Planets

12 Mile High Martian Dust Devil Spotted By NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

April 5, 2012

A Martian dust devil roughly 12 miles (20 kilometers) high was captured winding its way along the Amazonis Planitia region of Northern Mars on March 14, 2012 by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Despite its height, the plume is little more than three-quarters of a football field wide (70 yards, or 70 meters). Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has now spotted a gigantic Martian dust devil roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) high, churning through the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. The HiRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) captured the event on March 14, 2012. Scientists say that despite its height, the plume is just 70 meters (70 yards) wide. The image was taken during late northern spring, two weeks short of the northern summer solstice, a time when the ground in the northern mid-latitudes is being heated most strongly by the sun. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter captured imagery of a Red...

Venus Joins The Pleiades For A Spectacular April 3rd Conjunction

March 30, 2012

By Michael Muracco

Venus, Jupiter and the Pleiades April 3, 2012

As the bright planets Venus and Jupiter go their own separate ways Venus continues to grow ever-brighter as the northern spring evenings warm up hovering in the west-northwest sky high above the setting sun. Venus is will continue its celestial display as it passes near the well-known Pleiades (M45) star cluster in the western sky on Tuesday April 3, 2012. There is nothing else like the Pleiades star cluster in the sky. Greek mythology calls the Pleiades the Seven Sisters, the daughters of Atlas and Pleione. Atlas, rebelled against Zeus, the king of the gods, who retaliated by sentencing...

Is There Microbial Life On Saturns Moon Enceladus?

March 28, 2012

By Michael Muracco

Do underground oceans vent through the tiger stripes on Saturn's moon Enceladus? Long features dubbed tiger stripes are known to be spewing ice from the moon's icy interior into space, creating a cloud of fine ice particles over the moon's South Pole and creating Saturn's mysterious E-ring.

In a series of tantalizingly close flybys to the moon, named “Enceladus,” NASA’s Cassini spacecraft has revealed watery jets erupting from what may be a vast underground sea. These jets, which spew through cracks in the moon’s icy shell, could lead back to a habitable zone that is uniquely accessible in all the solar system. “More than 90 jets of all sizes near Enceladus’s south pole are spraying water vapor, icy particles, and organic compounds all over the place,” says Carolyn Porco, an award-winning planetary scientist and leader of the Imaging Science team for NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. “Cassini has...

NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft Captures Aurora’s On Saturn

March 28, 2012

By Michael Muracco

Since the NASA / ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft arrived at Saturn in 2004, astronomers and space scientists have been able to study the ringed planet and its moons in great detail. Now, for the first time, a team of planetary scientists have made simultaneous measurements of Saturn’s night side aurora, magnetic field, and associated charged particles. Together the fields and particle data provide information on the electric currents flowing that produce the emissions. Team leader Dr Emma Bunce of the University of Leicester will present the new work at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester on 27 March 2012. Generally,...

Venus, Jupiter and the Moon Spectacular Weekend Show – Watch it Online

March 25, 2012

By Michael Muracco

A month ago, Venus, Jupiter and the crescent Moon aligned beautifully in the evening sky. Tonight it’s happening again. On March 25th and 26th, the trio will appear side by side in the western sky at sunset. Jupiter and the moon will be closest together at around 9 p.m. EDT. If there are clear skies and good conditions, it should be fairly easy to pick out all three celestial targets with your naked eyes. If you have a pair of binoculars or a telescope, the moon and two bright planets are expected to provide a sky watching treat. Venus...

NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Photographs Martian Tornado

March 7, 2012

By Michael Muracco

A towering dust devil, casts a serpentine shadow over the Martian surface in this image acquired by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

An afternoon whirlwind on Mars lofts a twisting column of dust more than half a mile (800 meters) high in an image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. HiRISE captured the image on Feb. 16, 2012, while the orbiter passed over the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. In the area observed, paths of many previous whirlwinds, or dust devils, are visible as streaks on the dusty surface. The active dust devil displays a delicate arc produced by a westerly breeze partway up its height. The dust plume is about 30 ...

NASA’s Mars Rover ‘Opportunity’ Continues Science Experiments As Martian Winter Approaches

February 1, 2012

By Michael Muracco

NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity is positioned on the north end of Cape York on the rim of Endeavour Crater with an approximate 15-degree northerly tilt for favorable solar energy production during the winter. Opportunity is conducting regular radio Doppler tracking measurements to support geo-dynamic investigations of the planet, in-situ (contact) science investigations of the target, “Amboy” including an extended Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic, and continued collection of the 13-filter, 360-degree “Greeley” panorama. Decreasing energy levels with the approach to the winter solstice has constrained Opportunity for conducting both a radio Doppler tracking pass and an afternoon Ultra High Frequency...

Cause Of Russia’s Phobos-Grunt Failure Emerges

January 31, 2012

By Michael Muracco

An official map of the Phobos-Grunt reentry released by Roskosmos by 20:00 Moscow Time on Jan. 15, 2012.

A plausible scenario for quick demise of Phobos-Grunt leaked from industry sources to the online forum of the Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine on January 17. The most likely culprit in the failure of the probe’s propulsion unit to ignite soon after it had entered orbit on November 9 was a programming error in the flight control system. Post-failure tests (apparently simulating in-flight conditions) revealed that the processor usage level in the main flight control computer onboard the spacecraft exceeded 90 percent of its capacity. It could easily lead to crashes and rebooting as more systems were being activated after the...

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity Begins Ninth Year On Mars

January 24, 2012

By Michael Muracco

This mosaic of images taken in mid-January 2012 shows the windswept vista northward (left) to northeastward (right) from the location where NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is spending its fifth Martian winter, an outcrop informally named "Greeley Haven." Opportunity's Panoramic Camera (Pancam) took the component images as part of full-circle view being assembled from Greeley Haven. The view includes sand ripples and other wind-sculpted features in the foreground and mid-field. The northern edge of the the "Cape York" segment of the rim of Endeavour Crater forms an arc across the upper half of the scene. Opportunity landed on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time and EST (Jan. 24, PST). It has driven 21.4 miles (34.4 kilometers) as of its eighth anniversary on the planet. In late 2011, the rover team drove Opportunity up onto Greeley Haven to take advantage of the outcrop's sun-facing slope to boost output from the rover's dusty solar panels during the Martian winter. Research activities while at Greeley Haven include a radio-science investigation of the interior of Mars, inspections of mineral compositions and textures on the outcrop, and monitoring of wind-caused changes on scales from dunes to individual soil particles. The image combines exposures taken through Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The view is presented in approximate true color. This "natural color" is the rover team's best estimate of what the scene would look like if humans were there and able to see it with their own eyes. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.

Eight years after landing on Mars for what was planned as a three-month mission, NASA’s enduring Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is working on what essentially became a new mission five months ago. Opportunity reached a multi-year driving destination, Endeavour Crater, in August 2011. At Endeavour’s rim, it has gained access to geological deposits from an earlier period of Martian history than anything it examined during its first seven years. It also has begun an investigation of the planet’s deep interior that takes advantage of staying in one place for the Martian winter. Opportunity landed in Eagle Crater on Mars...

Could NASA’s MSL Rover “Curiosity” Contaminate Mars?

December 2, 2011

By Michael Muracco

During the preparation for the launch of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity on Nov. 26, a step in the “planetary protection” procedure wasn’t adhered to. The procedure’s key purpose is to make sure organic material from Earth doesn’t get transferred accidentally to the Red Planet. As reported by Space.com’s Leonard David, MSL project developers decided not to send a set of drill bits — attached to the rover’s exterior, ready to be used by the robotic arm’s drill — through a final ultra-cleanliness step before launch. This deviation in protocol wasn’t communicated to NASA’s planetary protection officer Cassie...