Wolverine's Den

New and Improved

2006-08-22T02:35:00.000-05:00

The stunning Helix Nebula. Credit: NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), and T.A. Rector (NRAO).

After a much tweaking and remodeling, the latest version of Wolverine's Den (mk. III) has been up and running for a few weeks now. I haven't forgotten about this - the original, temporary home for my astronomical musings, so I thought I'd post another note here encouraging passers-by to surf on over and enjoy the all latest items on my dedicated page. Well, that is, in the off-chance that anyone even stumbles across this little niche. :-)

By week's end we'll have a clearer indication of whether or not Pluto will retain its planetary status, and, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is currently scheduled for launch on Sunday, August 27th. Feel free to swing by the new venue to catch up on what else is happening in the universe. See you there.

The New Den

2006-01-24T19:58:00.000-06:00

Wolverine's Den mkII is now alive and well. I've included and uploaded all my prior articles and content from this site, and performed the arduous task of recreating all the necessary formatting.

I'll leave this, mkI, up for the time being so folks know where to find me.

Update your bookmarks and blogrolls. :)

http://www.wolverinesden.org/

Transition

2006-01-22T09:51:00.000-06:00

Note:

The Den is moving. This is a good thing. I'll be working on finishing up all the loose ends in the next few days. The new location will be:

http://wolverinesden.org/

The site's already up and running (and much more efficiently with the changes made), but it's not quite finished. Almost.

Feel free to take a peek though, and don't forget to update your bookmarks. :-)

More to come.

Lit Candle

2006-01-20T13:01:00.000-06:00

Wow. What an image:

Image Credit: NASA

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. — From between lightning masts surrounding the launch pad, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft roars into the blue sky aboard an Atlas V rocket spewing flames and smoke. Liftoff was on time at 2 p.m. EST from Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. This was the third launch attempt in as many days after scrubs due to weather concerns. The compact, 1,050-pound piano-sized probe will get a boost from a kick-stage solid propellant motor for its journey to Pluto. New Horizons will be the fastest spacecraft ever launched, reaching lunar orbit distance in just nine hours and passing Jupiter 13 months later. The New Horizons science payload, developed under direction of Southwest Research Institute, includes imaging infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers, a multi-color camera, a long-range telescopic camera, two particle spectrometers, a space-dust detector and a radio science experiment. The dust counter was designed and built by students at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The launch at this time allows New Horizons to fly past Jupiter in early 2007 and use the planet’s gravity as a slingshot toward Pluto. The Jupiter flyby trims the trip to Pluto by as many as five years and provides opportunities to test the spacecraft’s instruments and flyby capabilities on the Jupiter system. New Horizons could reach the Pluto system as early as mid-2015, conducting a five-month-long study possible only from the close-up vantage of a spacecraft.

Click here for a large version (498 kb)

Those unable to view yesterday's magnificent launch may do so by clicking here.

View video of the SRB separation here.

More here in NASA's video archive.

Added 19:17 CST: Now we're talkin'. Check out the nicely updated gallery of New Horizons launch imagery courtesy of the Kennedy Space Center. Sweet!

Photography, Science, Space

Fire in the Sky

2006-01-20T07:37:00.000-06:00

17mm 1/30" F/5 ISO-100

25mm 1/40" F/5 ISO-100

Canon 20D & 17-40mm L

19 January 2006, Spicewood Texas

Nature, Photography

Liftoff!

2006-01-19T13:15:00.000-06:00

Image credit: NASA/KSC

Success! NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida aboard a fast-moving Atlas V rocket. It's headed for a distant rendezvous with the mysterious planet Pluto almost a decade from now.

The third time was the charm for New Horizons. Two consecutive launch attempts earlier in the week were foiled by high winds at the launch site and a power outage at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., which operates the spacecraft now that the mission is underway.

As the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moon Charon, New Horizons looks to unlock one of the solar system's last, great planetary secrets. After launch aboard an Atlas V, the New Horizons spacecraft will cross the entire span of the solar system and conduct flyby studies of Pluto and Charon in 2015. The seven science instruments on the piano-sized probe will shed light on the bodies' surface properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres.

The first 13 months of the mission include spacecraft and instrument checkouts, instrument calibrations and trajectory correction maneuvers. There will also be rehearsals for an encounter with Jupiter in spring 2007, in which the giant planet will provide a slingshot-like gravity boost that could save New Horizons up to three years of flight time. This encounter will be followed by an approximately 8-year interplanetary cruise to Pluto.

Keep up with all the latest:

New Horizons Launch Page

Image credit: NASA/KSC
Click here for hi-res version (1.3 mb)

Science, Space

Stardust Update

2006-01-19T09:06:00.000-06:00

JSC2006-E-01008 (17 January 2006) --- Closeup view of a cometary impact (center) into aerogel was inspected by scientists at a laboratory at the Johnson Space Center hours after the Stardust Sample Return Canister was delivered to the Johnson Space Center from the spacecraft's landing site in Utah. Image credit: NASA

Scientists Confirm Comet Samples, Briefing Set Thursday

Scientists have confirmed that samples from a comet and interstellar dust have been returned to Earth by the Stardust spacecraft.

The scientist team opened the Stardust sample return capsule on Tuesday in a special facility at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston.

"The collection of cometary particles has exceeded our expectations," said Dr. Donald Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator from the University of Washington, Seattle. "We were absolutely thrilled to see thousands of impacts on the aerogel."

Inside the capsule, a tennis racket-like sample tray holds the particles captured in a gel as the spacecraft flew within 149 miles of comet Wild 2 in January 2004. An opposite side of the tray holds interstellar dust particles caught streaming through the solar system by Stardust during its seven-year journey. The team is analyzing the particle capture cells and removing individual grains of comet and interstellar dust. They will be sent to select investigators worldwide.

Leaders of the science and curation teams will participate in a press conference at 10 a.m. CST Thursday from JSC. The briefing will be broadcast on NASA Television and question-and-answer capability for reporters is available from participating NASA centers. Key scientists also will be available for live interviews via satellite from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. CST Thursday.

Participants in the Thursday news conference will include:

Dr. Donald Brownlee, Principal Investigator, University of Washington
Dr. Peter Tsou, Deputy Principal Investigator, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Dr. Michael Zolensky, Stardust Curator and Co-investigator, JSC
Dr. Carlton Allen, Astromaterials Curator, JSC
Video of the opening of the Stardust science canister and initial assessment of its contents will air on the NASA Television's Video File beginning at 2 p.m. CST today.

Science, Space

Moon, Earthshine, Venus

2006-01-18T16:34:00.000-06:00

Canon 20D & 50mm F/1.4 prime; 4" F/3.2 ISO-100

Venus lurks down between the trees; 2-day-old waxing crescent Moon is illuminated by doubly-reflected sunlight.

Taken 8 June 2005.

Astrophotography, Nature, Photography

Tomorrow, tomorrow...

2006-01-18T09:43:00.000-06:00

Ugh. The New Horizons launch has been delayed an additional day according to this latest bit from NASA:

Next Launch Attempt: Thursday, Jan. 19

Today's planned launch of an Atlas V carrying NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has been delayed for at least one more day. The Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, which operates the spacecraft and is managing the mission, experienced a power outage early this morning that has not yet been resolved. Launch is now set for Thursday, Jan. 19, during a window extending from 1:08 p.m. - 3:07 p.m. EST.

I swear they're doing all this on purpose just to make me update my countdown clock on the right sidebar. ;-)

Added 19:54 CST:

Eek, the perils of launch delays versus Plutonian arrival time. Emily Lakdawalla has posted a table illustrating how New Horizons' primary target will be reached much later should we get pushed back deeper into the probe's launch window. This is due to Jupiter moving increasingly out of the desired alignment for the gravity-assist maneuver en route. Pretty amazing to consider:

Launch Date	Arrival Year
Jan. 19 - 28	2015
Jan. 29 - 31	2016
Feb. 1 - 2	2017
Feb. 3 - 8	2018
Feb. 9 - 11	2019
Feb. 13 - 14	2020

Hopefully we'll light the candle sooner rather than later.

Science, Space

Launch Scrubbed

2006-01-17T14:35:00.000-06:00

Bummer:

No-Go for New Horizons

Today's planned launch of an Atlas V carrying NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has been scrubbed due to excessive ground winds at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Launch managers extended the countdown several times, hoping the upper level and ground winds would die down, but the winds surpassed limits during the final minutes prior to liftoff. NASA will try again tomorrow, Jan. 18, during a launch window extending from 1:16 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. EST.

Ah well. Hopefully tomorrow's weather will be more cooperative.

Science, Space

Ready for Launch!

2006-01-16T21:51:00.000-06:00

Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)

New Horizons is in full flight configuration and on schedule for liftoff tomorrow, 17 January 2006, with the opening of primary launch window coming at 13:24:00 EST. See my previous article for more details about this exciting mission.

New Horizons Update
On Tuesday, Jan. 17, at 10:39 a.m., Pad 41 will be cleared of personnel in preparation for cryogenic fueling operations which are scheduled to begin at L-2 hours, or 11:24 a.m.

New Horizons Mission
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft will be the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and its moon Charon. No spacecraft has ever visited the planet, and not even the Hubble Space Telescope can spot details on its rocky, icy surface. Yet with the New Horizons mission, now in development and planning for liftoff January 2006 from Launch Complex 41 at the Kennedy Space Center, NASA looks to unlock one of the solar system's last, great planetary secrets.

After launch aboard an Atlas V, New Horizons would cross the entire span of the solar system -- in record time -- and conduct flyby studies of Pluto and its moon, Charon, in 2015. The seven science instruments on the piano-sized probe would shed light on the bodies' surface properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres.

NASA TV coverage of the event begins 11 a.m. EST.

Resources:

On the pad and ready to go at Kennedy Space Center. Image Credit: NASA/KSC

Science, Space

Stardust Returns Safely!

2006-01-15T04:08:00.000-06:00

Image Credit: NASA

Stardust has successfully landed!

After logging billions of miles, the capsule delivering NASA's first cometary sample return mission has touched down safely. Congratulations to all team members on a job well done in bringing the package home.

Helicopters charged with recovering the sample return capsule are en route this very moment.

More updates to follow.

Update 04:49 CST: Helicopter "Vertigo-1" has located the capsule!

Update 04:54 CST: Confirmed.

Update 05:02 CST: Mission Completed, as reported by Space.com

Update 05:07 CST: Capsule confirmed intact.

Added 07:00 CST:

At 5:10 a.m. Eastern time, Stardust's return capsule landed in the Utah Test and Training Range. The NASA TV image above shows an infrared view of a helicopter on the ground at the capsule landing site. The capsule contains cometary and interstellar samples gathered by the mission.

infrared view of helicopter at capsule landing site

Capsule Milestones (all times approximate EST on Jan. 15)

12:57 a.m.: Spacecraft releases capsule checkmark
4:57 a.m.: Capsule enters Earth atmosphere checkmark
5 a.m.: First parachute (drogue) deploys checkmark
5:05 a.m.: Main parachute deploys checkmark
5:10 a.m.: Capsule lands checkmark
5:40 a.m. (approx.): Helicopter and crew land near capsule
checkmark
7:20 a.m. (approx.): Capsule arrives at temporary cleanroom

Added 09:34 CST:

NASA's Stardust sample return mission returned safely to Earth when the capsule carrying cometary and interstellar particles successfully touched down at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time (3:10 a.m. Mountain time) in the desert salt flats of the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range.

"Ten years of planning and seven years of flight operations were realized early this morning when we successfully picked up our return capsule off of the desert floor in Utah," said Tom Duxbury, Stardust project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "The Stardust project has delivered to the international science community material that has been unaltered since the formation of our solar system."

Stardust released its sample return capsule at 9:57 p.m. Pacific time (10:57 p.m. Mountain time) last night. The capsule entered the atmosphere four hours later at 1:57 a.m. Pacific time (2:57 a.m. Mountain time). The drogue and main parachutes deployed at 2:00 and 2:05 a.m. Pacific time, respectively (3:00 and 3:05 a.m. Mountain time).

"I have been waiting for this day since the early 1980s when Deputy Principal Investigator Dr. Peter Tsou of JPL and I designed a mission to collect comet dust," said Dr. Don Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator from the University of Washington, Seattle. "To see the capsule safely back on its home planet is a thrilling accomplishment."

The sample return capsule's science canister and its cargo of comet and interstellar dust particles will be stowed inside a special aluminum carrying case to await transfer to the Johnson Space Center, Houston, where it will be opened. NASA's Stardust mission traveled 2.88 billion miles during its seven-year round-trip odyssey. Scientists believe these precious samples will help provide answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar system.

Added 20:15 CST

Image credit: NASA/Ames

This image was taken by the DC-8 Stardust Observation Campaign flight. It shows Stardust as it is moving through the atmosphere.

Image credit: NASA

This NASA TV image shows NASA's Stardust sample return capsule being wheeled into a temporary cleanroom at the Michael Army Air Field in Utah. Earlier, the capsule successfully landed at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time (3:10 a.m. Mountain time). It contains cometary and interstellar samples gathered by the Stardust spacecraft. The capsule's science canister is safely stowed inside a special aluminum carrying case awaiting transportation to the Johnson Space Center, Houston, where it will be opened.

Astronomy, Science, Space

Final Approach

2006-01-14T18:36:00.000-06:00

Image Credit: NASA

The latest from JPL:

NASA's Stardust Passes Moon, Just Hours Away From Earth Return

Less than one day of space travel separates Earth and history's first comet sample return mission. Today at 9:30 a.m. Pacific time (10:30 a.m. Mountain time), the Stardust spacecraft will cross the moon's orbit as the craft makes its way toward Earth.

The final 400,000 kilometers (249,000 miles) of the mission to return a capsule containing cometary particles to Earth will take just 16 hours and 27 minutes. It took the Apollo astronauts about three days to make the same journey.

"Our entire flight and recovery team will be watching this final leg of our flight with tremendous expectation as we implement a precise celestial ballet in delivering our capsule to Earth," said Stardust Project Manager Tom Duxbury of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We feel like parents awaiting the return of a child who left us young and innocent, who now returns holding answers to the most profound questions of our solar system."

Prior to passing the moon's orbit, the spacecraft performed a final maneuver to place it on a precise path to reach its landing target on the Utah Test and Training Range. The burn, which took place yesterday at 8:53 p.m. Pacific time (9:53 p.m. Mountain time), took 58.5 seconds to complete and changed the spacecraft's velocity by 2.9 mph. At the time of the burn the spacecraft was about 706,000 kilometers (439,000 miles) from Earth.

Game on!

Reminder: NASA TV coverage of Stardust's return begins at 4:30 AM EST. Schedule (all times Eastern):

January 15, Sunday
4:30 a.m. - Stardust Capsule Return Commentary Begins (Capsule touchdown approx. 5:12 a.m.) - JPL (Mission Coverage)
7 a.m. - Stardust Capsule Return Videofile Feed - JPL (Mission Coverage)
7:15 a.m. - 9 a.m. - Stardust Capsule Return Commentary (Replay) - JPL (Mission Coverage)
9:00 a.m. - Stardust Post-Recovery News Briefing at Dugway Proving Ground - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing)
11 a.m. - Stardust Post-Recovery News Conference at Dugway Proving Ground (Replay) - JPL (Interactive Media Briefing)
12:50 p.m. - 1 p.m. - Stardust Reaction to Capsule Separation - JPL (Mission Coverage)
3:15 p.m. - 7 p.m. - Live News Interviews on Stardust with Don Yeomans - JPL (One-Way Media Interviews)

Previous articles:

Astronomy, Science, Space

Bloom

2006-01-14T03:29:00.000-06:00

Canon 20D & 50mm F/1.4 prime; 1/100" F/4 ISO-100

10 June 2005

Nature, Photography

Terminated

2006-01-14T02:41:00.000-06:00

View along the terminator, 16 April 2005.

Astronomy, Astrophotography, Moon

Surreal

2006-01-14T02:12:00.000-06:00

Canon 20D & 17-40mm L; 17mm 1/25" F/5.6 ISO-100

Canon 20D & 17-40mm L; 17mm 1/25" F/7.1 ISO-100

18 July 2005, Spicewood Texas.

Nature, Photography

Turbulence

2006-01-13T07:03:00.000-06:00

29 May 2005 -- Spicewood, Texas

Nature, Photography

Repair Pledge

2006-01-12T23:10:00.000-06:00

As I wrote in December, the future continues to brighten for the Hubble Space Telescope. While prudent to remain cautiously optimistic for the time being, it appears efforts to repair the orbital observatory have been gathering momentum.

The Hubble Space Telescope drifts through space in this picture, taken by Space Shuttle Discovery during Hubble’s second servicing mission in 1997. The 10-foot aperture door, open to admit light, closes to block out space debris. The observatory’s solar panels and foil-like thermal blankets are clearly visible. The solar panels provide power, while the thermal blankets protect Hubble from the extreme temperatures of space. (Image & caption courtesy: NASA)

Tuesday, at the at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington D.C., NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has affirmed his desire to repair Hubble, as reported by SpaceDaily.

Griffin: "NASA will, if at all possible, use one of the remaining flights of the space shuttle for Hubble servicing."

Astronaut Steve Smith works on Hubble during the second servicing mission in 1997 with a ratchet. NASA specially designed the power tool to withstand the harsh environment of space, making it an essential item during three different Hubble missions. Hubble was specifically built to be serviced in orbit with replaceable parts and instruments. Astronauts performed four days of spacewalks during the second servicing mission to replace instruments and repair the telescope.
(Image & caption: NASA)

"It is not our desire to sacrifice present-day scientific efforts for the sake of future benefits to be derived from exploration. We who run NASA today are doing our very best to preserve a robust science program in the face of some daunting fiscal realities that affect all domestic discretionary spending. These realities dictate that we set priorities."

The Hubble Space Telescope rests in the Space Shuttle Discovery’s cargo bay during the third repair mission in December 1999. Hubble must attach to the shuttle for astronauts to perform repairs. Discovery is the shuttle that originally carried Hubble into orbit in 1990. The telescope stretches five stories tall, and the tubular part of its body is 14 feet (4.2 m) across. Its school bus-size bulk completely filled Discovery’s cargo bay during the trip from Earth to space. (Image & caption: NASA)

The imagery and data released by HST this week alone have been phenomenal, serving as a noteworthy reminder of the telescope's scientific value.

Several hurdles still must be overcome before another Shuttle repair mission can be undertaken. Regardless, the situation is looking good. I'll eagerly post further updates as they become available.

Astronomy, Science, Space

Almost Home!

2006-01-12T19:58:00.000-06:00

Stardust, NASA's first cometary sample return mission, is hurtling back toward Earth and will arrive this coming Sunday. As I wrote previously, this mission is particularly exciting.

For a recap, check out this neat little flash animation courtesy of NASA.

Image Credit: NASA

NASA's Stardust mission return capsule will land Sunday, Jan. 15, at approximately 5:12 a.m. Eastern time on the Utah Test and Training Range. Stardust is completing a 2.88 billion mile round-trip odyssey to capture and return cometary and interstellar dust particles to Earth.

The spacecraft performs its last maneuver to put it on the correct path?to enter Earth's atmosphere on Friday, Jan. 13, at 8:53 p.m. Pacific time (9:53 p.m. Mountain time). The speed of the sample return capsule as it enters Earth's atmosphere at 46,440 kilometers per hour (28,860 miles per hour) will be the greatest of any human-made object on record. The previous record was set in May 1969 by the returning Apollo 10 command module.

The capsule will release a parachute at approximately 32 kilometers (105,000 feet) and descend to the salt flats. Weather permitting, it will be recovered by helicopter teams and taken to a cleanroom at the Michael Army Air Field, Dugway Proving Ground, for initial processing.

Stardust's current view of Earth

Stardust launched on Feb. 7, 1999, and encountered comet Wild 2 on Jan. 2, 2004. It flew less than 241 kilometers (150 miles) from the comet's nucleus to capture tiny grains of dust. During the voyage, the spacecraft captured bits of interstellar dust streaming into the solar system from other parts of the galaxy. Scientists believe these precious samples will help provide answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar system.

NASA TV coverage of the landing starts Sunday at 1:30 a.m. Pacific time (2:30 a.m. Mountain time) on the Public (101), Education (102) and Media (103) channels. NASA TV is available on an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. In Alaska and Hawaii, it's available on AMC-7 at 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal polarization. For NASA TV information and schedules on the Web, visit http://www.nasa.gov/ntv .

The last few hours of the Stardust mission will be filled with significant milestones. On Jan. 14 at 11:23 pm EST mission controllers will command the spacecraft to begin the computer-controlled sequence that will release the sample return capsule. On Jan. 15 at 12:56 am EST the Stardust spacecraft will complete the sequence by severing the umbilical cables between spacecraft and capsule. One minute later, springs aboard the spacecraft will literally push the capsule away. Fifteen minutes after release - while the sample return capsule continues its trajectory towards the Utah Test and Training Range, the Stardust spacecraft will perform a maneuver to place it in orbit around the Sun.

At 4:57 am EST, four hours after being released by the Stardust spacecraft, the capsule will enter Earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 125 kilometers (410,000 feet) over Northern Calif. At this point it will be 20 kilometers (12.43 miles) east of the coast and 22 kilometers (13.67 miles) south of the Oregon-California border. The velocity of the sample return capsule as it enters Earth's atmosphere at 46,440 kilometers per hour (28,860 miles per hour) will be the greatest of any human-made object on record. This will surpass the record set in May 1969 during the return of the Apollo 10 command module.

The capsule will release a drogue parachute at an altitude of approximately 32 kilometers (105,000 feet). Once the capsule has descended to an altitude of about 3 kilometers (10,000 feet) at 5:05 a.m. EST, the main parachute will deploy. The capsule is scheduled to land on the salt flats of the Utah Test and Training Range at 5:12 a.m. EST.

If weather conditions allow, the recovery team will be flown by helicopter to recover the capsule and fly it to the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, for initial processing. If weather does not allow helicopters to fly, special off-road vehicles will be used to transport the recovery team to retrieve the capsule and return it to Dugway. The collector grid with cometary and interstellar samples will be moved to a special laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, where they will be preserved and studied by scientists.

Those living out west have a chance to view Stardust's re-entry, weather permitting. Here's a map courtesy of Spaceweather.com showing the flightpath. As Dr. Phillips notes:

The best observing sites: near Carlin and Elko, Nevada, where the man-made meteor is expected to shine as much as 60 times brighter than Venus. The fireball should be visible from parts of Oregon, Idaho and Utah as well as California and Nevada.

Sounds like quite a sight!

Stay tuned.

Astronomy, Science, Space

Moon & Halo

2006-01-12T03:01:00.000-06:00

1/11/06
10:40 PM CST
95% waxing gibbous Moon
Orion XT10i & TeleVue 35mm Panoptic
Canon 20D & 17-40mm f/4L @ 40mm, f/7.1, 1/160" ISO-100
Eyepiece projection

The above image was taken just prior to zenith transit. About ten minutes later I was treated to a gorgeous lunar halo, which was a challenge to frame even pulling back to 17mm. Wish I'd had a faster lens at my disposal but I'll be rectifying that shortly. ;-)

Astrophotography, Moon, Photography

Hubble's New Views of M42

2006-01-11T16:46:00.000-06:00

This week's 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington D.C. has served as the backdrop for scientists announcing a veritable deluge of new discoveries, data, and imagery. On the third day of the conference, the Hubble Space Telescope team has now released this mammoth collection, targeting one of the most adored, recognizable targets in the cosmos: M42, the Great Orion Nebula.

NASA'S HUBBLE REVEALS THOUSANDS OF ORION NEBULA STARS
(STScI-PR06-01)

Credit: NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

In one of the most detailed astronomical images ever produced, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured an unprecedented look at the Orion Nebula. This turbulent star formation region is one of astronomy's most dramatic and photogenic celestial objects.
"Orion is a bustling cauldron of activity. This new large-scale Hubble image of the region reveals a treasure-house of beauty and astonishing detail for comprehensive scientific study," said Jennifer Wiseman, NASA's Hubble program scientist.

The crisp image is a tapestry of star formation. It varies from jets fired by stars still embedded in their dust and gas cocoons to disks of material encircling young stars that could be the building blocks of future solar systems.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

In a mosaic containing a billion pixels, Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys uncovered thousands of stars never seen before in visible light. Some are merely one-hundredth the brightness of previously viewed Orion stars.
Among the stars Hubble spotted for the first time in visible light in Orion were young brown dwarfs and a small population of possible binary brown dwarfs (two brown dwarfs orbiting each other). Brown dwarfs are so-called "failed stars." These cool objects are too small to be ordinary stars, because they cannot sustain nuclear fusion in their cores the way the sun does. Comparing the characteristics of newborn stars and brown dwarfs in their natal environment provides unique information about how they form.

"The wealth of information in this Hubble survey, including seeing stars of all sizes in one dense place, provides an extraordinary opportunity to study star formation," said observation leader Massimo Robberto of the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore. "Our goal is to calculate the masses and ages for these young stars, so that we can map their history and get a general scenario of the star formation in that region. We can then sort the stars by mass and age and look for trends."

Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

"In this bowl of stars we see the entire formation history of Orion printed into the features of the nebula: arcs, blobs, pillars, and rings of dust that resemble cigar smoke," Robberto said. "Each one tells a story of stellar winds from young stars that impact the environment and the material ejected from other stars. This appears to be a typical star-forming environment. Our sun may have been born 4.5 billion years ago in a cloud like this one."

This extensive study took 105 Hubble orbits to complete. All imaging instruments aboard the telescope were used simultaneously to study Orion. The Advanced Camera mosaic covers approximately the apparent angular size of the full moon.

Credit: NASA,ESA, M. Robberto (Space Telescope Science Institute/ESA) and the Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team

Included in this web-based release courtesy of HubbleSite is a video section containing over seven minutes of pertinent details. Be sure to check it out.

For more on the Orion Nebula, visit:

Coverage of this story on Space.com

And for more breathtaking imagery of this enigmatic region:

Astronomy, Astrophotography, Science, Space

Waxing Poetic

2006-01-11T05:21:00.000-06:00

Image Details:
1/11/06
2:51 AM CST
91% waxing gibbous Moon
Orion XT10i & TeleVue 35mm Panoptic
Canon 20D & 17-40mm f/4L @ 40mm, f/5.6, 1/125" ISO-100
Eyepiece projection
Larger resolution (180kb)

Can't help but wonder what I could muster with a rig actually designed for astrophotography. Anyone want to donate an apochromatic refractor? :-)

Astrophotography, Moon, Photography

Swirl

2006-01-10T19:37:00.000-06:00

Discovered on a distant corner of the hard drive, taken mid 2005.

Canon 20D & 17-40mm L; 17mm 1/15" F/4 ISO-100

Nature, Photography

Glow

2006-01-10T18:23:00.000-06:00

Canon 20D & 17-40mm L; 24mm 1/100" F/7.1 ISO-100

Nature, Photography

Galactic Polliwogs

2006-01-10T16:07:00.000-06:00

Yum. Check out Hubble's latest press release.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Straughn, S. Cohen and R. Windhorst (Arizona State University), and the HUDF team (STScI)

An analysis of the Hubble Space Telescope's deepest view of the universe offers compelling evidence that monster black holes in the centers of galaxies were not born big but grew over time through repeated galactic mergers.

"By studying distant galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), we have the first statistical evidence that supermassive black-hole growth is linked to the process of galaxy assembly," said astronomer Rogier Windhorst, of Arizona State University in Tempe, Ariz., and a member of the two teams that conducted the analysis. "Black holes grow by drawing in stars, gas, and dust. These morsels come more plentifully within their reach when galaxies merge."

The two teams will present their results in a press conference on Jan. 10 at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.

The HUDF studies also confirm the predictions of recent computer simulations by Lars Hernquist, Philip Hopkins, Tiziana di Matteo, and Volker Springel of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., that newly merging galaxies are enshrouded in so much dust that astronomers cannot see the black-hole feeding frenzy. The computer simulations, as supported by Hubble, suggest that it takes hundreds of millions to a billion years before enough dust clears so that astronomers can see the black holes feasting on stars and gas from the merger. The telltale sign that black holes are dining is seeing light from galaxies that varies with time.

The two HUDF teams believe they are seeing two distinct phases in galaxy evolution: the first phase —- the tadpole stage —- representing the early-merging systems where central black holes are still enshrouded in dust, and the much later "variable-object phase," in which the merged system has cleared out enough gas for the inner accretion disk around the black hole to become visible.

"The fact that these phases were almost entirely separate was a surprise, because it is commonly believed that galaxy mergers and central black-hole activity are closely related. Our nearby universe has mature galaxies, but in order to understand how they formed and evolved, we must study them over time," Windhorst explained. "The HUDF provides an actual look back in time to see snapshots of early galaxies so that we can study them when they were young."

A link between the growth of galaxies through mergers and the feeding of the central black holes has long been suspected. The evidence, however, has been inconclusive for many years. "The HUDF has provided very high-quality information. It is the first data we could use to test this theory, since it allowed us to study about 5,000 distant galaxies over a period of four months," said Seth Cohen of Arizona State University and leader of one of the teams.

The HUDF observations have now shed light on how the growth of monster black holes kept pace with that of galaxies. A team of astronomers, led by Amber Straughn of Arizona State University, searched the HUDF for "tadpole galaxies," so-called because they have bright knots and tails caused by mergers. These features are produced when the galaxies lose their gravitational grip on their stars, spewing some of those stars into space. The team found about 165 tadpole galaxies, representing about 6 percent of the 2,700 galaxies in the tadpole galaxy study.

"To our surprise, however, these tadpole objects did not show any fluctuation in brightness," Straughn said. "The flickering light — when it is present — comes from the material swirling around an accretion disk surrounding a black hole. The material is heated and begins to glow. As it spirals down toward the black hole, it can rapidly change in brightness. This study of tadpole galaxies suggests that black holes in newly merging galaxies are enshrouded in dust, and therefore, we cannot see them accreting material."

Cohen's team studied the brightness of about 4,600 HUDF objects over several weeks to many months. The Hubble team found that about 45 (non-tadpole) objects, representing 1 percent of the faint galaxies in the study, fluctuated significantly in brightness over time. This result indicates that the galaxies probably contain supermassive black holes that are feeding on stars or gas.

"A black hole's typical mealtime lasts at least a few dozen million years," Windhorst said. "This is equivalent to black holes spending no more than 15 minutes per day eating all their food —- a veritable fast food diet."

The HUDF analysis also reinforces previous Hubble telescope studies of monster black holes in the centers of nearby, massive galaxies. Those studies showed a close relationship between the mass of a galaxy's "central bulge" of stars and that of the central black hole. Galaxies today have central black holes with masses ranging from a few million to a few billion solar masses.

What phenomenal work! Peering back billions of years into the past has a certain magic to it. Truly compelling.

Astronomy, Science, Space

Pathetic Paranormal Pandering

2006-01-09T22:14:00.000-06:00

While reading on the Skeptics Society message board today, I happened across one of the most disgusting things I've seen in recent memory.

9/11 Victims Speak Out in New Book

"Above Us Only Sky: A View of 9/11 from the Spirit World,” is the first to channel the accounts of 9/11 from its victims.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) January 6, 2006 -- Author and spiritual medium Sarah Price has released “Above Us Only Sky: A View of 9/11 from the Spirit World,” her new book comprising channeled messages from victims of 9/11 and “spirit witnesses.” The book is the first to bring the words of the victims to the public post-9/11.

The book was written after “vivid dreams and a need to be of help to 9/11 victims became overwhelming and unavoidable,” Price says. Soon, she was inundated by messages that needed to be passed on, and the book was born.

The 9/11 victim chapters are divided into seven sections: Flt. 11, Flt. 93, Flt. 77, Flight 175, The Pentagon, The Rescue Workers, and The World Trade Center Towers. The last section comprises the accounts of victims who had to leap from the towers. For this reason, only first names are used.

Among the spirit witnesses are Anne Frank, Christopher Reeve, President John F. Kennedy, John Lennon and NBC journalist David Bloom, who bring their own insights on the events of 9/11 and advice on life in general."

Unbelievable. As if we didn't already have enough to contend with on the subject. The cottage industry of September 11th conspiracy garbage and related marketing ploys persist to this day, senselessly trampling upon thousands of innocent casualties. Not only the victims' lost lives are tastelessly being dragged through the mud along with their surviving relatives and loved ones, but also the cumulative sum of law enforcement, firefighters and emergency responders, vast scores of civil servants from municipal, state, and federal levels who suffered losses of their friends and peers. Incredible numbers of dedicated professionals labored tirelessly around the clock for months, performing grisly search and recovery tasks I couldn't imagine in my worst nightmares.

Now, along comes Sarah Price, some ethically devoid, two-bit "medium" who claims "psychic" abilities, purportedly channeling spirits of the deceased from the great beyond. These assertions constitute nothing new. Any number of misguided paranormal believers delude themselves into thinking they can accomplish these or similar varieties of magical acts, despite there not being an iota of empirical evidence demonstrating the validity of such extraordinary claims. Some may innocently think they possess supernatural abilities, others solely attempt to bilk funds from the uninformed masses; those who unfortunately fail to recognize the nonsense for what it is.

Does Price offer her "services" free of charge? Nope. She charges $75 a pop for "mediumistic readings." According to her website, she also has a similar book planned in the near future:

My next book is channeled messages from servicemen and women who have passed away in the war in Iraq. I am working directly with the families on this project, so if you have lost a family member in the war and would like to participate, please e-mail me. 50% of the proceeds will go to American Gold Star Mothers, to help with sending supplies to service members who are still in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I have a better idea -- since I doubt Price's book sales will total $500,000...

The James Randi Educational Foundation offers a $1,000,000 prize to anyone who can demonstrate these alleged abilities under double-blind test conditions designed to root out chicanery. Despite a number of applicants, the purse remains unclaimed. As it's ripe for the taking, Sarah Price should apply for the JREF Million Dollar Challenge. If her abilities are indeed genuine, she could easily secure the cash and donate half of the proceeds to these and similar charitable organizations. I won't hold my breath.

Michael Shermer's words echoed in my head as I waded through all this tripe -- as he wrote in Deconstructing the Dead (Scientific American, August 2001):

Sooner or later we all will face this inevitability [death], starting, in the normal course of events, with the loss of our parents, then siblings and friends, and eventually ourselves. It is a grim outcome under the best of circumstances, made all the worse when death comes early or accidentally to those whose "time was not up." As those who traffic in the business of loss, death, and grief know all too well, we are often at our most vulnerable at such times. Giving deep thought to this reality can cause the most controlled and rational among us to succumb to our emotions.

The reason John Edward, James Van Praagh, and the other so-called mediums are unethical and dangerous is that they are not helping anyone in what they are doing. They are simply preying on the emotions of grieving people. As all loss, death, and grief counselors know, the best way to deal with death is to face it head on. Death is a part of life, and pretending that the dead are gathering in a television studio in New York to talk twaddle with a former ballroom-dance instructor is an insult to the intelligence and humanity of the living.

We have the real, depictive records of what took place on September 11th. Truly compelling and horrifying stories of survivors. Recordings and transcripts from the police and firefighter communications, cell phone conversations from passengers on the hijacked flights -- some knew death was imminent, others did not. Some willingly sacrificed their lives in attempt to save others'. These events serve as painful reminders of humanity's nature, the best and the worst of which our species is capable. Absolutely no justification exists for defiling this somber reality with fairy-tale irrationality.

This vile shyster, whether intentionally or not, has managed to insult innumerable victims, loved ones, cherished memories. Her completely deplorable actions merely rub salt into the unhealed wounds of an entire nation while attempting to profit at the expense of the innocent dead, wholly undeserving of being swept into this transparent sham.

Pathetic.

Critical Thinking, Skepticism

Rays & Cloudscape

2006-01-09T20:13:00.000-06:00

This evening's sky offered a lovely scene.

Canon 20D & 17-40 f/4 L at f/5; exposures between 1/640" and 1/1000", ISO 100

Nature, Photography

Hubble: Triple Play

2006-01-09T15:13:00.000-06:00

This just in from the folks at HST:

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, N. Evans (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), and H. Bond (STScI)

We tend to think of the North Star, Polaris, as a steady, solitary point of light that guided sailors in ages past. But there is more to the North Star than meets the eye. The North Star is actually a triple star system. And while one companion can be seen easily through small telescopes, the other hugs Polaris so tightly that it has never been seen – until now.

By stretching the capabilities of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to the limit, astronomers have photographed the close companion of Polaris for the first time. They presented their findings today in a press conference at the 207th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, D.C.

"The star we observed is so close to Polaris that we needed every available bit of Hubble's resolution to see it," said Smithsonian astronomer Nancy Evans (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics). The companion proved to be less than two-tenths of an arcsecond from Polaris — an incredibly tiny angle equivalent to the apparent diameter of a quarter located 19 miles away. At the system's distance of 430 light-years, that translates into a separation of about 2 billion miles.

"The brightness difference between the two stars made it even more difficult to resolve them," stated Howard Bond of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI). Polaris is a supergiant more than two thousand times brighter than the Sun, while its companion is a main-sequence star. "With Hubble, we've pulled the North Star's companion out of the shadows and into the spotlight."

By watching the motion of the companion star, Evans and her colleagues expect to learn not only the stars' orbits but also their masses. Measuring the mass of a star is one of the most difficult tasks facing stellar astronomers.

Astronomers want to determine the mass of Polaris accurately, because it is the nearest Cepheid variable star. Cepheids' brightness variations are used to measure the distances of galaxies and the expansion rate of the universe, so it is essential to understand their physics and evolution. Knowing their mass is the most important ingredient in this understanding.

"Studying binary stars is the best available way to measure the masses of stars," said science team member Gail Schaefer of STScI.

"We only have the binary stars that nature provided us," added Bond. "With the best instruments like Hubble, we can push farther into space and study more of them up close."

The researchers plan to continue observing the Polaris system for several years. In that time, the movement of the small companion in its 30-year orbit around the primary should be detectable.

"Our ultimate goal is the get an accurate mass for Polaris," said Evans. "To do that, the next milestone is to measure the motion of the companion in its orbit."

Cool news!

Astronomy, Science, Space

Sol's Departure

2006-01-09T01:10:00.000-06:00

Lovely sunset this evening gracing the Hill Country.

Canon 20D & 17-40mm L; 40mm 1/500" F/4.5 ISO-100

Pulling back out to 25mm (full image) yields a partial sundog or some sort of neat atmospheric refraction at right.

40mm, 1/400"

Photography

January Moon #2

2006-01-08T23:30:00.000-06:00

Similarly poor observing contitions tonight to the last, unfortunately. The only difference this evening was a relative lack of wind.

Below are a pair of additional images taken under less-than-desirable circumstances. Just for experimentation's sake, tonight (using the same equipment as in the last lunar entry) I shot with the 50mm prime wide open at f/1.4. Not a tremendous difference considering the overall system focal length & f-ratio. To truly accomplish the caliber of images I'm after, I'll have to buckle down at some point and add an apochromatic refractor to the stable of gear.

1/50"

1/25"

Anyone unfamiliar with lunar surface features might enjoy a visit to the Lunar Republic Society's Full Moon Atlas. Fun, interactive resource.

Astrophotography, Moon, Photography

Tranquility

2006-01-08T08:37:00.000-06:00

Canon 20D w/17-40 f/4 L

Photography

January Moon

2006-01-07T22:36:00.000-06:00

Tonight's observing session was short-lived due to poor seeing and gusty winds, despite excellent atmospheric transparency. Regardless, I still seized the opportunity to grab a couple of afocal lunar shots.

10" dobsonian & Canon 20D w/50mm prime

f/2, 1/30", ISO 100

f/2, 1/60", ISO 100

Addendum: in my zeal to post the images, I only included EXIF data from the camera exposures, above.

Technically speaking...

The dobsonian has a focal length of 1200mm, with 254mm of aperture. Using my TeleVue 24mm Pan provided a magnification of 50x. The resulting effective system focal length factoring in the lens equalled 2500mm, yielding a system f-ratio of f/9.8 in total.

Astrophotography, Moon, Photography

Texas Governor: Teach ID

2006-01-07T16:02:00.000-06:00

Here in the Lone Star State, Governor Rick Perry claims a staunch committment to education and related reforms. Our esteemed gubernatorial leader, up for re-election in 2006, has made it a point to underscore his vested interest in guaranteeing the highest quality of instruction possible for young Texans.

"Education reform has been a top priority for Governor Perry during his 20 years of public service. He has worked to increase state spending on education by nearly $7 billion in the last six years; has focused on improving learning in core subject areas like math, reading and science; and has proposed targeted incentives tied to achievement in the classroom.

Governor Perry believes school finance reform is first and foremost about improving the quality of education in Texas classrooms. He wants to reward our best and brightest teachers that succeed in the hardest learning environments, focus dollars on improving performance among students that speak English as a second language, and encourage more students to take our hardest course of study so they are better prepared for college.

Under Governor Perry, Texas is the first state in the nation to make a college-prep curriculum the standard coursework in Texas high schools, starting with the class of 2008. We are leading the way in innovative reforms to raise performance, such as providing personalized study guides for students that fail state assessments, and individualized graduation plans for students at-risk of failure.

By raising the bar, strengthening the curriculum, focusing resources on schools that need the most help, we can ensure more students learn, grow and succeed."

Unfortunately, Perry's concept of "raising the bar" also includes the teaching of "intelligent design" in the state's educational system, as reported yesterday by the Austin American-Statesman:

Perry "supports the teaching of the theory of intelligent design," spokeswoman Kathy Walt said. "Texas schools teach the theory of evolution; intelligent design is a valid scientific theory, and he believes it should be taught as well."
She said elements of creationism are consistent with intelligent design and that teaching different theories is part of developing students' critical thinking skills.

Marvin Olasky, a University of Texas journalism professor who has written favorably on intelligent design, credited Perry with "advancing discussion of this issue. I find it refreshing that he's saying it. The issue is not going to go away."

Just what our state's educational system needs: a hearty infusion of religiously-motivated, pseudoscientific nonsense. What better means could there be for paving future generations' way than dumbing down our biology curricula, assuring that an entire generation of Texas youth grows up more credulous and scientifically misinformed than the last?

Governor Perry: you, sir, are a hypocrite of the utmost magnitude. Countless Texans firmly devoted to improving the quality of science education will ensure you never achieve this utterly contumelious goal. This issue will definitely not go away. "Intelligent design" bears no resemblance to science -- it's merely a grandiose argument from incredulity, one that has absolutely no place in our state's science classrooms.

Perhaps the governor will be able to offer further intellectual gems on his '06 campaign trail along the same lines as the "Adios, mofo" incident (video available here).

Come election time, I certainly hope we can echo that same fond farewell message.

Education, Evolution, News

Echoes of the Martian Past

2006-01-06T17:19:00.000-06:00

Fresh on the heels of yesterday's article featuring the MERs, this press release and image and accompanying imagery were just released today. Positively brilliant find, offering a look back into the red planet's history when conditions were dramatically different.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

This image from the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity shows the best examples yet seen in Meridiani Planum outcrop rocks of well-preserved, fine-scale layering and what geologists call "cross-lamination." Opportunity acquired this image of a rock called "Overgaard" at the edge of "Erebus Crater" during the rover's 690th Martian day (Jan. 2, 2006).

The uppermost part of the rock, just above the center of the image and in the enlargement at top, shows distinctive centimeter-sized, smile-shaped features that sedimentary geologists call "festoons." The detailed geometric patterns of such nested sets of concave-upward layers in sedimentary rocks imply the presence of small, sinuous sand ripples that form only in water on Earth. Similar festoon cross-lamination and other distinctive sedimentary layer patterns are also visible in the lower parts of the rock, just left of center, and in other rocks near the rim of Erebus. Essentially, these features are the preserved remnants of tiny (centimeter-sized) underwater sand dunes formed long ago by waves in shallow water on the surface of Mars.

This image was obtained in the late afternoon (4:15 p.m. local solar time) using the panoramic camera's 430 nanometer filter.

Close-Up of 'Festoon' Pattern

Mars, Science, Space

Abuzz

2006-01-06T12:42:00.000-06:00

Okay, granted, we've just entered 2006; I can't help but be reminded though that spring is just around the corner. Those of us in central Texas end up being a bit ahead of the curve. ;-)

In a matter of weeks, nature will spring back to life. I'm very much looking forward to getting another, more extensive crack at photographing some of life's little treasures. Moreso now that I'm much more comfortable with my weapon of choice, the Canon 20D.

Thought I'd share these just to brighten the day for anyone stuck in winter's throes. These images were taken my first day with the then-new DSLR using this 50mm f/1.4 prime.

Both images taken @ f/6.3, 1/500", ISO 200

If I can play my cards right, I'll end up adding another lens or two to the stable before spring's full swing. Can't wait!

Nature, Photography

Intellectual Dishonesty Institute

2006-01-05T18:39:00.000-06:00

The predictable anti-science fallout from the Kitzmiller et al. v. Dover Area School District decision continues. As I wrote previously, the deplorable rhetoric pouring from advocates of "intelligent design" carries the stench of stark ignorance blended with that of sour grapes.

There's a marvelous new piece posted on the National Center for Science Education's website, penned by Kevin Padian and Nick Matzke which further exposes the fraudulent claims being posited from one of our nation's worst enemies of biological evolution: Seattle-based conservative think tank, The Discovery Institute.

Here's my favorite excerpt:

"The fact is, the Discovery Institute took a terrible beating in this trial. “Intelligent Design,” their main industry, which they have peddled relentlessly for over a decade as the Next Great Idea in science, was revealed as religion, not science at all. The DI’s “wedge strategy” was exposed and established as a crypto-fundamentalist Christian ideology of politics and social change. Their alleged “experts” withdrew, leaving the defense in confusion. Their amicus briefs were ignored by the Judge, and their attempt to append the “expert witness report” of Stephen Meyer, who had canceled his testimony, was angrily rebuffed. And after the trial, the DI’s Washington office head, Mark Ryland, publicly squabbled with the TMLC’s Richard Thompson, who claimed that the DI had promised support and then cut and run.

It’s over for the Discovery Institute. Turn out the lights. The fat lady has sung. The emperor of ID has no clothes. The bluff is over. Oh sure, they’ll continue to pump out the blather. They’ll find more funding, at least for a while, from some committed ideologue or another. But no one with any objectivity will take them seriously any longer as scientists. They had their fair chance, and they blew it."

Mmm. Truth hurts. Sadly, truth clearly isn't #1 on the Discovery Institute's list of priorities. Their religio-political agenda shines through in each subsequent tantrum thrown. And the whole world is watching. Priceless.

Education, Evolution, Science

Roving On and On...

2006-01-05T15:19:00.000-06:00

Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day features a gorgeous new mosaic from the red planet.

The Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, will go down in history with distinction, being one of the most rewarding planetary science efforts ever undertaken. Originally designed for a mere 90 days apiece of Martian surface exploration and data collection, the robotic wanderers have surpassed any and all expectations for longevity and quality scientific return. Spirit and Opportunity have both marked impressive milestones in the last two months, each celebrating over one Martian year of successful surface operations.

Aided by unforseen cleaning events which have kept the MERs' solar panels from accumulating the expected amount of the red planet's dust, as well as absolutely brilliant program management and engineering, Spirit and Opportunity both continue their treks across the inhospitable environment of Mars, yielding a veritable wealth of imagery and data -- enough to keep planetary scientists busy for years.

Below are two new & noteworthy press releases.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
(View Press Release)

This bird's-eye view combines a self-portrait of the spacecraft deck and a panoramic mosaic of the Martian surface as viewed by NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. The rover's solar panels are still gleaming in the sunlight, having acquired only a thin veneer of dust two years after the rover landed and commenced exploring the red planet. Spirit captured this 360-degree panorama on the summit of "Husband Hill" inside Mars' Gusev Crater. During the period from Spirit's Martian days, or sols, 583 to 586 (Aug. 24 to 27, 2005), the rover's panoramic camera acquired the hundreds of individual frames for this largest panorama ever photographed by Spirit.

This image is an approximately true-color rendering using the camera's 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 480-nanometer filters for the Martian surface, and the 600-nanometer, 530-nanometer, and 480-nanometer filters for the rover deck. This polar projection is a compromise between a cylindrical projection ( #1; #2), which provides the best view of the terrain, and a vertical projection, which provides the best view of the deck but distorts the terrain far from the rover. The view is presented with geometric seam correction.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
(View Press Release)

The panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit took the hundreds of images combined into this 360-degree view, the "Husband Hill Summit" panorama. The images were acquired on Spirit's sols 583 to 586 (Aug. 24 to 27, 2005), shortly after the rover reached the crest of "Husband Hill" inside Mars' Gusev Crater. This is the largest panorama yet acquired from either Spirit or Opportunity. The panoramic camera shot 653 separate images in 6 different filters, encompassing the rover's deck and the full 360 degrees of surface rocks and soils visible to the camera from this position. This is the first time the camera has been used to image the entire rover deck and visible surface from the same position. Stitching together of all the images took significant effort because of the large changes in resolution and parallax across the scene.

The image is an approximately true-color rendering using the 750-nanometer, 530-nanometer and 480-nanometer filters for the surface, and the 600-nanometer and 480-nanometer filters for the rover deck. Image-to-image seams have been eliminated from the sky portion of the mosaic to better simulate the vista a person standing on Mars would see.

This panorama provided the team's first view of the "Inner Basin" region (center of the image), including the enigmatic "Home Plate" feature seen from orbital data. After investigating the summit area, Spirit drove downhill to get to the Inner Basin region. Spirit arrived at the summit from the west, along the direction of the rover tracks seen in the middle right of the panorama. The peaks of "McCool Hill" and "Ramon Hill" can be seen on the horizon near the center of the panorama. The summit region itself is a broad, windswept plateau. Spirit spent more than a month exploring the summit region, measuring the chemistry and mineralogy of soils and rocky outcrops at the peak of Husband Hill for comparison with similar measurements obtained during the ascent.

For more ongoing coverage of the MERs, be sure to visit The Planetary Society's indepth look at this phenomenal mission.

Science, Space

Our Hollow Heads

2006-01-04T17:24:00.000-06:00

Image credit: NASA

Oh, goody.

"Would you be interested in a once-in-a-lifetime chance to discover Our Hollow Earth first hand? If so, we invite you to join us for an expedition to the North Pole with Steve Currey, one of the leading river explorers in the world!

Indigenous Eskimos believe that there is a hole in the Arctic Ocean and observations by several Arctic explorers like Olaf Jansen and Rear Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd, U.S.N., who claim to have seen mirages of exposed land near the North Pole, indicate that the most plausible location for an opening is located at 84.4 N Latitude, 141 E Longitude.

Steve Currey's Expedition Company has chartered the Russian Nuclear IceBreaker YAMAL, to take 100 adventurers to the North Pole for an expedition to conduct scientific observations that could resolve once and for all whether the Hollow Earth Theory has any validity!"

Precisely the opportunity I've eagerly awaited. For a paltry $20,000, you too can pay a visit to... "Our Hollow Earth," courtesy of Steve Currey's Expedition company. Yes, that's right: these nutters allege that there may very well be a polar portal of sorts, via which paying customers can access the purportedly wondrous reaches of our planet's interior.

I particularly like the caveat presented on the "journey's" itinerary:

"* Please note that if we are unable to find the Polar opening, we will be returning via the New Siberian Islands to visit skeleton remains of exotic animals thought to originate from Inner Earth."

Does it sound far-fetched? Naaaah. Thankfully the proprietors offer this nice bit of anecdote in order to convince the evil, pessimistic skeptic types.

Are people really this dense? Sheesh. What a joke!

Critical thinking, Earth, Skepticism

Amazing Astrophotography, pt. III

2006-01-03T14:39:00.000-06:00

The fourth and final sequence of our journey...

I first became aware of Tom Davis' work via the Astrophotography section of the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today bulletin board, where I'm a member of the forum staff. From his Idaho-based Starsearch Observatory, Davis has been producing fantastic images of the cosmos, and holds an ever-growing number of image publications to his credit (including the BBC's Sky at Night Magazine). Thanks to his kind permission, this article contains my personal favorite endeavors he's completed over the last year. Clicking on each of the images below will take you to larger-resolution versions in Tom's image gallery -- please note the images are copyrighted and may not be reprinted without the author's permission.

Antares-Rho Ophiuchus region
© 2005 Thomas V. Davis

A truly mezmerizing portion of the summer night sky, sharing the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus. At the bottom-left of the photo sits the red supergiant Antares, which at a distance of 600LY is 10,000 times more luminous than our Sun. To its right is M4, one of our nearer globular clusters, beautifully represented in Tom's image. Above this massive globular appear Sigma and Tau Scorpii, known together as Al Niyat. Rho Ophiuchus is visible toward the center of the image at top amidst a reflection nebula, illuminated by its output. Magnificent image, rich with complexity. This photo was featured on Fraser Cain's Universe Today website, Sep 28, 2005. When I finally am able to secure the proper equipment for serious astrophotography and follow suit, this will definitely be item #1 in my crosshairs.

NGC 869 & 884, Perseus Double Cluster
© 2005 Thomas V. Davis

This pair of open clusters in the constellation Perseus remains a favorite of my observing targets (and many others'), reminiscent of precious jewels strewn across the rich, black velvet of space. The prominent duo, accounting for a jaw-dropping 6500 solar masses in total, dazzles through binoculars, small refractors, and moreso through larger apertures. My favorite observing weapons of choice through my 10" dobsonian include TeleVue 24mm and 35mm Panoptic eyepieces. Tom's magnificent image was featured as the Astronomy Picture of the Day, October 11th, 2005.

IC 405 Flaming Star Nebula
© 2005 Thomas V. Davis

Just... wow. Davis' shot of this wonderful region in the constellation Auriga is amongst the finest I've ever seen. Tom writes on his gallery:

"IC405 is created by the radiant energy of AE Auriga, a highly energetic variable star. This star was formed in M42 but was ejected by gravitational interactions with other stars. AE Auriga is just passing through this nebulosity; it was not formed from it. Both reflection and emission nebulae are presenting this amazing nebula."

Fantastic detail! This artful depiction was featured as the Astronomy Picture of the Day back on October 18th of 2005.

Many thanks to Tom Davis for allowing me to showcase some of his work here on The Den. Be sure to visit his image galleries at tvdavisastropics.com -- and, for you budding astrophotographers out there, don't miss Fraser Cain's podcast interview with Tom, available from Universe Today.

This concludes my (now) three-part series illustrating my favorite astrophotographs of 2005. I hope you've enjoyed trip.

Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Space

Amazing Astrophotography Redux

2006-01-02T13:16:00.000-06:00

Editor's note:

I had originally intended on showcasing the following images in my previous article, but had not yet received permission from the author to include them before the last installment went live (... and I was trying to have the article posted prior to the end of 2005). It's just as well, since the last entry really started to get busy with all the necessary formatting -- my poor WYSIWYG interface was vehemently protesting . ;-)

And now for the third leg of our voyage in part II of this installment...

Stefan Seip's accomplishments clearly stand out in the astrophotography community. He's not only a consummate and diverse photographer but also displays astounding prowess in the realm of astronomical imaging. Seip's images have been prominently featured in a slew of major astronomy publications as well as in cyberspace, including an impressive 11 APODs to his credit. I've been a big fan of his for quite some time, and after you view my favorites he's assembled in the last year, you'll see precisely why. Clicking on each of the images below will take you directly to larger-resolution versions on Stefan's website (which, by the way, is every bit as impressive as his photos -- marvelous design). As in my prior entry, the following works are copyrighted and may not be used or reproduced without the author's permission.

Beta Cygni
© 2005 Stefan Seip
Click here for image details

One of the perennial favorite targets for amateur astronomers, Alberio (Beta Cygni) in the contellation Cygnus is one of the true jewels of the night sky. This binary delights even through relatively small aperture refractors or binoculars. That beauty, however, does not easily translate to photographs. A cursory review of imagery available on the web will quickly illustrate the difficult nature of capturing its brilliance. Stefan's image above is quite simply the best of its kind yet taken. Bravo!

H-alpha and Calcium Sun
© 2005 Stefan Seip
Click here for image details

Sol, our Sun, as you've likely never seen. Using a delightfully original approach, Stefan took separate images of the Sun in Hydrogen alpha and ionized Calcium (a.k.a. Calcium K) wavelengths at 656.3 nm & 393.4 nm respectively. Then, as he writes:

"I made a third, new image (the big Sun at the right) by calculating the difference of both pictures. The result is a totally new view showing H-alpha details as well as CaK details in the chromosphere. It looks 3 dimensional. I hope you like that one as much as I do."

You bet!

NGC 6992 - Veil Nebula, eastern segment
© 2005 Stefan Seip
Click here for image details

Within the constellation Cygnus some 1400 light-years distant, the Veil Nebula's ghostly beauty displays the remnants of a supernova that occurred several thousand years ago. This particular segment of the larger supernova remnant is a favorite subject of many astrophotographers. While I've seen some marvelous images of this region, Seip's is especially breathtaking. What a phenomenal amount of background starfield detail! Gorgeous.

Comet C/2004 Q2 (Machholz) Meets the Pleiades
© 2005 Stefan Seip
Click here for image details

And lastly, my favorite to date of Seip's portfolio.

This image was featured as the Astronomy Picture of the Day back on January 11th, 2005. On January 7th of last year, C/2004 Q2 passed within a mere couple of degrees of the Seven Sisters (M45), providing a marvelous photo opportunity for properly-equipped stargazers. Stefan's image of this meeting simply reigns supreme. In addition to a brilliant capture of the coma, note the fantastic amount of detail visible in the comet's ion and dust tails, with the former streaking brilliantly across the Pleiades' nebulosity. Absolutely amazing.

Many thanks to Stefan Seip for granting permission for his inspiring work to be included here on my little corner of the web. Be sure to visit his online image galleries to feast upon a multitude of similarly stunning photographs.

Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography, Space

Amazing Astrophotography

2005-12-31T23:06:00.000-06:00

Technological advances over the years have made astrophotography & CCD imaging more accessible than ever to interested amateurs. Those willing to sacrifice the time, effort, capital (and sleep ;-)), while maintaining the necessary intestinal fortitude to tackle a substantially long learning curve inevitably reap the sweet fruits of their labor by producing breathtaking imagery. As if observational astronomy weren't already rewarding enough, astrophotography opens our window to the cosmos even wider, providing the opportunity for immense amounts of detail to be captured beyond what our eyes can distinguish via astronomical optics alone.

It's simple enough to muster "decent" images with a relative minimum of gear and modest cunning. Since I presently lack the required funds to delve into high-end imaging equipment and the obligatory peripherals, I can cheat a bit with my trusty 10" dobsonian by snapping images afocally -- just barely enough to scratch my ever-growing astrophotographical itch. For now. Unlike my hackish, photon-thieving chicanery, the experienced, dedicated astrophotographers out there have converted an enjoyable hobby into a truly polished form of art.

With that in mind...

Some purely awe-inspiring images were released in 2005. I felt utterly compelled to compose an entry paying homage to my personal favorites in the hope of sharing their beauty with others. The authors featured in this article have generously allowed me to showcase their works, and for that I'm most appreciative. Please note that the images below are all copyrighted works and property of their respective owners.

I can think of no better way to begin the new year by celebrating the magnificent beauty of the universe and the steadfast efforts of those who capture its wondrous nature so beautifully.

Lets begin our tour on terra firma. Astronomer Jim Scotti captured this brilliant scene in November:

Meteor, clouds and domes
© James V. Scotti pixofmyuniverse.blogspot.com

He writes:

"This is the view out my back door - well, sort of. While observing at the Spacewatch 1.8-m telescope on Saturday morning, Nov. 26 (or not observing in this case thanks to wind and clouds), I took this photo as part of a timelapse set. I caught a rather nice meteor to go along with the clouds and domes. From the left is the Spacewatch 36 inch (0.9-m) telescope, the Steward Observatory 90 inch Bok telescope and the KPNO 4-meter Mayall telescope. The clouds and domes are lit by the crescent moon (partly obscured by the clouds) & the lights of Tucson."

Marvelous! Be sure to visit Jim's photoblog -- he serves up excellent photographs spanning numerous subjects. Wish I had the benefit of a professional observatory to serve as a backdrop for the subjects I shoot. ;-)

Next stop: Space.

Russell Croman is undoubtedly one of my favorite astro- photographers. His images have garnered widespread acclaim, and I'm truly envious of both the arsenal at his disposal as well as his technical expertise and painstaking attention to detail. The following series highlights my personal favorites he's assembled in the last year. Clicking on each image will take you to the corresponding entries on Russell's website where you may view larger-resolution versions and the pertinent image details.

The Merope Nebula
© 2005 Russell Croman, www.rc-astro.com

Merope, one of the Seven Sisters in the Pleiades (M45) open cluster resides with its siblings in the constellation Taurus, a cozy 385 light-years away from Earth. The star basks in a prominent reflection nebula, NGC 1435, illuminating the molecular cloud's wispy tendrils. This is without question the finest image of the region I've ever seen. Absolutely stunning.

Spiral Galaxy M81
© 2005 Russell Croman, www.rc-astro.com

Bode's Galaxy, M81 (NGC 3031), originally discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774, is a striking type Sb spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. Its beauty remains completely intact even at a distance of 12,000,000 LY. A truly magnificent spiral specimen.

The Fox Fur Nebula
© 2005 Russell Croman, www.rc-astro.com

This image was featured as the Astronomy Picture of the Day on March 14th 2005. Located in the constellation Monoceros, this dynamic region is, in my opinion, one of the cosmos' finest artistic formations. Variable mammoth S Monocerotis, the brightest star (well, binary) visible in the field above & left of center, blazes away yielding 217,000 times the luminosity of our Sun -- the heavyweight accounts for a mindboggling 35 solar masses -- and illuminates surrounding dust via reflection with a surreal bluish hue. Truly an amazing region, and an equally incredible image.

Dazzling Color

2005-12-31T19:48:00.000-06:00

If I didn't know better, I'd swear the fine folks at Cassini were determined to keep me jumping through hoops. It's proving quite a challenge to stay on top of the magnificent imagery returned with such an impressive degree of frequency.

In Time for Saturn, I'd already selected my favorite Cassini releases for 2005. After that came The Face of Beauty which necessitated an addendum to my prior list. That'll teach me post prematurely in the future. ;-)

Well, enter gorgeous addendum #2. Somehow the below press release and photo eluded my radar until earlier today.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Cool and icy Dione floats in front of giant Saturn bedecked in a dazzling array of colors.
The surface of Dione, which exhibits contrasting bright and dark areas when viewed up close, appears pale in this image. It is Saturn's multi-hued cloud bands that boldly steal the show. Discrete clouds and eddies in Saturn's northern hemisphere can be seen within the faint shadows of the rings on the planet. Dione is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across.

Cassini is in a phase of its mission in which its orbit will be nearly equatorial for some time. This view was obtained from about one-third of a degree out of the ring plane.

Images taken with red, green and blue filters were used to create this natural-color view. The images were obtained with the wide-angle camera on Sept. 22, 2005, from a distance of approximately 803,000 kilometers (499,000 miles) from Dione and at a sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase, angle of about 43 degrees. The image scale is about 48 kilometers (30 miles) per pixel.

Here's the complete press release (including larger-resolution imagery) courtesy of NASA's Planetary Photojournal.

What next? Cassini has developed this nasty habit of exponentially raising the bar for beauty with each stride. Incredible.

Astronomy, Space

New Horizons Gears for Launch

2005-12-30T18:37:00.000-06:00

Image Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)

Artist's concept of the New Horizons spacecraft during a planned encounter with Pluto and its moon, Charon. The craft's miniature cameras, radio science experiment, ultraviolet and infrared spectrometers and space plasma experiments would characterize the global geology and geomorphology of Pluto and Charon, map their surface compositions and temperatures, and examine Pluto's atmosphere in detail. The spacecraft's most prominent design feature is a nearly 8-foot (2.1-meter) dish antenna, through which it would communicate with Earth from as far as 4.7 billion miles (7.5 billion kilometers) away.

"The First Mission to the Last Planet" draws closer to liftoff, with the launch window for NASA's New Horizons probe opening in just under three weeks. This mission is particularly exciting -- it aims to offer invaluable observations & data about the more distant reaches of our solar system on into the Kuiper Belt. Announcement of recent discoveries like the two new moons found orbiting Pluto greatly underscores our need to further study these distant bodies. (Speaking of which, Max Mutchler from STScI will be speaking on that very topic January 3rd, 2006.) There's still much to learn about Pluto, Charon and its smaller neighbors -- the study of which will also further aid our understanding of our own backyard, and more.

Among the probe's goals:

New Horizons: Mission Objectives

Map surface composition of Pluto and Charon
Characterize geology and morphology ("the look") of Pluto and Charon
Characterize the neutral atmosphere of Pluto and its escape rate
Search for an atmosphere around Charon
Map surface temperatures on Pluto and Charon
Search for rings and additional satellites around Pluto
PLUS... conduct similar investigations of one or more Kuiper Belt Objects

Almost ready! Image credit: NASA

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. – The fairing enclosing New Horizons awaits further processing upon its arrival atop a Lockheed Martin Atlas V launch vehicle in the Vertical Integration Facility at Complex 41 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. New Horizons carries seven scientific instruments that will characterize the global geology and geomorphology of Pluto and its moon Charon, map their surface compositions and temperatures, and examine Pluto's complex atmosphere. After that, flybys of Kuiper Belt objects from even farther in the solar system may be undertaken in an extended mission. New Horizons is the first mission in NASA's New Frontiers program of medium-class planetary missions. The spacecraft, designed for NASA by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., will launch aboard a Lockheed Martin Atlas V rocket and fly by Pluto and Charon as early as summer 2015.

This recent press release offers an excellent overview:

NASA is preparing to launch the first spacecraft to distant Pluto and its moon Charon. The January 2006 launch of New Horizons will complete the initial reconnaissance of the planets in the solar system.

"New Horizons will study a unique world, and we can only imagine what we may learn. This is a prime example of scientific missions that complement the Vision for Space Exploration," said Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

The Vision for Space Exploration is a bold new course into the cosmos, a journey that will return the space shuttle safely to flight, complete the construction of the International Space Station, take humans back to the moon and eventually to Mars and beyond.

The National Academy of Sciences has ranked the exploration of Pluto-Charon and the Kuiper Belt among the highest priorities for space exploration, citing the fundamental scientific importance of these bodies to advancing understanding of our solar system.

Different than the inner, rocky planets (like Earth) or the outer gas giants, Pluto is a different type of planet known as an "ice dwarf," commonly found in the Kuiper Belt region billions of miles from the sun.

"Exploring Pluto and the Kuiper Belt is like conducting an archeological dig into the history of the outer solar system, a place where we can peek into the ancient era of planetary formation," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator, Southwest Research Institute Department of Space Studies, Boulder, Colo.

Designed and built at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., pending launch approval, New Horizons is set to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., no earlier than Jan. 17, 2006. The launch window extends until Feb. 14, 2006.

The compact, 1,050-pound piano-sized probe will launch aboard an Atlas V expendable launch vehicle, followed by a boost from a kick-stage solid propellant motor. New Horizons will be the fastest spacecraft ever launched, reaching lunar orbit distance in just nine hours and passing Jupiter 13 months later.

Launch before Feb. 3 allows New Horizons to fly past Jupiter in early 2007 and use the planet's gravity as a slingshot toward Pluto. The Jupiter flyby trims the trip to Pluto by five years and provides opportunities to test the spacecraft's instruments and flyby capabilities on the Jupiter system.

The New Horizons science payload, developed under direction of Southwest Research Institute, includes imaging infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers, a multi-color camera, a long-range telescopic camera, two particle spectrometers, a space-dust detector and a radio science experiment. The dust counter was designed and built by students at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Depending on its launch date, New Horizons could reach the Pluto system as early as mid-2015, conducting a five-month-long study possible only from the close-up vantage of a spacecraft. It will characterize the global geology and geomorphology of Pluto and Charon, map their surface compositions and temperatures, and examine Pluto's atmospheric composition and structure. New Horizons also will study the small moons recently discovered in the Pluto system.

The spacecraft will "sleep" in electronic hibernation for much of the cruise to Pluto. Operators will turn off all but the most critical electronic systems and monitor the spacecraft once a year to check out critical systems, calibrate instruments and perform course corrections, if necessary.

The spacecraft will send back a beacon signal each week to give operators an instant read on spacecraft health. The entire spacecraft, drawing electricity from a single radioisotope thermoelectric generator, operates on less power than a pair of 100-watt household light bulbs.

Ambitious to say the least, and the science return from this endeavor promises to be fantastic even though a noteworthy wait is involved. The mission logistics are highly complex, as illustrated by the timeline of events -- just navigating successfully and accurately over such phenomenal distances is no simple task. Principal Investigator Alan Stern and the New Horizons team definitely have a great deal of work ahead which will take years to culminate.

Best wishes to all involved for a great launch and smooth sailing.
Stay tuned!

For more goodies, drop by the coverage offered by The Planetary Society.

Science, Space

Cassini Spots Tethys' Steep Scarps

2005-12-30T10:27:00.000-06:00

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

What an intriguing landscape! Saturn's moon Tethys is relatively small, a mere 659 miles in diameter, and orbits the ringed gas giant at a distance of over 180,000 mi. As evidenced by an increasing number of similar fantastic images though, great things do indeed come in small packages.

Image details are in this latest press release:

This view of the surface of Saturn's moon Tethys, taken during Cassini's close approach to the moon on Sept. 24, 2005, reveals an icy land of steep cliffs. The view is of the southernmost extent of Ithaca Chasma, in a region not seen by NASA's Voyager spacecraft.

The ridges around Ithaca Chasma have been thoroughly hammered by impacts. This appearance suggests that Ithaca Chasma as a whole is very old.

There is brighter material in the floors of many craters on Tethys. That's the opposite situation from Saturn's oddly tumbling moon Hyperion, where dark material is concentrated in the bottoms of many craters.

This view is centered on terrain at approximately 2.5 degrees south latitude and 352 degrees west longitude on Tethys. North on Tethys is toward the right in this view.

This clear filter view was obtained using the Cassini spacecraft narrow-angle camera at a distance of approximately 32,300 kilometers (20,000 miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 20 degrees. Image scale is 190 meters (620 feet) per pixel.

For more on Tethys, visit Bill Arnett's page and view previous entries in NASA's Planetary Photojournal.

Astronomy, Space

Chandra Turns Earthbound!

2005-12-29T12:41:00.000-06:00

On February 15, 2004, Chandra observed X-rays produced by an aurora in the north-polar region of Earth. The X-rays, superimposed on a model of Earth, are seen as the violet-yellow-red arc stretching from northern Canada on the upper left to the Hudson Bay on the lower right. To obtain this data, Chandra was aimed at a fixed point in the sky, and the Earth's motion carried the auroral regions through the field of view. The shadowed area defines the day-night boundary at sea level. The X-ray activity is taking place at approximately 100 kilometers above the Earth. Scale: Distance from the North pole to the black circle is 3,340 km (2,075 miles)

Now this came as a welcome surprise to me. The Chandra X-Ray Observatory has been returning marvelous science for some time now, but I was unaware that direct terrestrial study was within its capabilities! This new press release contains some really neat tidbits:

Image Credits: NASA/MSFC/CXC/A.Bhardwaj & R.Elsner, et al.;
Earth model: NASA/GSFC/L.Perkins & G.Shirah

In an unusual observation, a team of scientists has scanned the northern polar region of Earth with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. The results show that the aurora borealis, or "northern lights," also dance in X-ray light, creating changing bright arcs of X-ray energy above the Earth's surface.

While other satellite observations had previously detected high-energy X-rays from the Earth auroras, the latest Chandra observations reveal low-energy X-rays generated during auroral activity for the first time.

The researchers, led by Dr. Ron Elsner of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., used Chandra to observe the Earth 10 times over a four-month period in 2004. The images were created from approximately 20-minute scans during which Chandra was aimed at a fixed point in the sky and the Earth's motion carried the auroral regions through Chandra's field of view.

From the ground, the aurora are well known to change dramatically over time and this is the case in X-ray light as well. The X-rays in this sample of the Chandra observations, which have been superimposed on a simulated image of the Earth, are seen here at four different epochs.

Nice!

Speaking of aurorae, Dr. Tony Phillips has just added a most impressive "mega-gallery" of aurora photographs, including every single image ever posted on Spaceweather.com. If you haven't surfed the aurora galleries there in the past, be sure to check it out -- I could kill untold hours there. For more, also visit this page devoted to aurorae courtesy of the Exploratorium.

Astronomy, Earth, Science

Sunset Series

2005-12-29T01:08:00.000-06:00

Gorgeous central Texas sunset photographed by yours truly, December 28th. This lovely sequence ended a relatively persistent bout of bland twilit evenings. All images taken manually with Canon 20D & EF 17-40mm f/4L lens @ f/5.6, ISO 100.

1/80"; 23mm (larger res.)

1/100", 23mm (larger res.)

1/125", 40mm (larger res.)

1/80", 27mm (larger res.)

1/80", 40mm (larger res.)

1/40", 40mm (larger res.)

Nature, Photography

Media Mooned by Uranus

2005-12-28T15:59:00.000-06:00

Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)

Bad media alert!

This press release from last week (which I posted about here) details the Hubble Telescope's discovery of two new Uranian moons as well as a pair of newly observed rings around the distant gas giant. Unfortunately, a syndicated news story has circulated and been reproduced without some necessary fact-checking. Lisa M. Krieger's article, Discoveries on Uranus full of drama, mystery is currently making its rounds on affilliated outlets, proclaiming:

The new moons, named Cupid and Mab after Shakespearean characters, bring the number of moons circling Uranus to 27 - the most of any planet.

Doh! I'm not quite sure how she arrived at that conclusion, but it's wrong. Jupiter currently has 63 confirmed satellites; Saturn has 47 to its credit including newly-discovered bodies in 2005. Uranus trails in third place behind its more massive neighbors with 27. You can view the current tallies on Scott Sheppard's web page.

Okay, errors happen. This one's just rather, well, surprising.

Astronomy, News, Science, Space

T9 / Titan's Halo

2005-12-28T01:53:00.000-06:00

Cassini closed out its 2005 itinerary with another Titan fly-by on December 26th, marking its ninth close encounter with Saturn's largest and most enigmatic moon. The latest image released from this most recent rendezvous has just been posted, here. Meanwhile, the below image was just published today on NASA's Planetary Photojournal. Clicking the image will take you to the site and press release. It's a beaut. :-)

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

With its thick, distended atmosphere, Titan's orange globe shines softly, encircled by a thin halo of purple light-scattering haze.
Images taken using blue, green and red spectral filters were used to create this enhanced-color view; the color images were combined with an ultraviolet view that makes the high-altitude, detached layer of haze visible. The ultraviolet part of the composite image was given a purplish hue to match the bluish-purple color of the upper atmospheric haze seen in visible light.

Small particles that populate high hazes in Titan's atmosphere scatter short wavelengths more efficiently than longer visible or infrared wavelengths, so the best possible observations of the detached layer are made in ultraviolet light.

The images in this view were taken by the Cassini narrow-angle camera on May 5, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) from Titan and at a sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 137 degrees. Image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel.

Astronomy, Space

Cometary Medley

2005-12-27T07:52:00.000-06:00

Comet C/2001 Q4 (NEAT)

Image Credit: NASA, NOAO, NSF, T. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage),
Z. Levay and L.Frattare (Space Telescope Science Institute)

The folks over at Space.com have added a spiffy new feature on comets as part of their Universal Sky Tour.

Check out the presentation:
Comets: Marvelous Messengers/Deliverers of Dread.

Astronomy, Space

The Face of Beauty

2005-12-25T22:55:00.000-06:00

Leave it to the Cassini team to release another awe-inspiring image of Saturn after I'd already posted my favorites of 2005. Consider this an addendum to that list.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

Few sights in the solar system are more strikingly beautiful than softly hued Saturn embraced by the shadows of its stately rings.

The gas planet's subtle northward gradation from gold to azure is a striking visual effect that scientists don't fully understand. Current thinking says that it may be related to seasonal influences, tied to the cold temperatures in the northern (winter) hemisphere. Despite Cassini's revelations, Saturn remains a world of mystery.

Currently, the rings' shadows shield the mid-northern latitudes from the harshest of the sun's rays. As Saturn travels around the sun in its 29-year orbit, the shadows will narrow and head southward, eventually blanketing the opposite hemisphere.

Images taken with blue, green and red spectral filters were used to create this color view, which approximates the scene as it would appear to the human eye. The view was brightened to enhance detail visible in the rings and within their shadows.

The images were obtained with the Cassini wide-angle camera from a distance of approximately 999,000 kilometers (621,000 miles) from Saturn on May 4, 2005, as the spacecraft cruised a few degrees above the ring plane. The image scale is about 60 kilometers (37 miles) per pixel on Saturn.

Just... wow.

Astronomy, Space

Luna

2005-12-25T21:52:00.000-06:00

The more time I spend observing the Moon, the more fascinated I become with lunar geology and surface features. For being a rather barren place it sure has a great deal to offer. Here's a recent series of afocal photos taken with a Canon 20D and powered by my venerable 10" dobsonian.

Langrenus, Vendelinus, Petavius & Fernerius on the limb.

Mmm. Maria.

Centered on Copernicus. At the far left, the Hortensius volcanic domes are visible.

Eratosthenes and the Montes Apenninus.

Copernicus, Eratosthenes & co.

Target: Clavius.

Get the spackle!

The ejecta from Tycho (out of the frame) prominently spans across the lunar surface.

If you have the time, equipment, and motivation, give the Lunar 100 a shot.

Astronomy, Astrophotography, Photography

Favorite Photos of the Year

2005-12-25T04:12:00.000-06:00

The title says it all. The following images were taken by me using my trusty Canon 20D.

State Capitol here in beautiful Austin, Texas.

Bee visiting a bluebonnet in my yard.

Mare Imbrium on the Moon.

The Moon & Venus. Dr. Tony Phillips published this image on Spaceweather.com -- it was featured on the main page for several days. :-)

Storm brewing, Memorial Day 2005. Thankfully it didn't clobber me.

Beautiful sunset. The image does no justice.

Thanks for looking. ;-)

Photography, Astrophotography

HST Hits '05

2005-12-23T01:21:00.000-06:00

The Hubble Space Telescope continues to impress, delivering yet another year of breathtaking imagery. With 2005 being nearly history I thought I'd share my favorites.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Full press release

The Hubble Space Telescope's latest image of the star V838 Monocerotis (V838 Mon) reveals dramatic changes in the illumination of surrounding dusty cloud structures. The effect, called a light echo, has been unveiling never-before-seen dust patterns ever since the star suddenly brightened for several weeks in early 2002.

The illumination of interstellar dust comes from the red supergiant star at the middle of the image, which gave off a pulse of light three years ago, somewhat similar to setting off a flashbulb in a darkened room. The dust surrounding V838 Mon may have been ejected from the star during a previous explosion, similar to the 2002 event.

The echoing of light through space is similar to the echoing of sound through air. As light from the stellar explosion continues to propagate outwards, different parts of the surrounding dust are illuminated, just as a sound echo bounces off of objects near the source, and later, objects further from the source. Eventually, when light from the back side of the nebula begins to arrive, the light echo will give the illusion of contracting, and finally it will disappear.

Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Clarke (Boston University), and Z. Levay (STScI)
Full press release

These images reveal the dynamic nature of Saturn's auroras. Viewing the planet's southern polar region for several days, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped a series of photographs of the aurora dancing in the sky. The snapshots show that Saturn's auroras differ in character from day to day, as they do on Earth, moving around on some days and remaining stationary on others. But compared with Earth, where auroral storms develop in about 10 minutes and may last for a few hours, Saturn's auroral displays always appear bright and may last for several days.

The observations, made by Hubble and the Cassini spacecraft, while enroute to the planet, suggest that Saturn's auroral storms are driven mainly by the pressure of the solar wind — a stream of charged particles from the Sun — rather than by the Sun's magnetic field.

Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Full press release

The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space. They are actually long lanes of stars and gas laced with dust.

This sharpest-ever image of the Whirlpool Galaxy, taken in January 2005 with the Advanced Camera for Surveys aboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, illustrates a spiral galaxy's grand design, from its curving spiral arms, where young stars reside, to its yellowish central core, a home of older stars. The galaxy is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its swirling structure.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA ); Full press release

Appearing like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula. The soaring tower is 9.5 light-years or about 57 trillion miles high, about twice the distance from our Sun to the next nearest star.

Stars in the Eagle Nebula are born in clouds of cold hydrogen gas that reside in chaotic neighborhoods, where energy from young stars sculpts fantasy-like landscapes in the gas. The tower may be a giant incubator for those newborn stars. A torrent of ultraviolet light from a band of massive, hot, young stars [off the top of the image] is eroding the pillar.

The starlight also is responsible for illuminating the tower's rough surface. Ghostly streamers of gas can be seen boiling off this surface, creating the haze around the structure and highlighting its three-dimensional shape. The column is silhouetted against the background glow of more distant gas.

The edge of the dark hydrogen cloud at the top of the tower is resisting erosion, in a manner similar to that of brush among a field of prairie grass that is being swept up by fire. The fire quickly burns the grass but slows down when it encounters the dense brush. In this celestial case, thick clouds of hydrogen gas and dust have survived longer than their surroundings in the face of a blast of ultraviolet light from the hot, young stars.

Credit: NASA, ESA, The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (Cornell University) and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute); Full press release

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope snapped this picture of Mars on October 28, within a day of its closest approach to Earth on the night of October 29. Hubble astronomers were also excited to have captured a regional dust storm on Mars that has been growing and evolving over the past few weeks.

Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)
Full press release

This is a mosaic image, one of the largest ever taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion. Japanese and Chinese astronomers recorded this violent event nearly 1,000 years ago in 1054, as did, almost certainly, Native Americans.

The orange filaments are the tattered remains of the star and consist mostly of hydrogen. The rapidly spinning neutron star embedded in the center of the nebula is the dynamo powering the nebula's eerie interior bluish glow. The blue light comes from electrons whirling at nearly the speed of light around magnetic field lines from the neutron star. The neutron star, like a lighthouse, ejects twin beams of radiation that appear to pulse 30 times a second due to the neutron star's rotation. A neutron star is the crushed ultra-dense core of the exploded star.

Visit the Hubble Heritage Gallery and HubbleSite for a great deal more.

Astronomy, Space

Presto! New Rings & Moons

2005-12-22T14:11:00.000-06:00

Photo Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI Institute)

Hot off the presses:

To the surprise of astronomers, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has photographed a pair of new rings around the distant planet Uranus. The largest is twice the diameter of the planet's previously known rings. The new rings are so far away that they are being called Uranus's "second ring system."

In addition, Hubble has spied two small satellites, one sharing its orbit with one of the newly discovered rings. Even more surprisingly, precise analysis of the data reveals that the orbits of Uranus's family of inner moons have changed significantly in the last decade. Collectively, these new discoveries mean that Uranus has a densely packed, rapidly changing, and possibly unstable dynamical system of orbiting bodies. "The new discoveries dramatically demonstrate that Uranus has a youthful and dynamic system of rings and moons," says Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute. "Until now nobody had a clue the rings were there, we had no right to expect them."

Read the full press release from Hubble here.

Sweet!

Drop by the BA Blog to catch Phil Plait's take on the news.

*Addendum (12/23): There was a minor error in the above entry, which Phil corrected in this subsequent addition.

Astronomy, Space

Stardust Nears Home

2005-12-21T23:13:00.000-06:00

Image credit: NASA

We are stardust, we are golden
And we got to get ourselves back to the garden
-- Crosby, Stills & Nash

After a rendezvous with comet Wild 2 (pronounced "Vilt") in January of 2004, Stardust's cometary sample return is presently speeding back home to the garden for a highly anticipated arrival January 15th. I find this mission particularly exciting, as it offers our first opportunity to perform an Earthbound examination of materials from one of the cosmos' many time capsules. The propect of capturing invaluable cometary particles and interstellar dust may sound relatively simple. It isn't. Enter: Aerogel.

The primary objective of the Stardust mission is to capture both cometary samples and interstellar dust. Main challenges to accomplishing this successfully involve slowing down the particles from their high velocity with minimal heating or other effects that would cause their physical alteration. When the Stardust Spacecraft encounters the Comet Wild 2, the impact velocity of the particles will be up to 6 times the speed of a rifle bullet. Although the captured particles will each be smaller than a grain of sand, high-speed capture could alter their shape and chemical composition - or even vaporize them entirely.

To collect particles without damaging them, Stardust uses an extraordinary substance called aerogel. This is a silicon-based solid with a porous, sponge-like structure in which 99.8 percent of the volume is empty space. By comparison, aerogel is 1,000 times less dense than glass, which is another silicon-based solid. When a particle hits the aerogel, it buries itself in the material, creating a carrot-shaped track up to 200 times its own length. This slows it down and brings the sample to a relatively gradual stop. Since aerogel is mostly transparent - with a distinctive smoky blue cast - scientists will use these tracks to find the tiny particles.

The scientific payoff yielded by this endeavor promises to be magnificent, as noted by Stardust's Principal Investigator, Dr. Donald Brownlee:

It is widely believed that comets are the best bodies for preserving the very materials that the solar system was built from. Like a fantastic library, they have stored preserved materials and records of our formation. The gaseous emissions can be analyzed from a distance either by telescopes on or orbiting Earth or by instruments on spacecraft sent to comets. The dust and rocks are another matter. They are believed to be samples of the solid building blocks of the solar system, samples of the solids that began the process of collision and sticking in the early history of the solar system that began with dust and produced ever larger bodies, and ultimately whole solid planets like Earth, Mars and Pluto. Some information can be obtained by telescopic study of the dust but the real secrets of the material cannot be examined remotely. On scales from kilometers to microns (a hair is about 100 microns in diameter) primitive materials just look like black charcoal. They are black due to their high content of carbon and other light absorbing materials and most of their components are so small that they cannot be individually seen by the naked eye. Like books in a library, they have to be opened and read but in this case the words are small, very small. So small they can only be read by large microscopes and other instruments that are too heavy, complex and power hungry to be put onto robotic spacecraft.

Stardust's current view of home.

In September 8th of 2004, a similar sample return mission designed to directly measure the solar wind, Genesis, unfortunately experienced a nasty 193 m.p.h. (311 k.p.h.) introduction to the Utah soil. An oboard design flaw resulted in the capsule's parachutes failure to deploy. Thankfully, however, it appears the Genesis team will be able to complete some if not all of their science objectives.

The Genesis mishap prompted a thorough review of Stardust's design. Project manager Thomas Duxbury remains confident that Stardust's sample return capsule will fare much better than its predecessor.

NASA issued this press release today:

NASA Prepares for Return of Interstellar Cargo

NASA's Stardust mission is nearing Earth after a 2.88 billion mile round-trip journey to return cometary and interstellar dust particles back to Earth. Scientists believe the cargo will help provide answers to fundamental questions about comets and the origins of the solar system.

The velocity of the sample return capsule, as it enters the Earth's atmosphere at 28,860 mph, will be the fastest of any human-made object on record. It surpasses the record set in May 1969 during the return of the Apollo 10 command module. The capsule is scheduled to return on Jan. 15.

"Comets are some of the most informative occupants of the solar system. The more we can learn from science exploration missions like Stardust, the more we can prepare for human exploration to the moon, Mars and beyond," said Mary Cleave, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

Several events must occur before scientists can retrieve cosmic samples from the capsule landing at the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range, southwest of Salt Lake City. Mission navigators will command the spacecraft to perform targeting maneuvers on Jan. 5 and 13. On Jan. 15 at 12:57 a.m. EST, Stardust will release its sample return capsule. Four hours later, the capsule will enter Earth's atmosphere 410,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean.

The capsule will release a drogue parachute at approximately 105,000 feet. Once the capsule has descended to about 10,000 feet, the main parachute will deploy. The capsule is scheduled to land on the range at 5:12 a.m. EST.

After the capsule lands, if conditions allow, a helicopter crew will fly it to the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, for initial processing. If weather does not allow helicopters to fly, special off-road vehicles will retrieve the capsule and return it to Dugway. Samples will be moved to a special laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston, where they will be preserved and studied.

"Locked within the cometary particles is unique chemical and physical information that could be the record of the formation of the planets and the materials from which they were made," said Don Brownlee, Stardust principal investigator at the University of Washington, Seattle.

NASA expects most of the collected particles to be no more than a third of a millimeter across. Scientists will slice these particle samples into even smaller pieces for study.

Best wishes for a smooth return and soft landing!

Astronomy, Space

It's Over in Dover

2005-12-20T19:37:00.000-06:00

Score another one for the good guys. Science prevails again.

Today, U.S. District Judge John E. Jones rendered the ruling many were hoping to see, bringing the Kitzmiller et al v. Dover Area School District case to a fitting end. The court's opinion delivered yet further stinging blows to "intelligent design" advocates and their anti-science, religious agenda. Jones' 139-page decision is available for viewing in its entirety here (.pdf), and conclusively states:

The proper application of both the endorsement and Lemon tests to the facts of this case makes it abundantly clear that the Board’s ID Policy violates the Establishment Clause. In making this determination, we have addressed the seminal question of whether ID is science. We have concluded that it is not, and moreover that ID cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents.

Both Defendants and many of the leading proponents of ID make a bedrock assumption which is utterly false. Their presupposition is that evolutionary theory is antithetical to a belief in the existence of a supreme being and to religion in general. Repeatedly in this trial, Plaintiffs’ scientific experts testified that the theory of evolution represents good science, is overwhelmingly accepted by the scientific community, and that it in no way conflicts with, nor does it deny, the existence of a divine creator.

To be sure, Darwin’s theory of evolution is imperfect. However, the fact that a scientific theory cannot yet render an explanation on every point should not be used as a pretext to thrust an untestable alternative hypothesis grounded in religion into the science classroom or to misrepresent well-established scientific propositions.

The citizens of the Dover area were poorly served by the members of the Board who voted for the ID Policy. It is ironic that several of these individuals, who so staunchly and proudly touted their religious convictions in public, would time and again lie to cover their tracks and disguise the real purpose behind the ID Policy.

And now for my favorite portion of the court's opinion:

To preserve the separation of church and state mandated by the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, and Art. I, § 3 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, we will enter an order permanently enjoining Defendants from maintaining the ID Policy in any school within the Dover Area School District, from requiring teachers to denigrate or disparage the scientific theory of evolution, and from requiring teachers to refer to a religious, alternative theory known as ID.

Bravo.

One of America's most egregious anti-science organizations, the Discovery Institute, fired back with this press release immediately after the court's opinion was delivered today. I find this particularly funny:

"The Dover decision is an attempt by an activist federal judge to stop the spread of a scientific idea and even to prevent criticism of Darwinian evolution through government-imposed censorship rather than open debate, and it won't work," said Dr. John West, Associate Director of the Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute, the nation's leading think tank researching the scientific theory known as intelligent design. “He has conflated Discovery Institute’s position with that of the Dover school board, and he totally misrepresents intelligent design and the motivations of the scientists who research it.”

Sour grapes anyone? Why I find this ill-tempered response especially humorous (albeit predictable) -- Judge Jones' opinion not only included the following...:

Those who disagree with our holding will likely mark it as the product of an activist judge. If so, they will have erred as this is manifestly not an activist Court. Rather, this case came to us as the result of the activism of an ill-informed faction on a school board, aided by a national public interest law firm eager to find a constitutional test case on ID, who in combination drove the Board to adopt an imprudent and ultimately unconstitutional policy. The breathtaking inanity of the Board’s decision is evident when considered against the factual backdrop which has now been fully revealed through this trial. The students, parents, and teachers of the Dover Area School District deserved better than to be dragged into this legal maelstrom, with its resulting utter waste of monetary and personal resources.

... but Jones himself was appointed by President Bush, whose pro-ID, evangelical stance has been evident for some time. Holy psychic powers, Batman! Perhaps His Honor should have applied for James Randi's $1,000,000 Paranormal Challenge beforehand. ;-)

The ID advocates' intellectual dishonesty once again takes the stage, visible to the nation and the rest of the world.

For further coverage of this story, surf on over to:

Science, Education, Evolution

Time for Saturn

2005-12-19T19:57:00.000-06:00

Time Magazine currently showcases their editors' picks for the top ten images of the year shown in their Pictures of the Week feature. Viewers can vote on this page for their favorite choice. Choosing the obvious winner is rather academic, don't you think? ;-)

With the year drawing to a close, I can't help but be reminded of all the marvelous imagery (and science) returned by Cassini in 2005. As such I felt compelled to offer this little photo retrospective.

Here are my nominations for Cassini's Best of 2005. Clicking on each image will take you to the NASA Planetary Photojournal where you can view larger resolution versions and the respective image captions in their entirety. (All images & text captions credited to NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.) In chronological order:

Mimas drifts along in its orbit against the azure backdrop of Saturn's northern latitudes in this true color view. The long, dark lines on the atmosphere are shadows cast by the planet's rings.

While cruising around Saturn in early October 2004, Cassini captured a series of images that have been composed into the largest, most detailed, global natural color view of Saturn and its rings ever made.

This grand mosaic consists of 126 images acquired in a tile-like fashion, covering one end of Saturn's rings to the other and the entire planet in between. The images were taken over the course of two hours on Oct. 6, 2004, while Cassini was approximately 6.3 million kilometers (3.9 million miles) from Saturn. Since the view seen by Cassini during this time changed very little, no re-projection or alteration of any of the images was necessary.

As it swooped past the south pole of Saturn's moon Enceladus on July 14, 2005, Cassini acquired high resolution views of this puzzling ice world. From afar, Enceladus exhibits a bizarre mixture of softened craters and complex, fractured terrains.

This excellent grouping of three moons -- Dione, Tethys and Pandora -- near the rings provides a sampling of the diversity of worlds that exists in Saturn's realm.

A 330-kilometer-wide (205 mile) impact basin can be seen near the bottom right on Dione (at left). Ithaca Chasma and the region imaged during the Cassini spacecraft's Sept. 24, 2005, flyby can be seen on Tethys (middle). Little Pandora makes a good showing here as well, displaying a hint of surface detail.

Tethys is on the far side of the rings in this view; Dione and Pandora are much nearer to the Cassini spacecraft.

The dark Cassini Division, within Saturn's rings, contains a great deal of structure, as seen in this color image. The sharp inner boundary of the division (left of center) is the outer edge of the massive B ring and is maintained by the gravitational influence of the moon Mimas.

Spectroscopic observations by Cassini indicate that the Cassini Division, similar to the C ring, contains more contaminated ice than do the B and A rings on either side.

This view is centered on a region approximately 118,500 kilometers (73,600 miles) from Saturn's center. (Saturn is 120,500-kilometers-wide (74,900 miles) at its equator.) From left to right, the image spans approximately 11,000 kilometers (6,800 miles) across the ringplane.

Dione's southern polar region (shown here) contains fractures whose softened appearance suggests that they have different ages than the bright braided fractures seen in the image to the north. This region is also notably brighter than the near equatorial terrain at the top of the image.

At the center, several of the bright, radial streaks mark a feature named Cassandra, which may be a rayed crater or a tectonic feature.

This view of Dione (1,118 kilometers, or 695 miles across) captures high southern latitudes on the moon's trailing hemisphere.

Speeding toward pale, icy Dione, Cassini's view is enriched by the tranquil gold and blue hues of Saturn in the distance. The horizontal stripes near the bottom of the image are Saturn's rings. The spacecraft was nearly in the plane of the rings when the images were taken, thinning them by perspective and masking their awesome scale. The thin, curving shadows of the C ring and part of the B ring adorn the northern latitudes visible here, a reminder of the rings' grandeur.

Truly amazing work -- and this is just the tip of the iceberg. I greatly anticipate seeing what marvels the Cassini team will return in 2006 and beyond.

Astronomy, Space

Hubble Hopes

2005-12-19T00:43:00.000-06:00

Photo credit: NASA

Not long ago in the wake of the Columbia accident and during Sean O'Keefe's reign as NASA administrator it appeared that the Hubble telescope's days were numbered. As recently as this spring the proposed robotic servicing mission appeared overly ambitious, logistically complex, and cost-prohibitive. The most concrete news delivered to long-time HST fans like myself consisted of a deorbit plan.

Enter the new (& present) NASA head honcho, Mike Griffin. He delivered a very different message than his predecessor, and it didn't take long -- speaking about Hubble during his confirmation hearings, he said:

"The decision not to execute the planned shuttle servicing mission was made in the immediate aftermath of the loss of shuttle Columbia." When we return to flight, it will be with essentially a new vehicle that will have a new risk analysis associated with it.... At that time, I think we should reassess the earlier decision in light of what we learn after the return-to-flight."

The man knows how to make an entrance.

Under this new leadership, two weeks ago the tone grew even more positive with this development:

"Preparations for a shuttle mission to upgrade and repair the Hubble Space Telescope in late 2007 or early 2008 are picking up steam as engineers map out the details of a five-spacewalk flight designed to keep the venerable observatory alive and well through at least 2013.
Servicing Mission 4, canceled by former NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe in January 2004, is expected to be officially reinstated by current Administrator Mike Griffin if the next shuttle mission, STS-121, goes smoothly and if ongoing analyses show the flight can be conducted in relative safety."

And as of four days ago, things are yet again looking up. The House Committee on Science released the following in their agreement on the space agency's latest authorization bill:

"The final version of the bill includes most of the provisions from both the House and Senate bills. The bill directs NASA to carry out programs in human space flight, aeronautics, space science, earth science and microgravity research, and it endorses President Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration. The bill authorizes about $17.9 billion for NASA in fiscal year 2007 and about $18.7 billion in fiscal year 2008 – significantly more than provided for the outyears in the Administration’s fiscal year 2006 budget request."

Included in the major provisions is an endorsement for a "Shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope if it can be accomplished safely."

I'm trying to remain cautiously optimistic about the possibility of SM-4 being reinstated. There are still hurdles to overcome, most notably the foam-shedding issue with the Shuttle's external tank. So, the venerable telescope is not entirely out of the woods yet. At present rate, however, its fate seems a great deal more promising than previously thought, despite the Bush administration's absence of fondness for one of history's greatest scientific instruments.

More to come.

Astronomy, Space

Science Skids

2005-12-18T19:30:00.000-06:00

I approach published statistics with a grain of salt, particularly where run-of-the-mill media polls are concerned. The pitfalls of errant extrapolation should be obvious: a given issue or situation might appear dramatically worse than in actuality. Even armed with ample amounts of sodium chloride, however, it's quite clear that our society faces some alarming territory ahead unless we significantly improve the quality of science education in the United States.

As reported recently in the New York Times (Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much):

"Over the last three decades, Dr. Miller has regularly surveyed his fellow citizens for clients as diverse as the National Science Foundation, European government agencies and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. People who track Americans' attitudes toward science routinely cite his deep knowledge and long track record.
'I think we should pay attention to him,' said Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, who cites Dr. Miller's work in her efforts to advance the cause of evolution in the classroom. 'We ignore public understanding of science at our peril.'
Rolf F. Lehming, who directs the science foundation's surveys on understanding of science, calls him 'absolutely authoritative.'
Dr. Miller's data reveal some yawning gaps in basic knowledge. American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century."

My jaw dropped to the desk after reading the above, bolded finding. I can't help but wonder what Galileo Galilei would think.

With my first paragraph's caveats fresh in mind, let's examine some similarly disturbing results from the court of public opinion. Spend some time reviewing the results compiled here by PollingReport.com. Pay special attention to the first section detailing the public's views on the origin of human life.

A number of political pundits have taken pot shots at the current administration and its supporters, insinuating that the fringe right-wing constituents account for the vast majority of these pressing educational woes. While I certainly appreciate that sentiment, in all fairness the numbers illustrate rather clearly the prevalent and worrisome nature of these problems. They transcend political affiliations, plaguing American society in general.

Sciences aren't the only subjects on the slide. I can't help but recall the results offered by the 2002 Roper National Geographic Survey:

"Among young Americans’ startling knowledge gaps, the study found that:
nearly 30 percent of those surveyed could not find the Pacific Ocean, the world’s largest body of water;
more than half—56 percent—were unable to locate India, home to 17 percent of people on Earth; and
only 19 percent could name four countries that officially acknowledge having nuclear weapons.
Several perhaps interrelated factors affected performance—educational experience (including taking a geography course), international travel and language skills, a varied diet of news sources, and Internet use. Americans who reported that they accessed the Internet within the last 30 days scored 65 percent higher than those who did not."

No wonder we've had a battle on our hands to keep evolution in biology curricula. Unfortunate numbers of Americans possess very little knowledge of the wonderful world surrounding them or the scientific knowledge required to truly appreciate its beauty and the diversity of life within.

Recognizing these issues is a matter of simplicity; addressing and rectifying them other matters entirely. I truly hope this can be accomplished for our benefit, that of the rest of the world, and the generations to follow. For the time being, it sure resembles quite a hill to climb.

Science, Education

Hibernation Ends

2005-12-17T23:47:00.000-06:00

A-blogging I shall go. Contents under construction.