NASA released some schlieren imagery taken with a high-speed camera mounted on the underside of a NASA Beechcraft B200 King Air, which captured images at 109 frames per second while a supersonic aircraft passed several thousand feet underneath over a speckled dessert floor. Special image processing software was used to remove the desert background, then combine and average multiple frames, which produces a clear picture of the shock waves. This is called air-to-air schlieren.
“Air-to-air schlieren is an important flight-test technique for locating and characterizing, with high spatial resolution, shock waves emanating from supersonic vehicles,” said Dan Banks, the principal investigator on the project, being done at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. “It allows us to see the shock wave geometry in the real atmosphere as the target aircraft flies through temperature and humidity gradients that cannot be duplicated in wind tunnels.”
But now they’ve started using a technique that might provide better results: using the Sun and Moon as a lit background. This backlit method is called Background-Oriented Schlieren using Celestial Objects, or BOSCO.
The speckled background or a bright light source is used for visualizing aerodynamic flow phenomena generated by aircraft or other objects passing between the camera and the backdrop.
This schlieren image of shock waves created by a T-38C in supersonic flight was captured using the sun’s edge as a light source and then processed using NASA-developed code. Credit: NASA.
NASA explains the technique:
“Flow visualization is one of the fundamental tools of aeronautics research, and schlieren photography has been used for many years to visualize air density gradients caused by aerodynamic flow. Traditionally, this method has required complex and precisely aligned optics as well as a bright light source. Refracted light rays revealed the intensity of air density gradients around the test object, usually a model in a wind tunnel. Capturing schlieren images of a full-scale aircraft in flight was even more challenging due to the need for precise alignment of the plane with the camera and the sun.”
Then, there are variations on this technique. One recent demonstration used Calcium-K Eclipse Background Oriented Schlieren (CaKEBOS). According to Armstrong principal investigator Michael Hill, CaKEBOS was a proof of concept test to see how effectively the Sun could be used for background oriented schlieren photography.
Using the solar disk as a backdrop, its details revealed by a calcium-K optical filter, researchers processed this image to reveal shock waves created by a supersonic T-38C. Credit: NASA.
“Using a celestial object like the sun for a background has a lot of advantages when photographing a flying aircraft,” Hill said. “With the imaging system on the ground, the target aircraft can be at any altitude as long as it is far enough away to be in focus.”
Researchers found the ground-based method to be significantly more economical than air-to-air methods, since you don’t have to have a second aircraft carrying specially mounted camera equipment. The team said they can use off-the-shelf equipment.
Schlieren imagery was originally invented in 1864 by German physicist August Toepler.
Find out more about the air-to-air technique here and the BOSCO techniques here.
A unique 'glowing fireball' resembling a meteor is actually a giant 'honey moon,' and the trailing effect used by tracking the rotation of the Earth's axis over several hours. Credit and copyright: Sunchaser Pictures/Gavin Heffernan.
The “stars” of a new 3-minute timelapse are some very unique star trails and a glowing fireball that is actually a giant ‘honey moon‘ — the full Moon in June. Gavin Heffernan from Sunchaser Pictures and Harun Mehmedinovic from Bloodhoney.com teamed up for this video, filming in gorgeous mountain locations in the Southwestern US, showcasing gathering storm clouds and stunning night sky scenes.
At about 1:50 in the video, you’ll see a unique “split” star trail effect, where it looks like the trails are cascading down the sides of a mountain. At 2:02, the Moon appears to burn through the sky like a meteor.
See imagery from the footage below:
This video is part of the Skyglow Project, which is an initiative to protect the night skies and raise awareness of the light pollution and its dangers. It was produced in association with BBC Earth.
Interestingly, Heffernan said some of the footage seen here was also featured this summer by The Rolling Stones in their Zip Code Stadium Tour, after Mick Jagger saw some of their previous timelapse videos.
The footage was shot in Monument Valley, Arizona, Trona Pinnacles, California, and Red Rock Canyon, California.
Thanks to Gavin Heffernan for continuing to share his wonderful work!
A star trail sequence from the timelapse video “Pinnacles.” Image credit: Harun Mehmedinovic. Used by permission.
All asteroids and comets visited by spacecraft as of November 2010 Credits: Montage by Emily Lakdawalla. Ida, Dactyl, Braille, Annefrank, Gaspra, Borrelly: NASA / JPL / Ted Stryk. Steins: ESA / OSIRIS team. Eros: NASA / JHUAPL. Itokawa: ISAS / JAXA / Emily Lakdawalla. Mathilde: NASA / JHUAPL / Ted Stryk. Lutetia: ESA / OSIRIS team / Emily Lakdawalla. Halley: Russian Academy of Sciences / Ted Stryk. Tempel 1, Hartley 2: NASA / JPL / UMD. Wild 2: NASA / JPL.
What are asteroids made of? Asteroids are made mostly of rock — with some composed of clay and silicate — and different metals, mostly nickel and iron. But other materials have been found in asteroids, as well.
Overview
Asteroids are solid, rocky and irregular bodies that are the rocky remnants of the protoplanetary disk of dust and gas that formed around our young Sun over 4.5 billion years ago. Much of the disk coalesced to form the planets, but some of the debris remained. During the chaotic, fiery days of the early Solar System, debris was constantly crashing together and so small grains became small rocks, which crashed into other rocks to form bigger ones.
Some of debris was shattered remnants of planetesimals – bodies within the young Sun’s solar nebula that never grew large enough to become planets — and large collisions pulverized these planetesimals while other debris never came together due to the massive gravitational pull from Jupiter. This is the how the asteroids originated.
The various elements that are found in asteroids. Credit: Planetary Resources.
Composition
An asteroid’s composition is mainly determined by how close it is to the Sun. The asteroids that are nearest the Sun are mostly made of carbon, with smaller amounts of nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen, while the ones further away are made up of silicate rock. Silicates are very common on Earth and in the Solar System. They are made up of oxygen and silicon, the number one and number two most abundant elements in the Earth’s crust. The metallic asteroids are composed of up to 80% iron and 20% a mixture of nickel, iridium, palladium, platinum, gold, magnesium and other precious metals such as osmium, ruthenium and rhodium. There are a few that are made up of half silicate and half metallic.
The platinum group metals are some of the most rare and useful elements on Earth. According to Planetary Resources, a company that hopes to mine asteroids in space, those metals exist in such high concentrations on asteroids that a single 500-meter platinum-rich asteroid can contain more platinum group metals than have ever been mined on Earth throughout human history.
Other minerals have been found on asteroids that have been visited by our spacecraft. For example, the Hayabusa spacecraft landed on Itokawa, a spud-shaped, near-Earth asteroid, and found it consists mainly of the minerals olivine and pyroxene, a mineral composition similar to a class of stony meteorites that have pelted Earth in the past.
In addition to the metals, the elements to create water are present in asteroids and there are indications that asteroids contain water or ice in their interiors, and there’s even evidence that water may have flowed on the surface of at least one asteroid. Observations of Vesta from the Dawn mission show gullies that may have been carved by water. The theory is that when a smaller asteroid or comet slams into a bigger asteroid, the small asteroid or comet could release a layer of ice in the bigger asteroid. The force of the impact briefly turned the ice into water, which flowed across the surface, creating the gullies.
Metals that are abundant in asteroids. Credit: Planetary Resources.
But asteroids may have changed over time. It is also thought that chemical reactions over the millennia or more recent impacts they may have endured also effects the composition of asteroids. Some experienced high temperatures after they formed and partly melted, with iron sinking to the center and forcing basaltic (volcanic) lava to the surface. Only one such asteroid, Vesta, is known to have this type of surface.
Types of Asteroids
Generally, there are three main types of asteroids:
Dark C (carbonaceous) asteroids, which make up most asteroids and are in the outer belt. They’re believed to be close to the Sun’s composition, with little hydrogen or helium or other “volatile” elements.
Bright S (silicaceous) asteroids and are in the inner belt, closer to Mars. They tend to be metallic iron with some silicates of iron and magnesium.
Bright M (metallic) asteroids. They sit in the middle of the asteroid belt and are mostly made up of metallic iron.
There are also D type, known as the Trojan asteroids of Jupiter and are dark and carbonaceous in nature, and V type that are distant asteroids between the orbits of Jupiter and Uranus, and they may have originated in the Kuiper Belt. While these have not been studied extensively, it has been suggested that they have a composition of organic-rich silicates, carbon and anhydrous silicates, possibly with water ice in their interiors.
Comparisons
Asteroids are different from comets, which are mostly rock and ice. Comets usually have tails, which are made from ice and debris sublimating as the comet gets close to the Sun. Asteroids typically don’t have tails, even those near the Sun. But recently, astronomers have seen some asteroids that have sprouted tails, such as asteroid P/2010 A2. Scientists have theorized this can happen when the asteroid has been hit or pummeled by other asteroids and dust or gas is ejected from their surfaces, creating a sporadic tail effect. These so-called “active asteroids” are a newly recognized phenomenon, and as of this writing, only 13 known active asteroids have been found in the main asteroid belt, and so they are very rare.
How Many Asteroids?
There are millions of asteroids in our Solar System. Scientists estimate the asteroid belt has between 1.1 and 1.9 million asteroids larger than 1 kilometer (0.6 mile) in diameter, and millions of smaller ones. Most of the undiscovered asteroids are likely the smaller ones (less than 100 km across) which are more difficult to detect. Some astronomers estimate there could be 150 million asteroids in the entire Solar System.
As of September 06, 2015, 13,024 Near-Earth objects have been discovered. About 875 of these NEOs are asteroids with a diameter of approximately 1 kilometer or larger. Also, 1,609 of these NEOs have been classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs), but none at this time are expected to impact Earth. Check the NASA NEO website for updates.
All asteroids are covered in space dust called regolith. This dust is usually a rocky rubble more than dust. It is the result of the constant collisions the asteroids undergo in space.
A look inside SpaceX's 'Crew Dragon' from an exterior window. Credit: SpaceX
SpaceX released new images today of the sleek interior of “Crew Dragon,” SpaceX’s spacecraft designed to carry humans to the International Space Station, and possibly other future destinations. If things go as hoped, the first commercial crew flights under the Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) program contract could take place in 2017.
UPDATE: SpaceX added a new video of the Crew Dragon in orbit, which you can see below, in addition to a video that provides views of the interior.
The futuristic interior is “designed to be an enjoyable ride,” says SpaceX. Four windows provide passengers with views of Earth, the Moon, and the wider Solar System right from their seats. The seats — which don’t look especially plush — are made from high-grade carbon fiber and Alcantara cloth.
SpaceX provided just snapshots of parts of the interior, and so its hard to get a feel for what the entire crew cabin will be like and how roomy it might be.
But with the white and black interior and the clean lines, the imagery is reminiscent of the interior of the spacecraft in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” See below for the non-HAL 9000 computer screen, and well as more images and a video scanning the interior:
Exterior of the Crew Dragon capsule. Credit: SpaceX.
NASA named four astronauts earlier this year who will fly on the first U.S. commercial spaceflights on either SpaceX or Boeing crew transportation vehicles. The agreement between NASA and the commercial companies is that at least one member of the two person crews for the initial flights will be a NASA astronaut – who will be “on board to verify the fully-integrated rocket and spacecraft system can launch, maneuver in orbit, and dock to the space station, as well as validate all systems perform as expected, and land safely,” according to a NASA statement.
The second crew member would likely be a company test pilot, but the details remain to be worked out.
There’s not been indication as of yet if the explosion of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship loaded with supplies for the International Space Station (ISS) on June 28, 2015 will have an impact on when the first crewed Dragon flights will take place. The explosion happened about 148 seconds after an initially successful launch. It was later determined an in-flight failure of a critical support strut inside the second stage liquid oxygen tank holding a high pressure helium tank in the Falcon 9 rocket was the likely cause of the accident.
Crew Dragon features an advanced emergency escape system to swiftly carry astronauts to safety if something were to go wrong. Credit: SpaceX.
SpaceX said the escape system provides a safe way to carry astronauts to safety if there is a problem and the crew would experience about the same G-forces as a ride at Disneyland.
Crew Dragon’s displays will provide real-time information on the state of the spacecraft’s capabilities – anything from Dragon’s position in space, to possible destinations, to the environment on board. Credit: SpaceX.Crew Dragon has an Environmental Control and Life Support System (ECLSS) that provides a comfortable and safe environment for crew members. During their trip, astronauts on board can set the spacecraft’s interior temperature to between 65 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Credit: SpaceX.Crew Dragon will be a fully autonomous spacecraft that can also be monitored & controlled by on board astronauts and SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California. Credit: SpaceX.
