Cassini Hunting Enceladus 'Tigers' with Night Vision

 

August 12, 2010

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be hunting for heat signatures at the "tiger stripes" in the dim south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Friday, Aug. 13. The closest approach will bring the spacecraft to within about 2,500 kilometers (1,600 miles) of the surface of Enceladus... 

(Read the rest of http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-267)

Raisin' Mountains on Saturn's Moon Titan

August 12, 2010

Saturn's moon Titan ripples with mountains, and scientists have been trying to figure out how they form. The best explanation, it turns out, is that Titan is shrinking as it cools, wrinkling up the moon's surface like a raisin.

A new model developed by scientists working with radar data obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft shows that differing densities in the outermost layers of Titan can account for the unusual surface behavior. Titan is slowly cooling because it is releasing heat from its original formation and radioactive isotopes are decaying in the interior. As this happens, parts of Titan's subsurface ocean freeze over, the outermost ice crust thickens and folds, and the moon shrivels up. The model is described in an article now online in the Journal of Geophysical Research... 

(Read the rest of  http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-266)

Supernova’s Spin on Life

 

A mysterious bias in the way the building blocks of proteins twist could be due to supernovae, researchers now suggest.

If correct, this could be evidence that the molecules of life weren't created on Earth, but came from elsewhere in the cosmos.

Organic molecules are often chiral, meaning they come in two versions that are mirror images of each other, much as right and left hands appear identical but possess reversed features... 

(Read the rest of  http://www.astrobio.net/exclusive/3582/supernova%E2%80%99s-spin-on-life)

NASA Video Shows Global Reach of Pollution from Fires

August 11, 2010

A series of large wildfires burning across western and central Russia, eastern Siberia and western Canada has created a noxious soup of air pollution that is affecting life far beyond national borders. Among the pollutants created by wildfires is carbon monoxide, a gas that can pose a variety of health risks at ground level. Carbon monoxide is also an ingredient in the production of ground-level ozone, which causes numerous respiratory problems. As the carbon monoxide from these wildfires is lofted into the atmosphere, it becomes caught in the lower bounds of the mid-latitude jet stream, which swiftly transports it around the globe... 

(Readthe rest of http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-265)

Giant Ultraviolet Rings Found in Resurrected Galaxies

 

August 11, 2010

Astronomers have found mysterious, giant loops of ultraviolet light in aged, massive galaxies, which seem to have a second lease on life. Somehow these "over-the-hill galaxies" have been infused with fresh gas to form new stars that power these truly gargantuan rings, some of which could encircle several Milky Way galaxies... 

(Read the rest of http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-264)

NASA's HIRAD Instrument to Provide Unique View of Hurricane Wind

 

NASA researchers are furiously preparing for late summer when they will fly a series of unique hurricane instruments, including a brand new instrument that will take two-dimensional wind speed measurements over some of the world's fiercest storms... 

(Read the rest of http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/missions/grip/news/hirad.html)

Hundreds of New Views from Telescope Orbiting Mars

 

August 04, 2010

The latest set of new images from the telescopic High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment Camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter offers detailed views of diverse Martian landscapes... 

(Read the rest of http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2010-256)

NASA Lightning Research Happens in a Flash

 

Lightning's connection to hurricane intensification has eluded researchers for decades, and for a riveting 40 days this summer, NASA lightning researchers will peer inside storms in a way they never have before. 

Earth scientists and engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will soon fly the Lightning Instrument Package, or LIP, a flight instrument designed to track and document lightning as hurricanes develop and intensify. In August and September, LIP will fly on a remotely piloted Global Hawk airplane over the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean at an altitude of 60,000 feet. LIP will be part of a NASA hurricane study called Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes, or GRIP for short. The study involves three storm chaser planes mounted with 15 instruments. LIP and the other instruments will work together to create the most complete view of hurricanes to date... 

(Read the rest of http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/missions/grip/news/lightning.html)

NASA Chat: Perseid Meteor Shower Lights Up August Skies

 

Looking for a little excitement as the summer draws to a close? This year's Perseid meteor shower peaks on Aug. 12-13, and it promises to be one of the best displays of the year. If forecasters are correct, the shower should produce a peak display of at least 80 meteors per hours. A waxing crescent moon will set before the shower becomes active, setting a perfect stage for meteor watching -- weather permitting, of course!... 

(Read the rest of  http://www.nasa.gov/connect/chat/perseids_2010.html)

This Month in Exploration - August

From the early days of experimental airplanes to NASA’s soaring space shuttles, the evolution of flight has mirrored the evolution of society. The ongoing scientific discoveries that are part of aeronautics and space flight have improved life on Earth and allowed humans to begin investigating the secrets of the universe. “This Month in Exploration” presents the rich history of human flight, contextualizing where we’ve been and examining the exploration history NASA is making today... 

(Read the rest of http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/thismonth/this_month_aug10.html)

Coronal Mass Ejection Headed for Earth

 

On August 1st around 0855 UT, Earth orbiting satellites detected a C3-class solar flare. The origin of the blast was Earth-facing sunspot 1092. C-class solar flares are small (when compared to X and M-class flares) and usually have few noticeable consequences here on Earth besides aurorae. This one has spawned a coronal mass ejection heading in Earth's direction... 

(Read the rest of http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/sunearthsystem/main/News080210-cme.html)

NASA and ESA's First Joint Mission to Mars Selects Instruments

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have embarked on a joint program to explore Mars in the coming decades and selected the five science instruments for the first mission.

The principal investigator for one of the instruments, and the management for NASA's roles in the mission, are based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.  

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, scheduled to launch in 2016, is the first in a series of planned joint robotic missions to the Red Planet. It will study the chemical makeup of the Martian atmosphere with a 1000-fold increase in sensitivity over previous Mars orbiters. The mission will focus on trace gases, including methane, which could be potentially geochemical or biological in origin and be indicators for the existence of life on Mars. The mission also will serve as an additional communications relay for Mars surface missions beginning in 2018...  

(Read the rest of http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars/news/exo20100802.html)

Taking a Shot at the Sun

  

For a thrilling eight minutes, NASA researchers will soon get a peek at one of the sun's most mysterious regions, where temperatures fluctuate from tens of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit to several million, and solar flares and coronal mass ejections originate -- potentially threatening spacecraft, Earth-based communications and the lives of explorers in space... 

(Read the rest of http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/sumi.html)

NASA's ATHLETE Warms Up for High Desert Run

Engineers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are currently putting their All-Terrain, Hex-Limbed, Extra-Terrestrial Explorer (ATHLETE) through a series of long-drive tests on the long, dirt roads found adjacent to JPL. The JPL grounds do not include an unpaved area of sufficient size for testing such a large robot over a long distance. Some of the dirt roads in the Arroyo Seco (a wash located next to JPL) are wide enough for ATHLETE, and its close proximity to JPL allows the robot to be secured in its hangar between test runs... 

(Raed the rest of http://www.nasa.gov/topics/moonmars/features/athlete20100730.html)

Spirit May Never Phone Home Again

July 30, 2010:  NASA mission controllers have not heard from Mars rover Spirit since March 22 as the rover faces its toughest challenge yet - trying to survive the harsh Martian winter. 

On July 26, mission managers began using a paging technique called "sweep and beep" in an effort to communicate with Spirit... 

(Read the rest of http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/30jul_spirit2/)