And if you’re interested in looking back, here’s an archive to all the past Carnivals of Space. If you’ve got a space-related blog, you should really join the carnival. Just email an entry to [email protected], and the next host will link to it. It will help get awareness out there about your writing, help you meet others in the space community – and community is what blogging is all about. And if you really want to help out, sign up to be a host. Send an email to the above address.
ISRO's Mars Orbiter Mission captures spectacular portrait of the Red Planet and swirling dust storms with the on-board Mars Color Camera from an altitude of 74500 km on Sept. 28, 2014. Credit: ISRO
The MOM orbiter was designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), India’s space agency, which released the image on Sept. 29.
Even more impressive is that MOM’s Martian portrait shows a dramatic view of a huge dust storm swirling over a large patch of the planet’s Northern Hemisphere against the blackness of space. Luckily, NASA’s Opportunity and Curiosity surface rovers are nowhere nearby.
“Something’s brewing here!” ISRO tweeted.
The southern polar ice cap is also clearly visible.
It was taken by the probe’s on-board Mars Color Camera from a very high altitude of 74,500 kilometers.
ISRO’s Mars Orbiter Mission captures the limb of Mars with the Mars Color Camera from an altitude of 8449 km soon after achieving orbit on Sept. 23/24, 2014. Credit: ISRO
When MOM met Mars, the thrusters placed the probe into a highly elliptical orbit whose nearest point to Mars (periapsis) is at 421.7 km and farthest point (apoapsis) at 76,993.6 km. The inclination of the orbit with respect to the equatorial plane of Mars is 150 degrees, as intended, ISRO reported.
So the Red Planet portrait was captured nearly at apoapsis.
This is the third MOM image released by ISRO thus far, and my personal favorite. And its very reminiscent of whole globe Mars shots taken by Hubble.
MOM’s goal is to study Mars’ atmosphere, surface environments, morphology, and mineralogy with a 15 kg (33 lb) suite of five indigenously built science instruments. It will also sniff for methane, a potential marker for biological activity.
The $73 million mission is expected to last at least six months.
MOM’s success follows closely on the heels of NASA’s MAVEN orbiter which also successfully achieved orbit barely two days earlier on Sept. 21 and could last 10 years or more.
With MOM’s arrival, India became the newest member of an elite club of only four entities who have launched probes that successfully investigated Mars – following the Soviet Union, the United States and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Stay tuned here for Ken’s continuing Earth and planetary science and human spaceflight news.
Canadarm2 is backdropped by Earth and the HTV-3 vehicle in this shot from the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
TORONTO, CANADA – Canada’s robotic Canadarm2 will install the next two Urthecast cameras on the International Space Station, removing the need for astronauts to go outside to do the work themselves, the company announced today (Sept. 30).
Urthecast plans to place two Earth-facing cameras on the United States side of the station (on Node 3) to add to the two they already have on the Russian Zvezda module. Technical problems with the cameras forced the Russians to do an extra spacewalk to complete the work earlier this year.
The company plans to make images and streaming video of its imagery available to the general public and interested paying customers. One of the Russian-side cameras is facing technical difficulties with pointing, but more equipment is scheduled to blast up to fix it on a Soyuz flight this fall. The camera should be ready by December, Urthecast said.
The International Space Station seen by a departing space shuttle in 2009. Credit: NASA
The U.S.-side cameras will be an improvement over the Russian-side ones, as they will be able to take imagery in radar and multiple other wavelengths simultaneously – a first in space, the company said.
The suite will include a medium-resolution camera perpetually pointing down, and a high-resolution video camera that can focus on a target ahead of the station and swivel for 60 to 90 seconds to keep it in the frame as the station moves.
Urthecast made the announcement at the International Astronautical Congress, which is being held in Toronto this week. The company is working in association with NanoRacks, which is shipping the payload to the station and handling the installation.
Once the cameras are working fully, the company expects revenues will flow from customers willing to pay for the imagery. So far they have been funded by private investment and also by a $57 million initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2013.
Three images – spanning more than seven years – of Titan’s Ligeia Mare in which an elusive, radar-bright feature has been spotted. Images were created from data collected by Cassini’s Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell
Earlier this year, we reported on a mysterious “ghost” object that had suddenly appeared and then disappeared on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Now, new observations by the Cassini team show this elusive feature is back again.
You may recall that a so-called “transient feature,” nicknamed “Magic Island” by the Cassini team, was first observed by Cassini in July 2013 during a Titan flyby. Magic Island has continued to puzzle scientists because shortly after its initial appearance, it disappeared and has been in hiding ever since. That is, until it just-as-suddenly reappeared in images created using SAR data collected in mid-August, 2014.
However, with its reemergence comes additional questions for scientists since its physical appearance has changed rather significantly, having roughly doubled in size during its 13 months in hiding, growing from 30 square miles [75 square km] in 2013 to almost 60 square miles [160 square km], as seen in the latest images, above.
Although scientists initially considered that this had been a transient feature, they now suspect that its appearance and disappearance may be the result of Titan’s changing seasons. (Titan is currently entering summer in its northern hemisphere.) There has also been some speculation that the feature may be rising gas bubbles, surface waves, or solid material at (or just below) the surface of Ligeia Mare.
Titan’s seas are made of liquid methane and ethane, organic compounds which are gases on Earth but liquids in Titan’s incredibly chilly -290º F (-180º C) environment.
“Science loves a mystery, and with this enigmatic feature, we have a thrilling example of ongoing change on Titan,” said Stephen Wall, the deputy team lead of Cassini’s radar team, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “We’re hopeful that we’ll be able to continue watching the changes unfold and gain insights about what’s going on in that alien sea.”
The monitoring of Titan’s changing climate and surface features is a primary goal of Cassini’s ongoing, and twice-extended, mission. Further studies may confirm or eliminate explanations that have been presented to date – or they may lead to completely new hypotheses about mysteries held within and below Titan’s seas.
Titan’s Ligeia Mare. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
In addition to its original primary mission, Cassini, which was launched in October 1997 and entered Saturn’s orbit on July 1, 2004, has been extended two times – the Extended Equinox Mission in July 2008, and the Solstice Mission in November, 2010. In September, 2014, NASA announced that it had fully funded Cassini through its planned completion in 2017.
For more information about Cassini and its ongoing mission, visit:
A 180° panorama of ant aurora display behind grain bins on a country road in Alberta, Canada. Credit and copyright: Alan Dyer/Amazing Sky Photography.
Since I grew up on a farm, I know how lovely the night sky can be when you’re out in the country. But this new image from Alan Dyer is just astounding!
This 180-degree panorama shows an aurora display behind grain bins on a country road in Alberta, Canada. “The aurora adds more color to a sky also filled with green airglow,” Alan wrote on Flickr, “while at the ends of the roads are yellow glows of light pollution, from Strathmore and Calgary at left, and Bassano at right. For a few minutes there was also the sharp edge at left to the aurora rays, present in 3 frames of the panorama, so it is not an artifact of the stitching. The Big Dipper is left of centre, low in the north.”
Just gorgeous. Plus, it reminds me of home…
You can click on the image above to see larger versions.
#TerrestrialTuesday
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Thanks to the ubiquitousness of dashboard-mounted video cameras in Russia yet another bright object has been spotted lighting up the sky over Siberia, this time a “meteor-like object” seen on the evening of Saturday, Sept. 27.
The International Space Station as seen by the departing STS-134 crew aboard space shuttle Endeavour in May 2011. Credit: NASA
TORONTO, CANADA – NASA isn’t “reading too much” into a report that the Russians will spend $8 billion on the International Space Station through 2025, the head of the agency says. That date is five years past the international agreements to operate the space station.
The Russian announcement comes at a pivotal time for NASA, which is looking to extend operations on the station to at least 2024. Other space agency heads have not yet signed on. Russia is the major partner for NASA on the station, given it operates several modules and sends astronauts to and from Earth on Soyuz spacecraft.
When deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin made the funding announcement, said NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Rogozin was speaking of a budget request that is before the State Duma. The Duma is Russia’s lower house of government.
“I am told that’s why he said that,” Bolden said at a press conference yesterday (Sept. 29) for the International Astronomical Congress, citing a conversation he had with Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s human exploration associate administrator. “You shouldn’t read too much into that.”
Canadarm2, the huge robotic arm on the International Space Station, holds astronaut Stephen Robinson during the STS-114 mission. Credit: NASA
Other member agencies of the space station gave noncommittal responses when asked if they would sign on to an extension.
“The [European] member states will be invited to give their views on what [to do] after 2020,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, who heads the European Space Agency. He added that any extension would require a financial commitment, as an agreement without money is “only principles.”
Similarly, Canadian Space Agency chief Walter Natynczyk said the money allocated to his agency will bring them through to 2020, but “we will have a look at the entire value proposition when we put a case before the government of Canada.”
The Russian agreement with NASA came under scrutiny earlier this year as tensions erupted in Ukraine while Russian soldiers were in the country. This year, Ukrainian Crimea was annexed to Russia to the condemnation of several countries, including the United States.
While Bolden has said relations with the Russians for the space station are still healthy, NASA suspended most science ties with the country in April. In response, Rogozin wrote a frustrated tweet saying NASA should try to send its astronauts into space using a trampoline.
100 colorful planetary nebulae, at apparent size relative to one another. Image processing and collection by Judy Schmidt.
If you like planetary nebulas, you’re in luck. Multimedia artist Judy Schmidt has put together an amazing collection of 100 of these colorful glowing shells of gas and plasma, all at apparent size relative to one another. There’s even a giant-sized 10,000 pixel-wide version available on Flickr.
How many of these planetary nebulae can you identify?
Judy explained her inspiration for putting together this wonderful ‘poster’:
Inspired by insect illustration posters, this is a large collage of planetary nebulas I put together bit by bit as I processed them. All are presented north up and at apparent size relative to one another–I did not rotate or resize them in order to satisfy compositional aesthetics (if you spot any errors, let me know). Colors are aesthetic choices, especially since most planetary nebulas are imaged with narrowband filters.
Planetary nebulae are formed by certain types of stars at the end of their lives, and actually have nothing to do with planets. They were given the confusing name 300 years ago by William Herschel because in early, rudimentary telescopes, the puffed out balls of gas looked like planets.
Our own Sun will likely undergo a similar process, but not for another 5 billion years or so.
'Fu?nfla?nderblick Milchstrasse,' the Milky Way over a dark country sky in Switzerland. Credit and copyright: Christian Kamber.
Hey, it’s #MilkyWayMonday! This gorgeous photo of the Milky Way was taken by astrophotographer Christian Kamber near Fu?nfla?nderblick, Switzerland (you can see the region on a map here). This is a stack of 20 shots, made with Deep Sky Stacker and Photoshop.
Lovely!
Want to get your astrophoto featured on Universe Today? Join our Flickr group or send us your images by email (this means you’re giving us permission to post them). Please explain what’s in the picture, when you took it, the equipment you used, etc.
Comet C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS photographed on September 26, 2014 by Rolando Ligustri. Like most comets, we see two tails. K1's dust tails points off to the left, it's gas or ion tail to the right. Credit: Rolando Ligustri
Thank you K1 PanSTARRS for hanging in there! Some comets crumble and fade away. Others linger a few months and move on. But after looping across the night sky for more than a year, this one is nowhere near quitting. Matter of fact, the best is yet to come.
This new visitor from the Oort Cloud making its first passage through the inner solar system, C/2012 K1 was discovered in May 2012 by the Pan-STARRS 1 survey telescope atop Mt. Haleakala in Hawaii at magnitude 19.7. Faint! On its the inbound journey from the Oort Cloud, C/2012 K1 approached with an orbit estimated in the millions of years. Perturbed by its interactions with the planets, its new orbit has been reduced to a mere ~400,000 years. That makes the many observing opportunities PanSTARRS K1 has provided that much more appreciated. No one alive now will ever see the comet again once this performance is over.
Comet C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS’ changing appearance over the past year. Credit upper left clockwise: Carl Hergenrother, Damian Peach, Chris Schur and Rolando Ligustri
Many amateur astronomers first picked up the comet’s trail in the spring of 2013 when it had brightened to around magnitude 13.5. My observing notes from June 2, 2013, read:
“Very small, about 20 arc seconds in diameter. Pretty faint at ~13.5 and moderately condensed but not too difficult at 142x . Well placed in Hercules.” Let’s just say it was a faint, fuzzy blob.
K1 PanSTARRS slowly brightened in Serpens last fall until it was lost in evening twilight. Come January this year it returned to the morning sky a little closer to Earth and Sun and a magnitude brighter. As winter snow gave way to frogs and flowers, the comet rocketedacross Corona Borealis, Bootes and Ursa Major. Its fat, well-condensed coma towed a pair of tails and grew bright enough to spot in binoculars at magnitude 8.5 in late May.
Skywatchers can find C/2012 K1 PanSTARRS in the morning sky in the Hydra and Puppis just before dawn when it’s highest in the southeastern sky. The map shows its location daily with stars to magnitude 8.5. The numbers next to some stars are standard Flamsteed atlas catalog numbers. Click for a larger version. Source: Chris Marriott’s SkyMap
By July, it hid away in the solar glare a second time only to come back swinging in September’s pre-dawn sky. Now in the constellation Hydra and even closer to Earth, C/2012 K1 has further brightened to magnitude 7.5. Though low in the southeast at dawn, I was pleasantly surprised to see it several mornings ago. Through my 15-inch (37-cm) reflector at 64x I saw a fluffy, bright coma punctuated by a brighter, not-quite-stellar nucleus and a faint tail extending 1/4º to the northeast.
Mid-northern observers can watch the comet’s antics through mid-October. From then on, K1 will only be accessible from the far southern U.S. and points south as it makes the rounds of Pictor, Dorado and Horologium. After all this time you might think the comet is ready to depart Earth’s vicinity. Not even. C/2012 K1 will finally make its closest approach to our planet on Halloween (88.6 million miles – 143 million km) when it could easily shine at magnitude 6.5, making it very nearly a naked-eye comet.
PanSTARRS K1’s not giving up anytime soon. Southern skywatchers will keep it in view through the spring of 2015 before it returns to the deep chill from whence it came. After delighting skywatchers for nearly two years, it’ll be hard to let this one go.
