A gigantic plume of ash from the Puyehue-Cordón Volcano in Chile spreads across South America. This image was taken on June 13, 2011 by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite. Credit: NASA and courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC.
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An incredible amount of ash is being spewed from the erupting Puyehue-Cordón Volcano Complex in Chile. This image, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on June 13, 2011, shows a large plume of volcanic ash blowing about 780 kilometers east and then northeast over Argentina. A plume of volcanic ash from this eruption disrupted air traffic as far away as New Zealand on June 13. See images below of how far the ash has traveled in the atmosphere, a half a world away.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite acquired the two images below of the Chilean ash plume on June 13, 2011 showing that a concentrated plume was visible more than half a world away. The first image shows the ash plume over southern Australia and the Tasman Sea, while the second image provides a view farther east over New Zealand and the South Pacific Ocean.
The Chilean ash plume over southern Australia and the Tasman Sea on June 13, 2011. Credit: NASA/MODIS on the Aqua Satellite.The Chilean volcano ash plume over NewZealand and the South Pacific Ocean. Credit: NASA/MODIS on the Aqua satellite.
NASA’s Earth Observatory website says that although the intensity of the eruption has decreased since the initial eruption, the volcano’s activity is holding steady. The plume reached between 4 and 8 kilometers in altitude on June 13, its height varying with the intensity of the eruptive episode throughout the day.
Here’s how the volcano looked back on June 4, 2011 when it began spewing ash 45,000 feet (14,000 meters) into the air. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image shortly after the eruption began:
Chile’s Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcano on June 4, 2011. Credit: NASA/Aqua - MODIS
You can follow Universe Today senior editor Nancy Atkinson on Twitter: @Nancy_A. Follow Universe Today for the latest space and astronomy news on Twitter @universetoday and on Facebook.
First complete image of the far side of the sun taken on June 1, 2011. Click image for larger version. Credit: NASA/STEREO.
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Far out! This is the first complete image of the solar far side, the half of the sun invisible from Earth. Captured on June 1, 2011, the composite image was assembled from NASA’s two Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft. STEREO-Ahead’s data is shown on the left half of image and STEREO-Behind’s data on the right.
You may recall that the two STEREO spacecraft reached opposition (180 degree separation) on February 6 of this year and the science team released a “complete” 360 degree view of the Sun. However, a small part of the sun was inaccessible to their combined view until June 1. This image represents the first day when the entire far side could be seen.
The image is aligned so that solar north is directly up. The seam between the two images is inclined because the plane of Earth’s – and STEREO’s – orbit, known as the “ecliptic”, is inclined with respect to the sun’s axis of rotation. The data was collected by STEREO’s Extreme Ultraviolet Imagers in the SECCHI instrument suites.
The video below explains why seeing the entire Sun is helpful to scientists:
The New Moon occurs when the Moon and Sun are at the same geocentric ecliptic longitude. The part of the Moon facing us is completely in shadow then. Pictured here is the traditional New Moon, the earliest visible waxing crescent, which signals the start of a new month in many lunar and lunisolar calendars. Credit: NASA Goddard SVC
We don’t always have the time or ability to see the Moon every night of the year, but this video, from the Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio, uses data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and compresses one month into 12 seconds and one year into 2.5 minutes. This is how the Moon will look to us on Earth during the entire year of 2011. While the Moon always keeps the same face to us, it’s not exactly the same face. Because of the tilt in its axis and shape of its orbit, we see the Moon from slightly different angles over the course of a month, and the year. Normally, we don’t see how the Moon “wobbles” in its orbit, but seeing the Moon’s year this quickly, we can see the changes in libration, and axis tilt — as well as the most noticeable changes, the Moon’s phases.
This animation is the most accurate to date, showing shadows and other features on the Moon in incredible detail. This is thanks to the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) aboard LRO. The shadows are based on the global elevation map being developed from measurements by the LOLA, and the instrument has already taken more than 10 times as many elevation measurements as all previous missions combined.
If you want to know what the Moon looks like “right now” this page from the SVC is updated every hour showing the Moon’s geocentric phase, libration, position angle of the axis, and apparent diameter of the Moon. It also has images showing the different phases of the Moon, too.
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Celestial north is up in these images, corresponding to the view from the northern hemisphere. The descriptions of the print resolution stills also assume a northern hemisphere orientation. To adjust for southern hemisphere views, rotate the images 180 degrees, and substitute “north” for “south” in the descriptions.
Key to the astronomical modeling process by which scientists attempt to understand our universe, is a comprehensive knowledge of the values making up these models. These are generally measured to exceptionally high confidence levels in laboratories. Astronomers then assume these constants are just that – constant. This generally seems to be a good assumption since models often produce mostly accurate pictures of our universe. But just to be sure, astronomers like to make sure these constants haven’t varied across space or time. Making sure, however, is a difficult challenge. Fortunately, a recent paper has suggested that we may be able to explore the fundamental masses of protons and electrons (or at least their ratio) by looking at the relatively common molecule of methanol.
The new report is based on the complex spectra of the methane molecule. In simple atoms, photons are generated from transitions between atomic orbitals since they have no other way to store and translate energy. But with molecules, the chemical bonds between the component atoms can store the energy in vibrational modes in much the same way masses connected to springs can vibrate. Additionally, molecules lack radial symmetry and can store energy by rotation. For this reason, the spectra of cool stars show far more absorption lines than hot ones since the cooler temperatures allow molecules to begin forming.
Many of these spectral features are present in the microwave portion of the spectra and some are extremely dependent on quantum mechanical effects which in turn depend on precise masses of the proton and electron. If those masses were to change, the position of some spectral lines would change as well. By comparing these variations to their expected positions, astronomers can gain valuable insights to how these fundamental values may change.
The primary difficulty is that, in the grand scheme of things, methanol (CH3OH) is rare since our universe is 98% hydrogen and helium. The last 2% is composed of every other element (with oxygen and carbon being the next most common). Thus, methanol is comprised of three of the four most common elements, but they have to find each other, to form the molecule in question. On top of that, they must also exist in the right temperature range; too hot and the molecule is broken apart; too cold and there’s not enough energy to cause emission for us to detect it. Due to the rarity of molecules with these conditions, you might expect that finding enough of it, especially across the galaxy or universe, would be challenging.
Fortunately, methanol is one of the few molecules which are prone to creating astronomical masers. Masers are the microwave equivalent of lasers in which a small input of light can cause a cascading effect in which it induces the molecules it strikes to also emit light at specific frequencies. This can greatly enhance the brightness of a cloud containing methanol, increasing the distance to which it could be readily detected.
By studying methanol masers within the Milky Way using this technique, the authors found that, if the ratio of the mass of an electron to that of a proton does change, it does so by less than three parts in one hundred million. Similar studies have also been conducted using ammonia as the tracer molecule (which can also form masers) and have come to similar conclusions.
The Milky Way's basic structure is believed to involve two main spiral arms emanating from opposite ends of an elongated central bar. But only parts of the arms can be seen - gray segments indicate portions not yet detected. Other known spiral arm segments--including the Sun's own spur--are omitted for clarity. Credit: T. Dame
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Our Milky Way Galaxy’s elemental form is hypothesized to be a barred structure – made up of two major spiral arms originating at both poles of the central bar. But from our vantage point, we can only see portions of those arms. Because of huge amounts of dust literally blocking our view, we can’t be as confident of our structure as other galaxies we can study as a whole. However, by “sniffing our galaxy’s tailpipe”, we’re able to judge our structure just a little bit better.
We’re all aware of theoretical models of the Milky Way… a sprawling, pinwheel-like structure with sweeping, grandiose arms loaded with stars, gases and dust. We’re also aware our Solar System is lodged in a spur of those arms, slowly orbiting and located about 25,000 light-years from the center. But hard and fast details of our Galaxy haven’t been possible until now. Thanks to the use of radio waves, we’re able to cut through the murk and see wavelengths that give us clues. These architectural hints are coming to us in the forms of molecules like carbon monoxide – a great tracer of our galactic format.
Using a small 1.2-meter radio telescope on the roof of their science building in Cambridge, CfA astronomers Tom Dame and Pat Thaddeus used carbon monoxide emissions to ferret out proof there is more spiral structure located in the most distant parts of our galactic home. What they uncovered was a previously reported new spiral arm at the far end of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm – but how they did it was by verifying vast, dense concentrations of this molecular gas.
Where does it come from? Try the “exhaust” of carbon stars. These late-type stars have an atmosphere which is higher in carbon than oxygen. When the two combine in the upper layers of the star they create carbon monoxide. It also happens in “normal” stars like our Sun, too. It’s richer in oxygen than carbon, but still cool enough to form carbon monoxide. “After preliminary Galactic surveys in the mid-1970’s revealed the vast extent of CO emission on the sky,” says Dame, “It became clear that even with the relatively large beams of the 1.2 meter telescopes a sensitive, well-sampled survey of the entire Galaxy would require many years.”
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.
Total lunar eclipse captured January 20-21, 2000. (Courtesy of Mr. Eclipse/Fred Espenak)
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Don’t say we didn’t warn you ahead of time! The upcoming total lunar eclipse will happen on June 15, 2011… and it’s a rare one. This time the Moon will pass directly through the center of the Earth’s shadow cone – an event that hasn’t happened in 11 years and won’t happen again until 2018. The eclipse visibility path will be over Africa, and Central Asia, visible rising over South America, western Africa, and Europe, and setting over eastern Asia. In western Asia, Australia and the Philippines – visible just before sunrise. But before you just read on to another article because you can’t see it from where you live, remember I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve…
Thanks to this fantastic magic we call the Internet, all you need to do is tune into our friends around the world! The first listing of our live eclipse broadcasters will be Astronomylive.com. Coordinating the eclipse project and different activities for this year is Mohan Sanjeevan, a science and science fiction writer from India. Since May 2011, Mohan volunteers as the Event & Broadcast Organizer of AstronomyLive covering his country. But Mohan is more than just a coordinater, he’s also involved in other venues like writing poetry – including science poems (freelance science writing for more than twenty years; writer of nano science and tech articles for Nano Digest, a monthly magazine from India), popularization of science and creating awareness on global warming, alternative sources of energy and making the planet a more livable place. Space and astronomy are his natural areas of interest. To top it off, Sanjeevan is also a researcher – full of implementable ideas for space and future technologies.
AstronomyLive is a center for LIVE astronomy and you can participate, too! Host your broadcasts of various types on this free service. Amateur astronomers, professional astronomers, observatories, astronomy associations and more are all very welcome. The current team consists of Sander Klieverik, Voskuh and Dennis from the Netherlands, LesD from the United States, Mohan Sanjeevan, Aakanksha, Prof. M. Jothi Rajan, Jhon Kennedy, Bhaskar, Abhilasha and Sanyam Kumar Shrivastava from India. All of these great people came together to share the view with you!
And there’s more…
A free, live webcast from Bareket Observatory in Israel will also feature the total lunar eclipse on June 15, 2011. How do you get there? Simply click on this link for the Bareket Observatory Live Eclipse Broadcast! The hardworking group in Israel invite you to discover the Moon during the eclipse using hands-on eclipse activities. Conduct your own science projects using the live lunar eclipse feed! What a great opportunity for your students, family and friends!
The great folks at Bareket Observatory have expanded tremendously over the years and now they’re pleased to announce the launch of the Astro-Edu Network, a free state-of-the-art astronomy education database for teachers, students and the general public. Among the goals of AStro-Edu is increased communication and understanding within the population of the Middle East using astronomy as the catalyst. Astro-Edu net can be translated to more than 60 different languages using the integrated translation module (move your cursor over the flag in the upper left to translate the materials).
Lunar Eclipse Timing Chart
So don’t sit out the total lunar eclipse on June 15, 2011 – 17.00 – 23.00 UTC (GMT). Be sure to enjoy the event with our friends around the world!
This is one of the Tagish Lake meteorite fragments. Credit: Michael Holly, Creative Services, University of Alberta
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We’re all familiar with the hypothesis of panspermia – that life can be “seeded” from the contents of asteroids, comets and planetoids vis-a-vis meteorite impacts – but so far no direct evidence has been found. So why should we even consider meteorites to be potential parents? The truth is out there – they contain the essentials – right down to amino acids. Up until now, what we’ve recovered has been considered structured. Then along came Tagish Lake…
In January, 2000, a large meteoroid exploded in Earth’s atmosphere over northern British Columbia, Canada, resulting in a debris fall over frozen Tagish Lake. It was a rare observed fall, and the meteorites were meticulously gathered, documented and preserved in their frozen state. The reason was twofold: to preserve the integrity of the space stones and to ensure no contamination could occur either to Earth or to the specimens.
“The Tagish Lake meteorite fell on a frozen lake in the middle of winter and was collected in a way to make it the best preserved meteorite in the world,” said Dr. Christopher Herd of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, lead author of a paper about the analysis of the meteorite fragments published June 10 in the journal Science.
For meteorite collectors, we’re well aware of the value of an observed fall and equally aware of the documentation needed to make a meteorite valuable both to market and scientific study. It’s more than just writing down the date and time of the observation and where the fragments were collected. To be done properly, the field needs to be measured. Each fragment needs to be photographed in the position in which it was found. The depth measured and more. Nothing is left to speculation.
“The first Tagish Lake samples – the ones we used in our study that were collected within days of the fall – are the closest we have to an asteroid sample return mission in terms of cleanliness,” adds Dr. Michael Callahan of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., a co-author on the paper.
What the scientists found was the Tagish Lake meteorites are rich in carbon – and contain an assortment of organic matter including amino acids. While these “building blocks of life” aren’t new to meteoritic structure, what was out of the ordinary was different pieces had greatly differing amounts of amino acids. This varies way off the beaten path.
“We see that some pieces have 10 to 100 times the amount of specific amino acids than other pieces,” said Dr. Daniel Glavin of NASA Goddard, also a co-author on the Science paper. “We’ve never seen this kind of variability from a single parent asteroid before. Only one other meteorite fall, called Almahata Sitta, matches Tagish Lake in terms of diversity, but it came from an asteroid that appears to be a mash-up of many different asteroids.”
The team set to work on the recovered fragments – identifying different minerals present in each meteorite. What they were looking for was to see how much each had been changed by the presence of water. What they found was the different fragments each had a different water signature not accounted for from their landing on Earth. Some had more interaction and others less. This alteration may explain the diversity in amino acid production.
“Our research provides new insights into the role that water plays in the modification of pre-biotic molecules on asteroids,” said Herd. “Our results provide perhaps the first clear evidence that water percolating through the asteroid parent body caused some molecules to be formed and others destroyed. The Tagish Lake meteorite provides a unique window into what was happening to organic molecules on asteroids four-and-a-half billion years ago, and the pre-biotic chemistry involved.”
How does this change the way we look at the panspermia theory? If future falls continue to show this widespread variability, scientists are going to have to be a bit more reserved in their judgements about whether or not meteorites could deliver enough bio-molecules to make the hypothesis viable.
“Biochemical reactions are concentration dependent,” says Callahan. “If you’re below the limit, you’re toast, but if you’re above it, you’re OK. One meteorite might have levels below the limit, but the diversity in Tagish Lake shows that collecting just one fragment might not be enough to get the whole story.”
While the Tagish Lake samples are undoubtedly some of the most carefully preserved specimens collected so far, there is still a possibility of contamination from both Earth atmosphere and their lake landing. But don’t simply write off these new findings just yet. In one fragment, the amino acid abundances were high enough to show they were made in space by analyzing their isotopes. These versions of elements with different masses can tell us a lot more about the story. For example, the carbon 13 found in the Tagish Lake samples is a much heavier, and less common, variety of carbon. Because amino acids prefer lighter forms of carbon, the enriched and heavier carbon 13 deposits were most likely created in space.
“We found that the amino acids in a fragment of Tagish Lake were enriched in carbon 13, indicating they were probably created by non-biological processes in the parent asteroid,” said Dr. Jamie Elsila of NASA Goddard, a co-author on the paper who performed the isotopic analysis.
The team compared their results with researchers at the Goddard Astrobiology Analytical Lab for their expertise with the difficult analysis. “We specialize in extraterrestrial amino acid and organic matter analysis,” said Dr. Jason Dworkin, a co-author on the paper who leads the Goddard laboratory. “We have top-flight, extremely sensitive equipment and the meticulous techniques necessary to make such precise measurements. We plan to refine our techniques with additional challenging assignments so we can apply them to the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission.”
[/caption]Back in 2009, Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte fired up the imaginations of would-be astronauts the world round when he paid an estimated $35 million dollars to spend 12 days aboard the International Space Station How many of us who are too large, too small or too out of physical shape to be a space traveller cheered when a rather “ordinary” human took place in space? Well, get in line for the next adventure… because just a mere $28,750,000 might buy you a ticket for a 30-day stay in Earth orbit.
Away from the glitz of Las Vegas, real estate developer Robert Bigelow is making use of the quiet Mojave Desert setting to solidify plans which border on the down-right incredible. His Bigelow Aerospace company owns 50 acres of barren land with buildings that aren’t much different than neighboring contractors – with the exception of high security. So why would these unassuming structures need armed security guards with futuristic alien patches on their uniforms?
Because he’s building the first space hotel.
These high-tech, low-cost inflatable space stations may very well be our future. As Bigelow believes, we’ll need a place to stay if we’re to further our studies in space – so why not in affordable accommodations? Bigelow has amassed his terrestrial wealth over his lifetime by providing rooms here, and the last 15 years have seen him invest approximately $210 million of his own money towards futuristic plans. In the long run, he’s willing to put forward up to $500 million to see his project through. His goal is to prove that space is a safe place for those willing to make the jump.
“We have a way of building stations that are far less expensive, far more safe and can be built more quickly,” says Bigelow. “And the timing is right.”
According the the entrepreneur, he’s engaging more than a dozen nations and has “memorandums of understanding” from countries including Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom. In February NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver visited Bigelow Aerospace’s plant in North Las Vegas, and the agency is currently evaluating the company’s expandable modules for use as expansions to the International Space Station.
While it would be easy to write off such grand schemes as another of Bigelow’s “big” adventures, these inflatable space habitats are founded in solid technology. Bigelow’s prototypes have been orbiting Earth since 2006. His expansion of the desert plant will provide at least double the amount of work space, allowing him to construct a a scale model of the Sundancer, the first habitat he plans to launch into space. And when that’s done, he’ll build a model of its big brother, the BA330: At 11,600 cubic feet, it has nearly as much volume as the entire ISS!
When can we expect to book a room with a real view? Bigelow expects to have a fully functioning station in orbit by 2016 and to begin charging rent for it. While a little less than a million dollars a night isn’t going to exactly threaten Super 8 rates, one thing we can look forward to is knowing exactly what lights they’ll leave on…
Spirit’s last panoramic from Mars was taken during February 2010 before her death. Featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) on 30 May 2011. Spirit’s final panoramic picture show from Mars was snapped on Sol 2175 in February 2010 before entering hibernation mode in March 2010 just prior to the onset of her 4th Martian winter. Spirit was just 500 feet from her next science target - dubbed Von Braun – center of the mosaic. The Columbia Hills form the backdrop to the mosaic from Spirits final resting place. Spirit never awoke. NASA ceased all communications attempts with Spirit on May 25, 2011. Credit: Mosaic by Marco De Lorenzo and Ken Kremer, images NASA/JPL/Cornell University.
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Scientists leading NASA’s Mars rover team have selected “Spirit Point” as the name for the spot where the “Opportunity” Mars rover will arrive at her next destination – Endeavour Crater. The site was named in honor of the death of the “Spirit” Mars Exploration Rover, which NASA recently declared has ceased all communications with Earth.
Spirit’s passing comes after more than six highly productive years roving the surface of the red planet as humankind’s surrogate. NASA concluded the last attempt to communicate with Spirit in a transmission on May 25, 2011.
“First landfall at Endeavour will be at the southern end of Cape York [at Spirit Point],” Steve Squyres told me. Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., is principal investigator for the rovers. Read tributes from the Spirit rover science team below.
In memory of Spirit, the last panorama she snapped on Sol 2175 in February 2010 was featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) on May 30, 2011 and is the lead image here. The photo mosaic was created by Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer and shows some of the last scenes that Spirit ever photographed.
Spirit approaches von Braun mound in April 2009
This mosaic of images was collected on Sol 1869 in April 2009 as Spirit approached a mysterious circular volcanic mound known as Von Braun, at left. Foreground at center, left ahead shows where Spirit became stuck in a concealed sand trap of slippery, water related sulfate minerals lying adjacent to the eroded volcanic plateau named Home Plate. Columbia Hills in the background.
Mosaic Credit: Kenneth Kremer/Marco Di Lorenzo/NASA/JPL/Cornell
Endeavour’s massive rim consists of a series of ridges. Cape York is a 400 foot wide (120 meters) rim fragment at the western edge of Endeavour. Opportunity should reach “Spirit Point” before the end of this year, 2011.
“Spirit Point” was chosen as the site at Endeavour to commemorate the scientific achievements of Opportunity’s twin sister “Spirit”. Endeavour Crater was determined to be Opportunity’s long term destination nearly three ago after she departed the environs of Victoria crater.
“The Initial exploration plan will be decided when we get closer. The [science] priorities will depend on what we find,” Squyres added.
Since August 2008, the blistering pace of Opportunity’s long overland trek of about 11 miles (18 kilometers) has brought the golf cart sized robot to within about 2 miles (3 kilometers) of the rim of the humongous Endeavour crater – some 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. Endeavour is more than 20 times wider than Victoria crater and by far the largest feature the Opportunity will ever explore – see route maps below.
This oblique view with moderate vertical exaggeration shows the portion of the rim of Endeavour crater given the informal name "Spirit Point." This is the location where the team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity plans to drive the rover to its arrival at the Endeavour rim. As of mid-June 2011, Opportunity was about 2 miles away from the rim of Endeavour. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona
“Spirit achieved far more than we ever could have hoped when we designed her,” according to Squyres in a NASA statement. “This name will be a reminder that we need to keep pushing as hard as we can to make new discoveries with Opportunity. The exploration of Spirit Point is the next major goal for us to strive for.”
The imaging team of Marco Di Lorenzo and Ken Kremer created a series of Spirit photomosaics from publically available images to illustrate the location and hazardous nature of Spirits final resting place – which fortuitously turned out to be a scientific goldmine revealing new insights into the flow of liquid water on Mars billions of years ago.
Mosaic of microscopic images of Spirit’s underbelly on Sol 1925 in June 2009
Mosaic shows predicament of being stuck at Troy with wheels buried in the sulfate-rich Martian soil. This false color mosaic has been enhanced and stretched to bring out additional details about the surrounding terrain and embedded wheels and distinctly shows a pointy rock perhaps in contact with the underbelly.
Mosaic Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo/ Kenneth Kremer/NASA/JPL/Cornell
The western rim of Endeavour possesses geological deposits far older than any Opportunity has investigated before and which may feature environmental conditions that were more conducive to the potential formation of ancient Martian life forms.
Spirits last transmissions to Earth took place in March 2010, before she entered hibernation mode due to ebbing solar power and succumbed to the likely damaging effects of her 4th Martian winter.
Spirit was closing in on her next science target, a mysterious volcanic feature named Von Braun, when she became mired in a sand trap named “Troy” on the outskirts of the eroded volcano named “Home Plate, just about 500 feet away. See our mosaics.
Spirit embedded at sand trap in February 2010 on Sol 2174
Numerous attempts by the rover team failed to extricate Spirit from the sand trap at Troy in which she became mired in May 2009 on the western edge of Home Plate. Mosaic shows last robotic arm maneuver before hibernation and above bright toned soil containing hydrated sulfates. Mosaic Credit: Marco Di Lorenzo/ Kenneth Kremer/ NASA/JPL/Cornell
Unable to escape and absent of sufficient power to run critical survival heaters, Spirit experienced temperatures colder than ever before that probably crippled fragile electronics components and connections and prevented further communications – although no one knows for sure.
NASA’s twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity have been exploring the Martian terrain on opposite sides of the red planet since the dynamic duo successfully landed over 7 years ago in January 2004.
Both robots were expected to last just three months but have accumulated a vast bonus time of exploration and discovery in numerous extended mission phases.
*** Several top members of the rover science team kindly provided me some comments (below) to sum up Spirits achievements and legacy and what’s ahead for Opportunity at Endeavour.
Ray Arvidson of Washington University, St Louis, Deputy Principal Investigator for the rovers:
“Spirit’s last communication with Earth was in March 2010 as the southern hemisphere winter season began to set in, the sun was low on the horizon, and the rover presumably stopped communicating to use all available solar power to charge the batteries.
Von Braun was one of the two destinations Spirit was traveling to when the rover became embedded in soft sands in the valley to the west of Home Plate.
Von Braun is a conically-shaped hill to the south of Home Plate, Inner Basin, Columbia Hills. Goddard is an oval-shaped shallow depression to the west of von Braun and was the second area to be visited by Spirit. Both von Braun and Goddard are suspected to be volcanic features.
Spirit is the brightest spot in this image taken on 31 March 2011 from Mars orbit. Spirit is gleaming in the sun beside Home Plate inside Gusev Crater. The solar panels are not covered by an optically thick layer of dust. Spirit last communicated on 22 March 2010. Credit: NASA/JPL/UA
During Spirit’s six year and two month mission the vehicle acquired remote sensing and in-situ observations that conclusively demonstrated that the ancient Columbia Hills in Gusev Crater expose materials that have been altered in water-related environments, including ground water corrosion and generation of sulfate and opaline minerals in volcanic steam vents and perhaps hydrothermal pools.
Together with its sister rover, Opportunity, the Mars Exploration Rover Mission, was designed to “follow the water” and return data that would allow us to test the hypothesis that water was at and near the surface during previous epochs.
Opportunity is still exploring the evidence in Meridiani for ancient shallow lakes and is on the way to outcrops on the rim of Endeavour crater, a ~20 km wide crater that exposes the old Noachian crust that shows evidence from orbital data for hydrated clay minerals.
These two rovers have performed far beyond expectations, unveiled the early, wet history of Mars, and have made an enormous scientific return on investment.”
Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., Principal Investigator for the rovers:
“Our best hope for hearing from Spirit was last fall. When that didn’t happen, we began a long, careful process of trying every possible approach to re-establishing contact. But it slowly became clear that it was unlikely, and I personally got used to the idea that Spirit’s mission was probably over several months ago.
Once that right front wheel failed, Spirit’s days were numbered in that kind of terrain. It wouldn’t have made any difference if we had tried to move Spirit sooner. We were very lucky to have survived as long as we did.
One of the lessons learned is to try to keep the wheels from failing.
It’s very sad to lose Spirit. But two things have softened the blow. First we’ve had a long time to get used to the idea. Second, even though Spirit is dead, she died an honorable death. If we’d lost her early in the mission, before she accomplished so much, it would have been much harder. But she accomplished so much more than any of us expected, the sadness is very much tempered with satisfaction and pride.
The big scientific accomplishments are the silica deposits at Home Plate, the carbonates at Comanche, and all the evidence for hydrothermal systems and explosive volcanism. What we’ve learned is that early Mars at Spirit’s site was a hot, violent place, with hot springs, steam vents, and volcanic explosions. It was extraordinarily different from the Mars of today.
Opportunity is heading at high speed for the rim of Endeavour Crater. First landfall will be at the southern end of Cape York. She should be there in not too many more months.
It hasn’t yet been decided where Opportunity will attempt to climb up Endeavour… we’ll see when we get there.
The phyllosilicates are a high priority, but the top priority depends on what we find.
The yellow line on this map shows where NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity has driven from the place where it landed in January 2004 -- inside Eagle crater, at the upper left end of the track -- to a point about 2.2 miles (3.5 kilometers) away from reaching the rim of Endeavour crater. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
I hope Spirits legacy will be the inspiration that people, especially kids, will take away from Spirit’s mission. I have had long, thoughtful conversations about Spirit with kids who have had a rover on Mars as long as they can remember. And my fondest hope for Spirit is that somewhere there are kids who will look at what we did with her, and say to themselves “well, that’s pretty cool… but I bet when I grow up I can do better. That’s what we need for the future of space exploration.
Spirit existed, and did what she did, because of the extraordinary team of engineers and scientists who worked so hard to make it possible. It’s a team that I’m incredibly proud to have been a small part of. Working with them has been quite literally the adventure of a lifetime.”
Jim Bell of Arizona State University, lead scientist for the rovers Pancam stereo panoramic camera:
“It is with a bittersweet sense of both sadness and pride that NASA announced the official end of the mission for the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit.
The Spirit team has seen the end coming since communications were lost with the rover in March 2010. Mission engineers made heroic efforts to reestablish contact. In the end Spirit was conquered by the extremely cold Martian winter and its two broken wheels, which prevented its dusty solar panels from pointing toward the Sun.
But what a mission! Designed to last 90 days, Spirit kept going for more than six years, with the team driving the rover almost 5 miles (8 km) across rocky volcanic plains, climbing rugged ancient hills, and scurrying past giant sand-dune fields. It eventually spent most of the mission near the region known as Home Plate, which is full of layered, hydrated minerals.
Data from the rover enabled dozens of scientific discoveries, but three stand out to me as most important:
Hydrated sulfate and high-silica soils in the Columbia Hills and around Home Plate.
These minerals, and the environment in which they occur (Home Plate is a circular-shaped, finely layered plateau that may be the eroded remains of a volcanic cone or other hydrothermal deposit), tell us that at some point in the past history of Gusev there was liquid water and there were heat sources — two key ingredients needed to consider the area habitable for life as we know it.
Carbonate minerals in some of the rocks within the Columbia Hills.
Carbonates were expected on Mars, if indeed the climate was warmer and wetter in the past. However, their detection has been elusive so far. Indeed, the Spirit team had to work hard to uncover the signature of carbonates years after the rover made the measurements. As the analysis continues the results for Mars in general could be profound.
An incredible diversity of rock types, from all over Mars, that Spirit was able to sample in Gusev crater.
Some of the rocks appear to be from local volcanic lava flows or ash deposits. But others have likely been flung in to the area over time by distant impacts or volcanoes, and a few even appear to be meteorites, flung in from outer space. Spirit’s instruments provided the team with the ability to recognize this amazing diversity, and thus to learn much more about Mars in general, not just Gusev in particular.
Spirit also helped us test an experiment: If we put all the rover’s images out on the Web for everyone in the world to see, in near real-time, would people follow along? They did!
I wonder if, maybe 10 or 15 years from now, I’ll meet some young colleagues who were turned on to space exploration by being able to check out the latest Spirit images from Mars from their classroom, or living room, every day when they were a kid. That would be extremely satisfying — and a great testament to the power of openly sharing data from space exploration missions like Spirit’s.
Meanwhile, Opportunity continues to rove on to city-size Endeavour crater, where orbital measurements have identified, for the first time in either rover’s mission, the signatures of clay minerals in the crater’s rim. Clays are also formed in water, but in less acidic, perhaps more life-friendly water than the sulfates that Opportunity has been mapping thus far.”
Rob Manning, Jet Propulsion laboratory, Pasadena, CA., Mars Rover Spacecraft System Engineering team lead
“Although Opportunity has proven her endurance, Spirit was the one we struggled with the hardest to get what she earned. Suffering from late repair and modification, a blown fuse in her power system and with possibly damaged circuits, she was very late getting out the door and onto the pad in Florida.
Unlike Opportunity, whose Hematite-laden Meridiani destination had been established long before launch, Spirit was launched with a great deal of uncertainty on where she would find herself on Mars. Would it be the flat and safe plains of Elysium? Would the intriguing but rough ancient Gusev crater with what appears to have been an ancient river flowing into a giant but now dry lake?
If Opportunity failed to get on her way to Mars, would her destination become Meridiani? Would Spirit have also been as lucky to find herself bouncing into a tiny rock-outcropped crater as Opportunity had?
Only after the successful launch of Opportunity followed by further successful rocket and airbag tests to confirm that the landing system design would work in the rougher terrain inside Gusev crater allowed us to seal her fate and her permanent home.
She would go Gusev and test the Gusev lake hypothesis. Sadly the surface of Gusev where she came to rest revealed a meteor impact-tilled lake of ancient lava. Any signs of ancient water lake beds and other fantastic discoveries would have to wait until she surmounted many more obstacles including summiting a formidable hill her designers never intended her to attempt.
Spirit, her designers, her builders, her testers, her handlers and I have a lot to be thankful for.
That NASA, the congress and the public were willing to trust us with this daunting feat is perhaps a statement about the persistent spirit of discovery that remains in all of us.
I think that Spirit is alive and well.”
Map mosaic shows 7 Year and 30 Kilometer Long Journey of Opportunity approaching Endeavour Crater. Opportunity is being targeted to Spirit Point on the rim of Endeavour Crater, to honor her now dead sister. Photo mosaic of Santa Maria crater at top right was featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day on 29 January 2011. Mosaic shows Opportunity self portrait at the rim of Santa Maria where she investigated signatures of hydrated mineral deposits.
Mosaic Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Marco Di Lorenzo/Kenneth Kremer
