Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

CosmoQuest Offering Online Astronomy Course

Want to brush up on your astro-knowledge? Wishing you had taken that Astronomy 101 course in college? CosmoQuest – the citizen science and web-based astronomy community — is offering online astronomy courses, and their first offering is now open for signups! “CQX 001: Solar System Science” is an 8-session, 4-week course, exploring the solar system, planetary geology, and extrasolar planets.

“Not everyone has access to astronomy and space science classes,” said Dr. Pamela Gay, the founder of CosmoQuest. “With CosmoQuest, we’re looking to make the universe accessible to everyone at a cost comparable to what you might pay for dance or music lessons.”

The classes will be offered online through a Google+ Hangout, and this first course offering will be taught by someone familiar to Universe Today readers: Ray Sanders, who contributes to UT and also answers astronomy questions at his blog, Dear Astronomer. Ray is a research assistant at Arizona State University.

“By combining Hangout technology with educational content, we’ll be able to deliver an outstanding classroom experience,” Ray said. “In this first course, CosmoQuest students will be able to participate in typical “Astro 101” solar system course material – our Sun and its planets. We’ll also briefly explore Pluto’s status, astrobiology, geology, and planetary systems outside our solar system.”

“Solar System Science” is just the first of many classes that CosmoQuest has planned.

“In the coming months, we’ll be opening courses on data reduction, observing, stars, galaxies, and more,” said Pamela. “Our goal is to prepare people to take part in more and more advanced citizen science programs over time.”

If you’ve ever participated in a Google+ Hangout, you know how fun they can be. Here’s a chance to use a Hangout to really put your brain to work over the summer!

“By keeping the classes small and meeting “face-to-face” using Google Hangouts, CosmoQuest’s online classes let students engage in content-rich real-time dialogue with their instructor and fellow classmates,” said Georgia Bracey, who is with the Education & Public Outreach team at Cosmoquest. “This brings a high level of flexibility, depth, and student-centeredness to the class in a way that’s not usually possible in a traditional lecture course.”

The cost for the class is $240, and the class is limited to 8 participants. This first CosmoQuest Academy class begins on July 24, 2012. You can find out more information and sign up at this link.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Barnstorming the Moon’s Giordano Bruno Crater

Caption: Southern rim of Giordano Bruno crater seen obliquely by LROC. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

At the 2012 Lunar Science Forum going on this week at the NASA Lunar Science Institute, scientist Mark Robinson presented some new stunning images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter’s cameras (LROC), including this oblique view Giordano Bruno crater, and a wonderful video (below) that allows viewers to “barnstorm” over the crater to witness the stark beauty of this impact basin.

“I could spend weeks and months looking at the preserved materials in the crater,” Robinson said, adding that views like this are helping scientists to understand the impact process. “Until astronauts visit Giordano Bruno, this gives a view about as close as you can get to standing on the surface to the west of the crater.”

Robinson is the Principal Investigator for LROC, and in his talk today said all systems on LROC are working nominally. “That’s NASA-speak for everything is fantastic,” he joked.

With the wide angle camera, LROC has mapped the entire Moon nearly 33 times. “Every map has a different photometric geometry, so this is not a redundant dataset,” Robinson said, adding that the different lighting provides different ways to study the Moon. “And to be able to do follow-up observations, I can’t tell you how great it is.”

Just about every month, the science team is able to take new mosaics of both the north and south pole, and they’ve also found 160 pits – lunar caves – so far. These caves with “skylights” are intriguing because they would offer potential protective habitats for future lunar explorers.

Now in its extended mission, LRO is still going strong, and has provided incredible details of the lunar surface. LRO project scientist Richard Vondrak said since the start of the mission, LRO has uploaded 325 terabytes of data into the Planetary Data System, the digital storehouse for NASA science mission, through June 2012.


Caption: Close-up detail of the rim of Giordano Crater. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University

“Thanks to LRO, the Moon’s topography is now better understood than the Earth, since two-thirds of Earth is covered by water,” Vondrak said.
But both scientists agrees LRO is just getting started.

“The Moon is one of the most engaging bodies in the Solar System and we’ve still got a lot of work to do,” Robinson said

Robinson suggests scrolling through all of the details of this beautiful impact crater by looking at the full-resolution version of Giordano Crater — “not to be missed!” he said. Also, the full resolution version of the video can be downloaded here.

Sources: NLSI Lunar Forum, LROC website

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Where Has the Spirit of Exploration Gone?

Noted space author Andrew Chaikin has started a video series in response to the drastic cuts proposed for planetary science. This second video in the series features Mars scientist Nathalie Cabrol, who urges America to explore space even in difficult economic times.

Chaikin says he is fighting back against the proposed cuts “with passion — passion for the incredible adventure that began half a century ago and has given us countless wonders and amazing discoveries. I’m making these videos as a call to action.”

Posted on by Jason Major

Postcards From The (Inner) Edge

As the world turns its gaze outward in anticipation of the arrival of Mars Science Laboratory — with its hair-raising “seven minutes of terror” landing — let’s take a moment to look back inward, where MESSENGER is still faithfully orbiting the first rock from the Sun, Mercury, and sending back images that could only have been imagined just a few years ago.

The image above shows the graben-gouged terrain around Balanchine crater, within Mercury’s vast Caloris Basin impact crater. Named for the co-founder of the New York City Ballet, Balanchine crater is 41 km (25.5 miles) in diameter and filled with the curious erosion features known as hollows. Graben — basically sunken troughs in the surface — are the result of extensional forces that have pulled sections of the planet’s upper crust apart.

This image shows the peak-ring structure located within the much larger crater Rustaveli, which is 180 km (112 miles) in diameter. One of the more recently-named craters (the IAU convention for new features on Mercury has them titled after renowned artists, writers and composers from history) Rustaveli is named for a 12th-century Georgian poet who wrote the epic “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”. The crater that now bears his namesake is located on Mercury’s northern hemisphere.

These two craters — also located within Caloris Basin — don’t yet have names but are no less interesting. Their overlapping positions works like an optical illusion, making the newer,sharper-edged crater on the right seem to almost float above the surface. The false-color of the image highlights the difference in surface composition of the two craters, which are both about 40 km (24 miles) wide. (The Caloris Basin in which they reside, however, is one of the largest known impact sites in our solar system, measuring at 1550 km — 963 miles — across!)

Now we zoom out for a wider view of our solar system’s second-densest planet (Earth is the first) and take a look at an image that’s night and day — literally! This is Mercury’s terminator, the twilit dividing line between night and day. More than just making a pretty picture, data on this transition is valuable to scientists as some atmospheric phenomena can only be observed at the terminator, such as the interaction between surface dust and charged particles from the Sun (which, at less than half the distance to the Sun than we are, Mercury is constantly bathed in.)

And now to zoom back in, we get a good look at an unnamed central-peaked crater about 85 km (52 miles) across in an oblique view  that highlights the hollows and depressions within its floor. Acquired as part of what’s called a “targeted observation”, high-resolution images like this (79 meters/pixel) allow scientists to closely investigate specific features — but sadly there’s just not enough mission time to image all of Mercury at this level of detail.

On March 17, 2011 (March 18, 2011, UTC), MESSENGER became the first spacecraft ever to orbit Mercury. The mission has provided the first data from Mercury since Mariner 10, over 30 years ago. After over 1,000 orbits, 98 percent of Mercury is now imaged in detail, allowing us to know more about our solar system’s innermost world than ever before.

Keep up with MESSENGER updates (and the latest images) on the mission website here.

Image credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

New Crew Welcomed Aboard the Space Station

On the 37th anniversary of the Apollo-Soyuz docking, a new international crew of three arrived at the International Space Station. Veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Suni Williams, and JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide and joined their Expedition 32 crewmates early Tuesday, bringing the crew compliment on the station back to six.

Williams compared the Soyuz flight to camping and being on the ISS like a coming to a nice hotel.
Continue reading “New Crew Welcomed Aboard the Space Station”

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Problems with Mars Odyssey Could Impact Telemetry for Curiosity Rover’s Landing

Caption: NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft passes above Mars’ south pole in this artist’s illustration. The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since October 24, 2001. Image credit: NASA/JPL

The “seven minutes of terror” could stretch into a longer time of trepidation for the hopeful Mars rover team and fans waiting back on Earth to find out if the Curiosity rover has landed safely. A problem with the Mars Odyssey orbiter means there could be a delay in the telemetry relayed to Earth as the Mars Science Laboratory descends and lands on Mars on August 5/6, 2012.

“There’s no impact to landing itself,” said NASA’s Mars exploration program chief Doug McCuistion at a press briefing on Monday. “It’s simply how that data gets returned to us and how timely that data is.”

McCuistion said the Odyssey team is assessing why the orbiter has gone into safe mode several times since early June, as well as having problems with its attitude control system. The glitches possibly could mean the spacecraft may not be in position to track and relay real-time data from MSL as it descends through Mars’ atmosphere and lands, possibly delaying the telemetry to Earth by several hours.

Curiosity’s automated landing sequence won’t be affected; it’s just that the data won’t be sent immediately – and the 14-minute communications lag between Earth and Mars means that the MSL team won’t be getting real-time updates about the rover’s perilous journey anyway; however, now it might be an even longer delay.

Caption: This artist’s concept from an animation depicts Curiosity, the rover to be launched in 2011 by NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory, as it is being lowered by the mission’s rocket-powered descent stage during a critical moment of the “sky crane” landing in 2012. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The rover is scheduled to land at 10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 (05:31 UTC, 1:31 a.m. EDT on Aug. 6).

Under normal circumstances, it’s a challenge for the orbiters to get in position to welcome another spacecraft to Mars, and provide tracking data and telemetry relay.

“If we were not to do anything, the Mars’ orbiting spacecraft may be on the other side of the planet,” said MSL navigation team chief Tomas Martin-Mur, during a previous interview with UT. “So as soon as we launch, we tell the other spacecraft where we are going to be by the time of entry so they can change their orbits over time, so they will be flying overhead as MSL approaches the planet.”

The orbiters – which also includes NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and ESA’s Mars Express – have been doing special maneuvers to be aligned in just the right place, nearby to MSL’s point of entry into Mars’ atmosphere.

But the glitches for Odyssey means it may not be in the right place.

MRO will be attempting to image the rover as it descends and lands — with possible hopes of catching the rover as it is descending on the “sky-crane” landing system — but MRO can only record data for later playback, whereas Odyssey could provide immediate relay. Mars Express won’t be aligned to see the last minute of flight, McCuistion said.

The Odyssey orbiter put itself in the precautionary, Earth-pointed status called safe mode on July 11, as it finished a maneuver adjusting, or trimming, its orbit. Odyssey’s computer did not reboot, so diagnostic information was subsequently available from the spacecraft’s onboard memory. Based on analysis of that information, the mission’s controllers sent commands yesterday morning taking Odyssey out of safe mode and reorienting it to point downward at Mars.

“We are on a cautious path to resume Odyssey’s science and relay operations soon,” said Gaylon McSmith, Odyssey project manager. “We will also be assessing whether another orbit trim maneuver is warranted.”

The landing is one of the most perilous times for a rover. “Those seven minutes are the most challenging part of this entire mission,” said Pete Theisinger, MSL’s project manager. “For the landing to succeed, hundreds of events will need to go right, many with split-second timing and all controlled autonomously by the spacecraft. We’ve done all we can think of to succeed. We expect to get Curiosity safely onto the ground, but there is no guarantee. The risks are real.”

We’ll provide updates as to Odyssey’s status. Here’s a look at the seven minutes of terror MSL will experience:

Sources: JPL, NASA

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Prelude to an X-Class Solar Flare

Caption: Shimmering coronal loops from Active Region 1515 on the limb of the Sun before it rotates out of view on July 12, 2012. Credit: NASA/SDO/Goddard Spaceflight Center

What takes place on the Sun before it unleashes a huge solar flare? It’s a thing of beauty, and observations from the Solar Dynamics Observatory are helping scientists understand how magnetic energy on the Sun creates these giant explosions. Below is a video that shows all the activity on the Sun before it emitted a huge X 1.4- class solar flare on July 12, 2012. The shimmering coronal loops provide some magnetic magnificence that is simply stunning. The movie, created from data from SDO, shows the Sun from late July 8 to early July 10 shortly before the solar flare occurred. While the flare isn’t shown here, the movie shows how the Sun is constantly, and complexly, active.

The region responsible for the flare, Active Region 1520 is on the lower left part of the Sun, and it crackles with giant loops of magnetized solar material. On the right side of the Sun, the shimmering, enormous loops provide a parting view of Active Region 1515 – which was also responsible for many solar flares — as it disappears out of view along with the Sun’s rotation.

There is a lot happening in this video, so take the advice of video producer Scott Wiessinger from Goddard Spaceflight Center’s Scientific Visualization Studio, who suggests watching it at highest quality and in full screen. You can download large files of it here.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

This Day in History: Launch of Apollo 11

43 years ago today, July 16th, 1969, Apollo 11 left Earth for the first human mission to land on the Moon. Launching on at Saturn V rocket from Cape Kennedy, the mission sent Commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin into an initial Earth-orbit, and then two hours, 44 minutes and one-and-a-half revolutions after launch, the S-IVB stage reignited for a second burn to place Apollo 11 into a translunar orbit. An estimated 530 million people watched Armstrong’s televised image and heard his voice describe the event as he took “…one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” on July 20, 1969.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Carnival of Space #258

Carnival of Space. Image by Jason Major.

[/caption]

This week’s Carnival of Space is hosted by Brian Wang at his fabulous Next Big Future blog.

Click here to read the Carnival of Space #258.

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.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Astronomy Cast Ep. 269: Mass

Last week we talked about energy, and this week we’ll talk about mass. And here’s the crazy thing. Mass, matter, the stuff that the Universe is made of, is the same thing as energy. They’re connected through Einstein’s famous formula – E=mc2. But what is mass, how do we measure it, and how does it become energy, and vice versa.

Click here to download the episode.

Or subscribe to: astronomycast.com/podcast.xml with your podcatching software.

“Mass” on the Astronomy Cast website, with shownotes and transcript.

And the podcast is also available as a video, as Fraser and Pamela now record Astronomy Cast as part of a Google+ Hangout:

Continue reading “Astronomy Cast Ep. 269: Mass”