Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Satellite Images of China Earthquake

Some of the first satellite images have been released of areas in China hit by the 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12, 2008. This image shows Beichuan, one of the worst-hit areas in Sichuan Province of southwest China. The pictures reveal a large forest, a school and clusters of residential houses along a river that has been destroyed out by the quake. A road along the river was also severely damaged. The images were taken by Taiwan’s FORMOSAT-2 satellite. A “before” image is also available, taken in two years ago in May of 2006:

The pictures are expected to be used as references in China’s efforts in searching and rescuing people still missing in Sichuan.

Harry Chang, a professor of National Taiwan Normal University said the images have been given to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Chang said that in Beichuan, the earthquake also caused landslides, evident in the top photo, covering some 1,500 hectares (3,705 acres), which had blocked the river.

“Accordingly, several new lakes have been formed. What is dangerous is that should the new lakes burst, the residents living in the low-lying areas of the river would be in danger,” he said.

Chang also warned of mudslides caused by rain, saying “it would make the rescue work more difficult.” As of May 15, officials estimated the death toll could reach 50,000.

Monday’s earthquake began at 2:28 p.m. local time (06:28 UTC). The quake was felt throughout much of China, as well as parts of Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam. This elevation map above shows the region where the earthquake struck. Green indicates the lowest elevations, and beige the highest. The data for this map were collected by NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000. Overlain onto the map are earthquake magnitude indicators. The earthquake’s epicenter was approximately 90 kilometers (55 miles) west-northwest of the city of Chengdu. Smaller magnitude events occurred northeast of the epicenter, and generally followed the edge of the Longmen Shan mountain range.

Original News Sources: The China Post, NASA Earth Observatory

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Does Venus Have Volcanoes?

Our planet is an active world geologically. We have volcanoes constantly erupting across the planet, especially in the regions where plate tectonics are most active. Wherever one plate is sliding against another plate, or one is passing underneath another, you can expect to see volcanoes erupting.

Since Venus is such a hellish world, with incredibly hot temperatures and hot pressures, does Venus have volcanoes?

Venus certainly did have volcanoes in the past. Planetary scientists have identified more than 1,600 major volcanoes or volcanic features on Venus. And there almost too many smaller ones to count. So Venus did have volcanoes.

But does Venus have any volcanoes right now? Unfortunately, we just don’t have enough data to go on. Venus is shrouded in thick clouds of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, so you can’t have an orbiter easily take photographs of the planet’s surface.

There is no water on the surface of Venus, and scientists know that the planet has no plate tectonics, like we have here on Earth. There are no continents. And so Venus doesn’t have the same regions of volcanism as we have on Earth.

So right now, scientists have no idea if there are volcanoes on Venus. There could be a few spotty regions across the planet, where there is some activity, but none have been seen erupting in the present.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Strange, Super-Sized Pulsar Stumps Scientists

Astronomers have discovered a fast-spinning, super-sized pulsar in a stretched-out orbit around an apparent Sun-like star. This combination (as well as that many hyphenated words in one sentence) has never seen before, and astronomers are puzzled about how this bizarre system developed. “Our ideas about how the fastest-spinning pulsars are produced do not predict either the kind of orbit or the type of companion star this one has,” said David Champion of the Australia Telescope National Facility. “We have to come up with some new scenarios to explain this weird pair.”

Pulsar J1903+0327, a rotating neutron star, is unusually massive for its type. It spins on its axis 465 times every second, while typical pulsars spin a few times a second. Located nearly 21,000 light-years from Earth, its elongated orbit takes it around its companion star once every 95 days. And the companion star is quite unusual as well: many pulsars pair up with a white dwarf star or another neutron star, but infrared images of the system show a Sun-like star along with the pulsar.

“This combination of properties is unprecedented. Not only does it require us to figure out how this system was produced, but the large mass may help us understand how matter behaves at extremely high densities,” said Scott Ransom of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

The image above shows the size and shape of Earth’s orbit around the sun compared to the orbits of Pulsar J1903+0327 and its possible Sun-like companion star. The sizes of the Sun and the possible companion star have been exaggerated by a factor of about 10, while that of the Earth has been exaggerated by a factor of about 1000. The pulsar, with its magnetic field and beams of radiation, is too large by a factor of about 100,000.

This pulsar was first detected in 2006 with the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, with subsequent observations by the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, the Westerbork radio telescope in the Netherlands, and the Gemini North optical telescope in Hawaii.

It’s possible that the pulsar may be part of a triple, not a double, star system. In this case, the pulsar’s 95-day orbit is around a neutron star or white dwarf that’s not been detected yet, not the Sun-like star seen in the infrared image. The Sun-like star would then be in a more-distant orbit around the pulsar and its close companion. But this, too would be highly unusual.

“We’ve found about 50 pulsars in binary systems. We may now have found our first pulsar in a stellar triple system,” Ransom said.

Further studies are underway to get a better understanding of what seems to be a highly unusual system.

“This is a fascinating object that has a lot to teach us about physics. It’s going to be exciting to peel away the mystery of how this thing came to be,” Champion said.

Original News Source: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Ultimate Recycling on the ISS: Urine to Water

Right now, the crews on board the International Space Station consist of three people. But by late next year, the crew size will grow to six. That means more food, more water and ultimately more waste. But NASA has been working on a recycling system to transform urine and other liquid wastes into water that can be used in space for drinking, food preparation and washing. Agency officials say the water from the system will be cleaner than U.S. tap water. Not only does this help manage wastes on board the station, but its also a cost-saving measure. Water is heavy and launching it on board the shuttle or Progress re-supply ship is expensive.


The Water Recovery System recycles liquid wastes — which can consist of urine, sweat, or leftover water used for bathing or food preparation — by filtering it through a series of chemical processes and filters, making it safe to drink. Urine, for example, first passes through a distillation process to separate the liquid phase from the gaseous phase, after which it is mixed with other water waste and is treated with the help of a water processor.

After removing the remnant gaseous and solid phases, the liquid is filtered for additional purification and undergoes a high-temperature catalytic reaction, in order to destroy unwanted organic contaminants.

The system is scheduled to be brought to the ISS on the STS-126 mission, planned to launch this fall.

“Recycling will be an essential part of daily life for future astronauts, whether on board the space station or living on the Moon. Delivering this hardware is an important step in achieving the station’s full potential, allowing for additional crew members and more scientific research”, said NASA’s station program manager, Mike Suffredini.

Recycling will reduce the amount of consumables needed on board the space station by as much as 6,800 kilograms per year.

Original News Sources: Softpedia, USA Today

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

7 Minutes of Terror for Phoenix Spacecraft (Video)

Are you ready for the Phoenix spacecraft to land on Mars? At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Entry, Descent and Landing team for Phoenix has been hard at work getting ready, performing simulations to prepare for the real landing, scheduled for May 25, 2008 in a region above Mars’ Arctic Circle. Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society has an excellent post about Phoenix’s landing elipse, with some great information from JPL’s Rob Manning about all the variables the EDL team has to take into account for the landing, such as the spacecraft itself, its entry point, and the properties of the atmosphere. But if you’re a more visual-type person, JPL has also put together a couple of videos about the 7 minutes of terror the spacecraft (and the EDL team!) endures from when the vehicle hits the top of the atmosphere, through parachute deploy, to touching down on Mars surface. The amount of anxiety is an upgrade from the six minutes of terror the Mars Exploration Rovers experienced, and it really is a scary time!

This video includes commentary from the engineers at JPL, describing all the events that take place during EDL:

And this video is visual only, no audio of EDL:

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Unusual Crater in Mars’ Mamers Valles (Gallery)

The Mars Express Spacecraft captured several images of an unusual crater in the Mamers Valles area on Mars with its High-Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). The crater is at the end of the long, winding valley, and contains a remarkable dark area. Scientists are not certain whether the dark colored material could have formed in-situ or if it may have been transported by the wind. Some of the structures shown here are thought to be ice-rich debris flows, and they show some resemblance to block glaciers seen on Earth.


Scientists call a region like Mamers Valles ‘fretted terrain’ because it shows numerous deep and wide labyrinth-like valleys and circular depressions which often show structures formed by flowing liquid on their even floors.

The patches of rock at the center of the depression are thought to be remnants of rock that were detached from the sides of the depression and transported to the center.

This false color image shows the differences in elevation. The image was made using elevation data obtained from an HRSC-derived high-resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM), which is used to create elevation maps on Mars. Elevation data from the DTM has been color-coded and combined with the HRSC image so that elevation data and the image itself are displayed in a single scene.

The depression is approximately 30 km wide and 1400 m deep. It lies at the south-eastern end of Mamers Valles. The data was obtained on August 5, 2006 with a ground resolution of approximately 14 m/pixel.

The images are centered at approximately 39° north and 17° east on the planet. The valley of Mamers Valles is approximately 1000 km long, running along the boundary between the northern lowlands and southern highlands in the region of Deuteronilus Mensae.

Original News Source: ESA

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Does Venus Have Rings?

Unfortunately, Venus doesn’t have rings. It also doesn’t have any moons; although, Venus might have had a moon in the past, but it probably crashed back into the planet billions of years ago.

For a planet to have rings, it must have formed further out in the Solar System, where water ice would be able to freeze into chunks of ice. It’s too warm around Venus, so that any water would be a gas or liquid. It would either collect into oceans, like Earth, or be pushed out into deeper space by the Sun’s solar wind.

Another way that planets can have rings is when micrometeoroids smash into a small moon. If the moon is really small, like Pluto’s moon Nix, material ejected from the meteoroid impact will just float off into space and form a ring around the planet. There are several moons around Saturn which create rings in this way, and scientists think that Pluto’s moons might form rings in the same way.

Sorry, no rings for Venus.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Does Pluto Have Rings?

Saturn has rings and Jupiter has rings. Does Pluto have rings? Astronomers have no idea. Pluto is so far away that it’s impossible to get a clear view of Pluto from here on Earth.

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But scientists think that it’s possible that Pluto does have rings. This idea comes from the fact that Pluto has two tiny moons, Nix and Hydra. They’re just a few km across, and have very little gravity. So any micrometeoroid impacts on these moons will kick up material into orbit around Pluto.

Instead of falling back down onto the moons, this impact material would drift into rings around Pluto. Astronomers think it could actually survive for up to 100,000 years. This is a similar process that creates some of the rings around Saturn and Jupiter.

If this is true, it would constitute the first set of rings around a solid object (in this case a dwarf planet), rather than a gas giant planet.

When NASA’s New Horizons mission arrives at Pluto in 2015, it might be able to detect these faint rings, and confirm the theory.

Posted on by Fraser Cain

How Far is Pluto from Earth?

The planet Earth has a slightly eccentric orbit. This means that its distance from the Sun can vary slightly as the Earth travels an elliptical path around the Sun. Pluto has an extremely elliptical orbit, varying its distance dramatically from the Sun dramatically.

You can also look through these books from Amazon.com if you want more information about Pluto.

So the closest distance between the Earth and Pluto occurs when Earth is at its most distant from the Sun, and Pluto is at its closest. And the Sun, Earth and Pluto are lined up in a perfect line. When this happens, Pluto and Earth would be separated by 4.2 billion km.

At their most distant, Earth would be at its furthest at the opposite side of the Sun from Pluto. At this point, Earth and Pluto would be separated by 7.5 billion km.

And so, the distance from Earth to Pluto ranges between these two distances.

Posted on by Tammy Plotner

Weekend SkyWatcher’s Forecast – May 16-18, 2008

Sinus Iridum by Wes Higgins

“Everybody dancing in the moonlight… Dancing in the moonlight… Everybody feeling warm and bright… It’s such a fine and natural sight… Everybody dancing in the moonlight.” Oh! Greetings, fellow SkyWatchers! Pardon me while I celebrate the return of Spring and enjoy viewing the Moon. This weekend will be a terrific time for you to dance, too. Talk a waltz around the “Bay of Rainbows” as you view Sinus Iridum and enjoy the cool blues with Spica. You’ll be seeing double before the weekend is out. Time to dust off the optics and turn and eye to the sky, because… Here’s what’s up!

Friday, May 16, 2008 – Tonight would be a wonderful opportunity for Moongazers to return to the surface and have a look at the peaceful Sinus Iridum area. If you’ve been clouded out before, be sure to have a look for the telescopic Lunar Club challenges Promontoriums Heraclides and LaPlace. What other craters can you discover in the area?

Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech
If you’re up for a bit more of a challenge, then let’s head about 59 light-years away for star 70, in Virgo. You’ll find it located about six degrees northeast of Eta (RA 13 28 25 Dec +13 46 43) and right in the corner of the Coma-Boötes-Virgo border. So what’s so special about this G-type, very normal-looking, 5th magnitude star?

It’s a star that has a planet.

Long believed to be a spectroscopic binary because of its 117 day shift in color, closer inspection has revealed that 70 Virginis actually has a companion planet. Roughly seven times larger than Jupiter and orbiting no further away than Mercury from its cooler-than-Sol parent star, 70 Virginis B just might well be a planet cool enough to support water in its liquid form. How “cool” is that? Try about 85 degrees Celsius…

Saturday, May 17, 2008 – Today in 1835, J. Norman Lockyer was born. While that name might not stand out, Lockyer was the first to note previously unknown absorption lines while making visual spectroscopic studies of the Sun in 1868. Little did he know at the time, he had correctly identified the second most abundant element in our universe – helium – an element not discovered on Earth until 1891! Also known as the “Father of Archeoastronomy,” Sir Lockyer was one of the first to make the astronomical connection with ancient structures such as Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids. (As a curious note, 14 years after Lockyer’s notation of helium, a Sun-grazing comet made its appearance in photographs of the solar corona taken during a total eclipse in 1882… It hasn’t been seen since.)

Spica by John ChumackIf you would like to see a helium-rich star, look no further tonight than Alpha Virginis – Spica. You can’t miss it because it’s so near the Moon! As the sixteenth brightest star in the sky, this brilliant blue-white “youngster” appears to be about 275 light-years away and is about 2300 times brighter than our own Sun. Although we cannot see it visually, Spica is a double star. Its spectroscopic companion is roughly half its size and is also rich in helium.

Crater Copernicus by Wes HigginsSunday, May 18, 2008 – On this day in 1910, Comet Halley transited the Sun, but could not be detected visually. Since the beginning of astronomical observation, transits, eclipses and occultations have provided science with some very accurate determinations of size. Since Halley could not be spotted against the solar surface, we knew almost a century ago that the nucleus had to be smaller than about 100 kilometers. To get a rough idea of this size, take a look at crater Copernicus about midway along the western hemisphere of the Moon. What’s its diameter? Oh, about the same size as a certain comet!

Now let’s have a look at a very bright and changeable lunar feature which is often overlooked. Starting with the great grey oval of Grimaldi, let your eyes slide along the terminator toward the south until you encounter the bright crater Byrgius. Named for Joost Bürgi, who made a sextant for Tycho Brahe, this “seen on the curve” crater is really quite large with a diameter of 87 kilometers. Perhaps its most interesting feature is the high-albedo Byrgius A, which sits along its eastern wall line and produces a wonderfully bright ray system. While it’s noted as a Lunar Club II challenge, it’s also a great crater to help add to your knowledge of selenography!

It’s time to add to our double star list as we hunt down Zeta Boötes located about seven degrees southeast of Arcturus (RA 14 41 08 Dec +13 43 42). This is a delightful multiple star system for even small telescopes – but not an easy one. The Zeta pairing has an extremely elliptical orbit: the distance between the stars varies from as little as the Earth-Sun distance to as much as 1.5 times the radius of Pluto’s orbit!

Another great target for a bright night is Delta Corvi (RA 12 29 51 Dec -16 30 55). 125 light-years away, it displays a yellowish-colored primary and a slightly blue secondary that’s an easily split pair in any telescope, and a nice visual double with Eta in binoculars. Use low power and see if you can frame this bright grouping of stars in the same eyepiece field.

Wising you good luck, clear skies and a wonderful weekend! 😉

This week’s awesome photos are of Sinus Iridum and Copernicus by the one and only Wes Higgins, 70 Virginis – Credit: Palomar Observatory, courtesy of Caltech and Alpha Virginis: Spica, by none other than the incredibly talented John Chumack. Spectacular!