Wednesday, 30 December 2015

Global view of El Niño 2005 compared to El Niño 1997

The current strong El Niño brewing in the Pacific Ocean shows no signs of waning, as seen in the latest satellite image from the U.S./European Ocean Surface Topography Mission (OSTM)/Jason-2 mission.





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Thursday, 24 December 2015

Radar Images of a Christmas-Eve Asteroid: An Early Gift for Astronomers

Radar Images of 'Christmas Eve' Asteroid 2003 SD2020

New radar images show asteroid 2003 SD220, which will safely fly past Earth on Dec. 24.





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Radar Images of a Christmas-Eve Asteroid: An Early Gift for Astronomers

Radar Images of 'Christmas Eve' Asteroid 2003 SD2020

New radar images show asteroid 2003 SD220, which will safely fly past Earth on Dec. 24.





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Wednesday, 23 December 2015

U.S. Demonstrates Production of Fuel for Missions to the Solar System and Beyond

This self-portrait of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity combines dozens of exposures

The Department of Energy, with NASA funding, has completed the first U.S. production in nearly 30 years of a specialized fuel to power future deep space missions.





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NASA Suspends 2016 Launch of InSight Mission to Mars

Artist's concept depicts NASA's InSight Mars lander

After thorough examination, NASA managers have decided to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission.





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NASA Suspends 2016 Launch of InSight Mission to Mars, Media Teleconference Today

After thorough examination, NASA managers have decided to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the science payload.

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Tuesday, 22 December 2015

Lowdown on Ceres: Images From Dawn's Closest Orbit

Dawn's low-altitude mapping orbit around a crater chain called Gerber Catena

NASA's Dawn spacecraft, cruising in its lowest and final orbit at dwarf planet Ceres, has delivered the first images from its best-ever viewpoint.





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NASA Administrator Statement on Japan Announcement of Support for International Space Station Through 2024

Statement from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Japan's Dec. 22 announcement to continue its support for the International Space Station through at least 2024.

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Methane Emissions in Arctic Cold Season Higher Than Expected

Methane emissions in Alaska

The amount of methane escaping from the ground during the Arctic's long cold period each year and entering Earth's atmosphere is likely much higher than current estimates.





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Cassini Completes Final Close Enceladus Flyby

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has begun transmitting data and images from the mission's final close flyby of Saturn's active moon Enceladus, which took place on Saturday, Dec. 19.





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NASA Reaches New Heights in 2015

In 2015, NASA explored the expanse of our solar system and beyond, and the complex processes of our home planet, while also advancing the technologies for our journey to Mars, and new aviation systems as the agency reached new milestones aboard the International Space Station.

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Saturday, 19 December 2015

NASA Orders Second Boeing Crew Mission to International Space Station

NASA took an important step Friday to establish regular crew missions that will launch from the United States to the International Space Station with the order of its second post-certification mission from Boeing Space Exploration of Houston.

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NASA Astronauts to Conduct Spacewalk as Early as Monday, Dec. 21

Expedition 46 Commander Scott Kelly and Flight Engineer Tim Kopra of NASA are preparing for a previously unscheduled spacewalk outside the International Space Station on either Monday, Dec. 21, or Tuesday, Dec. 22. The pair will move the station’s mobile transporter rail car so it can be latched in place ahead of the Wednesday, Dec. 23 docking of a

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Friday, 18 December 2015

Season’s greetings!

Season's greetings from the Rosetta blog team... and from our cartoon friends at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko And finally... just a reminder that the blog is now taking a short break – we'll be back on 4 January 2016. Best wishes to all!

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Three different views of Comet 67P/C-G

In the first week since the OSIRIS team launched their new Image of the Day website, we’ve seen three rather different views of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The first image to be released (above left), taken on 10 December, shows the incredible detail of the comet’s surface from a distance of 103 km. The view focuses on the comet’s southern hemisphere and in particular captures the Wosret region on the small comet lobe (top right), and the Anhur region on the large lobe (bottom left). Particularly eye-catching are the fracture patterns in Wosret and the boulder-strewn regions in Anhur. The second image (above right), taken on 12 December, focuses on the current state of activity of the comet. Jets are visible all along the horizon in the upper portion of the image, and also along the boundary between the lit and shadowed regions in Imhotep, towards the foreground of the image. The third and very different view (left) gives us a remarkable look at the comet’s dust environment. Rosetta routinely points its camera away from the comet nucleus to monitor the coma in this way – this image was captured during a 12.5 second exposure on 10 December. Follow the OSIRIS Image of the Day website over the Christmas break, and we’ll showcase the highlights when we return to the blog in the New Year.     All images credit: ESA/Rosetta/MPS for OSIRIS Team MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/SSO/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA

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Dark Universe Mission Ready to Take Shape

Euclid Spacecraft

The Euclid mission has passed its preliminary design review, clearing the way to start construction.





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Asteroid Looks Even Better Second Time Around

Not Your Father's Asteroid

Radar imagery of asteroid 1998 WT24 has been obtained by NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar.





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Rocks Rich in Silica Present Puzzles for Mars Rover Team

'Marias Pass,' Contact Zone of Two Martian Rock Units

At recently studied sites, Mars Curiosity has found higher silica concentrations than at sites visited earlier in its Martian travels.





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Media Invited to View Launch of New Ocean Monitoring Satellite

The launch of Jason-3, an international mission led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to continue U.S.- European satellite measurements of the topography of the ocean surface, is scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016.

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Thursday, 17 December 2015

NuSTAR Finds Cosmic Clumpy Doughnut Around Black Hole

Hidden Lair at the Heart of Galaxy 1068

The donut-shaped disks of material that feed growing black holes may not be as smooth as once thought.





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Mars Spacecraft Shipped to California for March Launch

Shipping InSight Mars Spacecraft to California for Launch

NASA's next Mars spacecraft has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for final preparations before a launch scheduled in March 2016 and a landing on Mars six months later.





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NASA Spinoff 2016: Space Technologies Used on Earth

Curiosity Self-Portrait at 'Mojave' Site on Mount Sharp

NASA technology is all around us, turning trash into oil, saving women from a deadly complication of childbirth, and putting the bubbles in beer.





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Study: Climate Change Rapidly Warming World's Lakes

Lake Tahoe on the California/Nevada border

Climate change is rapidly warming lakes around the world, threatening freshwater supplies and ecosystems, according to a new NASA and National Science Foundation-funded study.





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Study Shows Climate Change Rapidly Warming World’s Lakes

Climate change is rapidly warming lakes around the world, threatening freshwater supplies and ecosystems, according to a new NASA and National Science Foundation-funded study of more than half of the world’s freshwater supply.

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Cassini Closes in on Enceladus, One Last Time

Enceladus 'E-22' Flyby: Final Visit to Enceladus

A thrilling chapter in solar system exploration will soon conclude, as NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft makes its final close flyby of the ocean-bearing moon Enceladus.





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Studies of Recent and Ancient Nepal Quakes Yield Surprises

Before-and-after photographs of Nepal's Langtang Valley

The Gorkha, Nepal earthquake in 2015 triggered far fewer landslides and much less damage to glacial lakes than expected; while medieval times earthquakes caused massive landscape changes.





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Wednesday, 16 December 2015

NASA TV Coverage Set for Space Station Russian Cargo Ship Activities

NASA Television will provide live coverage of the upcoming launch and docking of an unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft, Progress 62, to the International Space Station. NASA TV coverage of the Monday, Dec. 21 launch will begin at 3:30 a.m. EST.

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Spinoff 2016 Highlights Space Technologies Used in Daily Life on Earth

NASA technology is all around us, turning trash into oil, saving women from a deadly complication of childbirth, and putting the bubbles in beer.

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Meanwhile, in a galaxy not so far, far away...

The glittering city lights of Coruscant

The fantasy creations of the "Star Wars" universe are strikingly similar to real planets in our own Milky Way galaxy.





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Tuesday, 15 December 2015

NASA Examines Global Impacts of the 2015 El Nino

An atmospheric river travels across the Pacific to California Oct. 25 to Nov. 2, 2014.

People the world over are feeling, or will soon feel, the effects of the strongest El Niño event since 1997-98, currently unfolding in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.





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How NASA Sees El Nino Effects From Space

Rainfall animation

NASA data are helping scientists learn more about some of El Niño's key impacts around the globe.





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NASA Examines Global Impacts of the 2015 El Niño

People the world over are feeling, or soon will feel, the effects of the strongest El Niño event since 1997-98, currently unfolding in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. New satellite observations are beginning to show scientists its impact on the distribution of rain, tropospheric ozone and wildfires around the globe.

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Some Mars Minerals with Watery Past May be Relatively Young

This artist's concept shows NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter mission over the red planet.

Alteration of minerals by water may have been common on Mars into the second half of the planet's age, a new analysis of observations by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggests.





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New NASA Satellite Maps Show Human Fingerprint on Global Air Quality

According to recent NASA research findings, the United States, Europe and Japan have improved air quality thanks to emission control regulations, while China, India and the Middle East, with their fast-growing economies and expanding industry, have seen more air pollution.

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Monday, 14 December 2015

NASA Studies High Clouds, Saharan Dust from EPIC View

From a dusty atmosphere stretching across the Atlantic Ocean to daily views of clouds at sunrise, a new NASA camera keeping a steady eye on the sunlit side of Earth is yielding new insights about our changing planet.

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Missing Water Mystery Solved in Comprehensive Survey of Exoplanets

Artist's Impression of the 10 hot Jupiter exoplanets

Missing Water Mystery Solved in Vast Exoplanet Survey





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Be an Astronaut: NASA Accepting Applications for Future Explorers

Recently named the best place to work in the federal government for the fourth year in a row, NASA is looking for the best candidates to work in the best job on or off the planet. The astronaut candidate application website now is live and accepting submissions through Feb. 18.

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OSIRIS images in Archive Image Browser

The Rosetta Downlink and Archive group is pleased to announce the release of Rosetta OSIRIS images from both the wide- and narrow-angle cameras (WAC and NAC, respectively) to the Archive Image Browser and to the Planetary Science Archive. The images cover the period 20 June 2014 – 16 September 2014, corresponding to Rosetta’s approach to the comet, arrival, and insertion into orbit. Comparing the images from the start to the end of the period shows the incredible increase in detail as Rosetta moved from thousands of kilometres from Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko to within just 30 km. The images and data collected in the weeks following arrival at the comet on 6 August were used to select Philae’s landing site. Now that significant work has been done to improve the OSIRIS image processing pipeline to ensure that the submitted dataset is compatible with the archive standards, more regular releases are expected. The next release of OSIRIS images is anticipated for late January 2016 and is planned to include data from the close observation phase – when the spacecraft was just 10 km from the comet – and from the period around comet landing.

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Year-end break notice

We can hardly believe we are approaching the end of yet another incredible year for the Rosetta mission, which has now spent nearly 500 days “living” with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. From dramatic close flybys to the peak of comet activity during the months around perihelion, 2015 has seen the Rosetta mission shine with scientific discovery. A slew of fascinating results have been published from both the Rosetta orbiter and the Philae lander teams in the last year, which have certainly triggered some intense discussion in the comments section on this blog! As we did last year, we are planning to take a short break, between close of business on 18 December 2015 and 4 January 2016. During this time we don’t foresee any routine updates (aside from images that might be released via the new "OSIRIS image of the day" website), but we will of course inform you as soon as possible if something extraordinary happens. Due to the time required to review comments, the commenting function will be disabled on all posts and pages over this period – existing comments will remain, but no new comments can be submitted and added during the break. Furthermore, when we return in the New Year, the comment function will only be possible on subsequent new posts. We therefore kindly encourage you to wrap up existing conversations during this week. It’s been a pleasure sharing the latest news with you this year and we’re delighted that so many of you are continuing to enjoy following the blog and being part of the Rosetta adventure with us here. Many thanks to our regular contributors and occasional visitors alike – we look forward to welcoming you back in the New Year when we’ll be getting ready for the mission’s greatest challenge yet: putting Rosetta on the comet in […]

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Friday, 11 December 2015

CometWatch 7 December

Today's CometWatch entry is a NAVCAM image taken on 7 December 2015, when Rosetta was 103.1 km from the comet nucleus. The scale is 8.8 m/pixel and the image measures 9 km across. The contrast was increased to reveal the beautiful details of the comet's activity, especially on the upper and left sides of the nucleus. With the large lobe up and the small lobe down, this image shows an interesting view of the comet and a stunning juxtaposition of lit and shadowed areas on the surface of 67P/C-G. On the large lobe, the image offers a great view on the smooth terrains of Anubis and, further away, on the more irregular region of Atum. Towards the right, hints of Ash are also visible. In this curious orientation, the two lobes appear as if they were separated, with the regions between them – Seth, on the right, Hapi at the centre and Sobek towards the left – cast in shadow. On the small lobe, the view is dominated by the complex terrains of Anuket. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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Ride along with Rosetta through the eyes of OSIRIS

Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera team has launched a new website to showcase their recent images of Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko. The high-resolution images, taken either with the narrow- or wide-angle scientific imaging camera, will show the comet as recently as the day before. They will be posted to a dedicated website but followers can also subscribe to a mailing list to receive the images directly via email. The cadence of the images released will depend on the scientific operations of the spacecraft and in particular on the as-run OSIRIS observations on any given day, along with the availability of images downloaded from the spacecraft. A minimum of an image per week should be expected, up to an image a day if they are taken daily. “Following perihelion and a far excursion, we are now back at closer distances – about 100 km – to the comet, providing a view similar to that when we first arrived on 6 August 2014,” says Holger Sierks, principal investigator for the camera at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany. “We’d like to share this view with the community and the general public, in near-real time, as we re-approach and eventually descend to the surface of the comet.” The images will be released by a robotic system in JPG format, raw or calibrated as available, following a brief pre-selection by OSIRIS scientists. Basic ‘metadata’ stating the date, time, distance to the comet and the Sun, and the resolution of the image will be included with each. There will not be a detailed scientific description of the images because the goal is to provide up-to-date ‘postcards’ of the comet. Traditional image releases with scientific interpretation will still be made, separately, in the usual way. The images will also be added to our ESA galleries […]

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NASA Astronaut Kjell Lindgren Completes Space Station Mission, Safely Returns to Earth

Expedition 45 Flight Engineer Kjell Lindgren of NASA is among three crew members who returned to Earth Friday after a 141-day mission aboard the International Space Station, landing in Kazakhstan at approximately 8:12 a.m. EST (7:12 p.m. Kazakhstan time).

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NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Reaches Sand Dunes

'High Dune' is First Martian Dune Studied up Close

The Curiosity rover is examining the first active sand dunes ever studied up close on any planet besides Earth.





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NASA Highlights Global Air Quality, Moon, El Nino at American Geophysical Union

NASA researchers will present new findings on a wide range of Earth and space science topics at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union Dec. 14-18 in San Francisco. NASA-related briefings will be carried live on the agency’s website.

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NASA Telescopes Detect Jupiter-Like Storm on Small Star

Cool Star Marked by Long-Lived Storm

A star the size of Jupiter has a raging, giant storm





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Wednesday, 9 December 2015

New Clues to Ceres' Bright Spots and Origins

Occator in False Color

Ceres reveals some of its well-kept secrets in two new studies in the journal Nature, thanks to data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.





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Philae status update

Short video update from the Lander Control Center at DLR: #Videoupdate: the quest to re-establish contact with @Philae2014 continues... #lifeonacomet http://pic.twitter.com/0fp7Jrl8g2 — DLR - English (@DLR_en) December 9, 2015

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Tuesday, 8 December 2015

NASA Television Coverage Set for Next Space Station Crew Launch

The next three crew members bound for the International Space Station are set to launch on Tuesday, Dec. 15. NASA Television will provide full coverage of the launch beginning at 5 a.m. EST.

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Media Invited to See Progress Toward Space Station Launches from Virginia

NASA, Orbital ATK and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) will conduct a tour at 10:30 a.m. EST, on Thursday, Dec. 17, for media to view the completed work and preparations to resume next year commercial cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station from the agency’s Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia.

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Saturday, 5 December 2015

NASA to Televise Return of Three Space Station Crew Members

NASA Television will provide complete coverage Friday, Dec. 11 of the departure of three crew members from the International Space Station and their return to Earth beginning at 1 a.m. EST.

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Friday, 4 December 2015

To Jupiter with JunoCam!

Earth Triptych from NASA's Juno Spacecraft

Scientists on NASA's Juno mission are preparing to receive some stunning images of Jupiter, and they need your help.





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Cometwatch 27 November

This week’s Cometwatch entry was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 27 November 2015 when the spacecraft was 124 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The image scale is 10.6 m/pixel and the image measures 10.8 km across. The contrast has been lightly enhanced to bring out the comet's activity without losing details of the nucleus. The image shows a beautiful view of Imhotep on the comet’s large lobe, but with the resolution of NAVCAM at this distance it is not possible to make out the same level of detail as seen in the OSIRIS images depicting changes in the smooth, central portion that were observed in this region before perihelion. Perhaps the most eye-catching features of the image are the two groups of jets fanning out from the comet’s top-right horizon. Less defined jets can also be seen all around the sunlit horizon. The silhouette of the comet’s small lobe is also visible against the background ‘glow’ of activity towards the bottom left of the image. The original 1024 x 1024 pixel image is provided below:

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JPL CubeSat Clean Room: A Factory For Small Spacecraft

JPL's CubeSat Clean Room is Factory for the Smallest Spacecraft

JPL CubeSat clean room is doing big things for space explorations smallest inhabitants.





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Mars Mission Team Addressing Vacuum Leak on Key Science Instrument

This artist's concept from August 2015 depicts NASA's InSight Mars lander

A key science instrument for NASA's InSight spacecraft, being prepared for a March 2016 launch, is experiencing a leak in the vacuum container carrying its main sensors.





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NASA Space Telescopes See Magnified Image of Faintest Galaxy from Early Universe

Faint Compact Galaxy in the Early Universe

Astronomers harnessing the combined power of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have found the faintest object ever seen in the early universe.





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Thursday, 3 December 2015

LISA Pathfinder Carries Advanced NASA Thruster Tech

The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft

The LISA Pathfinder spacecraft is on its way to space, having successfully launched from Kourou, French Guiana (Dec. 3 local time/Dec. 2 PST).





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Al Condes Named Associate Administrator of NASA’s Office of International and Interagency Relations

NASA has named Al Condes the agency’s new associate administrator for the Office of International and Interagency Relations (OIIR) following the retirement of Michael O’Brien.

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Tuesday, 1 December 2015

NASA TV Coverage Set for Orbital ATK Resupply Mission to Space Station

NASA commercial partner Orbital ATK has set Thursday, Dec. 3, for the launch of its fourth contracted mission to the International Space Station under the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. NASA Television coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. EST.

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NASA Awards Contract for Administrative Support Services

NASA has selected Hanks, Hanks and Associates, LLC of Washington to provide professional administrative support services at the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama and its Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans.

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Monday, 30 November 2015

New comet shape model

A new 3D shape model of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko has been released by ESA’s Rosetta archive team today. The model includes images taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM up until mid-late July 2015, and reveals parts of the comet’s southern hemisphere that were not included in earlier shape models. The release also includes .WRL, OBJ, STL files, which can be used for 3D printing. At the same time, 681 images have been added to the Archive Image Browser covering the period 6 May to 30 June 2015 as part of ESA’s regular monthly release of NAVCAM images. During this period the comet was heading towards perihelion on 13 August, the closest point to the Sun along its orbit, and so the images capture some details of the comet's increasing activity. Taking into account the upcoming seasonal holiday, the next NAVCAM archive release will be made early-mid January 2016. For background information on what a shape model is, read our blog post: A shape model – what’s that?  We hope you enjoy using the updated shape model – do let us know if you've used it for your own projects, or if you have any questions about it, by writing in the comment box below.

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Thursday, 26 November 2015

CometWatch 22 November

This week’s Cometwatch entry was taken by Rosetta’s NAVCAM on 22 November 2015 when the spacecraft was 127.7 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale is 10.9 m/pixel and the image measures 11.1 km across. The contrast has been lightly enhanced to bring out the comet's activity without losing details of the nucleus. A prominent active region is clearly visible towards the horizon on the right of the nucleus in this orientation, close to the comet’s ‘neck’. Although faint, several diffuse jets of activity can also be seen emanating from the Imhotep region, which is cast in shadow in the foreground. Stretching the contrast of the image even further will reveal these active regions more clearly (but will wash out the nucleus). The comet nucleus is oriented with much of the southern hemisphere visible, facing ‘up’. On the small lobe in the background, the relatively flat region of Wosret can be identified, with a transition through Sobek on the neck into Anhur on the large lobe in the foreground. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:  

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Wednesday, 25 November 2015

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope Receives First Mirror Installation

NASA has successfully installed the first of 18 flight mirrors onto the James Webb Space Telescope, beginning a critical piece of the observatory’s construction.

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Loss of Carbon in Martian Atmosphere Explained

Carbon Exchange and Loss Processes on Mars

A process involving ultraviolet light from the sun helps explain the ratio of heavier to lighter carbon in Mars' atmosphere and resolve a dilemma about "missing" carbon.





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Strange Star Likely Swarmed by Comets

This illustration shows a star behind a shattered comet.

New clues emerge in the mystery of a star with odd light patterns.





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NASA Statements on Katherine Johnson’s Medal of Freedom

The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden about former NASA mathematician and physicist Katherine Johnson being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom Tuesday.

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Tuesday, 24 November 2015

NASA TV to Air Event Marking Arrival of Test Orion Powerhouse

NASA Television will broadcast an event marking the arrival of a full-size test version of the service module provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) for NASA’s Orion spacecraft at 12:30 p.m. EST on Monday, Nov. 30 at the agency’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.

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NASA TV Coverage Set for Fourth Orbital ATK Resupply Mission to Space Station

NASA commercial partner Orbital ATK is targeting Thursday, Dec. 3, for the launch of its fourth contracted mission to the International Space Station under the agency’s Commercial Resupply Services contract. NASA Television coverage of the launch begins at 4:30 p.m. EST.

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NASA Announces Early Stage Innovations Space Technology Research Grants

NASA has selected 15 university-led proposals for the study of innovative, early stage technologies that address high priority needs of America's space program.

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NEOWISE Identifies Greenhouse Gases in Comets

An expanded view of comet C/2006 W3 (Christensen) is shown here.

Data from NASA's NEOWISE mission are giving new insights into comet dust, nucleus sizes, and production rates for difficult-to-observe gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.





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NASA Awards Contract to Restart Development of Engines to Power Agency’s Journey to Mars

NASA selected Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California, to restart production of the RS-25 engine for the agency's Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket in the world, and deliver a certified engine. SLS will use four RS-25 engines to carry the agency’s Orion spacecraft and launch explorers on deep space missions.

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Monday, 23 November 2015

Earth Might Have Hairy Dark Matter

This illustration shows Earth surrounded by theoretical filaments of dark matter called

Dense filaments of dark matter particles, called "hairs," are sprouting from Earth, according to a new study based on computer simulations.





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Saturday, 21 November 2015

NASA Orders SpaceX Crew Mission to International Space Station

NASA took a significant step Friday toward expanding research opportunities aboard the International Space Station with its first mission order from Hawthorne, California based-company SpaceX to launch astronauts from U.S. soil.

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Friday, 20 November 2015

NASA Announces New Public-Private Partnerships to Advance ‘Tipping Point,’ Emerging Space Capabilities

NASA has secured partnerships with 22 U.S. companies through two solicitations to advance the agency’s goals for robotic and human exploration of the solar system by shepherding the development of critical space technologies.

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Satellite Sensors Would Deliver Global Fire Coverage

Satellite Animation

Wildfires can wreak havoc on human health, property and communities, so it's imperative to detect them as early as possible.





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Thursday, 19 November 2015

2015 and 1997 El Ninos: Deja vu, or Something New?

El Niño (left) are compared with 2015 Pacific conditions (right).

Forecasters say this year's El Niño looks just like the giant event of 1997-98. But when it comes to El Niños, there are no identical twins.





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CometWatch 17 November

Today's CometWatch entry is a NAVCAM image taken on 17 November 2015, when Rosetta was 141.4 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The spacecraft has not been this close to the nucleus since weeks before perihelion, when the increased amounts of dust due to enhanced comet activity started interfering with navigation and Rosetta remained at larger distances from 67P/C-G. The scale is 12.1 m/pixel and the image measures 12.3 km across; the contrast was increased to bring out the comet's activity. In this orientation, the large comet lobe is on the lower left, and the small lobe on the upper right. Outflows of dust are visible around the nucleus, particularly to the left. On the small lobe, the circular depression of Hatmehit is well in sight, pointing to the upper right corner of the image, with the rougher terrains of Bastet visible below and the Wosret region to its left. Abydos, the final resting place of the lander Philae, is roughly at the centre of the small lobe in this view. Hints of Sobek are visible on the comet's neck; on the large lobe are parts of Babi (right), smooth areas on Aker and Khepry (centre), and the more rugged Anhur and Khonsu (left). The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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NASA Awards Grants to Broaden STEM Education for Underserved Students

NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) has selected four minority serving institutions for cooperative agreement awards totaling approximately $2 million to help strengthen science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curricula at the schools.

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New York Students Quiz Space Station Crew on Life Off the Earth

Students from East Side Middle School in New York will have the opportunity to speak with NASA astronauts on the International Space Station at 9:40 a.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 19 during an event hosted by TIME For Kids.

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Wednesday, 18 November 2015

NASA Receives Fifth Consecutive Clean Audit Opinion

NASA has received an unmodified audit opinion on its Fiscal Year 2015 (FY 2015) financial statements, marking the fifth consecutive year of “clean” opinions. The agency has released its FY 2015 Agency Financial Report (AFR), which provides details on its financial results and performance highlights.

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NASA Astronaut Tim Kopra Available for Interviews Before Space Station Mission

NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, who is making final preparations for a December launch to the International Space Station, is available for live satellite interviews from 7-8 a.m. EST Tuesday, Nov. 24.

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Tuesday, 17 November 2015

NASA Awards Two Robots to University Groups for R&D Upgrades

Humanoid robots will be helpful to astronauts on our journey to Mars, so NASA has awarded prototypes to two universities for advanced research and development work.

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Reminiscing about the week of comet landing

This time last year saw the end of an extraordinary week at ESA's European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany. Hundreds of journalists and reporters had gathered to witness an historic endeavour as on 12 November 2014 the Rosetta orbiter deployed the lander Philae on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. In this blog post, some of our media friends reflect on the events of that memorable week and on one evening in particular. Late in the evening on 14 November, two days after Philae had landed (and bounced) on the comet, three social-media eye witnesses joined a small team of ESA communicators sitting just outside the mission control room at ESOC. Keeping an eye on Philae as it completed its scientific operations, they tweeted live what could have been the lander's final contact with Rosetta. They were Emily Lakdawalla, Chris Lintott and Steven Young, who had been reporting during the week for The Planetary Society's blog, for the BBC’s Sky at Night programme and for the UK's Astronomy Now magazine (and Spaceflight Now website), respectively. One year later, we asked them to join us on a trip down memory lane, piecing together their impressions of that hectic week and, in particular, of that remarkable evening. “I expected it to be similar to the Huygens landing, which I also attended, and it was!” Emily told us. “I was anticipating doing daily blog entries as well as tweeting everything I could. Based on past experience at events like Mars landings, I also expected to be helping other members of the media understand the science and the background behind the mission.” Chris also had been at ESOC for the Huygens landing on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. “That was thrilling, and the chance to be back for another piece of space history was […]

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'Chemical Laptop' Could Search for Signs of Life Outside Earth

JPL researchers Jessica Creamer, Fernanda Mora and Peter Willis (left to right) pose with the Chemical Laptop

A small laptop-sized device is being developed at JPL to look for amino acids and fatty acids, with potential applications in space.





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NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Heads Toward Active Dunes

Curiosity Rover Will Study Dunes on Route up Mountain

The NASA Mars rover that is studying layers of a Martian mountain will soon get its first taste of the "Bagnold Dunes," a dark sea of sand along the mountain's base.





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Saturday, 14 November 2015

Todd May Named Marshall Space Flight Center Acting Director

NASA has named Todd May acting director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as the agency continues the process of looking for a permanent director.

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Friday, 13 November 2015

CometWatch 12 November – one year on

Today’s CometWatch entry was taken yesterday by Rosetta’s NAVCAM, on the anniversary of Philae’s historic landing on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last year. The image was taken from a distance of 177.7 km; the image scale is 15.1 m/pixel and the image measures 15.5 km across. It has been lightly enhanced to better show the comet’s activity. With Rosetta closer to the comet, more surface details can be seen again. On the large lobe, to the left, the relatively flat surface of Aker can be seen to the top, with Khepry to the left and Babi in the foreground. Hints of Anhur can also just be seen beyond Aker. On the small lobe, the circular depression Hatmehit takes centre stage. Philae’s first touchdown point, Agilkia, is to the lower right of Hatmehit in this orientation, with its final landing site, Abydos, towards the horizon at the top of this view. In case you missed it yesterday, a new animation was released by the lander teams depicting Philae’s impressive flight across the surface of the comet from Agilkia to Abydos. More about the outlook for Philae – and Rosetta – in the months and year ahead can be found in our comet landing anniversary article, here. The original 1024 x 1024 pixel image of today’s Cometwatch entry is provided below:

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Video: science highlights one year since comet landing

This film covers the most recent science news from the Rosetta mission, as well as selected scientific highlights from the last year.  

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Thursday, 12 November 2015

As Earth Warms, NASA Targets ‘Other Half’ of Carbon, Climate Equation

During a noon EST media teleconference today, NASA and university scientists will discuss new insights, tools and agency research into key carbon and climate change questions, as the agency ramps up its efforts to understand how Earth’s ocean, forest, and land ecosystems absorb nearly half of emitted carbon dioxide today.

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As Earth Warms, NASA Targets 'Other Half' of Carbon, Climate Equation

Carbon dioxide from wildfires and urban sources blankets the Northern Hemisphere.

During a 9 am PST (noon EST) media teleconference today, NASA and university scientists will discuss new insights, tools and agency research into key carbon and climate change questions.





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Secondhand Spacecraft Has Firsthand Asteroid Experience

This artist's concept shows the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE spacecraft

NASA's NEOWISE mission has observed 158,000 asteroids and discovered more than 35,000 since December 2009.





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From one comet landing to another: planning Rosetta’s grand finale

As announced in June along with confirmation of the mission’s extension, Rosetta teams are planning to end the operational phase of the mission in a controlled impact of the orbiter on the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko at the end of September 2016. While the specific details of the trajectories and impact site are still under discussion, ESA’s Rosetta Spacecraft Operations Manager Sylvain Lodiot, Project Scientist Matt Taylor, and mission manager Patrick Martin, share some background information on the planning of this dramatic mission finale. Why will the mission come to an end? Following perihelion in August, Comet 67P/C-G and Rosetta are now moving away from the Sun and back out towards the orbit of Jupiter. This creates a number of challenges: Reduced solar power As the comet recedes from the Sun, the amount of sunlight falling on Rosetta’s solar panels will drop significantly. As the power drops, it will not be possible to operate all of the scientific instruments at the same time. Ultimately, the point will be reached where Rosetta would have to be put back in hibernation, as it was for the 31 months leading up to January 2014. However, this time Rosetta will follow the comet out beyond the orbit of Jupiter on its 6.5-year journey around the Sun, further from its source of power than ever before. On top of this, the spacecraft will have been in space for over 12 years, two of them spent in the comet’s dusty environment, with degradation of the solar arrays expected to further reduce the available power. Solar conjunction By September-October 2016, Rosetta and the comet will appear very close to the Sun as seen from the Earth, making the uplinking of operational commands and the downlinking of scientific data extremely challenging. On 1 October 2016, the spacecraft will […]

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Reconstructing Philae’s flight across the comet

Data from both the Philae lander and Rosetta orbiter experiments, as well as simulation results based on Philae’s mechanical design have been used to reconstruct the lander’s attitude and motion during its descent and touchdowns on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko on 12 November 2014.  A new animation was presented today, one year after Philae touched down on the comet, focusing on Philae’s dramatic two-hour flight from Agilkia to Abydos – in this blog post we hear from some of the people behind its production. Over the last year, more and more details about exactly what happened have been gleaned from a detailed evaluation of data from various instruments and sensors. These have provided an extensive account of the events from the moment Philae separated from Rosetta, through its seven-hour descent, and the subsequent two-hour flight across the surface that included three touchdowns and a collision. A numerical simulation of Philae, calibrated and verified with test data from a mock-up of the lander, was used to model its interaction with the surface at Agilkia. The subsequent free flight and later bounce dynamics were reconstructed from the trajectory in conjunction with attitude information derived from the ROMAP instrument. Together, these efforts made it possible to determine Philae’s behaviour on 12 November 2014 with sufficient accuracy to make this new visualisation. Philae’s first touchdown on the comet (TD1) at 15:35 UT is constrained by a very precise knowledge of its landing position and orientation based on ROLIS images, the times at which the three feet contacted the surface as measured by SESAME, the vertical dynamics from the damping tube housekeeping data, lander dynamics simulations explaining the footprints imaged later by OSIRIS, outbound attitude reconstructed from ROMAP and RPC-MAG data, and the outbound velocity vector based on a trajectory reconstruction. Felix Finke of DLR, one of […]

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The sound of Philae conducting science

Philae’s SESAME-CASSE ‘listened’ to the lander’s MUPUS instrument hammer the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko last November. Martin Knapmeyer from the German Aerospace Centre, DLR, tells us more.   SESAME-CASSE is the Cometary Acoustic Surface Sounding Experiment located in the lander’s feet. It takes the form of three accelerometers, each of which records acceleration in three directions (one vertical and two horizontal). MUPUS comprises the Multi-Purpose Sensors for Surface and Subsurface Science – including the MUPUS penetrator that was activated towards the end of Philae’s first science sequence on 14 November 2014. It was recognized early in the preparation of both experiments that the hammering mechanism of MUPUS, which drives a thermal probe into the comet’s surface, would serve as an acoustic source for ‘sounding’ the subsurface with CASSE. The determination of the propagation velocity of sound would allow scientists to look at possible layering in the comet’s surface and subsurface materials, important for understanding its evolution. The CASSE instrument listened to the hammering of MUPUS for 2h 15 min. Due to memory limitations, CASSE was not able to take continuous recordings, but only a few seconds at a time. Several waiting periods were also included to give MUPUS time to reach depths of 10 cm, 20 cm, and 30 cm. A total of 15 hammer strokes were recorded, and one of the recordings contains two signals (the first sound, left, is heard at about 3 and 9 seconds respectively). The time between the strokes matches the charge time of the hammer mechanism expected at that time, thus this particular recording proves that CASSE was really recording hammer strokes. The second sound file (below) contains hammer stroke no. 129 (as determined from the MUPUS housekeeping catalogue), which was recorded on Philae’s +Y foot. This stroke was executed at the highest energy level of […]

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Rosetta and Philae: one year since landing on a comet

One year since Philae made its historic landing on a comet, mission teams remain hopeful for renewed contact with the lander, while also looking ahead to next year’s grand finale: making a controlled impact of the Rosetta orbiter on the comet. This article is mirrored from the main ESA web portal. Rosetta arrived at Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014, and after an initial survey and selection of a landing site, Philae was delivered to the surface on 12 November. After touching down in the Agilkia region as planned, Philae did not secure itself to the comet, and it bounced to a new location in Abydos. Its flight across the surface is depicted in a new animation, using data collected by Rosetta and Philae to reconstruct the lander’s rotation and attitude (Ed's note: more details on the animation to follow in a dedicated blog post) In the year since landing, a thorough analysis has also now been performed on why Philae bounced. There were three methods to secure it after landing: ice screws, harpoons and a small thruster. The ice screws were designed with relatively soft material in mind, but Agilkia turned out to be very hard and they did not penetrate the surface. The harpoons were capable of working in both softer and harder material. They were supposed to fire on contact and lock Philae to the surface, while a thruster on top of the lander was meant to push it down to counteract the recoil from the harpoon. Attempts to arm the thruster the night before failed: it is thought that a seal did not open, although a sensor failure cannot be excluded. Then, on landing, the harpoons themselves did not fire. “It seems that the problem was either with the four ‘bridge wires’ taking current to ignite the explosive […]

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Wednesday, 11 November 2015

Upgrade Helps NASA Study Mineral Veins on Mars

Veiny 'Garden City' Site and Surroundings on Mount Sharp, Mars

Diverse composition of mineral veins at the "Garden City" site investigated by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover suggests multiple episodes of groundwater activity.





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The ups and downs of a comet’s surface

This time last year little was known about Agilkia, the area chosen as Philae's landing site. One year on and the situation has changed, thanks to remote and in-situ measurements that have contributed to building up a picture of this iconic area on the comet. As can be seen from the many results reported in this blog, Rosetta is providing unrivalled information about the surface of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. One team has been looking in particular at the region around where Philae touched down in order to put the lander's results in their correct global context. Agilkia was the name chosen for the 1 km^2 landing ellipse at which Philae was targeted. Last year, as Rosetta drew closer to the comet, smaller and more distinct terrains within this ellipse became apparent. Fiorangela La Forgia, of the University of Padova, Italy, and colleagues have studied images from OSIRIS, the science camera on Rosetta, to define these areas according to their geological appearance. On 12 November 2014, Philae touched down as planned in Agilkia, within a region named Ma'at. (Comet regions, defined according to their geomorphology, have been named after ancient Egyptian deities.) It then rebounded, and after two hours drifting about 100m above the comet surface, it settled into its final position, named Abydos and thought to be located on the other side of the Hatmehit region, close to the border with Bastet. From OSIRIS images, we see that Ma’at, and the neighbouring region Nut, are mainly covered by smooth deposits of fine-grained material. The size of these grains was revealed by the ROLIS images from Philae to be of the order of a few centimetres. Although the depth of this layer is unknown it is probably highly variable across the planet: a 35 m-wide impact crater in the Ash region shows […]

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Tuesday, 10 November 2015

NASA Holds Media Briefing on Carbon's Role in Earth's Future Climate

advancing new tools like the supercomputer model that created this simulation of carbon dioxide

A Nov. 12 NASA media telecon will cover latest insights into Earth's response to rising levels of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, and what it means for future climate.





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NASA Holds Media Briefing on Carbon’s Role in Earth’s Future Climate

NASA will host a media teleconference at noon EST on Thursday, Nov. 12 to discuss the latest insights into how Earth is responding to rising levels of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, and what this means for our future climate.

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Monday, 9 November 2015

Four Months after Pluto Flyby, NASA’s New Horizons Yields Wealth of Discovery

From possible ice volcanoes to twirling moons, NASA’s New Horizons science team is discussing more than 50 exciting discoveries about Pluto at this week’s 47th Annual Meeting of the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences in National Harbor, Maryland.

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A fall of comet dust and a field of boulders

From the earliest clear views of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko it was obvious that the surface is a collection of contrasts: smooth plains, imposing craggy cliffs and scatterings of boulders. Rosetta scientists are now digging into the detail to explain how some of these features may have arisen and what this means for our understanding of comets. The study of comet 67P/C-G reveals a dramatic surface environment where considerable amounts of material – up to 1000 kg per second – are ejected from the comet. Not all of this makes it into space, instead some falls back to coat the nucleus. These small, solid particles – typically with sizes ranging from micrometres to tens of centimetres – are ejected when icy material sublimes. As the ice turns from solid to gas, it escapes into space, propelling the solid particles with it. The smallest of these expelled dust grains – millimeter-sized or smaller – obtain sufficient velocity to escape the influence of the comet and become part of the comet’s tail, which can stretch for millions of kilometres through space. But some of the larger particles (centimetre-sized or greater) fall back, meaning that particles from one part of the comet can descend to the surface on another part of the comet’s double-lobed nucleus. This ‘airfall’ creates smooth plains that can be as much as a few metres thick. Nicolas Thomas from Universität Bern, Switzerland, and collaborators have used data from OSIRIS, the science camera on Rosetta, to study these dusty plains. They then used computer models to investigate the mechanisms at work. The neck, where the two lobes join together and which has been named the Hapi region, has been notably active and so provided an obvious site for investigation. Computer models show that particles ejected from Hapi with speeds below 0.8 m/s […]

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Saturday, 7 November 2015

NASA's RapidScat Celebrates One-Year Anniversary

RapidScat and Hurricane Patricia

The ISS-RapidScat instrument has spent just over a year in space, and has already helped with weather and other forecasts.





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NASA Offers Media Access to Cygnus Cargo Module Nov. 13

Media will have the opportunity to view the Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft filled with cargo and research for the International Space Station on Friday, Nov.13, at NASA’s Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility (PHSF) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

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Friday, 6 November 2015

CometWatch 31 October

Today's CometWatch entry is a NAVCAM image taken on 31 October 2015, when Rosetta was 293.4 km from the nucleus of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The scale is 25 m/pixel and the image measures 25.6 km across; the contrast was increased to bring out the comet's activity. In this orientation, the comet small lobe is on the right and the large lobe on the left. The image shows interesting surface details of the four regions that were identified on the southern hemisphere after Rosetta started surveying this portion of the nucleus. The flat appearance of the Wosret region, on the small lobe, contrasts with the beautiful pattern of features seen on Sobek, in the 'neck' region. On the large lobe, parts of Anhur along with Khonsu are visible, while portions of two previously known regions, Anubis and Atum, can also be seen towards the top. The original 1024 x 1024 image of today's CometWatch is provided below:

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NASA Mission Reveals Speed of Solar Wind Stripping Martian Atmosphere

NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission has identified the process that appears to have played a key role in the transition of the Martian climate from an early, warm and wet environment that might have supported surface life to the cold, arid planet Mars is today.

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Thursday, 5 November 2015

NASA Awards Contract for Space Communication, Navigation Program Support

NASA has selected Arctic Slope Technical Services, Inc. of Beltsville, Maryland, to provide services in support of its Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) program office at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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NASA Opens Media Accreditation for Orion Service Module Event

NASA has opened media accreditation for a Nov. 30 event marking the arrival of a full-size test version of the service module, provided by ESA (European Space Agency), for NASA’s Orion spacecraft at the agency’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.

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Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Astronaut Available Today for Live Interviews to Discuss Recruitment, Training

NASA astronaut Anne McClain will be available for live satellite interviews to discuss astronaut recruiting and training from 2 to 3:30 p.m. EST today from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The event will air live on NASA Television.

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Be an Astronaut: NASA Seeks Explorers for Future Space Missions

In anticipation of returning human spaceflight launches to American soil, and in preparation for the agency’s Journey to Mars, NASA announced it will soon begin accepting applications for the next class of astronaut candidates. With more human spacecraft in development in the United States today than at any other time in history, future astronauts

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NASA to Fly, Sail North to Study Plankton-Climate Change Connection

NASA begins a five-year study this month of the annual cycle of phytoplankton and the impact that small airborne particles emitted from the ocean have on the climate-sensitive North Atlantic.

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Radar Images Provide New Details on Halloween Asteroid

Halloween Asteroid Rotation

The highest-resolution images of asteroid 2015 TB145 yield new information about surface features.





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Tuesday, 3 November 2015

Whopping Galaxy Cluster Spotted with Help of NASA Telescopes

A Giant Gathering of Galaxies

A giant gathering of galaxies has been spotted 8.5 billion light-years away.





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CometWatch from Gaia

This blog post is based on an image release published on the ESA Space Science portal . On 14 September 2015, Comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko was imaged by Gaia, ESA's billion star surveyor. Located at the Lagrange point L2, 1.5 million km away from Earth in the opposite direction from the Sun, Gaia scans the entire sky about every three months to map the positions and motions of a billion stars in our Galaxy. In the process, the satellite also picks up objects much closer to home, such as asteroids and comets in the solar system, gathering data that will be used to determine their orbits to unprecedented accuracy. Gaia is optimised to detect stars, which appear as point sources in its camera, and measure their properties, but it does not routinely return images of celestial objects. To acquire an image of a particular object, a special trick can be used. This is what Gaia astronomers did to ensure that, when the satellite scanned the patch of the sky including Rosetta's comet, the star-mapper camera would capture an image of this iconic object. “Comet 67P/C-G had just passed its perihelion on 13 August, and calculations predicted that the patch of the sky containing the comet and Rosetta would be scanned by Gaia on 14 September,” comments Fred Jansen, Gaia mission manager and former Rosetta mission manager. “It was a remarkable occasion: Gaia and Rosetta, two ESA science missions separated by over 260 million kilometres, one looking at the other and its object of study.” For this special occasion, the astronomers made sure that Gaia’s star-mapper camera would cover that patch of the sky using a special mode in which a full image is recorded and transmitted to the ground instead of point sources only, as in Gaia's normal science mode. “This […]

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NASA Finds New Way to Track Ocean Currents from Space

GRACE satellites measured Atlantic Ocean bottom pressure as an indicator of deep ocean current speed.

NASA and university scientists have developed a new way to use satellite measurements to track changes in Atlantic Ocean currents, which are a driving force in global climate.





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Monday, 2 November 2015

White House, NASA Administrator Statements on 15 Years of Human Habitation Aboard International Space Station

Statements from Dr. John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the 15th anniversary of continuous human habitation on the International Space Station.

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NASA to Announce New Findings on Fate of Mars’ Atmosphere

NASA will provide details of key science findings from the agency’s ongoing exploration of Mars during a news briefing at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 5 in the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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Astronomy & Astrophysics: Rosetta special issue

A special issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics was published online on Friday, featuring 46 articles based on data collected by Rosetta and Philae in the mission's first year at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Topics covered include the comet's shape and formation theories, the evolution and nature of its activity, the composition of the coma, and the coma's interaction with the solar wind. For a full list of contents, click here. Many of these papers were published over the past few months, and several were already covered by news articles here on the ESA blog and/or the main ESA web portal; you can find the news items linked from the table of contents by clicking on the ‘press release’ button.            

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Saturday, 31 October 2015

NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Next Tracking, Data Relay Satellite

NASA has selected United Launch Services LLC of Centennial, Colorado, to provide launch services for the agency’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-M (TDRS-M) mission. The mission will launch in October 2017 aboard an Atlas V 401 rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

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Friday, 30 October 2015

Saturn's Geyser Moon Shines in Close Flyby Views

This unprocessed view of Saturn's moon Enceladus was acquired by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during a close flyby

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sent back new images of Saturn's active moon Enceladus, acquired during its Oct. 28 flyby.





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Excitement Grows as NASA Carbon Sleuth Begins Year Two

Global average carbon dioxide concentrations as seen by OCO-2 mission

Scientists poring over data from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 mission are seeing patterns emerge as they seek answers to questions about atmospheric carbon dioxide.





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CometWatch 26 October – 6 hours apart

CometWatch this week comprises two NAVCAM images acquired six hours apart on 26 October 2015. The images have been lightly enhanced to reveal some detail of the comet’s activity (the unprocessed images are available at the end of the post). In the six hours that passed Rosetta also moved 2.3 kilometres closer to the comet, resulting in slightly different image scales between the two images. Caption: Left: Comet 67P/C-G at 13:31:01 UT on 26 October from a distance of 312.7 km. The image scale is 26.6 m/pixel and the image measures 27.3 km across. Right: The view 6 hours later, at 19:27:53 UT, from a distance of 310.4 km. The image scale for the second image is 26.5 m/pixel and the image measures 27.1 km. Since Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko’s rotation period is a little over 12 hours, these two images are separated by about half a comet rotation, offering complementary views of the nucleus. In both orientations, jets can be seen rising from the sunlit side of the nucleus. In the left-hand image the large lobe is in the foreground, with Imhotep facing the viewer, albeit largely in shadow. Similarly, the outline of the Aten depression, also in shadow, can just be made out to the right. Above Aten, towards the centre of the image, are the Khepry and Aker regions, with Anhur towards the upper left of the large lobe. On the small lobe in the background it is mostly Bastet that is visible, with a hint of Wosret appearing as the flat portion at the top left. Six hours later and the comet’s small lobe is in the foreground, the large lobe in the background, with the Anuket region of the comet’s neck visible in between. On the large lobe the ridge separating Seth (itself not visible) from the smooth Anubis region can be […]

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Rewrite of Onboard Memory Planned for NASA Mars Orbiter

Artist concept of Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/JPL

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will suspend activities next week to perform a multi-step update of onboard memory that is crucial in case of an unplanned computer reboot.





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Thursday, 29 October 2015

Voyager 1 Helps Solve Interstellar Medium Mystery

This artist's concept shows NASA's Voyager spacecraft against a backdrop of stars.

A study provides new insights about the magnetic field of the interstellar medium, using data from Voyager 1 and other spacecraft.





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Station Science Top News: Dec. 20, 2024

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