Friday, July 18, 2014

NASA Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator Set to Lift Off

NASA Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator Set to Lift Off:

This artist's concept shows the test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), designed to test landing technologies for future Mars missions.
This artist's concept shows the test vehicle for NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD), designed to test landing technologies for future Mars missions. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption


June 27, 2014

Mission managers are proceeding with preparations for a launch attempt tomorrow morning, Saturday, June 28, of a high-altitude balloon carrying the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) test vehicle to the edge of space. The text will occur at the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii.

At present, weather forecasted for tomorrow morning is within launch constraints. Mission managers will evaluate latest weather conditions later this evening to confirm favorable conditions.

The Saturday balloon launch window extends from approximately 11:15 a.m. to noon PDT (8:15 a.m. to 9 a.m. HST). The balloon will take approximately 2 to 3 hours to achieve float conditions. Shortly thereafter, the test vehicle will be released from the balloon and the test will begin.

Check back here and on our Twitter sites: @NASA_Technology, @NASA, @NASAJPL and @NASA_Marshall to get the latest updates on the mission.

NASA will stream live video of the test via Ustream at:

http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2

The video may be intermittent based on test activities. For real-time updates, and more information, reporters should consult:

http://go.usa.gov/kzZQ

NASA plans on providing edited supporting video of the test the day after flight.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

NASA's LDSD program is part of the agency's Space Technology Mission Directorate, which is innovating, developing, testing and flying hardware for use in NASA's future missions.

DC Agle/Whitney Clavin
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-9011/818-354-4673
agle@jpl.nasa.gov/whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov

David Steitz
NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-236-5829

david.steitz@nasa.gov

Stefan Alford

Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii

808-335-4740

stefan.alford@navy.mil

2014-207
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:37 AM 0 comments

Rosetta's Comet Target 'Releases' Plentiful Water

Rosetta's Comet Target 'Releases' Plentiful Water:

This artist's impression shows the Rosetta orbiter at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
This artist's impression shows the Rosetta orbiter at comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image is not to scale. Image Credit: ESA/ATG Medialab
› Full image and caption


June 30, 2014

Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is releasing the Earthly equivalent of two glasses of water into space every second. The observations were made by the Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO), aboard the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft on June 6, 2014. The detection of water vapor has implications not only for cometary science, but also for mission planning, as the Rosetta team prepares the spacecraft to become the first ever to orbit a comet (planned for August), and the first to deploy a lander to its surface (planned for November 11).

"We always knew we would see water vapor outgassing from the comet, but we were surprised at how early we detected it," said Sam Gulkis, principal investigator of the MIRO instrument at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "At this production rate, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko would fill an Olympic-size swimming pool in about 100 days. But, as the comet gets closer to the sun, the gas production rate will increase. With Rosetta, we have an amazing vantage point to observe these changes up close and learn more about exactly why they happen."

MIRO first detected water vapor from the comet when the Rosetta spacecraft was about 217,000 miles (350,000 kilometers) away from it. At the time, comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was 363 million miles (583 million kilometers) from the sun. After the initial June 6 discovery, water vapor was also detected every time the MIRO instrument was pointed toward the comet. Observations are continuing to monitor variability in the production rate, and to determine the global gas production rate, as a function of its distance from the sun. The gas production rate that MIRO determined provides scientists a measure of the evolution of the comet as it moves both toward, and then away, from the sun. The gas production rate is also important to the Rosetta navigation team controlling the spacecraft, as this flowing gas can alter the trajectory of spacecraft.

"Our comet is coming out of its deep-space slumber and beginning to put on a show for Rosetta's science instruments," said Matt Taylor, Rosetta's project scientist from the European Space Agency's Science and Technology Centre in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. "The mission's engineers will be using this MIRO data to help them plan for future mission events when we are operating in close proximity to the comet's nucleus."

Rosetta is currently about halfway between Mars and Jupiter, 261 million miles (420 million kilometers) from Earth and 354 million miles (569 million kilometers) from the sun. Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. By studying the gas, dust and structure of the nucleus and organic materials associated with the comet, via both remote and in-situ observations, the Rosetta mission should be a key to unlocking the history and evolution of our solar system, as well as answering questions regarding the origin of Earth's water and perhaps even life. Rosetta will be the first mission in history to rendezvous with a comet, escort it as it orbits the sun, and deploy a lander to its surface.

MIRO is a small and lightweight spectrometer instrument, the first of its kind launched into deep space. The MIRO science team is composed of 22 scientists from the United States, France, Germany and Taiwan. Resembling a miniaturized ground-based radio telescope, it was designed to study the composition, velocity and temperature of gases on or near the comet's surface and measure the temperature of the nucleus down to a depth of several inches, or centimeters. Studying the nucleus temperature and evolution of the coma and tail provides information on how the comet evolves as it approaches and leaves the vicinity of the sun, and addresses questions about why that happens. During Rosetta flybys of the asteroids (2867) Steins and (21) Lutetia in 2008 and 2010 respectively, the instrument measured thermal emission from these asteroids and searched for water vapor.

MIRO is one of three U.S. instruments aboard the Rosetta spacecraft. The other two are an ultraviolet spectrometer called Alice, and the Ion and Electron Sensor (IES). They are part of a suite of 11 science instruments aboard the Rosetta orbiter. NASA also provided part of the electronics package for the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer, which is part of the Swiss-built Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument. NASA's Deep Space Network is supporting ESA's Ground Station Network for spacecraft tracking and navigation.

The Microwave Instrument for Rosetta Orbiter (MIRO) was built at JPL. Hardware subsystems for MIRO were provided by the Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research and the Laboratoire d'Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matiere en Astrophysique of the Observatoire de Paris. The consortium also includes the Laboratoire d'Etudes Spatiales ed d'Instrumentation en Astrophysique of the Observatoire de Paris.

Rosetta is an ESA mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. Rosetta's Philae lander is provided by a consortium led by the German Aerospace Center, Cologne; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Go?ttingen; French National Space Agency, Paris; and the Italian Space Agency, Rome. JPL, a Division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the U.S. contribution of the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO and hosts its principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. The Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio and Boulder), developed the Rosetta orbiter's IES and Alice instruments, and hosts their principal investigators, James Burch (IES) and Alan Stern (Alice).

For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit:

http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov

More information about Rosetta is available at:

http://www.esa.int/rosetta

For more information on the DSN, visit:

http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn

DC Agle

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011

agle@jpl.nasa.gov


Dwayne Brown

Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1726

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov


Markus Bauer

European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands

011-31-71-565-6799

markus.bauer@esa.int


2014-212
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:36 AM 0 comments

Cassini Names Final Mission Phase Its 'Grand Finale'

Cassini Names Final Mission Phase Its 'Grand Finale':

With help from the public, members of NASA's Cassini mission have chosen to call the spacecraft's
With help from the public, members of NASA's Cassini mission have chosen to call the spacecraft's final orbits the "Cassini Grand Finale." Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Larger image


June 30, 2014

With input from more than 2,000 members of the public, team members on NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn have chosen a name for the final phase of the mission: the Cassini Grand Finale.

Starting in late 2016, the Cassini spacecraft will begin a daring set of orbits that is, in some ways, like a whole new mission. The spacecraft will repeatedly climb high above Saturn's north pole, flying just outside its narrow F ring. Cassini will probe the water-rich plume of the active geysers on the planet's intriguing moon Enceladus, and then will hop the rings and dive between the planet and innermost ring 22 times.

Because the spacecraft will be in close proximity to Saturn, the team had been calling this phase "the proximal orbits," but they felt the public could help decide on a more exciting moniker. In early April, the Cassini mission invited the public to vote on a list of alternative names provided by team members or to suggest ideas of their own.

"We chose a name for this mission phase that would reflect the exciting journey ahead while acknowledging that it's a big finish for what has been a truly great show," said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

For more information about the name contest, visit:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/name

For a visualization of the Grand Finale, visit:

http://eyes.nasa.gov and click on "Cassini's Tour"

Preston Dyches

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-7013

preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov


2014-213
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:35 AM 0 comments

WONDERFUL Black Hole Fireworks in Nearby Galaxy

Black Hole Fireworks in Nearby Galaxy:

A galaxy about 23 million light-years away is the site of impressive, ongoing, fireworks.
A galaxy about 23 million light-years away is the site of impressive, ongoing, fireworks. Rather than paper, powder, and fire, this galactic light show involves a giant black hole, shock waves, and vast reservoirs of gas.
Image Credit:
NASA/CXC/JPL-Caltech/STScI/NSF/NRAO/VLA
› Full image and caption


July 02, 2014

Celebrants this Fourth of July will enjoy the dazzling lights and booming shock waves from the explosions of fireworks. A similarly styled event is taking place in the galaxy Messier 106, as seen by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel is a European Space Agency mission with important NASA contributions.

Energetic jets, which blast from Messier 106's central black hole, are heating up material in the galaxy and thus making it glow, like the ingredients in a firework. The jets also power shock waves that are driving gases out of the galaxy's interior.

Those gases constitute the fuel for churning out new stars. A new study estimates the shock waves have already warmed and ejected two-thirds of the gas from the center of Messier 106. With a reduced ability to birth new stars, Messier 106 appears to be transitioning into a barren, so-called lenticular galaxy full of old, red stars. Lenticular galaxies are flat disks without prominent spiral arms.

"Jets from the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 106 are having a profound influence on the available gas for making stars in this galaxy," said Patrick Ogle, an astrophysicist at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, and lead author of a new paper describing the results. "This process may eventually transform the spiral galaxy Messier 106 into a lenticular galaxy, depriving it of the raw material to form stars."

Many galaxies contain a central black hole that actively "feeds" upon nearby gas. Some of the material, as it draws toward the black hole, dramatically speeds up and violently spews out as twin jets near the black hole's poles. As one of the Milky Way's closest galactic neighbors, Messier 106 offers a great opportunity for investigating these high-powered jets. Messier 106 -- also known as NGC 4258 -- is 23.5 million light-years distant, and visible with binoculars in the constellation Canes Venatici.

For the new study, researchers used data obtained with the Spitzer infrared telescope before the observatory ran out of coolant in 2009, as planned. The data amount to a map of the infrared light emitted by heated-up hydrogen molecules in Messier 106. The warmed hydrogen is a signature of the jet from the central black hole energizing the surrounding disk of the galaxy.

Specifically, Spitzer saw warmed hydrogen in the two mysterious spiral arms for which Messier 106 is famous. These arms are not like the usual, star-filled spiral arms found in spiral galaxies, such as our Milky Way. In previous research with Spitzer and Chandra, researchers discovered that twin jets from the black hole spawned the anomalous arms, which contain gas heated to millions of degrees that shines in X-rays, detected by Chandra.

In the inner portions of the anomalous spiral arms, the Spitzer infrared images have revealed the equivalent of 10 million times the mass of the sun of molecular hydrogen heated to between about minus 20 and 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 28 and 760 degrees Celsius) by the shock waves. Without the shock waves, this gas would be colder, likely a few hundred degrees below zero, Fahrenheit.

From a direct comparison of the Chandra and Spitzer images, Ogle and colleagues saw that there is a close connection between the gas that is shocked to millions of degrees, seen by Chandra, and the bulk of denser hydrogen gas heated to hundreds of degrees, seen by Spitzer. The jet is surrounded by a cocoon of superhot gas, which drives shock waves into the surrounding molecular hydrogen gas, like a firework popping off. The molecular hydrogen then heats up, emits infrared light that Spitzer records, and is cast out of the galaxy's gas-strewn interior.

The Herschel observations, meanwhile, pinned down the heat radiating from dust grains that are mixed in with the galaxy's shock-heated gas. "A relatively large amount of molecular gas emission compared to dust emission confirms that shock-driven turbulence from the black hole jets is heating the molecular gas," said paper co-author Philip Appleton of the NASA Herschel Science Center at Caltech.

Spitzer and Herschel were also able to gauge the level of star-making activity in Messier 106's central region. The little gas left there supports a paltry star-formation rate of only 0.08 solar, or sun-equivalent, masses per year (a robust pace runs to about three solar masses per year). The star-formation rate in Messier 106's inner quarters will continue to decline until the jets have ejected all of the gas from the center of the galaxy, turning Messier 106 into an over-the-hill lenticular galaxy.

"Our results demonstrate that these black hole jets can have a significant impact on the evolution of their host galaxies, eventually sterilizing them and making them bereft of the gas needed to form new stars," said Ogle.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. In 2009, the telescope began its "warm" mission, which takes advantage of the still-working, shortest-wavelength infrared channels on the observatory. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

Herschel is a European Space Agency mission, with science instruments provided by consortia of European institutes and with important participation by NASA. While the observatory stopped making science observations in April 2013, after running out of liquid coolant, as expected, scientists continue to analyze its data. NASA's Herschel Project Office is based at JPL. JPL contributed mission-enabling technology for two of Herschel's three science instruments. The NASA Herschel Science Center, part of the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech, supports the U.S. astronomical community. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., controls Chandra's science and flight operations.

More information is online at:

http://spitzer.caltech.edu

http://www.herschel.caltech.edu

http://www.chandra.harvard.edu

Whitney Clavin 818-354-4673

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov


2014-216
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:32 AM 0 comments

Ocean on Saturn Moon Could be as Salty as the Dead Sea

Ocean on Saturn Moon Could be as Salty as the Dead Sea:

Researchers found that Titan's ice shell, which overlies a very salty ocean
Researchers found that Titan's ice shell, which overlies a very salty ocean, varies in thickness around the moon, suggesting the crust is in the process of becoming rigid. Image credit: NASA/JPL -Caltech/SSI/Univ. of Arizona/G. Mitri/University of Nantes
› Larger image


July 02, 2014

Scientists analyzing data from NASA's Cassini mission have firm evidence the ocean inside Saturn's largest moon, Titan, might be as salty as Earth's Dead Sea.

The new results come from a study of gravity and topography data collected during Cassini's repeated flybys of Titan during the past 10 years. Using the Cassini data, researchers presented a model structure for Titan, resulting in an improved understanding of the structure of the moon's outer ice shell. The findings are published in this week's edition of the journal Icarus.

"Titan continues to prove itself as an endlessly fascinating world, and with our long-lived Cassini spacecraft, we're unlocking new mysteries as fast as we solve old ones," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who was not involved in the study.

Additional findings support previous indications the moon's icy shell is rigid and in the process of freezing solid. Researchers found that a relatively high density was required for Titan's ocean in order to explain the gravity data. This indicates the ocean is probably an extremely salty brine of water mixed with dissolved salts likely composed of sulfur, sodium and potassium. The density indicated for this brine would give the ocean a salt content roughly equal to the saltiest bodies of water on Earth.

"This is an extremely salty ocean by Earth standards," said the paper's lead author, Giuseppe Mitri of the University of Nantes in France. "Knowing this may change the way we view this ocean as a possible abode for present-day life, but conditions might have been very different there in the past."

Cassini data also indicate the thickness of Titan's ice crust varies slightly from place to place. The researchers said this can best be explained if the moon's outer shell is stiff, as would be the case if the ocean were slowly crystalizing and turning to ice. Otherwise, the moon's shape would tend to even itself out over time, like warm candle wax. This freezing process would have important implications for the habitability of Titan's ocean, as it would limit the ability of materials to exchange between the surface and the ocean.

A further consequence of a rigid ice shell, according to the study, is any outgassing of methane into Titan's atmosphere must happen at scattered "hot spots" -- like the hot spot on Earth that gave rise to the Hawaiian Island chain. Titan's methane does not appear to result from convection or plate tectonics recycling its ice shell.

How methane gets into the moon's atmosphere has long been of great interest to researchers, as molecules of this gas are broken apart by sunlight on short geological timescales. Titan's present atmosphere contains about five percent methane. This means some process, thought to be geological in nature, must be replenishing the gas. The study indicates that whatever process is responsible, the restoration of Titan's methane is localized and intermittent.

"Our work suggests looking for signs of methane outgassing will be difficult with Cassini, and may require a future mission that can find localized methane sources," said Jonathan Lunine, a scientist on the Cassini mission at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and one of the paper's co-authors. "As on Mars, this is a challenging task."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Cassini, visit

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

and

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

Preston Dyches

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-7013

preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov


Dwayne Brown

Headquarters, Washington

202-354-1726

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov


2014-211
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:31 AM 0 comments

Comet Pan-STARRS Marches Across the Sky

Comet Pan-STARRS Marches Across the Sky:

Comet Pan-STARRS Sails By Distant Galaxy
NASA's NEOWISE mission captured a series of infrared images of comet C/2012 K1 -- also referred to as comet Pan-STARRS -- as it swept across our skies in May 2014.
› Full image and caption


July 03, 2014

NASA's NEOWISE mission captured a series of pictures of comet C/2012 K1 -- also known as comet Pan-STARRS -- as it swept across our skies in May 2014.

The comet is named after the astronomical survey project called the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System in Hawaii, which discovered the icy visitor in May 2012.

Comet Pan-STARRS hails from the outer fringes of our solar system, from a vast and distant reservoir of comets called the Oort cloud.

The comet is relatively close to us -- it was only about 143 million miles (230 million kilometers) from Earth when this picture was taken. It is seen passing a much more distant spiral galaxy, called NGC 3726, which is about 55 million light-years from Earth, or 2 trillion times farther away than the comet.

Two tails can be seen lagging behind the head of the comet. The bigger tail is easy to see and is comprised of gas and smaller particles. A fainter, more southern tail, which is hard to spot in this image, may be comprised of larger, more dispersed grains of dust.

Comet Pan-STARRS is on its way around the sun, with its closest approach to the sun occurring in late August. It was visible to viewers in the northern hemisphere through most of June. In the fall, after the comet swings back around the sun, it may be visible to southern hemisphere viewers using small telescopes.

The image was made from data collected by the two infrared channels on board the NEOWISE spacecraft, with the longer-wavelength channel (centered at 4.5 microns) mapped to red and the shorter-wavelength channel (3.4 microns) mapped to cyan. The comet appears brighter in the longer wavelength band, suggesting that the comet may be producing significant quantities of carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide.

Originally called the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE), the NEOWISE spacecraft was put into hibernation in 2011 after its primary mission was completed. In September 2013, it was reactivated, renamed NEOWISE and assigned a new mission to assist NASA's efforts to identify the population of potentially hazardous near-Earth objects. NEOWISE is also characterizing previously known asteroids and comets to better understand their sizes and compositions.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the NEOWISE mission for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observation Program of its Planetary Science Division in Washington. The Space Dynamics Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado, built the spacecraft. Science operations and data processing take place at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

More information on NEOWISE is online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/wise

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wise/

Whitney Clavin

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-4673

whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov


2014-220
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:31 AM 0 comments

OCO-2 Takes the A-Train to Study Earth's Atmosphere

OCO-2 Takes the A-Train to Study Earth's Atmosphere:

OCO-2 will become the leader of the Afternoon Constellation
OCO-2 will become the leader of the Afternoon Constellation, or A-Train, as shown in this artist's concept. Japan's Global Change Observation Mission - Water (GCOM-W1) satellite and NASA's Aqua, CALIPSO, CloudSat and Aura satellites follow. Image Credit: NASA

› Larger image


July 03, 2014

Every day, above our planet, five Earth-observing satellites rush along like trains on the same "track," flying minutes, and sometimes seconds, behind one another. They carry more than 15 scientific instruments in total, looking at many different aspects of our home planet. Called the Afternoon Constellation, or A-Train, these satellites work as a united, powerful tool for advancing our understanding of Earth's surface and atmosphere.

The train is about to get longer. NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2), which launched July 2, will be the A-Train's sixth member. Its mission is to measure atmospheric carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that makes up a greater percentage of our atmosphere today than it has in at least 800,000 years. It will produce data that will help scientists analyze data from the other A-Train instruments. In return, other satellites will help validate its vital data.

"The A-Train constellation is an ideal measurement system for us," said Dave Crisp, the leader of the OCO-2 science team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

OCO-2 will fly along the same path as NASA satellites CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation) and CloudSat, which monitor minute particles in the atmosphere called aerosols, and clouds, respectively. "We've lined up the ground tracks of OCO-2, CALIPSO and CloudSat almost perfectly, and we're hoping to keep them well aligned for as long as possible during the missions, so we can do the science we want with measurements from all three satellites," Crisp said.

OCO-2 measures carbon dioxide by observing its effect on sunlight. Sunlight is made up of waves of many lengths, or frequencies, some visible and others invisible. As sunlight passes through the atmosphere, carbon dioxide and other molecules absorb specific frequencies in the spectrum of light, leaving dark, narrow gaps in the spectrum. The more light that has been absorbed in a certain column of air, the more carbon dioxide is present there. In some cases, this may suggest that Earth's surface beneath that air contains a source of carbon dioxide, like a large industrial city. Less carbon dioxide implies a "sink," which absorbs carbon dioxide, like a thick forest during the growing season.

The OCO-2 spacecraft carries a single instrument composed of three spectrometers that measure different regions of the spectrum of light. One of these spectrometers observes the spectrum of molecular oxygen, referred to as the A-band spectrum. This is important because molecular oxygen is a relatively constant fraction of the atmosphere and can be used as a reference for measurements of other atmospheric gases, such as carbon dioxide. In addition to being critical for calibrating the carbon dioxide concentrations, it also tells scientists how much sunlight is absorbed or reflected by the aerosols and clouds, features that CALIPSO and CloudSat observe.

"If we combine the A-band spectrometer's measurements with information on aerosols and clouds from CALIPSO and CloudSat, we can use that information to estimate the amount of absorption of sunlight by these airborne particles, which is something we cannot currently do," said Dave Winker, principal investigator for the CALIPSO mission.

CloudSat and CALIPSO also help clarify OCO-2's data. The observatory uses its A-band spectrometer to find out how far sunlight has traveled before it reaches the satellite (its optical path) -- vital information for finding sources and sinks. A tiny mistake in the path-length measurement can introduce serious errors in the satellite's carbon dioxide measurements. Often clouds and aerosols in Earth's atmosphere reflect some sunlight back toward space before it reaches the surface, shortening sunlight's path and confusing the spectrometer about the distance to Earth. But CALIPSO and CloudSat's data about the location and height of aerosols and clouds can verify OCO-2's path-length measurements and determine what kept the sun from reaching Earth's surface.

"To check OCO-2's accuracy, we can compare it to CloudSat and CALIPSO. These measurements are synergistic," Crisp said.

Winker noted, "From OCO-2's point of view, CALIPSO is going to be very important in validating their measurement by correcting for cloud and aerosol effects. That these two satellites are flying together is a key part of the mission."

The A-Train's other satellites support OCO-2's work, too. MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer), an instrument on the Aqua satellite, tracks cloud cover. AIRS (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder), another Aqua instrument, measures air temperature and the amount of water content in the atmosphere. To accurately measure carbon dioxide, scientists must know all those details.

"We have the platforms that can tell us about water vapor and temperature, as well as clouds from the CloudSat satellite, the CALIPSO satellite, the AIRS instrument, and the MODIS instrument. This is the right place to fly OCO-2," Crisp said.

For more information about OCO-2, visit these sites:

http://www.nasa.gov/oco2

http://oco.jpl.nasa.gov

NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.

For more information about NASA's Earth science activities in 2014, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

Alan Buis

818-354-0474

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Alan.Buis@jpl.nasa.gov


Written by Rosalie Murphy

JPL Earth Science and Technology Directorate


2014-219
Posted by Nelio Inacio at 7:29 AM 0 comments

Newfound Frozen World Orbits in Binary Star System

Newfound Frozen World Orbits in Binary Star System:

Planet with Twin Parent Stars
This artist's rendering shows a newly discovered planet (far right) orbiting one star (right) of a binary star system. The discovery, made by a collaboration of international research teams and led by researchers at The Ohio State University, expands astronomers' notions of where to look for planets in our galaxy. The research was funded in part by NASA. Image credit: Cheongho Han, Chungbuk National University, Republic of Korea
› Larger image


July 03, 2014

A newly discovered planet in a binary, or twin, star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth is expanding astronomers' notions of where Earth-like -- and even potentially habitable -- planets can form, and how to find them.

At twice the mass of Earth, the planet orbits one of the stars in the binary system at almost exactly the same distance at which Earth orbits the sun. However, because the planet's host star is much dimmer than the sun, the planet is much colder than Earth -- a little colder, in fact, than Jupiter's icy moon Europa.

Four international research teams, led by professor Andrew Gould of The Ohio State University in Columbus, published their discovery in the July 4 issue of the journal Science. The research is partly funded by NASA.

The study provides the first evidence that terrestrial planets can form in orbits similar to Earth's, even in a binary star system where the stars are not very far apart. Although this planet itself is too cold to be habitable, the same planet orbiting a sun-like star in such a binary system would be in the so-called "habitable zone" -- the region where conditions might be right for life.

"This greatly expands the potential locations to discover habitable planets in the future," said Scott Gaudi, professor of astronomy at Ohio State. "Half the stars in the galaxy are in binary systems. We had no idea if Earth-like planets in Earth-like orbits could even form in these systems."

Earlier evidence that planets form in binary star systems came from NASA's Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes (see http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news/releases/2011/11-69AR.html and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer-20070329.html), but the planets and dust structures in those studies were not similar to those of Earth.

The technique astronomers use to find the planet, called OGLE-2013-BLG-0341LBb, is called gravitational microlensing. In this method, the light of a distant star is magnified by a closer star that happens to pass in front -- if a planet is also present around the foreground star, it will further alter and distort the light of the background star. The telescopes used in this study are part of several projects, including the OGLE (Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment), MOA (Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics), MicroFUN (the Microlensing Follow Up Network), and the Wise Observatory.

Searching for planets within binary systems is tricky for most techniques, because the light from the second star complicates the interpretation of the data. "But in gravitational microlensing," Gould explained, "we don't even look at the light from the star-planet system. We just observe how its gravity affects light from a more distant, unrelated star. This gives us a new tool to search for planets in binary star systems."

NASA's proposed WFIRST-AFTA (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope - Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets) mission would use the microlensing technique to find and characterize hundreds of thousands of planets in binary systems.

Read the full news release from Ohio State at:

http://news.osu.edu/news/2014/07/03/planet-discovery-expands-search-for-earthlike-planets/

Whitney Clavin

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-4673

whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov



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NASA's RapidScat to Unveil Hidden Cycles of Sea Winds

NASA's RapidScat to Unveil Hidden Cycles of Sea Winds:

Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico
A 2005 image of Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico from NASA's QuikScat scatterometer shows the kind of ocean-wind data that ISS-RapidScat will provide. In this image, the highest wind speeds are shown in purple and barbs indicate wind direction. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption


July 07, 2014

Ocean waves, the hot sun, sea breezes -- the right combination makes a great day at the beach. A different combination makes a killer hurricane. The complex interactions of the ocean and the air above it that can create such different outcomes are not yet fully known. Scientists would especially like to understand the role that the daily heat of the sun plays in creating winds.

In a few months, NASA will send an ocean wind-monitoring instrument to a berth on the International Space Station. That unique vantage point will give ISS-RapidScat, short for the International Space Station Rapid Scatterometer, the ability to observe daily (also called diurnal) cycles of wind created by solar heat.

Winds contribute to motion in the ocean on every scale, from individual waves to currents extending thousands of miles. They affect local weather as well as large-scale, long-term climate patterns such as El Niño. Across the tropical Pacific, winds help or hinder local economies by allowing nutrient-rich water to well up from the ocean depths, nourishing marine life to the benefit of coastal fisheries, or blocking its upwelling.

Since the hours of daylight are totally predictable, you might expect their influence on winds to be equally obvious. But that's not the case. According to Sarah Gille, an oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego, "There's an enormous amount of diurnal wind variation between 30 degrees north and south of the equator, and we don't understand the timing. It's clear that the winds aren't just triggered every day at noon [when the sun is highest]."

Scatterometer observations from satellites have proven invaluable for understanding ocean winds. A scatterometer is a type of radar that bounces microwaves off Earth's surface and measures the strength and direction of return signals. The more uneven the surface, the stronger the return signals. On the ocean, higher winds create larger waves and therefore stronger return signals. The return signal also tells scientists the direction of the wind, because waves line up in the direction the wind is blowing.

The reason spaceborne scatterometers haven't helped much with the specific question of daily wind cycles has to do with their orbits. All modern instruments have been in sun-synchronous orbits, in which a satellite is always oriented at the same angle relative to the sun. In this type of orbit, a satellite passes over every location at the same fixed times, for example, 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. over the equator. The resulting data can't throw much light on the question of how winds develop over the course of a day.

For six months in 2003, there were two scatterometers of the same type in space, collecting data at different times of day. From that data, Gille and her colleagues were able to recognize some patterns. "We could see, for example, how sea breezes converge over a large body of water like the Mediterranean or Black Sea. It was a nice window into diurnal variability, but we only had six months of data." That's inadequate to observe differences between summer and winter patterns, among other things.

In its berth on the space station, the two-year RapidScat mission, built and managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, will be the first modern spaceborne scatterometer not locked in a sun-synchronous orbit. Each time the space station passes over a spot on Earth, it's at a different time of day than on the previous visit.

RapidScat came into being because in 2009, NASA's previous scatterometer mission, an instrument called SeaWinds on the QuikScat satellite, stopped collecting ocean wind data following more than a decade of faithful service. Its antenna rotation mechanism wore out and stopped working. While the SeaWinds instrument itself is still functioning, its view is limited to a very narrow beam.

During QuikScat's decade of full operation, the National Weather Service, National Hurricane Center, U.S. Navy, and other users relied on its data (among other data sources) to produce forecasts and warnings of everything from El Niño to hurricanes to iceberg movements. "When QuikScat stopped spinning, the user community began looking at ways to get a scatterometer going again," said Stacey Boland, a RapidScat project systems engineer at JPL.

In 2012, NASA's space station program manager offered scientists at JPL a berth for a replacement scatterometer and a free ride into space in 2014 on a scheduled commercial cargo mission to resupply the space station. "The community had extensively evaluated many types of opportunities and was well aware of the benefit of the space station orbit," Boland said.

The entire instrument has been designed and built in the two years since then -- hence the adjective "Rapid" in its name. RapidScat's instrument is essentially the same as the durable SeaWinds instrument on QuikScat. RapidScat will give QuikScat's user community the same vital data, and eventually it will supply the long-awaited answers on diurnal winds.

Boland explained how the RapidScat data will accumulate to provide those answers. "We get near-complete spatial coverage every two days over the range of latitudes observable from the space station." (The station orbit ranges from 51.6 degrees north to 51.6 degrees south.) "The coverage at any particular spot is at a slightly different local time of day on each orbit. In about two months, we will have sampled 24 hours of local time at each spot."

Once RapidScat has gathered enough cycles of observations, Gille said, "When we average the data, it will tell us what the average conditions are and how much of the observed wind looks like a diurnal pattern."

Gille added, "We're very interested in putting time into an analysis to understand how diurnal winds change from season to season or year to year. Understanding the variability of these processes is a critical part of understanding weather."

For more information about ISS-RapidScat, visit:

http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/RapidScat/

RapidScat is the third of five NASA Earth science missions scheduled to be launched this year, the most new NASA Earth-observing mission launches in the same year in more than a decade. NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing. The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet. For more information about NASA's Earth science activities in 2014, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/earthrightnow

Alan Buis

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0474

alan.buis@jpl.nasa.gov


Steve Cole

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-0918

stephen.e.cole@nasa.gov


Written by Carol Rasmussen

NASA Earth Science News Team


2014-223
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Sun Sends More 'Tsunami Waves' to Voyager 1

Sun Sends More 'Tsunami Waves' to Voyager 1:

This artist's concept shows the Voyager 1 spacecraft entering the space between stars.
The Space Between: This artist's concept shows the Voyager 1 spacecraft entering the space between stars. Interstellar space is dominated by plasma, ionized gas (illustrated here as brownish haze), that was thrown off by giant stars millions of years ago. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption


July 07, 2014

NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft has experienced a new "tsunami wave" from the sun as it sails through interstellar space. Such waves are what led scientists to the conclusion, in the fall of 2013, that Voyager had indeed left our sun's bubble, entering a new frontier.

"Normally, interstellar space is like a quiet lake," said Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, the mission's project scientist since 1972. "But when our sun has a burst, it sends a shock wave outward that reaches Voyager about a year later. The wave causes the plasma surrounding the spacecraft to sing."

Data from this newest tsunami wave generated by our sun confirm that Voyager is in interstellar space -- a region between the stars filled with a thin soup of charged particles, also known as plasma. The mission has not left the solar system -- it has yet to reach a final halo of comets surrounding our sun -- but it broke through the wind-blown bubble, or heliosphere, encasing our sun. Voyager is the farthest human-made probe from Earth, and the first to enter the vast sea between stars.

"All is not quiet around Voyager," said Don Gurnett of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, the principal investigator of the plasma wave instrument on Voyager, which collected the definitive evidence that Voyager 1 had left the sun's heliosphere. "We're excited to analyze these new data. So far, we can say that it confirms we are in interstellar space."

Our sun goes through periods of increased activity, where it explosively ejects material from its surface, flinging it outward. These events, called coronal mass ejections, generate shock, or pressure, waves. Three such waves have reached Voyager 1 since it entered interstellar space in 2012. The first was too small to be noticed when it occurred and was only discovered later, but the second was clearly registered by the spacecraft's cosmic ray instrument in March of 2013.

Cosmic rays are energetic charged particles that come from nearby stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The sun's shock waves push these particles around like buoys in a tsunami. Data from the cosmic ray instrument tell researchers that a shock wave from the sun has hit.

Meanwhile, another instrument on Voyager registers the shock waves, too. The plasma wave instrument can detect oscillations of the plasma electrons.

"The tsunami wave rings the plasma like a bell," said Stone. "While the plasma wave instrument lets us measure the frequency of this ringing, the cosmic ray instrument reveals what struck the bell -- the shock wave from the sun."

This ringing of the plasma bell is what led to the key evidence showing Voyager had entered interstellar space. Because denser plasma oscillates faster, the team was able to figure out the density of the plasma. In 2013, thanks to the second tsunami wave, the team acquired evidence that Voyager had been flying for more than a year through plasma that was 40 times denser than measured before -- a telltale indicator of interstellar space.

Why is it denser out there? The sun's winds blow a bubble around it, pushing out against denser matter from other stars.

Now, the team has new readings from a third wave from the sun, first registered in March of this year. These data show that the density of the plasma is similar to what was measured previously, confirming the spacecraft is in interstellar space. Thanks to our sun's rumblings, Voyager has the opportunity to listen to the singing of interstellar space -- an otherwise silent place.

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, were launched 16 days apart in 1977. Both spacecraft flew by Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also flew by Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2, launched before Voyager 1, is the longest continuously operated spacecraft and is expected to enter interstellar space in a few years.

JPL, a division of Caltech, built and operates the twin Voyager spacecraft. The Voyagers Interstellar Mission is a part of NASA's Heliophysics System Observatory, sponsored by the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. NASA's Deep Space Network, managed by JPL, is an international network of antennas that supports interplanetary spacecraft missions and radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploration of the solar system and the universe. The network also supports selected Earth-orbiting missions. The spacecraft's nuclear batteries were provided by the Department of Energy.

For more information on the Voyager mission, visit: http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin (818) 354-4673

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov


2014-221
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Four JPL Suborbital Technology Payloads Chosen

Four JPL Suborbital Technology Payloads Chosen:

This artist's concept shows a robot with legs that have microspine grippers
This artist's concept shows a robot with legs that have microspine grippers, which could potentially explore a rocky surface, such as an asteroid, in microgravity. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption


July 10, 2014

From hopping/tumbling robots to gecko-inspired adhesives, a variety of technologies have been chosen by NASA for flight on commercial reusable launch vehicles and a commercial parabolic aircraft. The selections were made through NASA's Flight Opportunities Program. The program gives these 13 space technology payloads, including four from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, a chance to be tested before they are used in the harsh environment of space.

Including this latest selection, there have been 138 technologies selected for test flights facilitated by the Flight Opportunities Program of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Parabolic aircraft flights will allow 11 of the new payloads to experience brief periods of weightlessness. The other two projects will fly on suborbital reusable launch vehicle test flights. The flights are expected to take place in 2014 and 2015.

The selected proposals requested flights on Zero-G Corporation's Boeing 727 parabolic flight aircraft, UP Aerospace's Space-Loft rocket and Masten Space Systems' Xombie vertical takeoff/vertical landing rocket.

Three of the JPL-led payloads will fly on the parabolic aircraft and one will go up on the suborbital reusable launch vehicle.

The payloads selected for parabolic aircraft flights are:

From JPL:

-- "Validating Microgravity Mobility Models for Hopping/Tumbling Robots," Principal Investigator (PI) Issa Nesnas

-- "Microgravity Rock Coring Drill Using Microspines" and "Gecko Adhesive Grippers in Microgravity," PI Aaron Parness

From other institutions:

-- "Reduced Gravity Flight Demo of SPHERES Universal Docking Ports" and "Reduced Gravity Flight Demonstration of SPHERES INSPECT," PI Alvar Saenz Otero of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts

-- "Reinventing the Wheel: Parabolic Flight Validation of Reaction Spheres," PI Alvin Yew of NASA¹s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland

-- "Enhanced Dynamic Load Sensors for ISS Operational Feasibility for Advanced Resistive Exercise Device," PI Christopher Krebs of Aurora Flight Sciences Corp. in Manassas, Virginia

-- "Effects of Microgravity on Intracranial Pressure," PI Benjamin Levine of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas

-- "Noninvasive Hemodynamic Monitoring in Microgravity Phase II (Arterial Stiffness)," PI Gregory Kovacs of Stanford University in Stanford, California

-- "Payloads Separation Performance of a 6U CubeSat Canisterized Satellite Dispenser," PI Hans-Peter Dumm of the United States Air Force Space Vehicles Directorate in Albuquerque, New Mexico

-- "Dragon V2 Propellant Management Device Microgravity Testing," PI Robin Titus of Space Exploration Technologies Corp., (SpaceX) in Hawthorne, California

The payloads selected for flight on a suborbital reusable launch vehicle are:

From JPL:

-- "Fuel Optimal and Accurate Landing Systems Test Flights," PI Andrew Johnson

From Purdue University:

-- "Zero-gravity Green Propellant Management Technology," PI Steven Collicott of Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana

NASA manages the Flight Opportunities manifest, matching payloads with flights, and will pay for payload integration and the flight costs for the selected payloads. No funds are provided for the development of these payloads.

The Flight Opportunities Program, part of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, is managed at NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, manages the solicitation and selection of technologies to be tested and demonstrated on commercial flight vehicles.

For more information on the Flight Opportunities program, visit:

http://flightopportunities.nasa.gov

Elizabeth Landau

818-354-6425

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

elizabeth.landau@jpl.nasa.gov


Rachel Hoover

Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.

650-930-6149

rachel.hoover@nasa.gov


Leslie Williams

Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif.

661-276-3893

leslie.a.williams@nasa.gov


2014-225
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Leading Space Experts to Discuss the Search for Life Beyond Earth

Leading Space Experts to Discuss the Search for Life Beyond Earth:

Kepler-186f, the first Earth-size Planet in the Habitable Zone
Leading Space Experts to Discuss the Search for Life Beyond Earth
The artist's concept depicts Kepler-186f , the first validated Earth-size planet to orbit a distant star in the habitable zone-a range of distance from a star where liquid water might pool on the planet's surface. Image credit: NASA
› Full image and caption


July 10, 2014

NASA Television will air a panel discussion of leading science and engineering experts on Monday, July 14, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. PDT (2 to 3:30 p.m. EDT), who will describe the scientific and technological roadmap that will lead to the discovery of potentially habitable worlds among the stars.

The event will take place at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

Space and ground observatories are cataloging and characterizing hundreds, and what is expected to eventually be thousands, of potentially habitable worlds in our galaxy. NASA space-based observatories are making unprecedented new discoveries. The agency's next step, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will continue to help scientists rewrite scientific textbooks after its scheduled launch in 2018.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden will provide opening comments.

Panel participants include:

--Ellen Stofan, NASA chief scientist, NASA Headquarters, Washington

--John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator, NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington

--John Mather, Nobel Laureate and Senior Project Scientist for JWST, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland

--Sara Seager, MacArthur Fellow and Professor of Planetary Science and Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge

--Dave Gallagher, director for Astronomy and Physics, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

--Matt Mountain, director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore and Telescope Scientist for JWST

Questions can be asked during the event by attendees or via Twitter using the hashtag #AskNASA.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information about NASA's role in the search for life, visit: http://www.nasa.gov

Whitney Clavin

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

818-354-4673

whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov


Dwayne Brown

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1726

dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov


2014-227
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NASA Honors First Moon Landing, Looks Ahead to Mars

NASA Honors First Moon Landing, Looks Ahead to Mars:

Artist's concept image of a boot print on the moon and on Mars.
Artist's concept image of a boot print on the moon and on Mars.
Image Credit: NASA

› Larger image


July 15, 2014

NASA marks the 45th anniversary of the first moon landing this month while it takes the steps needed for America's next giant leap to send astronauts to Mars.

NASA's Apollo 11 crew landed on the moon July 20, 1969. The world watched 45 years ago as astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set their lunar module, Eagle, down in the Sea of Tranquility, while crewmate Michael Collins orbited above in the command module Columbia.

The agency will commemorate Armstrong's "one giant leap for mankind" through a number of events across, and above, the United States during the next two weeks, as well as on the agency's website and NASA Television.

On Friday, July 18 at 10:30 a.m. PDT (1:30 p.m. EDT), NASA TV will air a live conversation about the future of space exploration with actor, director and narrator Morgan Freeman. He will speak at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, about his personal vision for space. The event also will include NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman participating from the International Space Station.

Also on Friday at 3:30 p.m. EDT, NASA will host a discussion with Buzz Aldrin and astronaut Mike Massimino at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York during the Intrepid Space and Science Festival. NASA also will have exhibits and activities at the festival Thursday, July 17 through Saturday, July 19. For more information about the festival, visit:

http://www.intrepidmuseum.org/SpaceandScienceFestival.aspx

On Sunday, July 20 at 7:39 p.m. PDT (10:39 p.m. EDT), when Armstrong opened the spacecraft hatch to begin the first spacewalk on the moon, NASA TV will replay the restored footage of Armstrong and Aldrin's historic steps on the lunar surface.

On Monday, July 21 at 7 a.m. PDT (10 a.m. EDT) from the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA TV will air live coverage of the renaming of the center's Operations and Checkout Building in honor of Armstrong, who passed away in 2012. The renaming ceremony will include NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Kennedy Center Director Robert Cabana, Apollo 11's Collins, Aldrin and astronaut Jim Lovell, who was the mission's back-up commander. International Space Station NASA astronauts Wiseman and Steve Swanson, who is the current station commander, also will take part in the ceremony from their orbiting laboratory 260 miles above Earth.

Kennedy's Operations and Checkout Building has played a vital role in NASA's spaceflight history. It was used during the Apollo program to process and test the command, service and lunar modules. Today, the facility is being used to process and assemble NASA's Orion spacecraft, which the agency will use to send astronauts to an asteroid in the 2020s and Mars in the 2030s.

On Thursday, July 24 at 3 p.m. PDT (6 p.m. EDT), which is the 45th anniversary of Apollo 11's return to Earth, the agency will host a panel discussion -- called NASA's Next Giant Leap -- from Comic-Con International in San Diego. Moderated by actor Seth Green, the panel includes Aldrin, NASA Planetary Science Division Director Jim Green, JPL systems engineer Bobak Ferdowsi, and NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, who will talk about Orion and the Space Launch System rocket, which will carry humans on America's next great adventure in space.

The NASA.gov website will host features, videos, and historic images and audio clips that highlight the Apollo 11 anniversary, as well as the future of human spaceflight. To explore all the special content, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/apollo45

To join the ongoing conversation on social media about the anniversary and NASA's deep space exploration plans, use the hashtags #NextGiantLeap and #Apollo45.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For information about the activities, planning and preparations for the next giant leap in space exploration, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration

Veronica McGregor

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California

818-354-0880

veronica.mcgregor@jpl.nasa.gov


David Weaver/Bob Jacobs

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-1600

david.s.weaver@nasa.gov / bob.jacobs@nasa.gov


2014-229
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Looking Back at the Jupiter Crash 20 Years Later

Looking Back at the Jupiter Crash 20 Years Later:

NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured these four views of Jupiter as the last of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's large fragments struck the planet.
NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured these four views of Jupiter as the last of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's large fragments struck the planet. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
› Full image and caption


July 15, 2014

Twenty years ago, human and robotic eyes observed the first recorded impact between cosmic bodies in the solar system, as fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into the atmosphere of Jupiter. Between July 16 and July 22, 1994, space- and Earth-based assets managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, joined an armada of other NASA and international telescopes, straining to get a glimpse of the historic event:

- NASA's Galileo spacecraft, still a year-and-a-half out from its arrival at Jupiter, had a unique view of fireballs that erupted from Jupiter's southern hemisphere as the comet fragments struck.

- NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, using the JPL-developed and -built Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, observed the comet and the impact scars it left on Jupiter.

- The giant radio telescopes of NASA's Deep Space Network -- which perform radio and radar astronomy research in addition to their communications functions -- were tasked with observing radio emissions from Jupiter's radiation belt, looking for disturbances caused by comet dust.

- NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, then about 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers) from Jupiter, observed the impacts with its ultraviolet spectrometer and a planetary radio astronomy instrument.

- The Ulysses spacecraft also made observations during the comet impact from about 500 million miles (800 million kilometers) away. Ulysses observed radio transmissions from Jupiter with its combined radio wave and plasma wave instrument.

The work of scientists in studying the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact raised awareness about the potential for asteroid impacts on Earth and the need for predicting them ahead of time, important factors in the formation of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office. The NEO Program Office coordinates NASA-sponsored efforts to detect, track and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids and comets that could approach Earth.

The Galileo mission was managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. JPL also manages the Voyager mission and the Deep Space Network for NASA. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program at NASA Headquarters, Washington, manages and funds the search, study and monitoring of asteroids and comets whose orbits periodically bring them close to Earth. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

For more information about the Shoemaker-Levy 9 impact, visit: http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Com_PShoemakerLevy9

Preston Dyches

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-7013

preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov


2014-231
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NASA Rover's Images Show Laser Flash on Martian Rock

NASA Rover's Images Show Laser Flash on Martian Rock:

First Imaging of Laser-Induced Spark on Mars
NASA's Curiosity Mars rover used the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on its arm to catch the first images of sparks produced by the rover's laser being shot at a rock on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
› Full image and caption


July 16, 2014

Flashes appear on a baseball-size Martian rock in a series of images taken Saturday, July 12 by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) camera on the arm of NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover. The flashes occurred while the rover's Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument fired multiple laser shots to investigate the rock's composition.

The images, strung together as a video, are available online at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/?id=1317

ChemCam's laser has zapped more than 600 rock and soil targets on Mars since Curiosity landed in the planet's Gale Crater in August 2012.

"This is so exciting! The ChemCam laser has fired more than 150,000 times on Mars, but this is the first time we see the plasma plume that is created," said ChemCam Deputy Principal Investigator Sylvestre Maurice, at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetology, of France's National Center for Scientific Research and the University of Toulouse, France. "Each time the laser hits a target, the plasma light is caught and analyzed by ChemCam's spectrometers. What the new images add is confirmation that the size and shape of the spark are what we anticipated under Martian conditions."

Preliminary analysis of the ChemCam spectra from this target rock, appropriately named "Nova," indicates a composition rich in silicon, aluminum and sodium, beneath a dust layer poor in those elements. This is typical of rocks that Curiosity is encountering on its way toward Mount Sharp.

MAHLI Deputy Principal Investigator Aileen Yingst of the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona, said, "One of the reasons we took these images is that they allow the ChemCam folks to compare the plume to those they imaged on Earth. Also, MAHLI has captured images of other activities of Curiosity, for documentation purposes, and this was an opportunity to document the laser in action."

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, developed, built and operates MAHLI. The U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, developed ChemCam in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency (CNES), the University of Toulouse and France's National Center for Scientific Research.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project is using Curiosity to assess ancient habitable environments and major changes in Martian environmental conditions. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, built the rover and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about Curiosity, visit these sites: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/msl , http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

You can follow the mission on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity and on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity

Guy Webster

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-6278

guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov


2014-232
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