SDO AIA image of the Sun and Moon at 14:11 UT on Feb. 21, 2012
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The Sun seems to be glowing in traditional Mardi Gras colors in this image, made from three AIA channels taken today at approximately 14:11 UT (about 9:11 a.m. EST) as the Moon passed between it and the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. Looks like it’s that time of year again!
During portions of the year, the Moon transits the Sun on a regular basis from the perspective of NASA’s SDO spacecraft, which lies within the Moon’s orbit. When this happens we are treated to an improvised eclipse… and it gives SDO engineers a way to fine-tune the observatory’s calibration as well.
Here are more AIA views of the same event captured in different wavelengths:
Lunar transit on 2-21-12; AIA 304Lunar transit on 2-21-12; AIA 193Lunar transit on 2-21-12; AIA 4500
…and here’s an interesting image taken in HMI Dopplergram:
HMI Dopplergram image of transit
While the AIA (Atmospheric Imaging Assembly) images the Sun in light sensitive to different layers of its atmosphere, the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) studies oscillations in the Sun’s magnetic field at the surface layer.
And if you happen to be reading this as of the time of this writing (appx. 10:06 a.m. EST) you can keep up with the latest images coming in on the SDO site at http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/.
It’s Mardi Gras and the Moon doesn’t want to miss out on any of the fun!
Images courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE, and HMI science teams. Hat-tip to Mr. Stu Atkinson who called the AIA alert on Twitter.
This AIPP image is a 1000-by-666-pixel section of the full-resolution 3-D map that Jeffrey Ambrozia will create, which will be a 5398-by-7000-pixel graphic. This shows Heinsius crater. Image courtesy Jeffrey Ambroziak.
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Love 3-D images? Interested in maps? Want to explore the Moon? Then a new Kickstarter project may be just what you are looking for. Jeffrey Ambroziak, creator of a specialized 3-D map projection method, will be producing what he calls the first true 3-D map of the Moon, and he is offering space enthusiasts the chance to get either digital or paper copies of the map, created from recently released data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Interest in the project has skyrocketed, and while the goal of $5,000 has already been reached by more than double that amount, Ambroziak is now thinking of what more he can offer to backers of his PopView 3D Moon Map.
“We’re at a place now where you can do some interesting research on your own, and it doesn’t necessarily require a large institution,” Ambroziak said by phone. “I love the idea of using Kickstarter to give interested and passionate space aficionados the opportunity to work with us.”
The maps will include not only 3-D views of the Moon’s surface, but on the “front side” will be “National Geographic-style” graphics and information.
Ambroziak said the backers who fund his project will be instrumental choosing the mapping locations and the information that is included.
“This will be very a very collaborative effort to pick the things we will put on the front of the map and the areas that we actually map in 3-D,” he told Universe Today. “As the Kickstarter project description makes clear, we are going to leverage the knowledge of all involved to produce a map that is as informative as it is innovative while letting everyone experience our excitement as the project takes shape. And in the end, everyone gets a copy of the map!”
Ambroziak added, “In the current age with NASA’s budget cuts and the space agency looking towards private enterprise more, there is now a place for interested people to create very interesting and useful space products. We spend billions of dollars to gather incredibly beautiful data of the Moon and Mars and much of it just sits around. We are looking to do our part to bring this data to life, and I’m proof of that you don’t have to sit around and wait for NASA to make an image from LROC data. We don’t have to wait anymore, we can do it ourselves.”
Ambroziak has been overwhelmed that his project is so popular. “I love the idea of the feedback that I’m getting already from people who are so excited about this project,” he said. Most gratifying was a top level pledge of $1,200 from former astronaut and shuttle pilot William Readdy, pledged $1200 to the project who wished Ambroziak “godspeed” in the effort. “It’s pretty neat when astronauts see the importance of what is being attempted,” Ambroziak said.
His patented Ambroziak Infinite Perspective Projection (AIPP) is a map projection method used for three-dimensional stereo visualization of geographic data, which allows viewers to see precise representation of data in 3-D, no matter what angle or distance the image is being viewed. He detailed the method in his book, Infinite Perspectives: Two Thousand Years of Three-Dimensional Mapmaking, (Princeton Architectural Press, 1999) and has previously created 3-D maps of Antarctica and Mars, which have been displayed at museums such as the Peabody Museum of Natural History.
I asked Ambroziak how far along he was with the project.
“I have downloaded all of the LROC imagery and digital elevation information,” he said. “I have further processed the image data to stretch out the contrast, computed shadows from the digital elevation model, and mixed the computed shadows back into the imagery to improve appearances. AIPP is then applied as desired to create 3D images. Specifically, imagery and digital elevation data is combined in accordance with a few chosen AIPP parameters (vertical exaggeration, view plane elevation, etc.) to produce the AIPP map.”
But that is only the technical part of the project, as the “front side” of the maps will be more artistic.
“I will be able to poll the backers for their preferred area of interest,” he said. “In short, you back the project, you have a say in the mapping of the Moon! Ultimately, I would like to perform a systematic mapping of the entire surface of the Moon in accordance with the USGS quad-map nomenclature and format. This is just the first step. This is Kickstarter – not start and then end.”
Check out the Kickstarter page for the “prizes” or incentives are for the various levels of funding. They range from getting a digital copy emailed to you, to complete posters, to an invitation to dinner for you and a guest with the Ambroziak, with food and drinks on him.
Giordano Bruno crater on the eastern far side limb of the Moon (35.9? N, 102.8? E) is being revealed in great detail by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera.
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The Moon is covered with craters of various shapes and sizes, and in various states of preservation. Scientists have studied these spectacular features for over five decades, yet there are still many things about craters that we just don’t understand. The study of craters is important because we use them to determine the ages of planetary surfaces. Now, very high resolution imagery from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) is allowing us to see lunar craters as never before. Under such scrutiny, one very fresh crater is revealing a host of secrets about the crater-forming process and revealing that it’s not as young as some people may have originally thought.
The crater in question is Giordano Bruno, a 22 km diameter crater located on the far side of the Moon, just beyond the eastern limb. Like all craters on the Moon, this one was named after a famous scientist, in this case, a sixteenth century Italian philosopher who was burned at the stake in 1600 for proposing the existence of “countless Earths.” Because of its position on the far side, Giordano Bruno crater was not seen by humans until it was photographed by the Soviet Luna-3 mission in 1959. But then, this crater was immediately recognized as one of significance, because of its very bright and extensive ray system.
The spectacular rays and the brightness of Giordano Bruno crater are evident in this Clementine data mosaic of the eastern limb of the Moon. Giordano Bruno is the bright spot in the upper centre of this image and some of its rays can be seen extending a quarter of the way around the lunar globe. Image credit: NASA/JPL/USGS
Along with its bright rays, the crisp rim of the crater, it’s very steep slopes, and a lack of observed superposed craters all argued for a very young age for this intriguing crater. Some researchers even suggested that the formation of this crater was observed by medieval monks in 1178, and recorded as a lunar transient event. Other workers think the age should be closer to 1 million years old. This is still very young by the standards of similar-sized lunar craters, but not within written history.
Over the past 2 years, the acquisition of LROC data has allowed Giordano Bruno crater to be studied in much greater detail than ever before. Images taken by the LROC Narrow Angle Cameras (NAC’s) have resolutions of about half a meter per pixel. This means that something the size of a chair would take up one pixel, and your kitchen table would be roughly resolvable as a 2 x 3 pixel rectangle. With resolutions like that, interesting and unexpected features are being revealed.
One of the most spectacular features is a swirl of impact melt on the western edge of the crater floor. This whirlpool-like structure shows that the melt here underwent chaotic mixing while it was liquid. You can also see that parts of the melt are actually mixtures of real melt and rock fragments that have been incorporated during movement of the melt.
Like cream in coffee, a swirl captures the incomplete mixing that occurred when a viscous combination of impact melt and rock fragments flowed off the crater walls into some less rocky impact melt, which had pooled at the western edge of the crater. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
Recently published work by Dr. Yuriy Shkuratov (from the Astronomical Institute of Kharkov in Ukraine) and his colleagues used a new technique to study this swirl. Multiple images taken under different conditions were combined to provide roughness calculations for the area. Their research shows that there is a depression in the centre of this structure and that higher segments of the whirlpool swirl exhibit greater roughness than the surrounding melt. They interpret this to mean that the cooling impact melt pool was disturbed by melt flows coming off the crater walls. These incoming flows were more viscous because they had incorporated rock fragments and so did not mix as readily with the other melt material.
One of the other features studied by Dr. Shkuratov and his team is a large slump of wall material near the northern rim of Giordano Bruno. Such slumps are common in larger craters and are believed to form during the late stages of crater formation. This means that the slump block should be the same age as the crater. However, Dr. Shkuratov and colleagues have found that, while there are no craters on the slumped material, a number of small craters are located on the inner wall near this large landslide. They interpret this to mean that the slump is a more recent event. This is significant, because up until now, such big changes were not thought to occur so long after crater formation.
A segment of the crater wall detaches and slumps downward. But when? Image credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
The most intriguing result of Dr. Shkuratov’s study is the indication of a not-so-young age for Giordano Bruno. A number of very bright landslides, much smaller than the one on the north wall, are observed around the crater. Similarly, small bright craters are found superposed on many parts of the crater walls. These landslides and craters are much brighter than the surrounding materials. On the Moon, brighter means younger, since materials tend to darken as they age, due to a process called “space weathering.” If these craters and landslides are indeed young, this means that the surrounding darker material of Giordano Bruno crater must be older. Data from Japan’s Kaguya mission confirms that these variations in brightness are not related to compositional variations, and so must be age-related. Based on this and other evidence, Dr. Shkuratov’s team conclude that Giordano Bruno crater must be at least one million years old.
So, whatever the medieval monks saw when they recorded the occurrence of a lunar transient event in 1178, it was not the impact that formed Giordano Bruno crater.
Source: The lunar crater Giordano Bruno as seen with optical roughness imagery. Shkuratov et al., Icarus 218, 2012, 525-533, doi:10.1016/j.icarus/2011.12.023.
China Publishes High Resolution Full Moon map from Chang'e-2 Lunar Orbiter. Chinese scientists assembled a full moon map using images captured by the Chang’e-2 spacecraft with an an unprecedented resolution of 7-meters. Credit: China Space Program
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Chinese scientists have assembled the highest resolution map ever created of the entire Moon and unveiled a series of global Moon images on Monday, Feb. 6.
The composite Lunar maps were created from over 700 individual images captured by China’s Chang’e-2 spacecraft and released by the country’s State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), according to reports from the state run Xinhua and CCTV new agencies.
“The map and images are the highest-resolution photos of the entirety of the Moon’s surface to be published thus far,” said Liu Dongkui, deputy chief commander of China’s lunar probe project, reports Xinhua.
Of course there are much higher resolution photos of numerous individual locations on the Moon taken from orbit by the spacecraft of other countries and from the surface by NASA’s Apollo lunar landing astronauts as well as unmanned Russian & American lunar landers and rovers.
China unveils High Resolution Global Moon map from Chang'e-2 Lunar Orbiter
Credit: China Space Program
Chang’e-2 is China’s second lunar probe and achieved orbit around our nearest neighbor in space in October 2010. It was launched on Oct. 1, 2010 and is named after a legendary Chinese moon goddess.
The images were snapped between October 2010 and May 2011 using a charge-coupled device (CCD) stereo camera as the spacecraft flew overhead in a highly elliptical orbit ranging from 15 km to 100 km altitude.
The Chang’e-2 maps have a resolution of 7 meters, which is 17 times greater than from China’s first lunar orbiter; Chang’e-1, launched in 2007.
Global Lunar Map from China’s Chang'e-2 Lunar Orbiter. Credit: China Space Program
In fact the maps are detailed enough that Chinese scientists were able to detect traces of the Apollo landers, said Yan Jun, chief application scientist for China’s lunar exploration project.
Chang’e-2 also captured high resolution photos of the “Sinus Iridum”area , or Bay of Rainbows, where China may land their next Moon mission. The camera had the ability to resolve features as small as 1 meter across at the lowest altitude.
The satellite left lunar orbit in June 2011 and is currently orbiting the moon’s second Lagrange Point (L2), located more than 1.5 million km away from Earth.
Chinese space program officials hope for a 2013 liftoff of the Chang’e-3 lunar rover, on what would be China’s first ever landing on another celestial body. China’s next step beyond the rover may be to attempt a lunar sample return mission in 2017.
Demonstrating the ability to successfully conduct an unmanned lunar landing is a key milestone that must be achieved before China can land astronauts on the Moon, perhaps within the next decade.
NASA’s twin GRAIL spacecraft recently achieved Lunar orbit over the New Year’s weekend. The duo of probes were just renamed as “Ebb and Flow” – the winning entries in an essay naming contest submitted by 4th Grade US students from Bozeman, Montana.
At this time NASA does not have the funding or an approved robotic lunar landing mission, due to severe budget cuts.And even worse NASA cuts will be announced shortly !
Russia hopes to send the Lunar Glob spacecraft to land on the Moon around 2015.
Since the United States has unilaterally scuttled its plans to return American astronauts to the Moon’s surface, it’s very possible that the next flag planted on the Moon by humans will be Chinese.
A large boulder stopped on its way down a sloping wall in the central peak of Schiller crater on the Moon. Credit: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University.
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One solitary boulder on the Moon apparently decided to take a little journey. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera captured the track of a bouncing, rolling 9-meter boulder that used to sit along the rim of a crater. From the pristine nature of the tracks, it might seem that the rock may have taken its trip just recently. But with the high resolution capability of the LROC, scientists can see that a few tiny craters are superimposed among the track and therefore post-date the time the boulder traveled. Scientists estimate this track was created 50-100 million years ago.
“Though long ago to humans, however, this boulder’s journey was made in geologically recent times,” wrote lunar scientist James Ashley on the LROC website. “Studies suggest that regolith development from micrometeorite impacts will erase tracks like these over time intervals of tens of millions of years…Eventually its track will be erased completely.”
What might have caused the rock to roll so recently? Ashley said perhaps this boulder was sent on its way by ground-shaking caused by the violence of a nearby impact. Perhaps a direct hit by a small meteoroid did the job.
This isn’t the first time LRO has captured evidence of “moving” rocks. See our previous article about several other images of bouncing boulders.
Looks like Republican Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich might have some competition if he wants to be the first to build a base on the Moon. Last week, the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos announced plans to put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade with a lunar base as its next step.
After canceling its lunar Zond program in early 1970s, the former Soviet Union took aim elsewhere in space. In 1998, Russia jumped back in the Moon game with Luna Glob, a series of robotic missions to the Moon that could come together to make a lunar orbiting space station or a base on the surface.
USSR's Zond 3 spacecraft. Image credit: NASA.
Now, Russia’s sights are set on a manned mission. “Man should return to the Moon,” head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin told the Ekho Moskvy radio station. “And not just like in 1969, to leave a mark. We can do important work there.” He lists solar observation among the science goals.
More recently, another opportunity has arisen for Russia to pursue a lunar program. In 2008, NASA proposed the creation of an International Lunar Network, a set of interconnected manned bases scattered over the surface of the Moon. Popovkin said recently that Russia may coordinate with the European Space Agency and join the ILN.
Russia’s lunar announcement comes on the heels of a bad year for Roscosmos. The agency lost five missions in 2011, including the Phobos-Grunt mission that never reached its target Martian Moon. After months in Earth orbit it fell through the atmosphere earlier this year. This most recent loss might be the spark behind the new push for exploration. “Perhaps, we need a more specific, realistic Moon program, and do any Mars research as a part of a bigger international program,” Anatoliy Davydov, the deputy head of Roscosmos, said in the aftermath of the Phobos-Grunt failure.
Illustration of a Luna Glob landing module. Image credit: RussianSpaceWeb.
But the loss of Phobos-Grunt could anticipate trouble on the Luna Glob missions and any later attempts to reach the Moon. Luna Glob is technologically similar to the failed Mars mission, which means it shares the same vulnerabilities. There will have to be some major changes before Russia can move forward towards the Moon. “The design decisions used on Phobos-Grunt need to be reconsidered and significantly adjusted. Unfortunately, the same ones are used on the lunar missions. This is likely to push back the dates of any future launches, particularly of the Luna Glob modules” said Lev Zelenkin, who is closely involved with both projects.
Another variable in a Russian lunar program is NASA’s possible withdrawal from the ESA-based ExoMars mission. If NASA does pull out, the ESA hopes Roscosmos will step in. Not having NASA’s power and experience on Mars will certainly change the mission, as well Russia’s involvement. The country’s track record on Mars isn’t stellar, and a decision to tempt that galactic ghoul again with another mission to the red planet would likely supercede any Russian missions to the Moon.
Vladimir Popovkin, head of Roscosmos. Image credit: Space Daily.
If Russia does turn its attention to manned lunar missions and eventually a lunar base, anyone will be eligible to go. Roscosmos is looking for volunteer cosmonauts through an X-Factor style search it hopes will rekindle public interest in Russian spaceflight. If you have a scientific or medical degree, are fluent in English, and wear shoes no bigger than a UK size 11, you could be the first cosmonaut to leave a boot print on the lunar surface.
A first look from GRAIL, showing the lunar far side! A camera aboard ‘Ebb’ — one of NASA’s twin Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) lunar spacecraft has returned its first unique view of the far side of the Moon. The camera is the MoonKAM, which is part of a special program for students to study the Moon.
Moon with cut-away showing stylized interior with dynamo and magnetic field lines.
Ever since the Apollo era, scientist have known that the Moon had some kind of magnetic field in the past, but doesn’t have one now. Understanding why is important, because it can tell us how magnetic fields are generated, how long they last, and how they shut down. New studies of Apollo lunar samples answer some of these questions, but they also create many more questions to be answered.
The lunar samples returned by the Apollo missions show evidence of magnetization. Rocks are magnetized when they are heated and then cooled in a magnetic field. As they cool below the Curie temperature (about 800 degrees C, depending on the material), the metallic particles in the rock line up along ambient magnetic fields and freeze in that position, producing a remnant magnetization.
This magnetization can also be measured from space. Studies from orbiting satellites show that the Moon’s magnetization extends well beyond the regions sampled by Apollo astronauts. All this magnetization means that the Moon must have had a magnetic field at some point in its early history.
Most of the magnetic fields we know of in the Solar System are generated by a dynamo. Basically, this involves convection in a metallic liquid core, which effectively moves the metal atoms’ electrons, creating an electric current. This current then induces a magnetic field. The convection itself is thought to be driven by cooling. As the outer core cools, the colder portions sink to the interior and let the warmer interior sections move outwards towards the exterior.
Because the Moon is so small, a magnetic dynamo that is driven by convective cooling is expected to have shut down some time around 4.2 billion years ago. So, evidence of magnetization after this time would need either 1) an energy source other than cooling to drive the motion of a liquid core, or 2) a completely different mechanism for creating magnetic fields.
Laboratory experiments have suggested one such alternate method. Large basin-forming impacts could produce short-lived magnetic fields on the Moon, which would be recorded in the hot materials ejected during the impact event. In fact, some observations of magnetization are located at the opposite side of the Moon (the antipode) from large basins.
So, how can you tell if magnetization in a rock was formed by a core dynamo or an impact event? Well, impact-induced magnetic fields last only about 1 day. If a rock cooled very slowly, it would not record such a short-lived magnetic field, so any magnetism it retains must have been produced by a dynamo. Also, rocks that have been involved in impacts show evidence of shock in their minerals.
One lunar sample, number 76535, which shows evidence of slow cooling and no shock effects, has a distinct remnant magnetization. This, along with the age of the sample, suggests that the Moon had a liquid core and a dynamo-generated magnetic field 4.2 billion years ago. Such a core dynamo is consistent with convective cooling. But, what if there are younger samples?
New studies recently published in Science by Erin Shea and her colleagues suggest this may be the case. Ms Shea, a graduate student at MIT, and her team studied sample 10020, a 3.7 billion year old mare basalt brought back by the Apollo 11 astronauts. They demonstrated that sample 10020 shows no evidence of shock in its minerals. They estimated that the sample took more than 12 days to cool, which is much slower than the lifetime of an impact-induced magnetic field. And they found that the sample is very strongly magnetized.
From their studies, Ms Shea and her colleagues conclude that the Moon had a strong magnetic dynamo, and therefore a moving metallic core, around 3.7 billion years ago. This is well after the time a convective cooling dynamo would have shut down. It is not clear, however, if the dynamo was continually active since 4.2 billion years ago, or if the mechanism that moved the liquid core was the same at 4.2 and 3.8 billion years. So, what other ways are there to keep a liquid core moving?
Recent studies by a team of French and Belgian scientists, led by Dr. Le Bars, suggest that large impacts can unlock the Moon from its synchronous rotation with the Earth. This would create tides in the liquid core, much like the Earth’s oceans. These core tides would cause significant distortions at the core-mantle boundary, which could drive large-scale flows in the core, creating a dynamo.
In another recent study, Dr. Dwyer and colleagues suggested that precession of the lunar spin axis could stir the liquid core. The early Moon’s proximity to the Earth would have made the Moon’s spin axis wobble. This precession would cause different motions in the liquid core and overlying solid mantle, producing a long-lasting (longer than 1 billion years) mechanical stirring of the core. Dr. Dwyer and his team estimate that such a dynamo would naturally shut down about 2.7 billion years ago as the Moon moved away from the Earth over time, diminishing its gravitational influence.
Unfortunately, the magnetic field suggested by the study of sample 10020 doesn’t fit either of these possibilities. Both these models would provide magnetic fields that are too weak to have produced the strong magnetization observed in sample 10020. Another method for mobilizing the liquid core of the Moon will need to be found in order to explain these new findings.
Sources:
A Long-Lived Lunar Core Dynamo. Shea, et al. Science 27, January 2012, 453-456. doi:10.1126/science.1215359.
A long-lived lunar dynamo driven by continuous mechanical stirring. Le Bars et al. Nature 479, November 2011, 212-214. doi:10.1038/nature10564.
An impact-driven dynamo for the early Moon. Dwyer et al. Nature 479, November 2011, 215-218. doi:10.1038/nature10565.
“X” marks the spot for a new place for Citizen Science on the web. It’s called CosmoQuest and the collaborators of this new website invite you to come visit and do more than just click your mouse. Besides contributing to real science for NASA space missions, there are also places to learn, converse, hang out and socialize.
“We’re building a community that recreates an academic and research facility,” said Pamela Gay, from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, who is familiar to listeners of Astronomy Cast and 365 Days of Astronomy, and readers of her blog StarStryder. “We’ll be doing open science in an open-source way.”
Universe Today is one of the partners for CosmoQuest, along with Phil Plait from Bad Astronomy and the BAUT Forum (Bad Astronomy Universe Today forum) that Fraser Cain and Phil created for online discussion.
“Fraser and Phil successfully built a community within the BAUT Forum, and we see many of the same people there that are subscribers to our podcasts,” said Pamela. “One of the ideas behind CosmoQuest was to see if we could take this community of people that are interested in content and transform them into a community of people who are not just reading about or listening to astronomy and commenting on our feeds, but are also actively engaged in doing astronomy and science and want to learn more.”
Our readers have probably noticed –and hopefully participated in or watched — the new Weekly Space Hangouts that cover the news of the week, and the live telescope feeds that Fraser has been doing with amateur astronomers from around the world. This is all stems from CosmoQuest, and the CosmoQuest website will be the place where you can find all the feeds for the Hangouts and livestream star parties, and soon you’ll be able to sign up to get email notifications of these upcoming events. There will also be podcast feeds, a blog, an events calendar, and a forum. Later, there will be free (and premium) online classes, lectures, and other ways to participate and learn more about astronomy.
“We’ve got amateur astronomers out there who are doing amazing observations with their telescopes,” Fraser said. “We’ll be able to share tips and observing techniques, as well as exposing more people to the night sky. There will also be talks by scientists and experts in the field. In a way, this will be a way for those interested in astronomy to participate and learn without having to pay $1,000 a credit to get an advanced degree.”
But Citizen Science is the major part of CosmoQuest. “We know that the general public who are interested in science can contribute to science in meaningful ways,” said Pamela. “We’re building tools to bring researchers together with the public.”
CosmoQuest’s first project, which is currently in beta, is called Moon Mappers, which uses data from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Screenshot from the Moon Mappers tutorial
“Right now in beta, we have full functionality of two interface tasks,” said Stuart Robbins from the University of Colorado Boulder, a co-lead for the Moon Mappers science team. “There are ‘Simply Craters’ and ‘Man vs. Machine.’ In the former, users are asked to draw a circle to trace out a crater. They click in the center of the crater, drag outwards, and release. They can also flag features that they think are interesting to point out to the science team. Man vs. Machine is the same thing, except I’ve run an automated crater detection algorithm to find craters in the image already. We ask users to correct ones it got wrong, remove ones it marked as craters that aren’t, and add craters it missed. We’re trying to study a few things with that interface, including whether it saves time and how we can improve our algorithms.”
The goal of Moon Mappers is to find the most effective and accurate way to map the Moon.
“Do we have people do it all by themselves? Do we have people modify the outputs of crater-finding algorithms (which we know are only accurate to 80% or better)? Under what lighting conditions are both humans and software most accurate in what they do?” Pamela said. “We’re looking at how we can most effectively map the Moon as quickly as possible through a combination of humans and computers using NASA imagery from LRO.”
In beta, they want to find any problems with the interface.
“What we really need are people who don’t know the project to come in and actually use it and point out what we may have missed in terms of functionality, bugs, or other things,” said Stuart. “For example, when we first went live on January 9, there was a user in the Forum discussion, Justin (“Briliu”) who made several interface change suggestions. We’ve made them all.”
They also want to make sure that the tutorials to train the Citizen Scientists works well, which will help in creating future programs, which will include data from the Dawn mission, MESSENGER, and the Hubble Space Telescope.
Pamela and Stuart both have ample experience in leading Citizen Science projects, as Pamela has been with the Zooniverse project for several years, specifically Moon Zoo, as has Stuart.
“One of the advantages of Moon Mappers is that because we are a much smaller and more open community we are willing to say yes to almost anything that we have the ability to construct,” said Pamela. “One of our biggest differences from Zooniverse is our intent to go open source with all of our code. This means that in those instances when we can’t help someone, we can say. ‘here is our code, we’ll help you get started.'”
CosmoQuest has already posted the code for their Google Hangout On Air + Twitter social media mashup.
Pamela added that CosmoQuest will differentiate itself by stressing community-building and learning.
Example of a lunar flash, photographed in 1953. Credit: Leon Stuart/Columbia University Department of Astronomy
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For hundreds of years, people have seen tiny flashes of light on the surface of the Moon. Very brief, but bright enough to be seen from Earth, these odd flashes still hadn’t been adequately explained up until now. Also known as Transient Lunar Phenomena (TLPs), they’ve been observed on many occasions, but rarely photographed. On Earth, meteorites burning up in the atmosphere can produce similar flashes, but the Moon has no atmosphere for anything to burn up in, so what could be causing them? As it turns out, according to a new study, the answer is still meteorites, but for a slightly different reason.
The lights don’t result from burning up as on Earth, but rather are hot blobs of material produced by the impact itself. The impacts were calculated to be powerful enough to melt the meteorites, producing super hot liquid droplets, called melt droplets, that produced light as they formed and then began to cool afterwards. The meteorites themselves can be tiny, but still cause an impact that could be seen from Earth.
Sylvain Bouley, a planetary scientist at the Paris Observatory and co-author of the study, explains: “You have just a small piece of cometary material or asteroid, about 10 centimeters, that can do a very bright flash visible from the Earth.”
Fellow planetary scientist Carolyn Ernst of Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, adds: “Something is melting, and because it’s so hot, it radiates in the visible wavelength until it cools down.”
The study included observations from 1999 – 2007, for which the brightness of the flashes and sizes and speeds of the meteorites were calculated.
The impacts have also been replicated at the Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, where tiny aluminum spheres were shot into simulated lunar dirt. The results were similar, helping to confirm the other team’s findings.
Other previous possible explanations included reflections on the Moon by tumbling satellites or even volcanic activity. There may still be debate though, as an earlier report in 2007 had attributed the flashes to outgassing on the Moon’s surface.
The paper will be published in the March 2012 issue of Icarus.
