Artist concept of an ancient, habitable Mars capable of supporting liquid water on its surface. Credit: Michael Lentz/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab
4 billion years ago, the atmosphere of Mars could have been rich in oxygen and thick enough and warm enough to support oceans of liquid water – a critical ingredient for life. A new animation from the Goddard Space Flight Center shows how the surface of Mars might have appeared during this ancient clement period. The artist’s concept video, below, is based on evidence that Mars was once very different and perhaps very Earth-like.
This past summer, a paper studying the compositions of Martian meteorites found on Earth and data from NASA’s rovers suggested that Mars had an oxygen-rich atmosphere very early in the history of the planet.
Scientists have long thought that the ancient riverbeds and what appear to be shorelines provide hints that Mars once supported oceans of water. But there’s not much indication of how the Red Planet was stripped of its thick atmosphere, roughly 3.7 billion years ago.
The end of the video shows the MAVEN spacecraft, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, orbiting Mars. This spacecraft is scheduled to launch on Nov. 18, 2013, and it will investigate how Mars lost its atmosphere. It should reach the planet in September 2014.
Below is another new video from NASA, featuring LeVar Burton talking about MAVEN.
Projected timeline of the MARS-X project. Credit: MARS-X
OTTAWA, CANADA – Humans would spend more than a year orbiting and bouncing on the Martian moon Phobos under a mission concept developed by students at the International Space University.
The very theoretical MARS-X mission — presented more as a concept than a firm plan — would see technology development taking place from 2018 to 2022, with communications satellites and rovers winging their way to the planet to be used by astronauts.
In 2023 to 2024, the spacecraft would be built in low-Earth orbit, requiring several launches to accomplish the massive task. Astronauts would then depart in 2024, spending eight months in transit before arriving at Phobos. There, the mission would last 495 days, and the astronauts would take five months to get home.
While NASA and Lockheed Martin helped sponsor the students who created the plan as part of their academic work, the concept itself is not yet funded beyond the students’ initial development.
But Piotr Murzionak, a member of the ISU team, said the proposal is one way that could help fuel interest in space exploration, if it was to be executed..
“It paves the way to Mars. It will be the initial step towards the landing mission on the Martian surface, but without the extra risk involved in order to land directly to Mars,” Murzionak said.
A graphic detailing the MARS-X spacecraft and technical performance. Click for larger version. Credit: MARS-X.
The Mars Exploration Vehicle (as the crew vehicle would be called) would use nuclear propulsion and liquid hydrogen to bring two habitats along with it. One of those would (along with several fuel tanks) be used on Phobos for up to 40 days of surface operations.
It would travel during solar maximum in 2024 to reduce the effects of cosmic radiation from outside the solar system, since the sun’s activity would blow the radiation further away. Further, the crew would be protected from solar flares with high-density polyethylene, as well as a temporary solar storm protection chamber lined with 50 centimeters of water.
The habitat would be spun at 4.4 revolutions per minute, with a habitat of 0.38 to 0.53 the force of gravity — about equivalent to what is on Mars. (This would take 2.5 metric tonnes of fuel to do.)
The students estimate this would cost about $20 billion, but it could go to at least double this due to factors such as “the volatility of political systems and the large amount of bureaucracy involved in any such endeavor,” they write in their final report, which is available here.
Murzionak presented the mission concept at the Canadian Space Society annual conference today (Nov. 14) in Ottawa, Canada.
New Canadian Space Agency President Walter J. Natynczyk. Credit: CSA.
OTTAWA, CANADA – With a booming voice, Walt Natynczyk — in his first speech after becoming Canadian Space Agency president in September — told delegates that he was happy to give up the “dream of retirement” to take on a challenging position.
“Imagine this picture. February. Saturday morning. 7 in the morning. It’s -25 [Celsius, -13 Fahrenheit] and I’m out there, by my lonesome, walking three dogs. None of which are mine. But their owners, who are family members, who I love, are all headed down south,” Natynczyk said.
“As I’m stooping over to pick up another pile of doggie doo, a neighbor — that I love — sticks her head out the door and says, ‘Hello, how the almighty have fallen.’ ” He paused as the room roared with laughter. “Think about it. That’s when I thought it was time to do something different.”
Natynczyk is best known in Canada for leading a large restructuring of the country’s military. He also was (as an exchange officer) a deputy commanding general in the United States, among other positions, and served in Baghdad at the height of the Iraqi war in 2004. His appointment to the CSA had some worried about the militarization of the agency. Natynczyk, however, focused on how difficult the new vocabulary is to master.
Speaking of a recent conversation with quantum researchers — the field that his predecessor, Steve MacLean, went into after leaving the CSA this year — Natynczyk said to them, “The point at which you start losing me is like talking to my puppy; when I start doing this,” — he tilted his head to one side — “you’re losing me.”
Joking that nanosatellites and microsatellites are equivalent to “milk cartons” and “milk jugs”, Natynczyk said one of his main goals is to make space understandable to the typical Canadian standing in line at Tim Horton’s, a coffee chain that is prolific in the country.
His comments on space policy were few. Last year, the Canadian government asked an external group to do a space development strategy for the country, and little has been mentioned publicly since the strategy was released. Natynczyk said conversations are ongoing with other government departments to address the recommendations.
Throughout, he stressed the importance of Canada’s choice to pursue research and development through the universities (with government support) rather than through government directly.
“It’s what we do with CSA, with the universities and so on, looking for extraordinary concepts that are in a higher-risk category and investing in a modest way — perhaps with other government funding … that allow for exponential jumps.”
Typical meteorological applications for the Polar Communications and Weather (PCW) mission. Credit: CSA.
OTTAWA, CANADA — A new Canadian satellite — should it launch — might carry a sort of magnetized force field on board to keep charged particles away from vital electronics.
The Polar Communications and Weather Satellite (PCW), depending on its orbit, could skim through the radiation-filled Van Allen belts on its mission to deliver reliable weather reports and communications to northern communities.
Its polar orbit will likely take it through clouds of charged particles high above Earth. If the particles hit crucial components on the spacecraft, it can short out electronics and cause brownouts or complete failure. This has happened several times before, such as to the Japanese ADEOS-II satellite after a large solar storm in 2003.
A concept being explored by Winnipeg’s Magellan Aerospace, one of the companies working on the early phase studies, would make a plasma field around PCW, a sort of “mini magnetosphere” that would use large dipole magnets to deflect charged particles.
It may also be useful for human missions in the future, said Paul Harrison, a satellite control systems engineer at Magellan Aerospace, although he acknowledged the technology is still in an early stage and that they would like a demonstrator mission to fly first.
“It’s still very much in the development phase. We want to develop for satellites before we start sticking people in them,” Harrison said in a presentation at the Canadian Space Society annual summit in Ottawa, Canada, today (Nov. 14.)
He also said it is not clear if the technology would be useful for cosmic rays that originate from outside the solar system, as well as charged particles that flow from the sun and are present near the Earth.
PCW has not been assigned a launch date yet and is still in the early stages of development. Other issues being explored include how to keep track of it without constant access to near-equator-orbiting GPS satellites, and how to maintain temperature control as it plunges from day to night to day again during its journey.
Its orbit could be a 12-hour Molniya orbit or perhaps a 16-hour or 24-hour highly eccentric orbit, depending on what designers feel is best.
CORRECTION: This article has been changed to say “near-equator-orbiting” GPS satellites.
Mike Hankey of Monkton, Maryland took this photo of Comet ISON in outburst this morning Nov. 14. The tail now shows multiple streamers. Click to enlarge. Credit: Mike Hankey
After a sleepy week, Comet ISON is suddenly coming alive. Several amateur astronomers and at least one professional astronomers are reporting today that the comet has brightened at least a full magnitude overnight. Two days ago it glowed at around magnitude 7.5 and was visible weakly in 10×50 binoculars from a dark sky. Now it’s surged to around magnitude 5.5 – just above the naked eye limit – and continues to brighten. Several amateur astronomers have even seen it without optical aid.
Comet ISON on Nov. 10 before the recent outburst with well-developed dust (upper) and gas tails. Click ot enlarge. Credit: Damian Peach
ISON’s appearance has radically changed too. A week ago the comet developed a second gas or ion tail streaming alongside the wider, brighter dust tail. That new appendage has since grown like Pinocchio’s nose to nearly equal the length of the dust tail. I spotted it with averted vision Tuesday morning Nov. 12 through a 15-inch (37 cm) telescope. More exciting, the ISON’s head has been much brighter and more compact. Astronomers rate a comet’s degree of condensation or “DC” on a scale of 0 to 9 from extremely diffuse with no brightening in the center to disk-like or stellar. In recent days, Comet ISON has been packing it in at DC=6 or moderately compact and bright. Now amateurs are reporting that the comet’s head has brightened and become much more compact with a DC of 8.
Comet ISON in outburst with a completely changed tail appearance and bright, very compact coma shot this morning. Gonzalez reports the comet at magnitude 6.4. Click to enlarge. Credit: Juanjo GonzalezYou can watch Comet ISON evolve right before your eyes in this panel of photos taken by Juanjo Gonzalez. Top row left-right: Nov. 3 and Nov. 9. Bottom row left right: Nov. 12 and Nov. 14. The tail structure changes are dramatic. Click to enlarge. Credit: Juanjo Gonzalez
Backing up reports of the outburst, astronomer Emmanuel Jehin of the TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) team, noted a tenfold increase in dust production around the comet’s nucleus on Nov. 11 and 12 plus additional jets of material blasting into the coma. Jehin reports that the inner coma near the nucleus is still very sharp and shows no sign of disruption – so far, ISON’s hanging in there.
If you haven’t seen the comet yet, you can use this map to track it through the weekend as it zips quickly through Virgo. The map shows the sky facing southeast just before the start of morning twilight or about 100 minutes before sunrise. ISON should be plainly visible in binoculars in a dark sky. Created with Chris Marriott’s SkyMap program
This is all great news for comet observers. The intense heat of the sun is beginning to boil away the comet’s ice with greater fury. The heat may also be exposing new cracks or breaks in ISON’s crust. Fresh ice means even more material becomes available for the sun to vaporize and likely additional jumps in brightness in the next day or two.
Trouble finding Virgo? Use this wide-view map to get oriented. Slide from Mars toward Spica near the southeastern horizon. ISON is about halfway between Spica and Gamma Virginis. The map shows the sky around 5-5:30 a.m. CST. Stellarium
Hail damage is visible on the external tank attached to Space Shuttle Atlantis on the launchpad during a strong thunderstorm that passed through Kennedy Space Center on Feb. 26, 2007. Credit: NASA/KSC.
The STS-117 mission was supposed to carry solar panels and connecting trusses up to the station, so changing the shuttle rotation would affect construction. What to do?
“I’ve got this tank that takes us a bit over two years to manufacture, and essentially it looks like your car here that was peppered by a hailstorm, and what are we going to do?” said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator of the human exploration and operations directorate, speaking today (Nov. 14) at the Canadian Space Society’s annual summit in Ottawa, Canada.
“Mike Griffin was the administrator at the time. He said, ‘Get rid of that tank and put another one out there,’ and we didn’t have another one.”
To respond to the problem — based mostly on the word of two technicians who felt repairs were possible, Gerstenmaier said — NASA set out to fix the problem. Communications flew between the launch site in Florida and the manufacturer in New Orleans. NASA had a program that kept track of tiles on the shuttle, and modified it to take care of the dings. The mission lifted off successfully, using the repaired tank, in June 2007 — three months after the incident.
Bill Gerstenmaier in Kennedy Space Center’s Firing Room 4 for the of space shuttle Discovery on the STS-128 mission in 2009. In the background are Chris Scolese, NASA associate administrator, and Charlie Bolden, NASA Administrator. Credit: NASA
Gerstenmaier said this demonstrates that it’s possible to be innovative on reduced budgets, and drew parallels to what NASA is facing right now as it fights through fiscal 2014 budget discussions.
“We have to turn them not into a ‘woe is me’ kind of discussion, but rise above that and pull out the innovation, and that’s what we’re doing in this budget,” he said.
Reduced budgets have helped NASA make use of reduced resources before, he added. It encouraged the agency to tender out to commercial companies (such as SpaceX) for cargo flights to the space station, even though development would occur on the fly. Gerstenmaier, however, did not address concerns that the new budget could cut back commercial crew budgets even further.
Another example of past innovation by both NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, Gerstenmaier said, occurred when the space station’s Canadarm2 robotic arm was adapted to capture these commercial cargo vehicles and berth them into station. If the Canadians had been told in the 1990s — when the space station was just beginning — that the arm would have been required to do this, they likely would have balked, Gerstenmaier said.
While only touching lightly on the ongoing budget discussions, Gerstenmaier did say NASA is keeping an eye on the efforts of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield and others as it continues to develop outreach. He joked that the movie “Gravity” really showed the divide between space fans and the general public.
“We see it one way and [say] that isn’t physically correct … it doesn’t actually look like that in space. This is wrong,” he said. “Then the general public says ‘this is really stressful, she lost her child,’ — they’re in this other mode. We’re sitting next to each other in the theater. My non-space colleague is crying, and I’m saying this violates the law of physics.”
Some of Gerstenmaier’s past work in NASA includes top managerial positions in the shuttle//Mir program, space shuttle program integration, the International Space Station and NASA’s space operations directorate (where he oversaw the final 21 space shuttle missions.)
MESSENGER wide-angle camera images of comets Encke and ISON
Two comets currently on their way toward the Sun have been captured on camera from the innermost planet. The MESSENGER spacecraft in orbit around Mercury has spotted the well-known short-period comet Encke as well as the much-anticipated comet ISON, imaging the progress of each over the course of three days. Both comets will reach perihelion later this month within a week of each other.
While Encke will most likely survive its close encounter to continue along its 3.3-year-long lap around the inner Solar System, the fate of ISON isn’t nearly as certain… but both are making for great photo opportunities!
The figure above shows, on the left, images of comet 2P/Encke on three successive days from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8; on the right, images of C/2012 S1 (ISON) are shown for three successive days from Nov. 9 to Nov. 11. Both appear to brighten a little bit more each day.
MESSENGER image of ISON from Nov. 10 (enlarged detail)
MESSENGER is viewing these comets from a vantage point that is very different from that of observers on Earth. Comet Encke was approximately 0.5 AU from the Sun and 0.2 AU from MESSENGER when these images were taken; the same distances were approximately 0.75 AU and 0.5 AU, respectively, for ISON. More images will be obtained starting on November 16 when the comets should be both brighter and closer to Mercury. (Source: MESSENGER featured image article.)
Encke will reach its perihelion on Nov. 21; ISON on Nov. 28.
“We are thrilled to see that we’ve detected ISON,” said Ron Vervack, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, who is leading MESSENGER’s role in the ISON observation campaign. “The comet hasn’t brightened as quickly as originally predicted, so we wondered how well we would do. Seeing it this early bodes well for our later observations.”
Comet 2P/Encke photographed on October 30 by Damian Peach.
Unlike ISON, Encke has been known for quite a while. It was discovered in 1786 and recognized as a periodic comet in 1819. Its orbital period is 3.3 years — the shortest period of any known comet — and November 21 will mark its 62nd recorded perihelion. (Source)
“Encke has been on our radar for a long time because we’ve realized that it would be crossing MESSENGER’s path in mid-November of this year,” Vervack explained. “And not only crossing it, but coming very close to Mercury.”
These early images of both comets are little more than a few pixels across, Vervack said, but he expects improved images next week when the comets make their closest approaches to MESSENGER and Mercury.
“By next week, we expect Encke to brighten by approximately a factor of 200 as seen from Mercury, and ISON by a factor of 15 or more,” Vervack said. “So we have high hopes for better images and data.”
– Ron Vervack, JHUAPL
Read more about the MESSENGER cometary observation campaign in the full news release here.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/Southwest Research Institute
November 2013 offers a chance to catch a dependable meteor shower, albeit on an off year. The Leonid meteors are set to reach their annual peak this coming weekend on Sunday, November 17th. We say it’s an off-year, but not that it should discourage you from attempting to catch the Leonids this weekend in the early dawn.
Projections for 2013 suggest a twin-peaked maximum, with the first peak arriving on November 17th at 10:00 UT/5:00 AM EST favoring North America, and the second one reaching Earth on the same date six hours later at 16:00 UT/11:00, favoring the central Pacific.
Unfortunately, the Full Moon also occurs the on very date that the Leonids peak at 10:16 AM EST/ 15:16UT, right between the two peaks! This will definitely cut down on the number of meteors you’ll see in the early AM hours.
That’s strike one against the 2013 Leonids. The next is the curious sporadic nature of this shower. Normally a minor shower with a zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) in the range of 10-20 per hour, the Leonids are prone to great storms topping a ZHR of 1,000+ every 33 years. We last experienced such an event in 1998 and 1999, and we’re now approaching the mid-point lull between storms in the 2014-2016 time frame.
An early Leonid meteor captured last week from the United Kingdom Meteor Observing Network’s Church Crookham station. (Credit: UKMON/Peter-Campbell-Burns).
Still, this is one shower that’s always worth monitoring. The source of the Leonids is Comet 55p/Tempel-Tuttle, which is on a 33-year orbit and is due to reach perihelion again in 2031.
Note that the Leonids have also continued to show enhanced activity in past years even when the Moon was a factor:
2012- ZHR=47.
2011- ZHR=22, Moon=8% waning gibbous.
2010- ZHR=40, 86% waxing gibbous.
2009- ZHR=79.
2008-70 ZHR=72% waning gibbous
We even managed to observe the Leonid meteors from Vail, Arizona in 2002 and 2005, on years when the Moon was nearly Full.
Now, for the good news. The Leonids have a characteristic r value of 2.5, meaning that they produce a higher than normal ratio of fireballs. About 50-70% of Leonid meteors are estimated to leave persistent trains, a good reason to keep a pair of binoculars handy. And hey, at least the 2013 Leonids peak on the weekend, and there’s always comet’s ISON, X1 LINEAR, 2P/Encke and R1 Lovejoy to track down to boot!
A 2002 Leonid captured over Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. (Credit: NASA/MSFC/MEO/Bill Cooke).
Here’s a few tips and tricks that you can use to “beat the Moon” on your Leonid quest. One is to start observing now, on the moonless mornings leading up to the 17th. You’ll always see more Leonid meteors past local midnight as the radiant rises to the northeast. This is because you’re standing on the portion of the Earth turning forward into the meteor stream. Remember, the front windshield of your car (the Earth) always collects the most bugs (meteors). Observers who witnessed the 1966 Leonid storm reported a ZHR in excess of thousands per hour, producing a Star Trek-like effect of the Earth plowing through a “snowstorm” of meteors!
The radiant of the Leonids sits in the center of the backwards question mark asterism of the “Sickle” in the astronomical constellation Leo (hence name of the shower).
You can also improve your prospects for seeing meteors by blocking the Moon behind a building or hill. Though the Leonids will appear to radiate from Leo, they can appear anywhere in the sky. Several other minor showers, such as the Taurids and the Monocerotids, are also active in November.
Meteor shower photography is simple and can be done with nothing more than a DSLR camera on a tripod. This year, you’ll probably want to keep manual exposures short due to the Full Moon and in the 20 seconds or faster range. Simply set the camera to a low f-stop/high ISO setting and a wide field of view and shoot continuously. Catching a meteor involves luck and patience, and be sure to examine the frames after a session; every meteor I’ve caught on camera went unnoticed during observation! Don’t be afraid to experiment with different combinations to get the sky conditions just right. Also, be sure to carry and extra set of charged camera batteries, as long exposures combined with chilly November mornings can drain DSLR batteries in a hurry!
A Woodcut print depicting the 1933 Leonids as seem from Niagara Falls. (Wikimedia Commons image in the Public Domain).
The Leonids certainly have a storied history, dating back to before meteors where understood to be dust grains left by comets. The 1833 Leonids were and awesome and terrifying spectacle to those who witnessed them up and down the eastern seaboard of the U.S. In fact, the single 1833 outburst has been cited as contributing to the multiple religious fundamentalist movements that cropped up in the U.S. in the 1830s.
We witnessed the 1998 Leonids from the deserts of Kuwait while stationed at Al Jabber Air Base. It was easily one of the best meteor displays we ever saw, with a ZHR reaching in access of 500 per hour before dawn. It was intense enough that fireballs behind us would often light up the foreground like camera flashes!
Reporting rates and activity for meteor showers is always fun and easy to do — its real science that you can do using nothing more than a stopwatch and your eyes. The International Meteor Association is always looking for current meteor counts from observers. Data goes towards refining our understanding and modeling of meteor streams and future predictions. The IMO should also have a live ZHR graph for the 2013 Leonids running soon.
Have fun, stay warm, send those Leonid captures in to Universe Today, and don’t forget to tweet those meteors to #Meteorwatch!
If you’re into astronomy, or just a fan of any science fiction franchise worth its salt, then chances are you’ve heard the term parsec thrown around. But what is a parsec exactly? Basically, it’s a unit of length used to measure the astronomically large distances between objects beyond our Solar System.
As we’ve mentioned before, the Sun is a terrifying ball of plasma. It’s a good thing we’re keeping an eye on it. And that eye is the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO. Operating for more than 18 years now, SOHO has been making detailed observations of the Sun’s activity though an almost entire solar cycle. With so many years of operation, SOHO has some amazing stories to tell.
