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Tag: NASA

  • Most “Centaurs” Are Comets, Say Astronomers

    Most “Centaurs” Are Comets, Say Astronomers

    For years, the small objects orbiting the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune have remained a mystery to astronomers. Dubbed “centaurs,” researchers were unsure what exactly the objects were. Now, new observations using NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have determined that many, if not most, of the objects are comets.

    The new observations were taken from an infrared survey made by WISE. According to NASA, the orbiting observatory was used to observe 52 centaurs and other “scattered disk objects,” 15 of which were newly discovered. The survey found the reflectivity of the centaurs, which astronomers compared to the color of the objects, which are generally blue-gray or red. Most of the objects that are blue-gray were found to be dark, which suggests that they are comets. The observations are detailed in a new paper, published this week in the Astrophysical Journal.

    “Comets have a dark, soot-like coating on their icy surfaces, making them darker than most asteroids,” said Tommy Grav, a co-author of the study and an astronomer at the Planetary Science Institute. “Comet surfaces tend to be more like charcoal, while asteroids are usually shinier like the moon.”

    The study found that around two-thirds of centaurs are likely comets, and the identity of the remainder cannot be confirmed. According to NASA, this means the centaurs came from far outside the solar system and became caught. The centaurs orbit in an “unstable” belt, and will eventually be thrown either closer to or away from the sun by Jupiter or Neptune.

    “Just like the mythical creatures, the centaur objects seem to have a double life,” said James Bauer, lead author of the study and an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Our data point to a cometary origin for most of the objects, suggesting they are coming from deeper out in the solar system.”

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Sets One-Day Driving Record

    Mars Rover Curiosity Sets One-Day Driving Record

    Mars rover Curiosity is currently on a months-long journey to a Martian mountain named Mount Sharp. The rover has shifted into a distance driving mode and is now roving further than ever along its planned five-mile journey.

    This week, NASA revealed that Curiosity has broken its own one-day driving record. On July 21 the rover completed a 109.7 yard (100.3 meter) drive – more than double the distance of any drive it had previously completed.

    The record drive was planned by rover team members at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), but future jaunts could soon allow Curiosity to use its “autonav” ability to navigate some drives on its own. The software should allow the rover to chart a safe path beyond what rover team members are able to see in the previous day’s photos.

    “What enabled us to drive so far on Sol 340 was starting at a high point and also having Mastcam images giving us the size of rocks so we could be sure they were not hazards,” said Paolo Bellutta, a rover planner at JPL. “We could see for quite a distance, but there was an area straight ahead that was not clearly visible, so we had to find a path around that area.”

    Curiosity’s one-day driving record before July 21 was 54 yards (49 meters), which was completed back on September 26, 2012, just weeks after the rover landed on Mars. At the outset of its current journey, the rover hit the milestone of having driven over 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) total on the Martian surface. The rover has now driven 0.81 miles (1.23 kilometers) during its time on the red planet.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)

  • NASA Board to Investigate Spacewalk Malfunction

    NASA Board to Investigate Spacewalk Malfunction

    One week ago, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy glided outside the International Space Station (ISS) to do routine maintenance and prepare rigging cables for the arrival of a new Russian laboratory module. Shortly into the spacewalk, Parmitano reported excessive water floating free inside his spacesuit helmet and the spacewalk, which was scheduled to last for over six hours, was cut short.

    Today, NASA announced that it has appointed a new board dedicated to investigate the incident. The board is chaired by Chris Hansen, the ISS chief engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The other members of the five-person board are astronaut Mike Foreman; Sudhakar Rajula, a human factors specialist at Johnson; Joe Pellicciotti, the chief engineer at NASA’s Engineering and Safety Center; and Richard Fullerton, NASA’s ISS safety and mission assurance lead.

    According to NASA’s announcement, the board will “gather relevant information, analyze facts, conduct any necessary tests, identify the cause or causes of the anomaly and any contributing factors, and make recommendations to the NASA administrator to prevent similar incidents from occurring during future spacewalks.” The board will also examine past spacewalks, as well as maintenance and quality assurance procedures.

    The board’s investigation will coincide with a NASA engineering analysis that will resolve any equipment malfunctions to enable spacewalks to resume. The engineering team is currently examining the spacesuit and life support equipment Parmitano used during the spacewalk.

  • Water on Mars Left With Atmosphere, Shows Rover

    Water on Mars Left With Atmosphere, Shows Rover

    It’s been nearly one year since Mars rover Curiosity landed on Mars in August 2012. During that year, the rover has analyzed soil, drilled rock samples to determine whether conditions on Mars could have ever been conducive to life. Now, Curiosity has fulfilled that goal.

    NASA has announced that two new studies based on Curiosity’s research have been published in the journal Science. They show that the rover has uncovered evidence that Mars has lost much of its original atmosphere. Though the current Martian atmosphere is too thin for water to remain on the planet’s surface, there is evidence to suggest that water was once abundant on the red planet.

    These conclusions are based on soil samples Curiosity analyzed using its Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instruments. The measurements compared the amount of heavier and lighter isotopes of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen in the Martian soil. Heavier isotopes of those elements are found in Mars’ atmosphere today, suggesting to researchers that Mars’ atmosphere was lost near its top, depleting lighter isotopes.

    “Getting the same result with two very different techniques increased our confidence that there’s no unknown systematic error underlying the measurements,” said Chris Webster, lead author of one of the studies and the team lead for the SAM tunable laser spectrometer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “The accuracy in these new measurements improves the basis for understanding the atmosphere’s history.”

    Curiosity just passed the milestone of having driven one kilometer on Mars. The rover is currently on a months-long journey to a Martian mountain named Mount Sharp, where researchers hope multiple revealed layers of rock will provide a glimpse of how the surface of the red planet has changed.

  • Comet ISON Could Put On a Great Light Show

    Comet ISON Could Put On a Great Light Show

    In November of 2013, the universe is throwing a “dirty snowball” right within sight of our Earth. And it could end up being a spectacular sight.

    Comet ISON, named after the International Scientific Optical Network, a Russian program that discovered the comet last year. This particular comet is anywhere from 1 to 10 kilometers in size, based on what can be seen of it at this point. It just looks like a tiny speck right now.

    But ISON is a “sun-grazer”. It will fly through the sun’s atmosphere little more than a million km from the stellar surface. And as it nears the sun, it will start shedding ice and particles from its surface, really becoming visible. But a comet that gets this close to the sun could even fly completely apart, the result of which would be a magnificent light show. Even if it survives this trip past the sun, it could emerge glowing as brightly as the Moon, briefly visible near the sun in broad daylight. The comet’s dusty tail stretching into the night sky could create a worldwide sensation.

    Or the whole thing could fizzle. Some reporters have started calling ISON the “Comet of the Century,” but Don Yeomans of NASA Near-Earth Object Program thinks that’s premature.

    “I’m old enough to remember the last ‘Comet of the Century’,” he says. In 1973, a distant comet named Kohoutek looked like it would put on a great show, much like ISON. The actual apparition was such a let-down that Johnny Carson made jokes about it on the Tonight Show. “It fizzled,” says Yeomans. “Comets are notoriously unpredictable.”

    The trouble with comets is that they are basically “dirty snowballs” flying toward the sun. Tidal forces and solar radiation have been known to destroy comets. A recent example is Comet Elenin, which broke apart and dissipated in 2011 as it approached the sun.

    However, another comet that we could compare ISON to is Comet Lovejoy, which flew through the sun’s atmosphere in 2011. Lovejoy emerged intact and wowed observers with a garish tail for weeks.

    “Comet ISON is probably at least twice as big as Comet Lovejoy and will pass a bit farther from the sun’s surface,” notes Matthew Knight of the Lowell Observatory. “This would seem to favor Comet ISON surviving and ultimately putting on a good show.”

    If ISON does make it through it’s whip around the sun on Thanksgiving Day, it could be visible all night in parts of December and January.

    Even if ISON breaks up, there is no danger to Earth. The pieces would continue right along the same path the original comet was on.

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Hits a 1 Kilometer Milestone

    Mars Rover Curiosity Hits a 1 Kilometer Milestone

    Last week, NASA revealed that Mars rover Curiosity has traveled more than 325 feet (99 meters) along its 5-mile (8 kilometer) trek to the base of a Martian mountain named Mount Sharp. This week the agency announced that the rover’s recent long drives have put its odometer past the 1 kilometer (0.62 mile) mark.

    Curiosity‘s latest jaunt brought it 125 feet (38 meters) further along its journey. The drive brought the rover’s total distance driven on the surface of Mars since it landed in August 2012 to 3,376 feet (1.029 kilometers).

    “When I saw that the drive had gone well and passed the kilometer mark, I was really pleased and proud,” said Frank Hartman, a rover driver at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “Hopefully, this is just the first of many kilometers to come.”

    This week also marked the official halfway point of Curiosity’s first Martian year. The rover’s trek to mount sharp is expected to take months. The rover, even in its distance-driving mode, will drive in short segments while researchers will continue to find interesting geological features for the rover to investigate during its journey. Mount Sharp was chosen as a long-term destination because researchers hope its multiple exposed layers will reveal more about Mars’ past environment.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  • Spacewalk Cut Short by Wardrobe Malfunction

    Spacewalk Cut Short by Wardrobe Malfunction

    Early this morning, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy exited the International Space Station to conduct assembly and maintenance on the spacecraft. The spacewalk was scheduled to last around 6.5 hours and was being streamed live by the space agencies. The mission was cut short, however, by a malfunction in one astronaut’s spacesuit.

    Shortly into the spacewalk Parmitano reported that there was water floating in his spacesuit helmet, and that the back of his head was wet. NASA’s flight director quickly called an end to the spacewalk, and Parmitano and Cassidy made their way back into the space station.

    The cancellation made today’s spacewalk the second shortest in the history of the International Space Station. Engineers are now searching for the cause of the suspected leak in Parmitano’s helmet. NASA has stated that Parmitano was never in any danger and that none of the tasks he and Cassidy were scheduled to complete were urgent or would put the crew of the station in danger. In addition to routine maintenance, the astronauts were rigging cables to prepare for the arrival of a new Russian laboratory module.

    The relevant NASA footage of the spacewalk can be seen below. Parmitano can be heard at around the 1:50 mark confirming that the liquid in his helmet is not sweat.

  • Neptune’s 14th Moon Was Discovered on July 1st

    Neptune’s 14th Moon Was Discovered on July 1st

    Neptune is the 8th planet from the sun at nearly 2.8 million miles, or 30 times as far away as earth, and makes a rotation around the sun every 165 years. It was the first planet to be located through mathematical predictions rather than through regular observations of the sky on September 23, 1846, by Johann Gotfried Galle.

    Neptune had 13 known moons until NASA’s recent discovery, using the Hubble Space Telescope. The largest of Neptune’s moons is Triton, which rotates in a direction opposite of it’s planet and measures approximately 1,680 miles across. Because it rotates in this manner, many scientists believe that Triton was originally a dwarf planet that was sucked into Neptune’s orbit. “This capture would have gravitationally torn up any original satellite system Neptune possessed,” Hubble officials wrote in a statement. “Many of the moons now seen orbiting the planet probably formed after Triton settled into its unusual retrograde orbit about Neptune.”
    The newly discovered moon, classified as S/2004 N 1, is now considered to be the smallest known moon to be rotating around Neptune, measuring approximately 12 miles across. It is so small that

    S/2004 N 1 was discovered on July 1, 2013, while Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute was studying Neptune’s segments of rings, or arcs. “The moons and arcs orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system,” Showalter said. “It’s the same reason a sports photographer tracks a running athlete — the athlete stays in focus, but the background blurs.” There was a small white dot that appeared in over 150 photographs of Neptune, taken by Hubble Space Telescope, from 2004 to 2009. Showalter tracked the movements of this dot throughout all of the photographs that were taken, before finally making the shocking discovery. He also determined that the small moon orbits the planet every 23 hours.

    The procedure I devised predicts where any given moon ought to move from one image to the next, and then combines the images with a ‘twist’ that compensates for the expected motion. I developed this procedure (and I am certainly not the first) to study some peculiar arcs in the rings of Neptune. However, I soon realized it could be useful for moons as well. It was only when I expanded my analysis out to regions well beyond Neptune’s ring system that an extra little dot turned up, over and over again.

  • New Neptune Moon Found by Hubble Space Telescope

    New Neptune Moon Found by Hubble Space Telescope

    NASA this week revealed that a new moon has been spotted orbiting the furthest planet from the sun, Neptune.

    The moon, the 14th known to be orbiting Neptune, has been labeled S/2004 N 1. The small rock is the smallest of Neptune’s known moons at approximately 12 miles across. It is located around 65,400 miles from Neptune, between the orbits of Neptune moons Larissa and Proteus, and orbits Neptune once every 23 hours.

    The moon is so small that it was missed by the Voyager 2 probe when it surveyed Neptune in 1989. It was spotted by the Hubble telescope in pictures taken from 2004 to 2009, but also went unnoticed until this month. Mark Showalter, an Astronomer at the SETI Institute in California, was studying the ring segments around Neptune when he “on a whim” extended his analysis beyond Neptune’s ring system. He spotted a small white dot, S/2004 N 1, which he was then able to find in 150 archival Hubble Space Telescope photos to plot its orbit.

    “The moons and arcs orbit very quickly, so we had to devise a way to follow their motion in order to bring out the details of the system,” said Showalter. “It’s the same reason a sports photographer tracks a running athlete – the athlete stays in focus, but the background blurs.”

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Drives 135 More Feet

    Mars Rover Curiosity Drives 135 More Feet

    Last week, Mars rover Curiosity began a months-long journey to the base of a Martian mountain named Mount Sharp. This week, NASA revealed that the rover has driven 135 feet (41 meters) closer to its destination. Combined with the 59 foot (18 meter) and 131 foot (40 meter) drives the rover performed last week, Curiosity has now traveled 325 feet (99 meters) along its 5-mile (8 kilometer) journey toward Mount Sharp. The rover has also now driven close to 0.51 miles (0.95 kilometers) total since landing on Mars in August 2012.

    Curiosity will spend several months on its trek to Mount Sharp, stopping along the way to investigate any interesting geological features researchers find. The rover is coming from an area named Glenelg, where the rover has spend most of its first 10 months on Mars. The area is where Curiosity first scooped soil samples for analysis and drilled its first rock to create rock powder. During its short mission, the rover has already discovered evidence that Mars once had surface conditions favorable for primitive life – the primary science goal for the mission.

    Mount Sharp lies in the center of Gale Crater, the site of Curiosity’s landing. Researchers are hoping that the mountain will have multiple layers that can provide evidence for how the Martian landscape has changed throughout its history.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  • Hubble Telescope Spots a Blue Planet

    Hubble Telescope Spots a Blue Planet

    Astronomers have been finding and cataloging exoplanets for years now, but NASA this week announced that the Hubble Space Telescope has helped determined the color of a planet orbiting a star 63 light-years from our solar system.

    The planet, HD 189733b, has been found to be blue in color. Astronomers determined this using Hubble’s imaging spectrograph, which was able to measure color changes in the planet while it passed behind its star.

    “We saw the light becoming less bright in the blue but not in the green or red,” said Frederic Pont, a member of the research team and an astrophysicist at the University of Exeter. “Light was missing in the blue but not in the red when it was hidden. This means that the object that disappeared was blue.”

    If it were possible to see the planet in visible light, the planet might resemble a blue dot similar to Earth. Seem up close, however, the planet would be very different from our own. Astronomers describe HD 189733b as a “turbulent” world where temperatures reach 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and glass rains from the sky. The blue color does not come from an ocean but from silicate particles hight in the planet’s atmosphere.

    HD 189733b was discovered in 2005 and is what Astronomers call a “hot Jupiter.” The planet orbits only 2.9 million miles from its star and is gravitationally locked. This means differing temperatures on each side of the planet cause massive storms and winds that can reach 4,500 miles per hour.

  • Solar System “Tail” Mapped by NASA’s IBEX

    Solar System “Tail” Mapped by NASA’s IBEX

    NASA today announced that its Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) has mapped the structure of our solar system’s “tail.” The tail, called the heliotail, is shaped like a four-leaf clover, much like the tails seen around other nearby stars.

    “By examining the neutral atoms, IBEX has made the first observations of the heliotail,” said David McComas, lead author of a paper on the findings published this week in the Astrophysical Journal and an IBEX principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute. “Many models have suggested the heliotail might look like this or like that, but we have had no observations. We always drew pictures where the tail of the solar system just trailed off the page, since we couldn’t even speculate about what it really looked like.”

    Finding the shape of our heliotail, researchers say, was more difficult than measuring the ones found around other stars, since the particles in the heliosphere cannot be detected using conventional measurements. The IBEX was able to detect neutral particles created by collisions at the boundary of the heliosphere and interstellar space. Such particles are not affected by the sun’s magnetic field, allowing researchers to construct a model of the heliosphere’s shape.

    “Since first light in 2008, the IBEX mission team has amazed us with its discoveries at the interstellar boundary, including a previously unknown ribbon of energetic neutral particles stretching across it,” said Arik Posner, a NASA IBEX program scientist. “The new IBEX image of the heliotail fills in a previously blank area on the map. We are first-hand witnesses of rapid progress in heliophysics science.”

    The exact length of the heliotail is still unknown, as it can be seen fading gradually into interstellar space. Also, the clover-shape of the tail rotates the further away it gets from the sun as it becomes more influenced by the local galactic magnetic field.

  • NASA Previews 2020 Mars Rover Mission

    NASA Previews 2020 Mars Rover Mission

    NASA’s Mars 2020 Science Definition Team this week released its recommendations for a rover the agency plans to send to the red planet by 2020. The announcement of the 2020 rover mission came in December 2012. The team of 19 researchers proposed that the rover be prepared to pave the way for a human mission to Mars, a goal President Obama has set for NASA to meet by the 2030s.

    “Crafting the science and exploration goals is a crucial milestone in preparing for our next major Mars mission,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator at NASA. “The objectives determined by NASA with the input from this team will become the basis later this year for soliciting proposals to provide instruments to be part of the science payload on this exciting step in Mars exploration.”

    NASA will be holding open bids for the new rover’s payload and science equipment. The instruments included and the build of the rover will be similar to NASA’s most recent Mars rover, Curiosity. The new rover will build on Curiosity’s discovery that conditions on Mars were once favorable for microbial life. In particular, the new rover will be designed to look for confirmation or signs of past life on the red planet.

    “The Mars 2020 mission concept does not presume that life ever existed on Mars,” said Jack Mustard, chairman of the Science Definition Team and a geology professor at Brown University. “However, given the recent Curiosity findings, past Martian life seems possible, and we should begin the difficult endeavor of seeking the signs of life. No matter what we learn, we would make significant progress in understanding the circumstances of early life existing on Earth and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life.”

    The new rover will provide chemical and mineral analysis that can identify biosignatures, and will seek out geological features that may have been formed biologically. In addition, the rover will package Martian rock and soil samples for later return to Earth and perform demonstrations of technology that will be needed for a manned mission to Mars.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL)

  • Mars Rover Curiosity Begins Months-Long Journey

    Mars Rover Curiosity Begins Months-Long Journey

    One month ago, Mars rover Curiosity began preparing for a 5-mile drive by shifting into a distance-driving mode. Today, NASA announced that the first small steps in that long journey have begun.

    The rover finished investigating an outcrop named “Shaler” early last week before leaving the “Glenelg” area on July 4. Curiosity drove 59 feet (18 meters), and then drove an additional 131 feet (40 meters) on July 7. The rover’s complete journey will take several months, with researchers stopping to explore interesting terrain encountered along the way.

    Curiosity is headed toward an area at the base of a mountain named Mount Sharp, which is located in the middle of Gale Crater, where the rover landed back in August 2012. Researchers hope to examine the layers that make up Mount Sharp, discovering how the red planet has changed throughout its long history. The rover has already discovered evidence that Mars was once wet and that its surface conditions were once favorable to early life, corroborating a recent Oxford University study.

    Curiosity’s first 10 months on Mars and its tentative discoveries are all covered in NASA’s latest Rover Report, narrated by Ashwin Vasavada, a project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory:

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  • Mars Rover Opportunity Crosses Botany Bay

    Mars Rover Opportunity Crosses Botany Bay

    NASA today provided an update not on Mars rover Curiosity, but its elder rover Opportunity. The rover is part of the Mars Exploration Rover Project, which sent two rovers, Opportunity and Spirit, to Mars in 2004. Opportunity is the only one of the rovers still functioning, after Spirit became stuck in 2009, and stopped responding to communications in 2010.

    Opportunity is now six weeks into and around halfway through a 1.2 mile (22 km) drive from one crater rim to another. The rover had been examining the area around “Cape York” for nearly two years, searching for evidence of a watery past on Mars. It is now in the process of crossing an area called “Botany Bay” to reach its destination, an area named “Solander Point.”

    “The surface that Opportunity is driving across in Botany Bay is polygonally fractured outcrop that is remarkably good for driving,” said Brad Joliff, an Opportunity science team member Washington University. “The plates of outcrop, like a tiled mosaic pavement, have a thin covering of soil, not enough to form the wind-blown ripples we’ve had to deal with during some other long treks. The outcrop plates are light-toned, and the cracks between them are filled with dark, basaltic soil and our old friends the ‘blueberries.’”

    Opportunity recently investigated the “Matijevic Hill” portion of Cape York, examining small, bb-sized spheres that are rich in iron. Researchers have nicknamed the objects “blueberries.”

    Both Cape York and Solander Point are sections on the western rim of the Endeavor Crater. Opportunity will be examining Solander Point throughout the upcoming Martian winter.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  • NASA Shuts Down Galaxy Explorer Telescope

    NASA Shuts Down Galaxy Explorer Telescope

    Just over ten years after its launch, NASA this afternoon decommissioned its Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft. The satellite will no longer be used for science missions, but will remain in orbit for 65 years before burning up in Earth’s atmosphere.

    The GALEX telescope was launched in April 2003. Its primary, 29-month mission was to observe early-universe star formation in ultraviolet wavelengths. After its successful first mission, the spacecraft was re-commissioned three more times before the mission was cancelled.

    “GALEX is a remarkable accomplishment,” said Jeff Hayes, NASA’s GALEX program executive. “This small Explorer mission has mapped and studied galaxies in the ultraviolet, light we cannot see with our own eyes, across most of the sky.”

    In January, archival data from GALEX was used to discover the massive NGC 6872 galaxy. At a record 522,000 light-years across (around five time the size fo our Milky Way galaxy), NGC 6872 is the largest spiral galaxy known to exist.

    During its final year, GALEX was loaned to the California Institute of Technology, which used private funding to keep the project going. The telescope was used in its last year to survey the ultraviolet sky for black holes, supernovae, and rare galaxies. Data from these observations are scheduled to be made public later this year.

    “In the last few years, GALEX studied objects we never thought we’d be able to observe, from the Magellanic Clouds to bright nebulae and supernova remnants in the galactic plane,” said David Schiminovich, a GALEX team member and an astronomer at Columbia University. “Some of its most beautiful and scientifically compelling images are part of this last observation cycle.”

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  • NASA Launches IRIS to Study Sun’s Atmosphere

    NASA Launches IRIS to Study Sun’s Atmosphere

    After being delayed for one day over a power outage at Vandenberg Air Force Base, NASA‘s Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft was successfully launched on Thursday evening. The satellite will help researchers on Earth study the sun‘s lower atmosphere.

    “Congratulations to the entire team on the successful development and deployment of the IRIS mission,” said Gary Kushner, IRIS project manager at the Lockheed Martin Solar and Atmospheric Laboratory. “Now that IRIS is in orbit, we can begin our 30-day engineering checkout followed by a 30-day science checkout and calibration period.”

    Following its 60-day commissioning phase, IRIS will begin studying how the sun’s surface heats up and moves as it travels through its lower atmosphere. NASA stated that this region of the sun, located between the photosphere and corona, “powers” the solar atmosphere, producing solar wind and ultraviolet radiation. Researchers believe that researching this region can help to better predict solar weather, which can affect both Earth and its surrounding satellites.

    The IRIS was launched using a Pegasus XL rocket strapped to an Orbital L-1011 carrier aircraft. At 7:40 pm, at an altitude of 39,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, the rocket was released from the plane and fired off into orbit. The launch can be seen in the video below, captured by NASA.

  • Voyager 1 Still Not Quite Out of the Solar System

    Voyager 1 Still Not Quite Out of the Solar System

    Back in December, NASA announced that the Voyager 1 probe had entered a new region at the edge of our solar system. The region was described as a “magnetic highway,” where charged particles can pass into and out of interstellar space. Since that time, researchers have been anxiously awaiting data that confirms Voyager 1 has become the first man-made object to make it out of the solar system.

    This week, NASA released an update on Voyager 1’s situation. At 11 billion miles from the sun, the probe is still traveling through the magnetic highway on its way to interstellar space. In the meantime, new research has shed more light on the nature of the magnetic highway, also known as the depletion region.

    “This strange, last region before interstellar space is coming into focus, thanks to Voyager 1, humankind’s most distant scout,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology. “If you looked at the cosmic ray and energetic particle data in isolation, you might think Voyager had reached interstellar space, but the team feels Voyager 1 has not yet gotten there because we are still within the domain of the sun’s magnetic field.”

    NASA researchers are still not sure how long it may take for Voyager 1 to hit the edge of the solar system, saying it could even take years before the probe makes it out of the sun’s magnetic field. The two Voyager probes were launched in 1977 and successfully studied the solar system’s four gas giants before striking out for interstellar space.

    Voyager 2 is only around 9 billion miles from the sun, and has not yet reached the magnetic highway. Researchers describe the depletion region as a region of space where charged particles stream into and out of the heliosphere along magnetic field lines. Since passing into the region, Voyager 1 can now also detect cosmic rays that originate from stars other than the sun. These two measurements indicate Voyager 1 has exited the solar system, but the direction of the magnetic field measured by the probe has not changed significantly, leading researchers to believe the probe is still within the sun’s magnetic field.

    “We saw a dramatic and rapid disappearance of the solar-originating particles,” said Stamatios Krimigis, a principal investigator for Voyager’s low-energy charged particle instrument at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. “They decreased in intensity by more than 1,000 times, as if there was a huge vacuum pump at the entrance ramp onto the magnetic highway. We have never witnessed such a decrease before, except when Voyager 1 exited the giant magnetosphere of Jupiter, some 34 years ago.”

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech)

  • NASA Ion Engine Completes 48K Hours of Successful Testing

    NASA Ion Engine Completes 48K Hours of Successful Testing

    NASA this week announced that its advanced ion propulsion has completed 48,000 hours (five and a half years) of successful testing. This makes it the longest-tested space propulsion system in NASA history.

    The NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Project has created a 7-kilowatt class thruster that will be used in future space missions, including deep space missions. The engine runs on solar electricity, converting energy generated by solar panels to accelerate a xenon propellant to speeds of up to 90,000 miles per hour. According to NASA, the engine is a significant improvement in performance over chemical rocke engines.

    “The NEXT thruster operated for more than 48,000 hours,” said Michael Patterson, principal investigator for NEXT at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, where the NEXT’s core ionization chamber was built. “We will voluntarily terminate this test at the end of this month, with the thruster fully operational. Life and performance have exceeded the requirements for any anticipated science mission.”

    The NEXT’s ion acceleration assembly was designed and manufactured by the Aerojet Rocketdyne company, The goal of the NEXT project was to develop a next-generation electric-powered engine for future space missions. The project was part of the In-Space Propulsion Technology Program, which is also conducted at the Glenn Research Center. Hall Trusters, Solar Sails, and advanced chemical propulsion systems are also being researched under the program.

    “Aerojet Rocketdyne fully supports NASA’s vision to develop high power solar electric propulsion for future exploration,” said Julie Van Kleeck, VP for space advanced programs at Aerojet Rocketdyne. “NASA-developed next generation high power solar electric propulsion systems will enhance our nation’s ability to perform future science and human exploration missions.”

    (Image courtesy NASA/Christopher J. Lynch)

  • NASA Has Now Found 10,000 Near-Earth Objects

    NASA Has Now Found 10,000 Near-Earth Objects

    NASA this week announced that it has now discovered more than 10,000 near-Earth objects – asteroids that could pass close to Earth in the future. The agency also bragged that 98% of all near-Earth objects have been uncovered by NASA surveys.

    The 10,000th near-Earth object was discovered on June 18, 2013 by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope on Maui, Hawaii. The telescope is operated by the University of Hawaii, and receives NASA funding. The asteroid, 2013 MZ5, is around 1,000 feet (300 meters) wide but is not considered a potential danger to the Earth.

    “The first near-Earth object was discovered in 1898,” said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Over the next hundred years, only about 500 had been found. But then, with the advent of NASA’s NEO Observations program in 1998, we’ve been racking them up ever since. And with new, more capable systems coming on line, we are learning even more about where the NEOs are currently in our solar system, and where they will be in the future.”

    This new announcement comes just as NASA has issued a “Grand Challenge” to find and combat potentially hazardous asteroids. The agency is accepting ideas on how to locate, explore, and redirect an asteroid, as well as plans to deal with potential “doomsday” asteroids that might be headed toward Earth.

    “Finding 10,000 near-Earth objects is a significant milestone,” said Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program. “But there are at least 10 times that many more to be found before we can be assured we will have found any and all that could impact and do significant harm to the citizens of Earth.”

    According to NASA, only around 10% of known near-Earth objects are large enough (over 1 kilometer) to have doomsday-like consequences, were they to hit Earth. Luckily, none of them are on a collision-course with Earth, though the Near-Earth Object Observations program estimates that “a few dozen” of these large asteroids are still undiscovered.

    (Image courtesy PS-1/UH)

  • The ‘Supermoon’ Explained by NASA

    The ‘Supermoon’ Explained by NASA

    This weekend’s full moon sparked curiosity and plenty of social media speculation. The “supermoon,” as it’s dubbed, appeared as a larger full moon, pleasing amateur astronomers and photographers alike.

    Though there are plenty of photos of the moon to be found on the internet today, a clear explanation for why the moon appeared as it did is rather harder to come by. Though many unfounded rumors and theories have been put forward, NASA can alway be counted on to state things plainly.

    The agency has put out a new video succinctly explaining the supermoon phenomenon. Michelle Thaller, the assistant director for science communication at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, explains that a supermoon is when a full moon occurs near the moon’s perigee – the point at which the moon is closest to Earth in its orbit. That’s it. Nothing too apocalyptic or prophetic. In fact, a supermoon, Thaller says, is only around 12% larger than a normal full moon.

    (Image courtesy NASA/Bill Ingalls)