I sure wish I had a camera ready. I saw it… It was so bright the light caught my eye and caused me to look up as I was walking my dogs, right about 7:42-45 p.m. AZ / Pacific time.
It was bright blue/turquoise, seemed to brighten now and then (I had the impression it perceptibly lit the dark field and hillside I was near), with an orangish trail, and pieces breaking off, also orangish. WOW. It was very bright and lasted quite a long time.
I have witnessed two other fireballs in my life. One of them I saw (about 25 years ago) also could be heard. I didn’t hear anything with this one, even though it was so very intensely bright. It was so bright I didn’t even know what it could be at first; my immediate thought before I had it straight in my sight was someone set off a firework.
Sure made up for all the nights of sitting outside hoping to see a falling star. 🙂
I reported it here: http://www.amsmeteors.org/fireball2/form2.php I hope you would direct others to report their sightings there too. If you know of other places that collect info, please let me know.
Sure hope someone got a pic. I called my hubby and kids to tell them (wish they’d been with me!); would love to show them what I got to witness!
Comet Elenin on Sept. 14, 2011. Image and annotated chart by Michael Mattiazzo. Used by permission
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As far as Comet Elenin goes, the only chance of impending doom is for the comet itself: it is disintegrating and quickly fading away. Australian amateur astronomer Michael Mattiazzo has been monitoring this comet’s trip toward perihelion (closest point in its orbit to the Sun), which occurred on September 10, 2011, and he says Comet Elenin has likely has not survived. The image above was taken by Mattiazzo on today (Sept. 14) and it is barely visible as a disintegrating smudge.
Elenin’s mass is smaller than average and its trajectory will take it no closer than 34 million km (21 million miles) of Earth as it circles the Sun. It will make its closest approach to Earth on October 16th, but was closest to the Sun on Sept. 10.
“On the night of August 19th, I estimated the brightness of comet Elenin as magnitude 8.1 and it was on target for naked eye observability in September,” Mattiazzo wrote on his website, Southern Comets. “On the following night of the 20th, the comet had faded dramatically by half a magnitude and appeared more diffuse. This was a sign of impending doom for comet Elenin.”
Elenin is at about magnitude 10 now, and fading as it is in the process of disintegrating.
It failed to recover, (you can see a series of images taken between August 19 and September 11 on Mattiazzo’s website), with the comet’s the nucleus taking on an elongated appearance with progressive fading.
Comet Elenin on Sept. 11, 2011. 20x10second exposures taken with a C11 SCT and Starlight Express MX7c CCD imager. Credit: Michael Mattiazzo. Used by permission
“Such acts of disruption are all too common for small comets that have close encounters with the Sun,” Mattiazzo said.
One of the most spectacular examples of a comet breaking apart occurred in July 2000 when comet C/1999 S4 LINEAR disintegrated and several observatories had a good view of the action.
A closeup photo of the breakup of Comet S4 LINEAR taken on August 6, 2000 by the European Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Credit: ESO
Elenin is now nearly in an inferior solar conjunction, where it will be directly between the Earth and the Sun (so we won’t be able to see it due to the brightness of the Sun). Another amateur astronomer from Australia, Ian Musgrave, says it is doubtful that it will be bright enough to see in the cameras from the Sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft, and that we will probably have to wait until October when the comet moves away from the Sun for powerful Earth-based telescopes to try and find if any of the comet survives.
JWST's mirror segments are prepped for testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA/Chris Gunn.
The 2012 fiscal year appropriation bill, marked up today by the Senate, allows for continued funding of the James Webb Space Telescope and support up to a launch in 2018! Yes, it looks like this bird is going to fly.
JWST's mirror segments are prepped for testing at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. NASA/Chris Gunn.
The James Webb Space Telescope will be the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It will study every phase in the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System. JWST will be a large infrared telescope with a 6.5-meter primary mirror.
Thanks to everyone who contacted their representatives and expressed their support of the JWST, to all the websites out there that made it particularly simple to do so, and of course to all the state representatives who stood behind the program and didn’t allow it to get mothballed. The space science community thanks you and the current and future generations of astronomers, physicists, cosmologists and explorers thank you.
“In a spending bill that has less to spend, we naturally focus on the cuts and the things we can’t do. But I’d like to focus on what we can do. The bill invests more than $12 billion in scientific research and high impact research and technology development, to create new products and new jobs for the future.”
– CJS Subcommittee Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski
In addition to continued funding for the telescope the 2012 bill also allots the National Aeronautics and Space Administration $17.9 billion (a reduction of $509 million or 2.8 percent from the 2011 enacted level) and preserves NASA’s portfolio balanced among science, aeronautics, technology and human space flight investments, including the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle, the heavy lift Space Launch System, and commercial crew development.
In this tighter economy, all of the agencies funded under the bill are also called on to be better stewards of taxpayers’ dollars, and waste and overspending will be much more closely monitored.
NOTE: While the JWST program has been specifically included in today’s markup, the bill itself still needs to be approved by the full appropriations committee and then go to the Senate floor for a vote. It then must be reconciled with the House version before receiving final appropriation. Still, this is definitely one step closer to getting the JWST off the ground! Read more on ScienceInsider here.
You can show your continued support for the JWST by liking the Save the James Webb Space Telescope Facebook page and – even more importantly – by contacting your congressperson and letting them know you care!
NASA Adminstrator Charlie Bolden and several members of Congress announced today the decision on NASA’s next heavy lift vehicle that will bring humans to asteroids and eventually to Mars. Billed as the most powerful rocket in history, the new Space Launch System (SLS) will combine proven technology from the space shuttle program along with things already developed in the Constellation program “in order to take advantage of proven hardware and cutting-edge tooling and manufacturing technology that will significantly reduce development and operations costs,” NASA said.
With a rocket over 30 stories tall, it will use a liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propulsion system, with a 5 space shuttle main engines and an improved J-2X engine for the upper stage. The SLS will have an initial lift capacity of 70 metric tons (mT) and will be evolvable to 130 mT.
“This launch system will create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world,” said Bolden. “President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that’s exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, kids today can now dream of one day walking on Mars.”
“The administration is coming forth with a plan to flesh out what was passed in NASA authorization bill a year ago,” said Senator Bill Nelson at the announcement at the nation’s capital. “This is a plan forward, that keeps the ISS alive until at least 2020, with series of commercial rockets taking crew and cargo there that allows NASA to get out beyond low Earth orbit and start to explore the heavens, which is the job NASA has always been tasked to do.”
Nelson said the new rocket is coming in at a cost of less than what was originally estimated, not double, as was reportedly leaked a week ago – that Congress was having “sticker shock” about the new launch system. “Over a 5-6 year period in the authorization bill, the cost for the rocket was to be no more than $11.5 billion, and this new system’s cost is $10 million cost for rocket,” Nelson said. Additionally, the projected cost for the Orion MPCV is 6 billion and the reworking of ground support to launch the rocket is about $2 billion, for a total of $18 billion from now until 2017, when the system should be ready for its first test launch, with the first piloted shakedown flight coming in about 2021.
U.S. astronauts then would make preliminary test flights about once a year before heading to an asteroid in 2025.
The new SLS on the launchpad. Credit: NASA
Why did it take so long for NASA to come up with this plan, which really, is nothing new under the sun?
“This requires a major commitment of the American taxpayers,” Bolden said, “and that’s why we’ve done the due diligence of doing it right in a more affordable way, and looked towards driving down costs by adopting new ways of doing things.”
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson said she was very excited about this rocket system and its long-term future. “We can’t have the preeminence we’ve had in space without seeing beyond the intermediate goal, which is the space station,” she said. “I don’t want to raise the hopes that everything will go on in a box [with no problems], because we are pushing the enveloping and going to the next level in space leadership so that we are not going to be the also-rans. We’ll be finding out capabilities that we haven’t even discovered yet, and discovering things that will help us on Earth. This is a great day for America, as it is a commitment that NASA is going to lead the pack.”
Hutchinson also noted that the priorities for NASA right now are this launch system, commercial crew and cargo for the ISS and the James Webb Space Telescope.
Hutchinson is the ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that authorizes NASA activities and is also the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) subcommittee that appropriates NASA’s funding.
NASA said this specific architecture was selected for the SLS, largely because it utilizes an evolvable development approach, which allows NASA to address high-cost development activities early on in the program and take advantage of higher buying power before inflation erodes the available funding of a fixed budget. This architecture also enables NASA to leverage existing capabilities and lower development costs by using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for both the core and upper stages. Additionally, this architecture provides a modular launch vehicle that can be configured for specific mission needs using a variation of common elements. NASA may not need to lift 130 mT for each mission and the flexibility of this modular architecture allows the agency to use different core stage, upper stage, and first-stage booster combinations to achieve the most efficient launch vehicle for the desired mission.
It’s eclipse season for the Solar Dynamics Observatory! Twice a year near each equinox, the orbital dynamics lines up so that from SDO’s vantage point, the Earth passes between SDO and the Sun. Eclipse season lasts for about three weeks and each eclipse can last up to 72 minutes in the middle of an eclipse season. This current eclipse season started on September 11 and lasts until October 4. There’s no way to avoid the loss of images, the SDO team says, but the continuous contact with the ground station SDO’s orbit allows was judged to outweigh the loss of some images.
The configuration of the Soyuz-FG rocket and the Soyuz capsule. Credit: Roscosmos
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The Russia space agency has set dates for resuming flights with the Progress and Soyuz spacecraft. After determining the cause of the failure and crash of a Soyuz-U rocket carrying a Progress cargo ship bound for the International Space Station last month, Roscomos said they will be resuming flights soon, and the next Soyuz-U Progress launch will be on Sunday, October 30, 2011. “It is planned to launch Progress cargo spaceships on October 30, 2011, and on January 26, 2012. Manned Soyuz-FG spaceships will be launched on November 12 and December 20, 2011,” the agency said on their website.
The commission that investigated the crash has “approved the schedule of preparation and launch of spacecraft … The schedule is based on the analysis of willingness to third propulsion launch vehicle and taking into account the implementation of all recommendations developed by the commission.”
The commission said the crash was caused by a malfunction in the rocket’s third stage engine gas generator, which they determined was the result of a manufacturing flaw, which was “accidental.”
Roscosmos said they are also consulting with NASA to “refine the work plans of the upcoming missions to the International Space Station.” NASA has not made a statement yet on the plans laid out today by the Russian space agency.
If all goes well with the October 30 Progress launch, it will be interesting to see if all parties agree to allow NASA Flight Engineer Dan Burbank, Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Russian Flight Engineer Anatoly Ivanishin to climb on board a Soyuz flight less than two weeks later.
Meanwhile, two Soyuz ST space vehicles carrying satellites that are being prepared for launch from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana will have the third stages of their rockets changed out, according to a spokesman from the Arianespace launch service corporation and the Russian news service Itar-Tass.
The third stages of two rockets will be returned to Russia, and new stages will be delivered to Kourou.
A spokesman for the Russian Space Mission Control said the resumption of manned and cargo launches means the ISS won’t need to be evacuated.
“This means that the ISS will constantly operate in piloted mode, with astronauts onboard,” spokesman Valery Lyndin told AFP. “Crews will be changed as originally planned, only the schedule will be somewhat pushed back.”
The first three of the current crew of six on board the station are schedule to return to Earth on Friday. NASA TV will broadcast the return on September 15, as Expedition 28 Soyuz Commander Alexander Samokutyaev, NASA Flight Engineer Ron Garan and off-going station Commander Andrey Borisenko will undock from the station’s Poisk module to return to Earth in their Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft.
They are set to land on the southern region steppe of Kazakhstan near the town of Dzhezkazgan at 11:01 p.m. CDT on Sept. 15 (10:01 a.m. local time, Sept. 16). Their return was delayed a week due to the Aug. 24 Progress 44 crash.
Expedition 29 station Commander Mike Fossum of NASA, Russian Flight Engineer Sergei Volkov and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa will remain aboard the complex to conduct research until their planned return to Earth in mid-November.
The schedule to launch three new Expedition 29 crew members, is under review as NASA and its international partners assess the readiness to resume Soyuz launches.
Astronomers have observed extreme brightness changes on a nearby brown dwarf that may indicate a storm grander than any seen yet on a planet. This finding could new shed light on the atmospheres and weather on extra-solar planets. Credit: Art by Jon Lomberg.
[/caption]Thanks to the help of the infrared camera on the 2.5m telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, astronomers are taking a very close look at a brown dwarf star named 2MASS J2139. During a recent survey they noticed something a little bit peculiar about this transitional solar system entity. Not only does it lay somewhere in-between being a dwarf star or a large planet – but it would appear to have a form of weather. Apparently there’s no place to escape clouds!
A University of Toronto-led team of astronomers had been doing a survey of nearby brown dwarfs, when they noticed that one in particular changed brightness in a matter of hours – the largest variation observed so far.
“We found that our target’s brightness changed by a whopping 30 per cent in just under eight hours,” said PhD candidate Jacqueline Radigan, lead author of a paper to be presented this week at the Extreme Solar Systems II conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. “The best explanation is that brighter and darker patches of its atmosphere are coming into our view as the brown dwarf spins on its axis,” said Radigan.
The team quickly took into account all possibilities for the differences in magnitude – from the possibility of a binary companion to cool magnetic spots – but none of these answers were likely. What could be causing this difference in brightness that seemed to be rotational?
“We might be looking at a gigantic storm raging on this brown dwarf, perhaps a grander version of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter in our own solar system, or we may be seeing the hotter, deeper layers of its atmosphere through big holes in the cloud deck,” said co-author Professor Ray Jayawardhana, Canada Research Chair in Observational Astrophysics at the University of Toronto and author of the recent book Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System.
Using computer modeling, astronomers can hypothesize what may be going on as silicates and metals mix over a variety of temperatures. The result is a condensate cloud. Thanks to 2MASS J2139’s variability, we’re able to observe what may be evolving “weather patterns”. These models may one day help us to extrapolate extra-solar giant planet weather conditions.
“Measuring how quickly cloud features change in brown dwarf atmospheres may allow us to infer atmospheric wind speeds eventually and teach us about how winds are generated in brown dwarf and planetary atmospheres,” Radigan added.
GRAIL Lunar gravity mappers rocket to the moon atop a Delta II Heavy booster on Sept. 10 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com)
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Check out our gallery of more thrilling launch photos of NASA’s twin GRAIL spacecraft departing Earth on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 9:08 a.m. EDT from Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.
Although GRAIL’s liftoff was delayed a few days by excessively high upper level winds, it was well worth the wait and put on a spectacular show as the booster thundered away from Space Launch Complex 17. This Delta II rocket was almost certainly the last ever Delta to blastf off from the Florida Space Coast.
Blastoff of Delta II Heavy rocket and twin spacecraft on Sept. 10 from Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral at 9:08 a.m. EDT. View from Press Site 1. Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com)
The GRAIL spacecraft continue to function well at the start of their nearly four month journey to the Moon wher they will map the moon gravity in unprecedented detail and provide new insight into the formation and evolution of the rocky bodies of the inner Solar System.
Sept. 10 Blastoff of Delta II and GRAIL gravity mappers. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)Sept. 10 Blastoff of Delta II and GRAIL gravity mappers. Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com)Sept. 10 Blastoff of Delta II and GRAIL gravity mappers. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)Sept. 10 Blastoff of Delta II and NASA’s GRAIL spacecraft. Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com)Sept. 10 Blastoff of Delta II and GRAIL gravity mappers. Credit: Ken Kremer Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com)Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com)Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com)Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com)Credit: Alan Walters (awaltersphoto.com)GRAIL and Delta II rocket soar to space on Sept 10 from Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Credit: Ken Kremer (kenkremer.com)
The Liberty launch vehicle, produce by ATK and Astrium, has been added to the fleet of commercial rockets and spacecraft that are being developed for NASA. Image Credit" ATK
[/caption]CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla – Liberty has wings. That is to say that the launch vehicle proposed by Alliant Techsystems or ATK as they are more commonly known has been given the green light by NASA – albeit unfunded – as part of a Space Act Agreement. The announcement was made at the Kennedy Space Center press site’s auditorium in Florida Tuesday at 3 p.m. EDT. With ATK’s addition – the fleet of potential spacecraft and launch vehicles could mean that the space agency will not only be able to return to human space flight operations sooner – but with a more diverse range of vehicles to do so as well.
The proposal to use the Liberty launch vehicle, which is comprised of a five-segment solid rocket booster (similar to the four-segment SRB utilized during the shuttle program) and an Ariane V upper stage could reduce the human space flight “gap” that NASA is currently experiencing. As the company that produces the Ariane V, Astrium, is a European firm this deal also works to fulfill the White House’s wishes that space endeavors be conducted on an international level. More importantly – ATK has stated that they could be ready to launch as early as 2015.
Liberty is a combination of so-called "legacy" hardware. The first stage is a modified shuttle Solid Rocket Booster and the upper stage comes from the Ariane V rocket. Image Credit: ATK
After the Ares I launcher was scrapped along with most of the rest of the Constellation Program by the Obama Administration ATK looked into ways to preserve the project. ATK was one of the first to see the commercial crewed writing on the wall and went to work revamping the project. With a far lower cost, international partner and a new paint job – Liberty was born.
The rationale behind why the Liberty announcement was made at KSC – was highlighted by ATK’s Vice-President for Test and Research Operations, Kent Rominger.
“We want to launch Liberty from Kennedy Space Center,” said Rominger. “Our concept of operations is based around KSC assets such as the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Liberty will be processed much in the same manner as the space shuttle was – so KSC is central to Liberty’s operations.”
With the inclusion of Liberty – most elements of the Constellation Program are back in place. Liberty could potentially be the launch vehicle that sends astronauts to orbits, the Space Launch System which closely resembles the Ares V is currently in development, the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is still in place as is the Lunar Electric Rover (although it has been renamed the “Space Exploration Vehicle”). The only element that has yet to be resurrected is the over-arching ‘Vision for Space Exploration’ – which directed NASA to go to the “Moon, Mars and Beyond.”
If all works out with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program NASA could see a problem that faced the space agency in the wake of the Challenger and Columbia accidents – erased. After the loss of each of the orbiters NASA was unable to launch astronauts to orbit for a period of roughly two years. With Liberty and man-rated versions of United Launch Alliance’s Atlas and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket – if one of these launch vehicles experienced an in-flight anomaly NASA could simply switch to another launcher while any problem with another rocket is being investigated. This of course depends on whether-or-not NASA receives the funding to accomplish this.
The Liberty rocket has been designed to accomodate a wide-range of potential spacecraft. Image Credit: ATK
An amazing corn maze with a NASA theme, at Cornbelly's in Lehi, Utah, one of seven around the US in 2011. Image courtesty of The MAiZE Inc.
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Imagine looking out your airplane window (or alien spacecraft portal) and seeing a giant Mars Exploration Rover or an astronaut a half-kilometer long etched in …. a corn field? That’s exactly what is happening this fall, as seven farms across the US are participating in a special collaboration with NASA called Space Farm 7 to celebrate the space agency’s achievements and progress in space, as well as providing education and activities about agriculture. The farmers have created some absolutely amazing and intricate crop-circle-like formations that double as corn mazes, giving kids and families the chance to get lost — if you will — in space.
“You don’t always see an astronaut in a corn field,” said Adam Pugh from The Rock Ranch in Georgia, who approached NASA last year with the idea, “and there’s not an obvious connection between corn and NASA. But I thought it would be cool if we could work with NASA and highlight some of the NASA anniversaries going on and use our cornfield as an outdoor classroom to re-enthuse the new generation of youth about space exploration and get them fired up about looking towards the stars.”
Take a look at these awesome corn mazes, all unique and with a special NASA theme.
NASA-themed corn maze at Belvedere Plantation in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Image courtesy The MAiZE Inc.
“I’ve got kids that are nine-, four- and two- years old,” said Pugh, talking with Universe Today from the agri-tourism farm he operates, “and the only thing they know about astronauts is Buzz Lightyear. I felt it would be great if we could teach kids about the real astronauts and the real heroes that have done so much through space exploration to give us things we enjoy today like cell phones, solar panels and all the great things that space exploration has given to us.”
The farms that are part of Space Farm 7 create corn mazes every year, as part of their harvest-time autumn festivities, Pugh said, and this year seven farms have a space-themed maze. “Most of the places started as pumpkin patches or small farms and have all gotten into agri-tourism, an increasingly popular idea which uses an agricultural setting as a place for education or tourism. It’s all part of a growing trend of people buying local for their produce, meats and dairy products.”
Corn maze at Dell'Osso Farms in Lathrop, California. Image courtesty of The MAiZE Inc.
Pugh said farmers have noticed a disconnect between today’s youth and agriculture. “We have kids coming on our field trips who have no idea where milk or eggs come from – they just think they come from the store,” he said. “But real effort and skill goes into creating the food that we all enjoy. Our purpose is to not only entertain these folks and get them to spend quality time together and exercise but also educate them and help them realize where their food comes from.”
The SpaceFarm 7 celebration is very timely as this year NASA celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first American in space, the 30th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle mission and the 20th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s deployment in space.
NASA has ten regional research centers located in the United States, and the individual Space Farms have each been paired up with their nearest space center in order to highlight that region’s contribution to NASA.
NASA-themed corn maze at Dewberry Farm in Brookshire, Texas. Image courtesty of The MAiZE Inc
Layla Dowdy from NASA’s Public Affairs Office said NASA is supporting this awesome outreach project with exhibits, and speakers, as well as an online national contest where winners earn a visit to Kennedy Space Center and the chance to dine with an astronaut. To enter, visit www.spacefarm7.com and vote on your favorite of the seven maze designs. A winner will be randomly selected at the end of October.
The celebrations at each of the farms will include a visiting astronaut or other NASA officials, as well as activities such as hobby-rocket launches, hands-on space education activities, and demonstrations from local astronomy clubs, in addition to the regular activities the agri-tourism farms have.
“We’re providing all sorts of neat opportunities for families to experience space exploration, in ways which are normally not accessible unless you travel to Houston or Kennedy Space Center,” Pugh said. “We’re bringing the education materials to people all over the US, and our shared objective with NASA is to reach 1 million kids.”
“We just want to encourage families to get outdoors and enjoy quality time together,” Pugh added. “Our whole purpose is to be good stewards of the land and share that with folks.”
Activities at The Rock Ranch include zip lines, paddle boats, pony rides and other fun outdoor activities where people can “enjoy nature and farmland,” Pugh said.
Corn maze at Liberty Ridge Farm in Schaghticoke, New York. Image courtesty of The MAiZE Inc
The mazes typically average 8 acres in size, said Kamille Combs from The MAiZE Inc, a company that helps farmers design and create their corn mazes.
Combs provided the opening dates for the 7 mazes across the US:
Look for more information on the Space Farm 7 website and get out and enjoy the mazes if one is near you.
Corn maze at The Rock Ranch; The Rock, Georgia. Image courtesty of The MAiZE IncCorn maze at Vala's Pumpkin Patch in Gretna, Nebraska. Image courtesty of The MAiZE Inc
