14th October 2008 by Giles Smith
NASA Reconnaissance Orbiter
Quote from Universe Today
Reconnaissance Orbiter has been circling Mars for over two years now, and has provided unprecedented views of the Red Planet with its HiRISE Camera. But did you also know that MRO is a weather-monitoring satellite, too? The Mars Climate Sounder instrument is examining the Martian atmosphere and has issued its first Mars weather report. “It has taken 20 years and three missions but we finally have an instrument in orbit that gives us a detailed view of the entire atmosphere of Mars and it is already giving us fresh insights into the Martian climate,” said Professor Fred Taylor of Oxford University. Within a paper issued by the Mars ‘weather team’ comes surprising news: during the freezing Martian winter the atmosphere above the planet’s South Pole is considerably warmer than predicted.
I wonder if a Mars forecast will be just as reliable as the forecasts we get on Earth?
Tags: hirise, mars, nasa, reconnaissance orbiter, weather
Categories: Up in Space •
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12th October 2008 by Giles Smith
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
MESSENGER is the first mission where a space craft has been sent to orbit Mercury, the closest planet to the sun. On October 6th 2008 at 04:40 the probe came within 200km of the toastie planet’s surface and took as many pictures as it could.
NASA is hoping that the probe will be in full orbit around the planet by 2011 and that MESSENGER will be Mercury’s first artificial satelite.
The very bright crater just south of the equator is Kuiper which was identified using photos from the 1970s. The area east of Kuiper has never been photographed, until MESSENGER.
Tags: mercury, messenger, nasa
Categories: Up in Space •
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30th September 2008 by Giles Smith
Quote
A True Image from False Kiva Credit & Copyright: Wally Pacholka (Astropics.com/TWAN)
Explanation: Is there any place in the world you could see a real sight like this? Yes. Pictured above is single exposure image spectacular near, far, and in between. Diving into the Earth far in the distance is part of the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy, taken with a long duration exposure. Much closer, the planet Jupiter is visible as the bright point just to band’s left. Closer still are picturesque buttes and mesas of the Canyonlands National Park in Utah, USA, lit by a crescent moon. In the foreground is a cave housing a stone circle of unknown origin named False Kiva. The cave was briefly lit by flashlight during the long exposure. Astrophotographer Wally Pacholka reports that getting to the cave to take this image was no easy trek. Also, mountain lions were a concern while waiting alone in the dark for just the right exposure.
This is a fantastic photo, as an amateur photographer I can really appreciate how difficult this shot was to take and the amount of patience required to get exactly the right exposure!
Lighting the cave with a flash really gives the whole photo quite a surreal effect, very impressive.
Follow NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive (no RSS feed I am afraid, you will have to do it the old fashioned way and just visit the site!)
Tags: astronomy, false kiva, jupiter, mesa, milky way galaxy, nasa, Photography, wally pacholka
Categories: Up in Space •
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29th September 2008 by Giles Smith
Rain on Mars (Credit: NASA
Images of layered sedimentary deposits and deltas on Mars have provided evidence for lakes and flowing rivers that carried eroded material downstream. A team of researchers also believes there is evidence for precipitation in the Red Planet’s past. “For years scientists have been suspecting that the current appearance of the landscape has, in part, been shaped by rivers that cut into the surface,” said Ernst Hauber of the German Aerospace Center. “We can see layered sediments where these valleys open into impact craters. The shape of certain sediments is typical for deltas formed in standing water.” Hauber and his team also believe that surface runoff from rain or snowmelt completes the picture of past water on Mars.
There seems to be more and more evidense coming from NASA’s HiRISE that Mars was once very similar to Earth, in both it’s surface and it’s atmosphere. At some point however Mars has taken a very different tack and ended up as very cold, very dry and very barren. Other recent photographs from Mars show dried up lakes, river valleys, estuarys and other features associated with a once wet planet.
Whatever did happen was very brief in Mar’s overall history and any precipitation that did occur dried up around 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago.
Read more on Universe Today
Tags: earth, ernst hauber, german aerospace center, hirise, mars, nasa, precipitation, rain, red planet
Categories: Up in Space •
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20th June 2008 by Giles Smith
Water Found on Mars
I just saw this on the Mars Phoenix Lander’s Twitter page:
Are you ready to celebrate? Well, get ready: We have ICE!!!!! Yes, ICE, *WATER ICE* on Mars! w00t!!! Best day ever!!
Followed by:
Whoohoo! Was keeping my eye on some chunks of bright stuff & they disappeared! Sublimated! So it can’t be salt, it’s ice:
The Mars Lander was having a little dig when it discovered some ‘dice sized’ bright substance, over the few days that followed the the substance appeared to vaporise indicatiting that it couldn’t be salt.
Find out more
I don’t know what I am more excited about, Water on Mars or that Nasa Scientists shout Woot!
Toot!
Tags: ice, lander, mars, nasa, phoenix, salt, water, woot
Categories: Up in Space •
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