Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

SDO Seeing ‘Butterfly Effect’ on the Sun

A new view of the sun from the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA

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Already, the Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, has taken over 5 million images, and the firehose of data and spectacular images is allowing solar scientists to begin understanding the dynamic nature of solar storms. With SDO, scientists are seeing that even minor solar events can have large effects across the Sun. “In essence, we are watching the butterfly effect in action on the Sun,” said Dean Pesnell, SDO project scientist.

The Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA), one of three instruments aboard SDO, records high-resolution full-disk images of the Sun’s corona and chromosphere in more channels and at a higher rate than ever before. “This will allow us to zoom in on small regions and see far more detail in time and space, and zoom in on any part we want,” said Pesnell. “By looking at entire Sun we can see how one part of the Sun affects another. You can then zoom in to measure the changes in great detail.”

Large eruptive prominence on the sun's edge, as seen by SDO. Credit: NASA

Shortly after AIA opened its doors on March 30, scientists observed a large eruptive prominence on the sun’s edge, followed by a filament eruption a third of the way across the star’s disk from the eruption.

“Even small events restructure large regions of the solar surface,” said Alan Title, AIA principal investigator at Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center. “It’s been possible to recognize the size of these regions because of the combination of spatial, temporal and area coverage provided by AIA.”

At the 216th American Astronomical Society meeting this week, Title said that some of the initial data from SDO is providing maps of magnetic fields and movies that are giving scientists some confidence in trying to decipher the cause and effect of solar storms

AIA observed a number of very small flares that have generated magnetic instabilities and waves with clearly-observed effects over a substantial fraction of the solar surface. The instrument is capturing full-disk images in eight different temperature bands that span 10,000 to 36-million degrees Fahrenheit. This allows scientists to observe entire events that are very difficult to discern by looking in a single temperature band, at a slower rate, or over a more limited field of view.

Solar storms produce disturbances in electromagnetic fields that can induce large currents in wires, disrupting power lines and causing widespread blackouts here on Earth. The storms can interfere with global positioning systems, cable television, and communications between ground controllers and satellites and airplane pilots flying near Earth’s poles. Radio noise from solar storms also can disrupt cell phone service.

To help scientists and the public to understand and have access to the large amount of data being returned by SDO, the science team has built some tools to help communicate the data.

New websites will help researchers find data sets relative to their topics of interest and provide an overview to the casual observer.

“SDO generates as much data in a single day as the TRACE mission produced in five years,” said Neal Hurlburt from SDO mission, from Lockheed Martin. “We want to share it with the public, but we want to do it in an effective way, so we developed the Heliophysics Events Knowledgebase (HEK) and the Sun Today Website.”

The Sun Today website displays the current state of events on the sun. These can guide researchers and others to more detailed descriptions and access to associated SDO data.

HEK includes the Event and Coverage Registries (HER, HCR), Inspection & Analysis Tools, Event Identification System and Movie Processing. Event services enable web clients to interact with the HEK.

There is also a tutorial on how to work with the data, and extract images and movies from the SDO data.

More info: SDO website.

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

New Image Shows Phoenix Lander’s Solar Panel is Missing

wo images of the Phoenix Mars lander taken from Martian orbit in 2008 and 2010. The 2008 lander image shows two relatively blue spots on either side corresponding to the spacecraft's clean circular solar panels. In the 2010 image scientists see a dark shadow that could be the lander body and eastern solar panel, but no shadow from the western solar panel. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

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The Phoenix lander will not be phoning home. A new image of Phoenix taken this month by the HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows signs of severe ice damage to the lander’s solar panels, with one panel appearing to be completely gone. The Phoenix team says this is consistent with predictions of how Phoenix could be damaged by harsh winter conditions. It was anticipated that the weight of a carbon-dioxide ice buildup could bend or break the solar panels.

“Before and after images are dramatically different,” said Michael Mellon of the University of Colorado in Boulder, a science team member for both Phoenix and HiRISE. “The lander looks smaller, and only a portion of the difference can be explained by accumulation of dust on the lander, which makes its surfaces less distinguishable from surrounding ground.”

Mellon calculated hundreds of pounds of ice probably coated the lander in mid-winter. Several attempts to contact Phoenix during the past few months came up empty.

Phoenix parachute and backshell from 2008 (left) and 2010. Credit: NASA/JPL/U of Arizona

“We can see that the lander, heat shield, and backshell-plus-parachute are now covered by dust,” said Mellon and Alfred McEwen on the HiRISE website, “so they lack the distinctive colors of the hardware or the surfaces where the pre-landing dust was disturbed. But if the lander is structurally intact, it should cast the same shadows. While that is indeed the case for the shadow cast by the backshell (which came to rest on its side), that does not appear to be the case for the lander.”

See the larger image of all the various pieces of Phoenix on the HiRISE website.

So now, the Phoenix mission is officially over.

But during its mission on Mars, Phoenix confirmed and examined patches of the widespread deposits of underground water ice detected by Odyssey and identified a mineral called calcium carbonate that suggested occasional presence of thawed water. The lander also found soil chemistry with significant implications for life and observed falling snow. The mission’s biggest surprise was the discovery of perchlorate, an oxidizing chemical on Earth that is food for some microbes and potentially toxic for others.

“We found that the soil above the ice can act like a sponge, with perchlorate scavenging water from the atmosphere and holding on to it,” said Peter Smith, Phoenix principal investigator at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “You can have a thin film layer of water capable of being a habitable environment. A micro-world at the scale of grains of soil — that’s where the action is.”

The perchlorate results are shaping subsequent astrobiology research, as scientists investigate the implications of its antifreeze properties and potential use as an energy source by microbes. Discovery of the ice in the uppermost soil by Odyssey pointed the way for Phoenix. More recently, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected numerous ice deposits in middle latitudes at greater depth using radar and exposed on the surface by fresh impact craters.

“Ice-rich environments are an even bigger part of the planet than we thought,” Smith said. “Somewhere in that vast region there are going to be places that are more habitable than others.”

For more info and a look back at Phoenix, check out the Phoenix mission website.

Source: NASA

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Cassini’s Cruise: Close Flybys of Two Moons in Less Than Two Days

On the left, Saturn's moon Enceladus is backlit by the sun, showing the fountain-like sources of the fine spray of material that towers over the south polar region. On the right, is a composite image of Titan. Image credit: NASA/JPL/SSI and NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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It’s a space navigator’s dream! The Cassini spacecraft will perform close flybys of two of Saturn’s most enigmatic moons all within less than 48 hours, and with no maneuvers in between. Enceladus and Titan are aligned just right so that Cassini can catch glimpses of these two contrasting moons – one a geyser world and the other an analog to early Earth.

Cassini will make its closest approach to Enceladus late at night on May 17 Pacific time, which is in the early hours of May 18 UTC. The spacecraft will pass within about 435 kilometers (270 miles) of the moon’s surface.

The main scientific goal at Enceladus will be to watch the sun play peekaboo behind the water-rich plume emanating from the moon’s south polar region. Scientists using the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph will be able to use the flickering light to measure whether there is molecular nitrogen in the plume. Ammonia has already been detected in the plume and scientists know heat can decompose ammonia into nitrogen molecules. Determining the amount of molecular nitrogen in the plume will give scientists clues about thermal processing in the moon’s interior.

Then on to Titan: the closest approach will take place in the late evening May 19 Pacific time, which is in the early hours of May 20 UTC. The spacecraft will fly to within 1,400 kilometers (750 miles) of the surface.

Cassini will primarily be doing radio science during this pass to detect the subtle variations in the gravitational tug on the spacecraft by Titan, which is 25 percent larger in volume than the planet Mercury. Analyzing the data will help scientists learn whether Titan has a liquid ocean under its surface and get a better picture of its internal structure. The composite infrared spectrometer will also get its southernmost pass for thermal data to fill out its temperature map of the smoggy moon.

Cassini has made four previous double flybys and one more is planned in the years ahead.

For more information on the Enceladus flyby, dubbed “E10,” see this link.

For more information on the Titan flyby, dubbed “T68,” see this link.

Source: JPL

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

HiRISE Captures Amazing Close-Up of Spirit Rover

Spirit rover, as seen by HiRISE on Feb. 15, 2010. Crop and colorization by Stuart Atkinson, image credit: NASA/JPL, U of AZ

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The HiRISE team released some new images on Wednesday — one of which was another incredible avalanche image. But then there was another shot of Gusev Crater, the home of the Spirit rover. It was a wide shot of the entire region (you can see it below), and visible are the Columbia Hills, and if you look real close you can see the “Home Plate” region where Spirit sits. Our friend Stu Atkinson took a real close look and found Spirit sitting all alone –but very visible in this wonderfully amazing zoom-in closeup! (Click the image for access to a larger version). Stu also colorized it to show almost intricate detail of Spirit’s solar panels. The image was taken on Feb. 15, 2010, and she looks great! She’s in her current stationary position, and even though this image is from before she went into hibernation, it’s great to know she’s still sitting there, waiting for warmer days. “Hang in there rover, hang in there…” Stu said on Twitter, which echoes all our sentiments. Awww, Spirit….

Thanks to Stu and HiRISE for keeping our hopes alive!

The Spirit rover landing region. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

Stu has also written a few of wonderful items about Spirit: A poem called Spirit Shivering, a great story about someone who maybe could travel to Mars and free Spirit, and a great blog post titled, “Spirit, Time to Rest.” Stu is a very talented writer and image editor, so check out his incredible handiwork!

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

Phoenix Phone Home! Teams Still Attempting Contact with Mars Lander

Phoenix Twilight
Phoenix at Twilight. Credit: NASA

No word yet from the Phoenix Mars Lander and, really, mission managers don’t expect to hear from the lander. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t trying. Teams are currently attempting to make contact, with another — and final — series of attempts that may occur next month.

“We haven’t heard a peep since late 2008, when a dust storm combined with the onset of winter to end the mission,” said Mark Lemmon from Texas A&M University, who worked with Phoenix’s camera. “But if Phoenix did survive, a revived mission could uncover some of the climate processes in the area around Mars’ North Pole, where most of the water seems to be.”

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Last contact with Phoenix was back in October 2008, and the teams that worked with the lander are holding out hope that some of the electronics on board survived the severe Martian winter, which dwarfs anything seen on Earth (even the Snowmageddons and Snowpocalypses). Temperatures fall to minus-180 degrees for months at a time and carbon dioxide ice likely engulfed the Phoenix lander. Still, Lemmon said he is ready to help take more pictures and analyze more data if the Lander can be restored to life.

“Phoenix accomplished its mission,” he said, “and it was never designed to survive a Martian winter. In winter, heavy amounts of carbon dioxide frost may have accumulated on its solar panels and it is possible they broke off. Without those panels, which give Phoenix its energy source, it’s pretty much powerless. In addition, other parts may have failed in the extreme cold.”

Phoenix landing site, August, 2009. Credit: NASA/JPL/U of Arizona. Annotations by Phil Stooke

The Phoenix Lander, which landed on Mars May 25, 2008, was designed to dig for soil samples and buried ice near Mars’ North Pole. It also studied Mars’ polar weather.

Phoenix returned more than 30,000 images and made several chemical analyses of the soil above the Martian permafrost. Those analyses found carbonate minerals in the soil, showed that the composition of the soil is near that of Earth’s oceans rather than being acidic, and found perchlorates, which are present in soils in Chile’s Atacama desert on Earth, where they are used as food by some species of bacteria.

Recent images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show frost in the area around Phoenix’s landing site is now dissipating. Last month, the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which orbits the planet, made 30 attempts to contact Lander. All failed.

Lemmon says the Lander mission was a success by any measurement.

“The soil samples it dug up show several possible energy sources, such as perchlorates,” he adds, “and that discovery will have a big impact on future plans to explore Mars. The weather information Phoenix returned will be very useful in understanding Mars’ climate, and the discovery of water-ice snowfall near the end of the mission is still amazing.”

Source: Texas A&M University

Posted on by Fraser Cain

Cassini Images

Launch of Cassini Orbiter and Huygens Probe on Titan IV
Launch of Cassini Orbiter and Huygens Probe on Titan IV

Here are some amazing Cassini images. There are some pictures of the spacecraft, and some pictures taken by the spacecraft.

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Here’s a picture of the launch of Cassini and Huygens atop a Titan IV rocket. This was the beginning of a 7-year journey to travel from Earth all the way to Saturn, with a few detours along the way.

Cassini Begins Transmitting Data From Enceladus Flyby
Cassini Begins Transmitting Data From Enceladus Flyby

This is an artist’s impression of Cassini flying past Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Cassini discovered strange geysers on Enceladus, blasting water ice into space. These geysers are coming from cracks at Saturn’s south pole, and scientists think it could mean there’s an ocean of liquid water underneath the ice.

Cassini
Cassini

This is an artist’s impression of Cassini approaching Saturn. It arrived at Saturn in 2004, beginning many years of incredible research about the ringed planets and its intriguing moons.

Enceladus Near Saturn
Enceladus Near Saturn

Here’s another view of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, with Saturn itself as a backdrop. You can see Saturn’s rings at the bottom of the image, cutting a line across the photo.

Crescent Rhea Occults Crescent Saturn
Crescent Rhea Occults Crescent Saturn

You’re looking at a photo of Saturn’s moon Rhea passing in front of Saturn. Both Rhea and Saturn are cloaked in shadow.

We’ve written many articles about Cassini for Universe Today. Here’s an article about the sunlight glinting off a lake on Titan, and here are some amazing pictures of Saturn during its equinox.

If you’d like more Cassini images, check out Hubblesite’s News Releases about Saturn. And here’s a link to the homepage of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which is orbiting Saturn.

We’ve also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about Saturn. Listen here, Episode 59: Saturn.

Posted on by universetoday

Apollo 11 Pictures

Apollo 11 Crew Photo. Credit: NASA

Here are some Apollo 11 pictures; of the crew, the spaceships and the Moon landing.

Here’s a picture of the Apollo 11 crewmembers. On the left is Commander Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the Moon. In the middle is Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and then Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin on the right.

Saturn V

This is a picture of the Saturn V rocket. This was the booster that carried Apollo 11 from the Earth to the Moon. Over the course of the Apollo program, NASA launched a total of thirteen Saturn V rockets.

Lunar Module

Here’s a picture of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module “Eagle”. This is the spacecraft that the astronauts used to descend from lunar orbit down to the surface of the Moon.

Lunar Experiments

Here’s a picture of Buzz Aldrin standing on the surface of the Moon during Apollo 11. You can see an experiment in front of Aldrin designed to detect “moonquakes”. And then there’s the Eagle Lunar Module in the background.

US Flag on the Moon

Here’s a picture of Aldrin standing beside the US flag placed on the Moon. There’s no wind on the Moon, so there’s a metal support bar holding up the flag.

Once they returned from the Moon, the crew of Apollo 11 were put into quarantine, in case they brought back any kind of lunar bacteria or viruses. This turned out to be unnecessary, and didn’t happen for future missions.

We’ve written many articles about Apollo 11 for Universe Today. Here’s an article about the astronauts reflecting back on their experience at the 40th anniversary, and here’s another look at the Apollo 11 landing site from lunar orbit.

If you’d like more info on Apollo 11, check out NASA’s 30th anniversary site here, and here’s the 40th anniversary page.

We’ve also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast about the Apollo 11 missions. Listen here, Episode 114: The Moon, Part 2.

Posted on by Nicholos Wethington

Sailing the Seas of Titan

Titan's Ligeia Mare. Credit: NASA/JPL/USGS

The first interplanetary nautical craft may be a boat to explore the methane seas of Titan. A proposed mission to Titan would explore some of its largest seas, including Ligeia Mare (pictured) or the Kraken Mare, both of which are in the northern hemisphere of the foggy moon of Saturn. The concept has been studied for over two years by scientific team led by Ellen Stofan of Proxemy Research, Inc. in Washington DC, and has recently been submitted to NASA.

The concept is under consideration by NASA to be one of the Discovery Class missions – low-cost, high-return missions, which include the MESSENGER and Kepler missions. If chosen, the Titan Mare Explorer (TiME), could launch as early as January of 2015, and would make port at Titan in June of 2023. The total proposed cost of TiME is currently estimated at $425 million. Stofan described the proposal at this year’s American Geophysical Union meeting in San Fransisco, CA.

Lakes, seas, and rivers were discovered on Titan by the Cassini spacecraft in 2005. Since then, the weather and climate patterns of the moon have been scrutinized by scientists, leading to the discovery of both fog and rain.

Of course, the proposed boat wouldn’t be the first craft to land on Titan – that distinction is held by the Huygens probe, which as part of the Cassini mission landed on Titan on January 14th, 2005 and for three hours took images and scientific data which it sent back to Earth. Huygens touched down on dry land, though it was designed to operate on either land or ocean.

Proposed instruments for the boat include a mass spectrometer, sonar, cameras and meteorology instruments. TiME would investigate the chemical composition of the seas of Titan, as well as monitor the cycle of ethane and methane on the moon (called the “methane-ologic” cycle), a process that scientists are just beginning to understand. The sonar would be used just like it is on submarines and boats here on Earth – to map the depth of the seas, as well as get an accurate image of the sea bottom.

Since the cloudy and foggy surface of Titan sees little sunlight, the boat is proposed to be powered by an Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator. These types of engines, called Stirling engines after the inventor, Robert Stirling, use a radioactive source such as plutonium to heat a gas in one chamber, and as it flows to a cooler chamber the flow is turned into mechanical energy with a very high rate of efficiency.

If the boat is seaworthy, it may set a precedent to give us Earthlubbers a chance at understanding the only other body in our Solar System with lakes and seas on its surface (though Europa and Enceladus are thought to have watery oceans under their crusts). By comparing the methane-ologic cycle on Titan with the Earth’s hydrologic cycle, scientists could gain a more intricate knowledge of the large-scale impact of these cycles.

Source: Physorg, Ellen Stofan’s presentation (available here in PDF)

Posted on by Nancy Atkinson

MRO Comes Out of Safe Mode

Artist impression of MRO. Image credit: NASA/JPL

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The latest word on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is that the spacecraft has successfully come out of safe mode. The various instruments, including the HiRISE camera are still “safed” at this point, and engineers are waiting for acquisition of signal to confirm mapping orientation. MRO spontaneously rebooted its computer on Aug. 26, and since this was the fourth time this type of event had occurred, flight engineers decided to keep the spacecraft in safe mode, and have been working to figure out possible root causes, as well as repercussions if these events were to continue to happen. Several protective files were uploaded to MRO in late November, with hopes of returning the orbiter to its regularly scheduled research and relay activities. Once engineers check out of all the science instruments, normal science operations may resume next week.

“The patient is out of danger but more steps have to be taken to get it back on its feet,” said Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project Manager Jim Erickson.

Since August, the team worked painstakingly on a plan to ensure the safety and operation of the orbiter. “This process is to bulletproof the spacecraft against a remote vulnerability that our team identified,” said Erickson. “Meanwhile, analysis of possible root causes for the four reboots this year continues as another important part of our path toward resuming science operations.”

The preventive care required amending some data files in the computers’ non-volatile, or “flash” memories where the computers check for default settings when they reboot.

The four reboots involved a device, called the “computer module interface controller,” that controls which of two redundant main computers on the spacecraft is active. Still undetermined is whether trouble lies with that controller itself or with a voltage glitch elsewhere on the spacecraft. The Aug. 6 reboot, though not the other three, prompted a switch from one computer to its backup twin. More than 100 factors are under consideration as possible root causes.

MRO has six instruments on board to examine Mars in detail, from subsurface layers to the top of the atmosphere.

“The precautionary steps we are taking are not driven by the calendar, but by our commitment to care for this valuable national resource,” Erickson said. “We are all eager to have science observations resume as soon as a properly cautious process allows.”