Universe Today

October 20, 2013December 23, 2015 by Ken Kremer

Skeleton Crew gets LADEE in Orbit, Checked Out and Fires Revolutionary Laser During Gov’t Shutdown

An artist's concept of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft seen orbiting near the surface of the moon after successfully entering lunar orbit on Oct. 6, 2013. Credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry

NASA’s new LADEE spacecraft successfully entered lunar orbit, is operating beautifully and has begun shooting its radical laser communications experiment despite having to accomplish a series of absolutely critical do-or-die orbital insertion engine firings with a “skeleton crew ” – all this amidst the NASA and US government shutdown, NASA Ames Research Center Director Pete Worden told Universe Today in a LADEE mission exclusive.

During the two and a half week long NASA shutdown, engineers had to fire LADEE’s maneuvering thrusters three times over six days – first to brake into elliptical orbit about the Moon and then lower it significantly and safely into a circular commissioning orbit.

“All burns went super well,” Ames Center Director Worden told me exclusivly. And he is extremely proud of the entire team of “dedicated” professional men and women who made it possible during the shutdown.

“It says a lot about our people’s dedication and capability when a skeleton crew can get a new spacecraft into lunar orbit and fully commissioned in the face of a shutdown!” Worden said to Universe Today.

“I’m really happy that everyone’s back.”

After achieving orbit, a pair of additional engine burns reduced LADEE’s altitude and period into its initial commissioning orbit and teams began the month long activation and instrument checkout phase.

“We are at the commissioning orbit of 250 km,” said Worden.

And to top all that off, LADEE’s quartet of science instruments are checked out and the ground – breaking laser communications experiment that will bring about a quantum leap in transmitting space science data has already begun its work!

“All instruments are fully checked out with covers deployed.”

“We’ve begun the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD) tests and its working very well,” Worden explained.

NASA’s LADEE lunar orbiter will firing its main engine on Oct. 6 to enter lunar orbit in the midst of the US government shutdown. Credit: NASA — NASA’s LADEE lunar orbiter fired its main engine on Oct. 6 to enter lunar orbit in the midst of the US government shutdown. Credit: NASA

And that’s the whole point of the LADEE mission in the first place.

97% of NASA’s employees were furloughed during the utterly chaotic and wasteful partial shutdown of the US government that lasted from Oct. 1 to Oct. 17 and also temporarily threatened the upcoming launch of NASA’s next mission to Mars – the MAVEN orbiter.

However, orbital mechanics follows the natural laws of the Universe, continues unabated and waits for no one in Washington, D.C.

NASA’s Jupiter-bound Juno orbiter also flew by Earth amidst the DC shutdown showdown on Oct. 9 for a similarly critical do-or-die gravity assisted speed boost and trajectory targeting maneuver.

The stakes were extremely high for NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission because the spacecraft was on course for the Moon and absolutely had to ignite its main engine on the Sunday morning of Oct. 6.

There were no second chances. If anything failed, LADEE would simply sail past the Moon with no hope of returning later.

So, mission controllers at NASA Ames commanded LADEE to ignite its main engine and enter lunar orbit on Oct. 6 following the spectacular Sept. 6 night launch from NASA’s Wallops Island spaceport in Virginia.

Launch of NASA’s LADEE lunar orbiter on Friday night Sept. 6, at 11:27 p.m. EDT on the maiden flight of the Minotaur V rocket from NASA Wallops, Virginia, viewing site 2 miles away. Antares rocket launch pad at left. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

The approximately four minute long burn know as Lunar Orbit Insertion burn 1 (LOI-1) began with LADEE’s arrival at the Moon following three and a half long looping orbits of the Earth.

LOI-1 changed the spacecrafts velocity by 329.8 meters/sec so that the couch sized probe could be captured by the Moon’s gravity and be placed into a 24 hour polar elliptical orbit.

The LOI-2 maneuver on Oct. 9 put LADEE into a 4-hour elliptic lunar orbit. The third and final LOI-3 burn occurred on Oct. 12, and put the spacecraft into the 2-hour commissioning orbit (roughly 235 Km x 250 Km), according to a NASA statement.

The 844 pound (383 kg) robot explorer was assembled at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif., and is a cooperative project with NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center in Maryland.

“LADEE is the first NASA mission with a dedicated laser communications experiment,” said Don Cornwell, mission manager for the Lunar Laser Communications Demonstration (LLCD), NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md, during an interview with Universe Today at the LADEE launch.

“With the LLCD experiment, we’ll use laser communications to demonstrate at least six times more data rate from the moon than what we can do with a radio system with half the weight and 25 percent less power,” said Cornwell.

The LADEE satellite in lunar orbit. The revolutionary modular science probe is equipped with a Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD) that will attempt to show two-way laser communication beyond Earth is possible, expanding the possibility of transmitting huge amounts of data. This new ability could one day allow for 3-D High Definition video transmissions in deep space to become routine. Credit: NASA

The LLCD will be operated for about 30 days during the time of the commissioning orbit period.

The purpose of LADEE is to collect data that will inform scientists in unprecedented detail about the ultra thin lunar atmosphere, environmental influences on lunar dust and conditions near the surface. In turn this will lead to a better understanding of other planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond.

The $280 million probe is built on a revolutionary ‘modular common spacecraft bus’, or body, that could dramatically cut the cost of exploring space and also be utilized on space probes to explore a wide variety of inviting targets in the solar system.

“LADEE is the first in a new class of interplanetary exploration missions,” NASA Ames Director Worden told Universe Today. “It will study the pristine moon to study significant questions.”

“This is probably our last best chance to study the pristine Moon before there is a lot of human activity there changing things.”

Stay tuned here for continuing LADEE news

Ken Kremer

October 18, 2013December 29, 2015 by Fraser Cain

Weekly Space Hangout – October 18, 2013: Penny4NASA, SpaceX Plans, ISON Lives!

This week for the Weekly Space Hangout, we were joined by an impressive team of space journalists and special guest John Zeller, the Founder of Space Advocates – they’re best known for their Penny4NASA campaign.

We discussed the government shutdown, cool reusable spacecraft and electric aircraft, exoplanets, non-killer asteroids, tilted planets and much much more.

Host: Fraser Cain

Special Guest: John Zeller, Founder of Space Advocates

Journalists: Alan Boyle, Brian Wang, David Dickinson, Elizabeth Howell

Government Shutdown Ends
SpaceX Reusable Spacecraft
Kepler Tilted Planets
1000 Exoplanets
Microairports with Electric VTOL Aircraft
Asteroid 2013 TV135
Upcoming Lunar Eclipse
Upcoming Solar Eclipse

We organize the Weekly Space Hangout every Friday afternoon at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch it on Universe Today, Google+ or the Universe Today YouTube channel.

October 18, 2013December 23, 2015 by Shannon Hall

Astronomers Map Dark Matter Throughout the Entire Universe

Full sky map of the cosmic microwave background. The color red indicates a cool spot while the color blue indicates a hot spot. Image credit: NASA.

Warped visions of the cosmic microwave background – the earliest detectable light – allow astronomers to map the total amount of visible and invisible matter throughout the universe.

Roughly 85 percent of all matter in the universe is dark matter, invisible to even the most powerful telescopes, but detectable by its gravitational pull.

In order to find dark matter, astronomers look for an effect called gravitational lensing: when the gravitational pull of dark matter bends and amplifies light from a more distant object. In its most eccentric form it results in multiple arc-shaped images of distant cosmic objects.

The Hubble Space Telescope shows the effect of gravitational lensing as background galaxies are warped by the galaxy cluster MACS J1206. Image Credit: NASA

But there’s one caveat here: in order to detect dark matter there must be an object directly behind it. The ‘stars’ have to be aligned.

In a recent study led by Dr. James Geach of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom, astronomers have set their eyes on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) instead.

“The CMB is the most distant/oldest light we can see,” Dr. Geach told Universe Today. “It can be thought of as a surface, backlighting the entire universe.”

The photons from the CMB have been hurling toward the Earth since the universe was only 380,000 years old. A single photon has had the chance to run into plenty of matter, having effectively probed all the matter in the universe along its line of sight.

“So our view of the CMB is a bit distorted from what it intrinsically looks like – a bit like looking at the pattern on the bottom of a swimming pool,” Dr. Geach said.

By noting the small distortions in the CMB, we can probe all of the dark matter throughout the entire universe. But doing just this is extremely challenging.

The team observed the southern sky with the South Pole Telescope, a 10 meter telescope designed for observations in the microwave. This large, groundbreaking survey produced a CMB map of the southern sky, which was consistent with previous CMB data from the Planck satellite.

The characteristic signatures of gravitational lensing by intervening matter can not be extracted by eye. Astronomers relied on the use of a well-developed mathematical procedure. We wont go into the nasty details.

This produced a “map of the total projected mass density between us and the CMB. That’s quite incredible if you think about it – it’s an observational technique to map all of the mass in the universe, right back to the CMB,” Dr. Geach explained.

But the team didn’t finish their analysis there. Instead, they continued to measure the CMB lensing at the positions of quasars – powerful supermassive black holes in the centers of the earliest galaxies.

“We found that regions of the sky with a large density of quasars have a clearly stronger CMB lensing signal, implying that quasars are indeed located in large-scale matter structures,” Dr. Ryan Hickox of Dartmouth College – second author on the study – told Universe Today.

Finally, the CMB map was used to determine the mass of these dark matter halos. These results matched those determined in older studies, which looked at how the quasars clustered together in space, with no reference to the CMB at all.

Consistent results between two independent measurements is a powerful scientific tool. According to Dr. Hickox, it shows that “we have a strong understanding of how supermassive black holes reside in large-scale structures, and that (once again) Einstein was right.”

The paper has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters and is available for download here.

October 18, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

NASA: Less Than 1% Chance That Asteroid 2013 TV135 Will Hit Earth In 2032

Diagram of the orbit of orbit of asteroid 2013 TV135 (in blue), which scientists are 99.998% certain will not hit Earth. Calculations are based on one week of observations since the asteroid's discovery Oct. 8, and astronomers expect further observations will reduce or eliminate the observed impact probability. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

We’ll skip straight to the good news: NASA says Earth is likely safe from Asteroid 2013 TV135. Calculations put the newly discovered asteroid’s chances of hitting the planet in 2032 at incredibly small — 1 in 63,000 — despite some alarmist news reports.

“To put it another way, that puts the current probability of no impact in 2032 at about 99.998 percent,” stated Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office.

“This is a relatively new discovery. With more observations, I fully expect we will be able to significantly reduce, or rule out entirely, any impact probability for the foreseeable future.”

Asteroid 2013 TV135 in a series of images snapped by amateur astronomer Peter Lake.

The asteroid was first spotted on Oct. 8 by scientists at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory in Ukraine. It’s 1,300 meters (400 feet) in diameter and cycles in an orbit that goes three-quarters of the way out to Jupiter, and then back again towards its closest approach near Earth’s orbit.

The asteroid came within 4.2 million miles (6.7 million kilometers) of Earth on Sept. 16. Amateur astronomer Peter Lake uploaded a video (which you can see above) based on a few pictures he took Oct. 17-18.

“Its important to remember that new asteroids (this one has only 9 days of arc) usually don’t stay on the Torino Scale (the risk register) for long, as further data updates increase the precision of the orbit, and usually quickly remove them as potential impactors,” Lake added in a blog post.

There are many, many international efforts to watch asteroid paths and disseminate the information to the public. One of them is NASA’s Asteroid Watch website, where you can get the latest information on nearby space rocks.

October 18, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Students: Want To Get An Experiment Into Space? You Know You Want To

The International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Beer brewing in space? That’s what a preteen student will ask astronauts to do on the International Space Station soon. “By combining the four main ingredients (malt barley, hops, yeast, and water) of beer in space, will we be able to produce alcohol?” reads the research proposal from Michal Bodzianowski. If you follow the link, you can see how this also has medical applications on station, as alcohol can disinfect wounds.

Michal was a selectee in last year’s Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, which we’ve written about before. The program now has a new call for proposals.

Michal Bodzianowski with his experiment, which is intended to produce beer in space (if possible.) The experiment has medical applications as alcohol can be used for sterilization. Credit: SSEP

“Each participating community will be provided a real microgravity research mini-laboratory capable of supporting a single experiment, and all launch services to fly it to the space station in fall 2014,” a press release stated.

The design competition, the release added, “allows student teams to design and formally propose real experiments vying for their community’s reserved mini-lab on space station. Content resources for teachers and students support foundational instruction on science in microgravity and experimental design.”

Inquiries must be sent by Nov. 20, and participating communities must sign up by Feb. 17, 2014. Final selection will take place in May.

For more information, you can visit the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program website. The program has participation from the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education, and NanoRacks.

Below is SSEP’s description of the five categories of participation:

Pre-College (the core focus for SSEP) in the U.S., (grades 5-12), with school districts—even individual schools—providing a stunning, real, on-orbit RESEARCH opportunity to their upper elementary, middle, and high school students (Explore the 60 communities that participated in the first six flight opportunities to date)
2-Year Community Colleges in the U.S., (grades 13-14), where the student body is typically from the local community, providing wonderful pathways for community-wide engagement
4-Year Colleges and Universities in the U.S., (grades 13-16), with an emphasis on Minority-Serving Institutions, where the program fosters interdisciplinary collaboration across schools and departments, and an opportunity for formal workforce development for science majors
Communities in the U.S. led by Informal Education or Out-of-School Organizations, (e.g., a museum or science center, a home school network, a scout troop), because high caliber STEM education programs must be accessible to organizations that promote effective learning beyond the traditional classroom
Communities Internationally: in European Space Agency (ESA) member nations, European Union (EU) member nations, Canada, and Japan, with participation through NCESSE’s Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education. Communities in other nations should explore the potential for their participation by contacting the Institute at http://clarkeinstitute.org

October 18, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Tilt-A-Whirl! A Tale Of Strange Planetary Orbits In Kepler-56

Artist's conception of Kepler-56, which has two planets orbiting at a tilt to their star despite the fact that scientists found no bigger gas giant planet to alter their orbits. Credit: Daniel Huber/NASA's Ames Research Center.

A faraway group of planets is puzzling scientists. Newly reported Kepler-56’s system has three planets — two smaller ones close by, and a much larger one further out. The inner planets are orbiting at a tilt to the equator of the host star.

Scientists have seen that tilt before in other systems, but they thought you would need a “hot Jupiter” — a huge gas giant planet close to the star — to make that happen. Here, that’s not the case. The outer planet’s gravity, distant as it is, is pulling the two planets into their tilted orbits.

“This is a very puzzling result that is sure to challenge our understanding of how solar systems form,” stated co-author Tim Bedding, a physics researcher at the University of Sydney.

Kepler-56 is 3,000 light-years away from Earth and has a mass about 30% greater than that of our Sun. As the name implies, astronomers used the Kepler space telescope to make the discovery.

You can read more details in the Oct. 18 edition of Science.

Sources: Iowa State and University of Sydney

October 17, 2013December 23, 2015 by Ken Kremer

India’s First Mars Mission Set to Blast off Seeking Methane Signature

Graphic outlines India’s first ever probe to explore the Red Planet known as the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM). It could liftoff as early as Oct. 28 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Srihairkota, India. Credit: ISRO

India is gearing up for its first ever space undertaking to the Red Planet – dubbed the Mars Orbiter Mission, or MOM – which is the brainchild of the Indian Space Research Organization, or ISRO.

Among other objectives, MOM will conduct a highly valuable search for potential signatures of Martian methane – which could stem from either living or non living sources. The historic Mars bound probe also serves as a forerunner to bolder robotic exploration goals.

If all goes well India would become only the 4th nation or entity from Earth to survey Mars up close with spacecraft, following the Soviet Union, the United States and the European Space Agency (ESA).

The 1,350 kilogram (2,980 pound) orbiter, also known as ‘Mangalyaan’, is slated to blast off as early as Oct. 28 atop India’s highly reliable Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from a seaside launch pad in Srihanikota, India.

India’s first ever probe to explore the Red Planet known as the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), is due to liftoff as early as Oct. 28 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Srihairkota, India. Credit: ISRO

MOM is outfitted with an array of five science instruments including a multi color imager and a methane gas sniffer to study the Red Planet’s atmosphere, morphology, mineralogy and surface features. Methane on Earth originates from both biological and geological sources.

ISRO officials are also paying close attention to the local weather to ascertain if remnants from Tropical Cyclone Phaillin or another developing weather system in the South Pacific could impact liftoff plans.

The launch target date will be set following a readiness review on Friday, said ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan according to Indian press reports.

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) spacecraft being prepared for a prelaunch test at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Srihairkota. Credit: ISRO

‘Mangalyaan’ is undergoing final prelaunch test and integration at ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Srihairkota on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh state following shipment from ISRO’s Bangalore assembly facility on Oct. 3.

ISRO has already assembled the more powerful XL extended version of the four stage PSLV launcher at Srihairkota.

MOM’s launch window extends about three weeks until Nov. 19 – which roughly coincides with the opening of the launch window for NASA’s next mission to Mars, the MAVEN orbiter.

The upcoming Nov. 18 blastoff of NASA’s new MAVEN Mars orbiter was threatened by the US Federal Government shutdown when all launch processing work ceased on Oct. 1. Spacecraft preps had now resumed on Oct. 3 after receiving an emergency exemption. MAVEN was unveiled to the media, including Universe Today, inside the cleanroom at the Kennedy Space Center on Sept. 27, 2013. With solar panels unfurled, this is exactly how MAVEN looks when flying through space. Credit: Ken Kremer/kenkremer.com

MAVEN’s on time blastoff from Florida on Nov. 18, had been threatened by the chaos caused by the partial US government shutdown that finally ended this morning (Oct. 17), until the mission was granted an ‘emergency exemption’ due to the critical role it will play in relaying data from NASA’s ongoing pair of surface rovers – Curiosity and Opportunity.

NASA is providing key communications and navigation support to ISRO and MOM through the agency’s trio of huge tracking antennas in the Deep Space Network (DSN).

As India’s initial mission to Mars, ISRO says that the mission’s objectives are both technological and scientific to demonstrate the nation’s capability to design an interplanetary mission and carry out fundamental Red Planet research with a suite of indigenously built instruments.

MOM’s science complement comprises includes the tri color Mars Color Camera to image the planet and its two moon, Phobos and Diemos; the Lyman Alpha Photometer to measure the abundance of hydrogen and deuterium and understand the planets water loss process; a Thermal Imaging Spectrometer to map surface composition and mineralogy, the MENCA mass spectrometer to analyze atmospheric composition, and the Methane Sensor for Mars to measure traces of potential atmospheric methane down to the ppm level.

It will be of extremely great interest to compare any methane detection measurements from MOM to those ongoing from NASA’s Curiosity rover – which found ground level methane to be essentially nonexistent – and Europe’s planned 2016 ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.

MOM’s design builds on spacecraft heritage from India’s Chandrayaan 1 lunar mission that investigated the Moon from 2008 to 2009.

The 44 meter (144 ft) PSLV will launch MOM into an initially elliptical Earth parking orbit of 248 km x 23,000 km. A series of six orbit raising burns will eventually dispatch MOM on a trajectory to Mars by late November, assuming an Oct. 28 liftoff.

Following a 300 day interplanetary cruise phase, the do or die orbital insertion engine will fire on September 14, 2014 and place MOM into an 377 km x 80,000 km elliptical orbit.

NASA’s MAVEN is also due to arrive in Mars orbit during September 2014.

The $69 Million ‘Mangalyaan’ mission is expected to continue gathering measurements at the Red Planet for at least six months and perhaps ten months or longer.

Ken Kremer

October 17, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

Hubble’s Latest View Shows Comet ISON Still Intact, Fairly Average

Hubble's view of Comet ISON on Oct. 9, 2013. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

We’ve been showing images of Comet ISON from amateur astronomers around the world, but now that NASA is back from the government shutdown, here’s more proof that the comet is still intact and has not disintegrated … despite some predictions to the contrary. This image was taken on October 9.

NASA explains:

In this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image taken on October 9, the comet’s solid nucleus is unresolved because it is so small. If the nucleus broke apart then Hubble would have likely seen evidence for multiple fragments.

Moreover, the coma or head surrounding the comet’s nucleus is symmetric and smooth. This would probably not be the case if clusters of smaller fragments were flying along. What’s more, a polar jet of dust first seen in Hubble images taken in April is no longer visible and may have turned off.

This color composite image was assembled using two filters. The comet’s coma appears cyan, a greenish-blue color due to gas, while the tail is reddish due to dust streaming off the nucleus. The tail forms as dust particles are pushed away from the nucleus by the pressure of sunlight. The comet was inside Mars’ orbit and 177 million miles (284 million km) from Earth when photographed.

So, its not disintegrating, its not a three-piece body, its not a UFO… instead Comet ISON is turning out to be a rather average, ordinary comet. How has this comet sparked predictions that have gone from “bright as the full moon” to “disintegrating as we speak,” asked Josh Sokol from the Hubble ISON blog? “Simply put, ISON peaked early. When it was first discovered, way out past Jupiter, ISON was really bright,” Sokol wrote. “Extrapolated, those first data points made ISON look like it would shine even more as it got closer — and when it didn’t, the coverage seesawed back toward calling ISON a total bust.”

But ISON is still en route to the Sun. It will pass closest to the Sun on November 28, and if it remains intact after that close pass, it will make its closest approach to Earth on December 26, at a distance of 39.9 million miles (64 million km).

NASA is having a live Hangout with Hubble comet scientists to discuss the new image and latest research findings about ISON today (Oct. 17) at 4 p.m. EDT (20:00 UTC).

Update: here’s the replay:

Also, check out the Comet ISON Toolkit from NASA

Sources: HubbleSite, Hubble ISON blog

October 17, 2013December 23, 2015 by Elizabeth Howell

Topsy-Turvy Aurora Caught On Astronaut’s Camera

"The pic doesn't do the northern lights justice. Covered the whole sky. Truly amazing!" wrote NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins on Twitter Oct. 9.

Isn’t that aurora facing the wrong way? Not if you’re in space!

NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins tweeted this picture from his perch on the International Space Station a few days ago. He sounds jazzed to be on his first mission: “Can’t believe this is really me from the Cupola and that I’ve been in space for almost 3 weeks now!” he wrote on Twitter Oct. 15.

We’d be pretty excited, too! Luca Parmitano (from the European Space Agency) is also on his first trip into space. In between their many experiments, the rookies must relish the opportunity to take pictures of the view. Which image of theirs below is your favorite? Did we miss any notable shots? Let us know in the comments.

"Blue liquid silk folds and unfolds in the #Caribbean." European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Oct. 16, 2013. (Twitter) — “Blue liquid silk folds and unfolds in the #Caribbean.” European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Oct. 16, 2013. (Twitter)

"Not something you see every day first hand. With features like this, Dubai stands out from 260 miles up." NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, Oct. 14, 2013. (Twitter) — “Not something you see every day first hand. With features like this, Dubai stands out from 260 miles up.” NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, Oct. 14, 2013. (Twitter)

"The sculpted mountains of the Iranian deserts." European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Oct. 15, 2013. (Twitter) — “The sculpted mountains of the Iranian deserts.” European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Oct. 15, 2013. (Twitter)

"What remains of Hurricane Phailin after it reached land." European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Oct. 13, 2013. (Twitter) — “What remains of Hurricane Phailin after it reached land.” European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Oct. 13, 2013. (Twitter)

And of course, they’re grinning like crazy up there.

"Impossible not to smile with such a view!" European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Oct. 16, 2013. — “Impossible not to smile with such a view!” European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, Oct. 16, 2013. (Twitter)

"Can't believe this is really me from the Cupola and that I've been in space for almost 3 weeks now!" NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, Oct. 15, 2013. (Twitter) — “Can’t believe this is really me from the Cupola and that I’ve been in space for almost 3 weeks now!” NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, Oct. 15, 2013. (Twitter)

October 17, 2013December 23, 2015 by Nancy Atkinson

An Incredible View of Saturn that Could Only Be Seen by a Visiting Spacecraft

Saturn and its rings, as seen from above the planet by the Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute. Assembled by Gordan Ugarkovic. — Saturn and its rings, as seen from above the planet by the Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute/Gordan Ugarkovic

So what did NASA do during the US government shutdown? You can’t just turn off spacecraft that are operating millions of miles away, so missions like the Mars rovers and the Cassini spacecraft at Saturn continued to send back images to Earth during the 16 days that most of NASA wasn’t up and running like usual. On October 10, 2013, as Cassini flew high above the planet’s equatorial plane, the spacecraft’s camera took 36 images of Saturn, a dozen each using the various red, green, and blue filters used to create color images. The images were transferred back to Earth and put on the Cassini raw images page. Gordan Ugarkovic from Croatia, and a member of the image editing wizards at UnmannedSpaceflight.com, grabbed the raw files, processed them, then assembled the images into this jaw-dropping mosaic.

This is a view from Saturn that we could never get from Earth; only a spacecraft orbiting the planet could take it. You can see the north pole and the swirling maelstrom of clouds that creates the hexagonal polar vortex, the thin bands in Saturn’s atmosphere, and — of course — what really stands out is the incredible view of Saturn’s rings. To see the original 3 MB version, see this page on UMSF.

“You shouldn’t be surprised to see processing artifacts here and there,” cautioned Ugarkovic via email to Universe Today. “It is, after all, based on raw JPEG images only.”

See more of Gordan’s work at his Flickr page.

You can read more details about this from Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society, or Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy/Slate.

But in the words of UMSF’s Astro0, “That’s the sort of view I’ve dreamed I would only ever see in a science fiction movie or if we had some kind of amazing futuristic spacecraft orbiting around that distant ringed planet….WAIT! We do!”

For more of what NASA did during the shutdown, Bill Dunford at Riding With Robots put together a great summary, quoting the @SarcasticRover that “You can’t shut down awesome.” Bill started the #ThingsNASAMightTweet hashtag that reminded everyone of all the things NASA does, but they couldn’t tweet about during the shutdown. People from around the world chimed in, adding what was important to them about NASA, and as of today, tweets with that hashtag have passed 27 million impressions.