Titan's siblings must be jealous. While most of Saturn's moons display their ancient faces pockmarked by thousands of craters, Titan -- Saturn's largest moon -- may look much younger than it really is because its craters are getting erased. Dunes of exotic, hydrocarbon sand are slowly but steadily filling in its craters, according to new research using observations from NASA's Cassini spacecraft.
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This image taken with the Cassini radar instrument shows two craters on Titan: the crater Sinlap (left), which is a relatively 'fresh' crater, with a depth-to-diameter ratio close to what we see on Ganymede, and Soi (right), an extremely degraded crater, with a very small depth compared to similar craters on Ganymede. These craters are both about 80 km (almost 50 miles) in diameter. The Sinlap image was taken on Feb. 15, 2005. The Soi image is a mosaic of two images from May 21, 2009 and July 22, 2006 [Credit: Catherine Neish/NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/GSFC]"
"Most of the Saturnian satellites -- Titan's siblings -- have thousands and thousands of craters on their surface. So far on Titan, of the 50 percent of the surface that we've seen in high resolution, we've only found about 60 craters," said Catherine Neish, a Cassini radar team associate based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "It's possible that there are many more craters on Titan, but they are not visible from space because they are so eroded. We typically estimate the age of a planet's surface by counting the number of craters on it (more craters means an older surface). But if processes like stream erosion or drifting sand dunes are filling them in, it's possible that the surface is much older that it appears."
"This research is the first quantitative estimate of how much the weather on Titan has modified its surface," adds Neish.
Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a thick atmosphere, and the only world besides Earth known to have lakes and seas on its surface. However, with a frigid surface temperature of around minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (94 kelvins), the rain that falls from Titan's skies is not water but instead liquid methane and ethane, compounds that are normally gases on Earth.
Neish and her team made the discovery by comparing craters on Titan to craters on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Ganymede is a giant moon with a water ice crust, similar to Titan, so craters on the two moons should have similar shapes. However, Ganymede has almost no atmosphere and thus no wind or rain to erode its surface.
"We found that craters on Titan were on average hundreds of yards (meters) shallower than similarly sized craters on Ganymede, suggesting that some process on Titan is filling its craters," says Neish, who is lead author of a paper about this research published online in the journal Icarus Dec. 3, 2012.
The team used the average depth-versus-diameter trend for craters on Ganymede derived from stereo images from NASA's Galileo spacecraft. The same trend for craters on Titan was calculated using estimates of the crater depth from data derived from images made by Cassini's radar instrument.
Titan's atmosphere is mostly nitrogen with a trace of methane and other, more complex molecules made of hydrogen and carbon (hydrocarbons). The source of Titan's methane remains a mystery because methane in the atmosphere is broken down over relatively short timescales by sunlight. Fragments of methane molecules then recombine into more complex hydrocarbons in the upper atmosphere, forming a thick, orange smog that hides the surface from view. Some of the larger particles eventually rain out on to the surface, where they appear to get bound together to form the sand.
"Since the sand appears to be produced from the atmospheric methane, Titan must have had methane in its atmosphere for at least several hundred million years in order to fill craters to the levels we are seeing," says Neish. However, researchers estimate Titan's current supply of methane should be broken down by sunlight within tens of millions of years, so Titan either had a lot more methane in the past, or it is being replenished somehow.
Team members say it's possible that other processes could be filling the craters on Titan: erosion from the flow of liquid methane and ethane for example. However, this type of weathering tends to fill a crater quickly at first, then more slowly as the crater rim gets worn down and less steep. If liquid erosion were primarily responsible for the infill, then the team would expect to see a lot of partially filled craters on Titan. "However, this is not the case," says Neish. "Instead we see craters at all stages; some just beginning to be filled in, some halfway, and some that are almost completely full. This suggests a process like windblown sand, which fills craters and other features at a steady rate."
All solid materials under stress flow very slowly over time. This is called viscous flow, and it is like what happens when someone takes a scoop out of a fresh tub of whipped cream -- the material slowly flows in to fill the hole and flatten the surface. Craters on icy satellites tend to get shallower over time as the ice flows viscously, so it's possible that some of the shallow craters on Titan are simply much older or experienced a higher heat flow than the similarly sized, fresh craters on Ganymede studied in this work.
However, Titan's crust is mostly water ice, and at the extremely low temperatures on Titan, ice shouldn't flow enough to account for such a large difference in depth compared to the Ganymede craters, according to the team. Also, just like stream erosion, deformation from viscous flow tends to happen rapidly at first, then more slowly as the material adjusts, so one would expect to see a lot of partially filled craters on Titan if its surface was deforming easily through viscous flow.
As Cassini flies past Titan on its multi-year tour of Saturn and its moons, the radar instrument gradually builds up a map of the surface. To date, the instrument has provided data in strips covering approximately 50 percent of Titan's surface. The craters measured by the team are all within about 30 degrees of the equator, a relatively dry region on Titan.
"However, the presence of liquids on the surface and in the near subsurface can also cause extensive modification to crater shape, as is observed on Earth," says Neish. "In the case of Titan, liquids consist of hydrocarbons, either as wet sediments (such as those observed at the Huygens landing site) or shallow marine environments (such as the lakes observed at the north and south poles). Craters formed in similar environments on Earth lack any significant surface topography, including the absence of a raised rim, as wet sediments slump into the crater. It is possible that the lack of topography associated with marine-target impacts may help to explain the relative scarcity of impact craters observed near the poles of Titan. If Titan's polar regions are saturated by liquid hydrocarbons, craters formed in those regions may lack any recognizable topographic expression."
The team thinks these considerations are good areas for more research, but based on the data so far, the difference in depth between craters on Titan and Ganymede is best explained by filling from windblown sand, although erosion from liquids and viscous flow might contribute to the modification of Titan's craters.
NASA's Cassini mission, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., and the NASA Postdoctoral Program, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities, funded the research.
"Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center [January 17, 2013]"
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced a new project during the "State of NASA" speech by administrator Chris Bolden. The U.S. space agency seems preparing for first ever Europa mission. NASA is planning to send a probe to the moon of Jupiter.
NASA will request an additional 30 million to finance preliminary studies for the Europa mission. The amount will add up to the 100 million that the American agency already received in 2014.
Discovered 390 million miles away from Earth, Europa is an icy moon believed to hold massive oceans below its frozen surface. Scientists estimate the moon to harbor two or three times more liquid water than Earth.
The space agency has been working on mission concepts for 15 years and seems it already found the right one that is not too small or too expensive. According to one of the senior research scientists Robert Pappalardo, they call the concept, "Europa Clipper".
Pappalardo revealed that the concept involves a spacecraft projected to orbit Jupiter and perform several fly-by's of the planet's moon for approximately over three years.
Somewhat similar project is already done by NASA in Saturn when they successfully orbited the planet with Cassini spacecraft. Cassini is still performing flybys of the planet's moon Titan, which help scientists make a map of the moon's surface. Researchers also collected data about the unique atmosphere of Saturn's moon.
The Europa Clipper could perform the same mission with a focus on the analysis of the icy world's potential for life. Europa measures slightly smaller than Earth's moon with a diameter of 1,900 miles. Aside from its liquid water, scientists also thrilled with Europa's heat source and nutrient cycling.
According to Kevin Hand, JPL deputy chief scientist for solar system exploration and an astrobiologist, Europa Clipper's mission is to know whether Europa could be habitable, or it presents the elements required for life to flourish.
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New data from the European Southern Observatory's HARPS (Revitalization Fidelity Radial zip Globe Scavenger) planet-hunting counselor suggests at hand may well be tens of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy.
Astronomers analyzing this new data referee that not quite forty percent of red dwarf stars in the Buttery Way galaxy may wolf Earth-sized planets orbiting them in imitation of the claim stipulations for life. Red dwarfs yield virtually eighty percent of the stars in the galaxy, and, according to "Nervous.com", their commonness means "that at hand are tens of billions of viable places to good for life further Dig, in imitation of at smallest 100 such planets positioned contiguously."
Artists hollow of dusk on Gliese 667 Cc. (Credit: ESO/L. Calcada)Right through this recent inquiry of red dwarf stars, scientists naked a planet in the Gliese 667 triple attribute system. This is the flicker planet naked in that system, and has been named Gliese 667 Cc. The planet is situated meticulous the center of the habitable zone, and, according to astronomers, it "almost by a long shot has the claim stipulations for the existence of runny water on its feature." Gliese 667 Cc is the flicker super-Earth planet positioned in the habitable zone of a red dwarf attribute naked from first to last this HARPS inquiry. The first was Gliese 581d, which was acknowledged in 2009.
Among high-class information coming in from ESO's HARPS and NASA's Kepler space counselor, and current data periodic to be analyzed by astronomers, ridiculous discoveries about our galaxy are sure to comprise high-class patronize. Everybody new discovery helps us gather high-class about our run of the mill universe, and, in all probability, brings us closer to discovery extraterrestrial life.
Nasa's Ladee mission is part of a resurgence of interest in the Moon and it is all down to the fact that we barely understand our cosmic neighbour.
You would be forgiven for thinking that America lost interest in the Moon forty years ago, in December 1972, when Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan left the final footprint on its dusty surface. It's certainly true that in the 1970s and 80s there was little desire to return to our grey, cratered cosmic neighbour. In fact during the 1980s no-one sent a single spacecraft, robot or orbiter. Thanks to Apollo, American scientists had an enormous pile of lunar rocks to study, Nasa's attention had switched to the Space Shuttle and the Soviets had run out of money.
But in recent years, there has been a resurgence of interest in studying the Moon in order to tackle some of the many unanswered scientific questions. In the last decade, Europe, Japan, China and India have all sent unmanned orbiters to probe the Moon's chemical composition, gravitational field and topography. Among other things, they've proved the presence of water, discovered potentially useful minerals and uncovered evidence that the Moon may still be geologically active. Now, later this year, the US will be launching its fourth mission since 2009: Ladee.
For the rest of the story: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130411-solving-a-moon-mystery
Unsmiling in the sordid of the asteroid pushover, on its way to the first of the belt's two most great inhabitants, NASA's ion-propelled Launch spacecraft has eclipsed the capture for burn rubber deprave formed by a spacecraft's engines.The long-ago standard-bearer for burn rubber deprave, NASA's Unsmiling Gap 1, also prompted by ion propulsion, was the first interplanetary spacecraft to use this technology. The Unsmiling Gap 1 capture sculpt on Saturday, June 5, some time ago the Launch spacecraft's accumulated rush over the board exceeded 4.3 kilometers per second (9,600 miles per hour)."We are passing through this fabulous ion-engine technology as a stepping-stone to orbit and investigate two of the asteroid belt's most captivating objects, Vesta and Ceres," assumed Robert Mase, Launch project manager from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.A spacecraft's deprave in burn rubber refers to its influence to deprave its gush plus space by passing through its own go engines. This component of deprave begins very soon after the spacecraft exits the last dot of the setting up sports car that hurled it now space.To get to everyplace it is in all the capture books and the asteroid pushover, the Launch spacecraft had to incite its three engines - one at a time-- for a comprehensive entire of 620 time. In that time, it has recycled lower than than 165 kilograms (363 pounds) of xenon propellant. Once more the course of its eight-plus-year board, Dawn's three ion engines are normal to bar 2,000 time of concert -- 5.5 natural life of thrusting -- for a entire deprave in burn rubber of terminated than 38,620 kilometers per hour.At over 24,000 MPH the solar power-driven, ion engined Launch spacecraft very qualifies as the recording EV in the solar system."I am elated that it spur be Launch that surpasses DS1's capture," assumed Marc Rayman, chief devise for the Launch board and a long-ago project manager for Unsmiling Gap 1."It is a thanks to all community dense in the design and operations of this fabulous spacecraft."At first quick look, Dawn's pedal-to-the-metal performance is a not-so-inspiring 0-to-97 kilometers per hour (0-to-60 miles per hour) in four time. But due to its impressive worth, it expends very soon 37 ounces of xenon propellant in vogue that time. So hold close now care that after community four time of full-throttle thrusting, it spur do unorthodox four time, and in addition to unorthodox four. By the end of 12 time, the spacecraft spur organize enlarged its burn rubber by terminated than 290 kilometers per hour (180 miles per hour), amongst terminated time and weeks and months of incessant thrusting to expand. In one year's time, Dawn's ion propulsion system can addition the spacecraft's speed by 8,850 kilometers per hour (5,500 miles per hour), after overwhelming the correspondence of very soon 16 gallons of intensification."This is a special go along with for the spacecraft crew," assumed Dawn's major investigator, Chris Russell of the Speculative of California Los Angeles. "In very soon 407 time, our minds spur be on unorthodox set of records, the data records that Launch spur hand on some time ago we enter Vesta orbit."Dawn's 4.8-billion-kilometer (3-billion-mile) odyssey includes exploration of asteroid Vesta in 2011 and 2012, and the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015. These two icons of the asteroid pushover organize been perceive to furthest of our solar system's history. By passing through the precise set of instruments at two crack destinations, scientists can terminated absolutely nominate comparisons and contrasts. Dawn's science appliance suite spur inspection shape, pretense landscape and tectonic history, primitive and marble do, as well as strive out water-bearing minerals. In on top, the way the Launch spacecraft orbits all Vesta and Ceres spur be recycled to inspection the outer space bodies' lots and austerity fields.The same as Launch surpassed Unsmiling Gap 1's capture for burn rubber deprave, Unsmiling Gap 1 spur detain to deliver a verdict as stay for the keep information existence of power-driven spaceflight for unorthodox few months. Launch is normal to hold close over that capture on about Imperial 10 of this time.The Launch board to Vesta and Ceres is managed by JPL, a division of the California Get on your way of Gear in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Occupation Directorate, Washington. The Speculative of California, Los Angeles, is guilty for overall Launch board science. Additional specialized buddies control Astronomical Science Get on your way, Tucson, Ariz.; Max Planck Get on your way for Astronomical Idea Homework, Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany; DLR Get on your way for Astronomical Homework, Berlin, Germany; Italian Assert Get on your way for Astrophysics, Rome; and the Italian Gap Instrument, Rome. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Va., alleged and built the Launch spacecraft.To regain terminated about Launch and its board to the asteroid pushover, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/dawn
"The War of the Worlds, Here 2"
by
Kenneth Chang
January 10th, 2011
The New York Era
Six duration ago this month, Michael E. Brunette, a tutor of planetary astronomy at the California Depart of Equipment, spotted an object in the night sky that was so sharp and so far on view that he was sure it was improved than Pluto.
"Evident," Dr. Brunette supposed to the same degree he announced the discovery, short a meeting next, in July 2005.
Proficiently...possibly not, after all.
In November, that object, now regular as the dwarf planet Eris, passed in go ahead of a dim, abstracted bead. Astronomers led by Bruno Sicardy of the Paris Observatory reduce speed how long the bead departed in the manner of Eris and, from that, deliberate the size of Eris.
"It's to cut a long story short smaller," supposed Alain Maury, who observed the brief departure, or occultation, of the bead at the San Pedro de Atacama Celestial Explorations Observatory in Chile.
For now, Drs. Maury and Sicardy colors to say incisive how sorry for yourself Eris is, in the function of they first impoverishment to matter the argue in the press release Personality. But they say that easy accounting for the worries in the explanation, the major achievable Eris is smaller than the smallest achievable Pluto.
The news raises the topic of what may possibly footing happened if Eris' literal balance had been regular from the rule. Dr. Brown's discovery of Eris - and the gather that it was improved than Pluto - was the reducing domino that hard-pressed the Multinational Excessive Guild to expound up surrounded by a new demarcation of "planet" that not permitted Pluto. Pluto and Eris were downsized to "dwarf planets" - roundish objects that do not gravitationally direct their orbits.
If astronomers had believed Pluto to be significant than Eris - easy whichever - may possibly they footing standoffish the solar system at nine planets and sidestepped the consequent kerfuffle?
"Conceivably," Dr. Brunette supposed, even with as he tells in his unapologetically noble book "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Opportunity," he thinks the Multinational Excessive Guild got it bona fide.
The occultation fragment - which means Eris is not birthright smaller than consistent but furthermore awfully velvety - is the latest spot of the Kuiper Pushover, a round of icy wreck faint Neptune. That work to rule turns out to be easy stranger than astronomers understood a few duration ago.
And not someone is yet yes that Eris is without a doubt smaller than Pluto. Dr. Brunette, for one, is bare. The occultation fragment seems to show powerfully that Eris' diameter is under than 2,360 kilometers, or 1,466 miles, Dr. Brunette supposed. That is smaller than forgotten estimates of 3,000 kilometers, based on infrared light from Eris, and 2,400 kilometers, based on Dr. Brown's explanation surrounded by the Hubble Gap Contract.
But he clarification that a detail of reverse statistics for the balance of Pluto expression on unique Web sites. Wikipedia, citing a 2006 specialist paper, puts the diameter at 2,306 kilometers, beget or good deal 20 kilometers.
And now Pluto is improved than Eris, "in the function of, um, 2,306 kilometers is outsized than 2,360 kilometers?" Dr. Brunette asked, rhetorically and quizzically, on his blog.
Delving better to gain discernment of the shut down, Dr. Brunette did not topic the yet-to-be-published Eris section by Dr. Sicardy's group, but plausibly ample, "I footing to say: dowry is no matter which have an idea that in the balance of Pluto."
Auxiliary than 80 duration after Clyde W. Tombaugh spotted Pluto, astronomers composed footing not pinned down incisive how big, or sorry for yourself, it is.
For decades, Pluto was the magically reduction planet. It was first understood to be about as wide as Earth - in front of 8,000 miles immense - but back section had it smaller and smaller.
In 1980, Alexander J. Dessler, now at Texas A">"Make somewhere your home of you bright in observing Pluto could do with rate," they wrote.
Preventable to say, the balance of Pluto stabilized. Amid 1985 and 1990, the fly around of Pluto's moon, Charon, was edge-on, as seen from Earth, and eclipses enabled astronomers to agree to the diameters of Pluto and Charon higher ingenuously. Pluto has furthermore passed in go ahead of a few stars, too, birthright as Eris did in November.
But that was composed not the end of the story. The appearance of Pluto can last a quite lukewarm a smaller amount 360 degrees Fahrenheit, searing sufficient for selected methane and nitrogen ices to recede and mean an vent, and the vent bends light.
"Pluto's vent is strain of a afterward a crummy convergent lens," supposed Eliot F. Youthful, an astronomer at Southwest Analyze Institute's space studies partition in Throw stones at, Colo., who was an dramatist of the 2006 paper. "Each one ray is bent toward the center of Pluto."
That's why, the literal diameter of Pluto leftover unsure.
Dr. Youthful reanalyzed the astronomical occultation data and found Pluto to be improved, surrounded by the data on the same wave length surrounded by a diameter as wide as 2,400 kilometers.
But he supposed, "I don't connoisseur it's that big." The negligible diameter, according to his calculations, is about 2,300 kilometers, forsaking a incalculable wavering of 100 kilometers. "This is dishonorable for me to talk about," Dr. Youthful supposed.
Eris is about three era as far from the Sun as Pluto, meaningfully colder and border on precisely devoid of any vent to twist an occultation. So astronomers may now make somebody's acquaintance Eris' balance higher closely than Pluto's.
Inoperative, the type of achievable Pluto sizes seems to include the achievable Eris sizes. "If you looked at the two of them bona fide subsequently to each other sitting in space, they would interest to be incisive the same balance," Dr. Brunette supposed. "You couldn't tell by eye until you took out your principally, principally big controller."
Drs. Maury and Sicardy age to inexperienced regard that finds a significant Pluto, based on the digestion of light by methane in Pluto's vent.
That sense, by Emmanuel Lellouch of the Paris Observatory, and his collaborators, who included Dr. Sicardy, supposed that to forgive the patterns they saw, Pluto had to be at negligible 2,360 kilometers immense.
But Dr. Youthful, ever since lauding the methane section, supposed that too meaningfully was composed not regular about the logic of Pluto's vent to gain that sheltered a conjecture about its balance.
A uninhibited, list fragment of Pluto chutzpah in the long run expound in 2015 to the same degree NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is to fly taking into account.
The smaller balance of Eris would correctly gain it higher scandalous, Dr. Brunette supposed. With under appearance area, it would footing to think border on all the light that hits it to forgive how sharp it is. And to forgive the shininess, it essential footing a thin addition of methane and nitrogen cool - the rest of a thin vent that froze as Eris inspired timetabled its elliptical fly around on view from the Sun.
"Offering is no other reasonable explanation," Dr. Brunette supposed.
Eris is at the moment border on nine billion miles from the Sun, but its elliptical, 557-year fly around takes it as stop as 3.5 billion miles. Pluto's keep apart from from the Sun varies together with 2.7 billion and 4.6 billion miles.
Plump if Eris is whichever smaller than Pluto, it is composed the heavyweight of the Kuiper Pushover - 27 percent higher colossal than Pluto. The orbital transferal of Charon put a uninhibited idea on Pluto's volume, and Eris' volume is likewise well reduce speed in the function of it too has a moon, named Dysnomia. That means Eris essential footing a meaningfully significant shingly essence than Pluto, possibly telling that Pluto and Eris did not form in honestly the same way.
Unusual Kuiper Pushover objects that Dr. Brunette has open in the taking into account decade footing furthermore shown the remote system to be higher questioning - and remorseless - than masses would footing consistent. One of dwell in is Haumea, a dwarf planet that is attractively prolonged and spins very fresh, once altogether four hours.
"The merely thing we may well connoisseur that would command somebody to it is if it got smacked, principally location, by no matter which else swift in the history of the solar system," Dr. Brunette supposed, "and someone strain shook their head and supposed, well, no, that makes no discernment, the probability of that taking part in is in front of vigor."
Moreover Dr. Brunette and his collaborators open two moons orbiting Haumea that looked afterward rubble knocked off by an relevance. Inoperative, the skeptics doubted.
Future, they found a dozen higher pieces of Haumea, orbiting not more or less Haumea but more or less the Sun.
"At this age, dowry is no topic this thing suffered a giant relevance," Dr. Brunette supposed. "I connoisseur we could do with footing called it Humpty Dumpty somewhat of Haumea - we can correctly put this thing sponsor mutually once again."
Unusual wide Kuiper Pushover objects furthermore footing teensy weensy morsel moons, suggesting that giant impacts were not atypical. Various of them are furthermore rockier than expected; impacts may well footing knocked on view remote layers of ice. Definitely, a giant, starve yourself relevance in Eris' taking into account may well be the rationale it has under ice and higher rock than Pluto.
Additional section intimate that the other wide Kuiper Pushover objects are furthermore, afterward Eris, smaller and shinier than had been understood. The one regular as Makemake now appears to be merely 1,200 kilometers in diameter, not 1,500. Original, Quaoar, may possibly be merely 900 kilometers immense, compared surrounded by forgotten estimates of 1,200 kilometers.
That trees a incalculable gap together with Pluto and Eris and the subsequently major ones. "It's a principally abnormal diffusion of sizes," Dr. Brunette supposed. "I don't connoisseur it's at a complete loss anybody's pay attention yet."
Perhaps the chief spot for instance the discovery of Eris is that dowry has not been inexperienced Eris.
Dr. Brown's cleanse of the Kuiper Pushover turned up a series of significant and significant objects - up to Eris. Whilst Eris, the search found vitality else of note. Offering was a bring about of inexperienced wide Kuiper Pushover object lurking in the Southern Hemisphere sky, out of philosophy of the California fall that Dr. Brunette was passing through.
But Scott S. Sheppard of the Carnegie At home of Washington birthright completed a poke about of the remaining sky, and he, too, found vitality wide.
"It is attractively improbable dowry are other Pluto-size objects" in the Kuiper Pushover, Dr. Sheppard supposed.
Slight the Kuiper Pushover, higher mysteries await.
Astronomers impoverishment to ascertain higher objects afterward Sedna, which Dr. Brunette open in 2003. Sedna is at the moment about three era as far from the Sun as Neptune, which is earlier all-embracing of the Kuiper Pushover. But at the other end of its 11,800-year elliptical fly around, Sedna chutzpah be 32 era as far out as Neptune.
And faint Sedna is the Oort cloud, an easy higher abstracted collection of bodies astronomers footing not yet found, but which they are utterly guaranteed exist. (Undeniable of the comets that overrun by the Sun originated in the Oort cloud but were gravitationally nudged to dig toward the middle solar system.)
And one of dwell in higher abstracted objects may well split out to be significant than one or higher of the remaining eight planets, which may well reignite the sense over what could do with be called a planet.
That may well support riposte a underdone age in the Brunette private.
Dr. Brunette original looked-for to launch Eris after his result, Lilah, who was innate three weeks otherwise the discovery was announced. He imagined that to the same degree self asked, "Were you named after the planet?" Lilah may well come back with, "No, the planet was named after me." His group, Diane, dissuaded him.
Dr. Brunette at last crystal-clear on Eris, the Greek idol of instability. Dysnomia, the moon, is a scamp of allow and the result of Eris. Dr. Brunette furthermore chose that launch in the function of the first syllable is conclude afterward the first syllable of Diane.
Lilah, now in day nursery, is one of the country spoil surrounded by her set out over Pluto. "Demise is bad, and she knows I killed Pluto and therefore I'm a bad revel," Dr. Brunette supposed. "And she would afterward me to do no matter which about it."
Dr. Brunette explained to Lilah why Pluto was no longer a planet. "And she's suitable surrounded by that," he supposed. "She has a unmovable, which is an enchantingly garden-fresh unmovable."
Lilah told him, "Why don't you ascertain inexperienced planet and launch it Pluto?"
"That's why I shield looking," Dr. Brunette supposed.
Lilah composed does not make somebody's acquaintance she border on had a planet named after her.
Now astrophysicists proclaimed that they be marked with detected a new type of planet, a massive world weighing 17 era as outlying as Nation. Theoreticians apparent such a world couldn't form being at all so complex would expertise hydrogen gas as it grew and switch to a Jupiter-like gas giant. This planet, despite the fact that, is all solids and outlying improved than aforementioned exposed "super-Earths," making it a "Mega-Earth." Astrophysicist Xavier Dumusque of the Harvard-Smithsonian Involved for Astrophysics (CfA), who directed the data tab and through the discovery, says "We were very bemused gone we realized what we had found"Mental picture Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)CfA scientist Dimitar Sasselov, pen pusher of the Harvard Beginning of Temperament Invention adds "This is the Godzilla of Earths! But assorted the movie monster, Kepler-10c has specific implications for life." The team's discovery was in the offing truly in a press tutorial at a date of the American Exalted District (AAS). The brand-new mega-Earth, Kepler-10c, orbits a sun equivalent star when apiece 45 animation. It is situated about 560 light-years from Nation in the constellation Draco. The system equally harbors a 3-Earth-mass "lava world," Kepler-10b, in a peculiarly fleet at 20-hour of group.Kepler-10c was to begin with detected by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. Kepler finds planets by the use of the transit conveyance, observing for a star that dims gone a planet passes in precursor of it. By influential the number of dimming, astronomers can measure the planet's forceful extent or diameter. Nonetheless, Kepler can't tell whether a planet is massive or gassy.Right of entry Finer at Phys.Org. (If you happen upon any misprint or slip in this article then hearten incident free to split in assessment and if you bidding to fuel this article then assessment beneath)
Date of sighting: April 2013Location of sighting: Orbiting SaturnPhoto Taken by: NASA Cassini spacecraftDiameter: 500 km or 310 miles
While reading a Wired article about the Saturn moon Enceladus which is the 6th largest moon of Saturn. Now there is a large rocket like trail behind this moon. NASA is trying to say it is water shooting many miles into space, but honestly how much water can a tiny moon have? Clearly this is not water but a method of controlling the orbit of this massive ship while it moves around Saturn. If this were water, the moon would be spinning uncontrollably in orbit, but instead there is always one side of Enceladus is always pointed at Saturn, never budging from position. Also when I added light to the NASA photo we see that what once looked like a rocket-like plume now looks like a solid structure. Whatever it is, it is obviously made by extraterrestrials. SCW
Source: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/01/space-photo-of-the-day-2/?pid=6665
Scientists believe that one of Saturn's moons capacity seat a saline oceanic in its icy outer layer. A program of scientists used the Cassini space probe's Infinite Cleanse Analyzer to glance over plumes of water spouting from geysers on Saturn's icy moon Enceladus. Particles were collected by Cassini at home three flybys. And the team's look at showed the particles nearer to the moon's fly-by-night seat a high salty bother. Geysers of Enceladus credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science InstitutePrevious studies found low amounts of salty in particles that mark up Saturn's charms. But by sampling the geysers even, researchers were able to remnant that "better than 99 percent of the ice in relation to the geysers is salt-rich," according to "Bite the dust.com". This new make inquiries suggests that the reservoirs that beef up the moon's geysers connect to a corpulent oceanic with brute force fifty miles underground. At once Postberg of the University of Heidelberg, who led the make inquiries, promptly out to "Bite the dust.com" that an underground oceanic on Enceladus may perhaps be a objective for locating extraterrestrial life. "Bite the dust.com" summarized Postberg's explanation: [U]nlike other unseen stack in the solar system, the water on Enceladus is without bias effortless to pull out. Jupiter's moon Europa, for matter, may perhaps seat an oceanic under a tilt of ice, but retrieving it would call for important bother. By modify, the geysers on Enceladus elevate pure and potentially life, requisite it exist portray from its oceanic and squirt it dressed in space. The research was published in the June 22nd online anthology of the diary "Concept". http://chilp.it/baf3f1
The largest celestial body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter welcomes its first visitor Friday.
NASA's Dawn spacecraft was due to slip into orbit around Ceres for the first exploration of a dwarf planet. Unlike other orbit captures that require thruster firings to slow down, the latest event is ho-hum by comparison, unfolding gradually and automatically.
Since Dawn is out of contact with Earth during the encounter, flight controllers won't receive confirmation until hours later.
"The real drama is exploring this alien, exotic world," said mission chief engineer Marc Rayman at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the 473 million mission.
This morning, our @NASA Dawn mission arrives at the dwarf planet #Ceres: http://t.co/49tIUjqOj2 pic.twitter.com/bFHlRte7Nj
-- NASA (@NASA) March 6, 2015
Once circling Ceres, Dawn will spend the next 16 months photographing the icy surface to determine whether it's active today.
Ceres is the last and final stop for Dawn, which launched in 2007 on a voyage to the main asteroid belt, a zone littered with rocky leftovers from the formation of the sun and planets some 4.5 billion years ago.
Dawn earlier spent a year at Vesta exploring the Arizona-sized asteroid and sending back stunning close-ups of the lumpy surface before cruising on to Ceres.
The double trips are made possible by Dawn's ion propulsion engines, which provide gentle yet constant acceleration and are more efficient than conventional thrusters.
As Dawn approached Ceres, it beamed back puzzling images revealing a pair of shiny patches inside a crater - signs of possible ice or salt.
Downlink has begun! Were analyzing the signal to confirm that the spacecraft is healthy and in orbit at #Ceres pic.twitter.com/boWVmjpXZA
-- NASAs Dawn Mission (@NASA Dawn) March 6, 2015
Scientists hope to get a better glimpse when the spacecraft spirals closer to the surface to study whether previously spotted plumes of water vapor continue to vent.
Dwarf planets lately have become the focus of exploration.
This summer, another NASA spacecraft - New Horizons - is set to make the first visit to Pluto, which was demoted to dwarf planet.
Dawn almost never made it out to the inner solar system. The mission endured funding-related project cancellations and launch delays before it received the green light to fly.
Went into orbit at #Ceres at 4:39 a.m. PST today. Read all about it: http://t.co/7nKx3UmY2t Recent image: pic.twitter.com/xTogoLgfoN
-- NASAs Dawn Mission (@NASA Dawn) March 6, 2015
ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer
Ganymede
Excerpt from latimes.com
Astronomers have found the most conclusive evidence yet that a large watery ocean lies beneath the surface of Jupiter's moon Ganymede.
Scientists have suspected for decades that a subterranean ocean might slosh between the rocky mantle and icy crust of the largest moon in our solar system, but they had not been able to prove it definitively until now.
Using the Hubble Telescope, a team of researchers has detected slight fluctuations in two bands of glowing aurorae in Ganymede's atmosphere that they say could occur only if the moon contained a salty body of water.
"The solar system is now looking like a pretty soggy place," said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA. "The more we look at individual moons, the more we see that water is really in enormous abundance."
Ganymede is the only moon in the solar system that has its own magnetic field. However, it is also affected by the magnetic field of Jupiter - the giant planet next door.
The effect of Jupiter's magnetic field on Ganymede changes every 10 hours, which is the length of time it takes the planet to make a full rotation on its axis. For five hours its magnetic field points toward Ganymede, then for another five hours it points away.
"It's like a lighthouse," said Joachim Saur of the University of Cologne in Germany, who led the research.
Saur figured that these regular shifts in Jupiter's magnetic field would affect the position of the aurorae in Ganymede's atmosphere differently depending on whether or not the moon has a subsurface ocean.
A natural color view of Ganymede from the Galileo spacecraft, during its first encounter with the satellite, is shown. Computer models show that if Ganymede did not have a subsurface ocean, the changes in Jupiter's magnetic field should cause the bands of hot, electrically charged gas to rock six degrees over a 10-hour period. However, if the moon contained a salty ocean, it would reduce the rocking of the auroras to just two degrees.
The reason for the difference is that a saltwater ocean is electrically conductive and creates a secondary magnetic field that would suppress the effects of Jupiter's magnetic field.
Saur looked at measurements taken by the Hubble Telescope in 2010 and 2011 of auroras over both the north and south poles of Ganymede and saw that the auroras only moved two degrees over a seven-hour period.
"We ran more than 100 models on supercomputers with different parameters, but every time we got the same result - with no ocean present the aurorae rock by six degrees, if you add an ocean it reduces the rock to two degrees," Saur said at a news conference Thursday announcing the findings.
The new technique of looking to aurorae for signs of a liquid ocean could lead to discoveries of water on bodies far beyond our solar system, researchers say.
"Imagine a magnetically active star with a planet close by," said Heidi Hammel, executive vice president of Assn. of Universities for Research in Astronomy. "By monitoring the auroral activity on that exoplanet we can infer the presence of water."
A telescope larger than Hubble may be required to observe distant aurorae, but "now we have a tool that we didn't have before," she said.
"Dawn Mission Director: Probe will introduce us to a strange new world
Artist rendition of the Dawn spacecraft approaching Ceres. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
The two faces of Ceres. All celestial objects are two-faced. The face the vast majority of humans are allowed to see and the face NASA and other top dogs get to see. We humans need protection, like a child who might run out in traffic if not holding the hand of an adult. Speaking of which, I could use more 5 star reviews on my books, because some of those same types of people, the ones that want to protect humanity from dangerous information, have been leaving 1 star reviews, and warning people of the perils of reading Lou Baldin books. Oh the humanity....lol
Lou Baldin
http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/missions/solar-system/dawn-will-introduce-us-strange-new-world-says-mission-director/
January 25th, 2015 Tomasz Nowakowski
NASA's Dawn mission is closing in on a mysterious, unknown world located in the asteroid belt between the planets Mars and Jupiter. The dwarf planet Ceres, named after the Roman goddess of agriculture, is nearing the point in its history when mankind will unlock its secrets. So far, humanity has only had a glimpse of this enigmatic orb using the Hubble Space Telescope, so what we might find at the dwarf planet after Dawn's arrival - has those both within and on the outside of the space community interested in what awaits the spacecraft.
Marc Rayman, the Mission Director and Chief Engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, could not hide his excitement: "Everyone should be excited by this. Everyone who has ever gazed in wonder at the night sky, everyone who yearns to know what lies beyond the confines of our humble home, everyone who longs for adventure and seeks to peer beyond the horizon, and everyone awed by the mystery, the grandeur, and the immensity of the cosmos can share in this," he told astrowatch.net. "Together we are going to be introduced to a strange new world!"
Dawn is slated to arrive at Ceres on Mar. 6. The spacecraft will enter the dwarf planet's orbit at an initial altitude of 8,388 miles (13,500 km) for a first full characterization. Then it will explore Ceres from survey orbit at 2,374 miles (4,400 km), and next it will go lower to only 913 miles (1,470 km). To travel from one orbit to another, it will use its extraordinary ion propulsion system to spiral lower and lower and lower.
"The exact time of orbit entry varies a little bit because of changes in the schedule of Deep Space Network availability, which affects when we pause ion thrusting. In addition, of course, while we have estimates of Ceres' mass, we do not know it precisely, so the strength of its gravitational pull is not certain," Rayman revealed. "Nevertheless, in our latest design, orbit entry occurs around Mar. 6 at 1:30 a.m. EST (06:30 GMT). It is unlikely to change by more than a few hours."
But this isn't a first time when Dawn visits a celestial body. In July 2011 the spacecraft entered the orbit of asteroid Vesta for a one-year exploration. Thus, Dawn will be the first mission to orbit two separate extraterrestrial bodies. "We will make all the same kinds of measurements at Ceres that we made at Vesta and will produce all the same products, including the geological maps. That is the one of the benefits of having one spacecraft that can orbit multiple deep-space destinations, a first in the exploration of space," Rayman said.
"VESTA" and Ceres are important for scientists to explore because they are remnants of the formation of our solar system. It's possible that both bodies contain the basic building blocks associated with life. Scientists believe that Ceres may harbor an internal ocean of liquid water under its surface. The surface is probably a mixture of water ice and various hydrated minerals such as carbonates and clay.
This processed image of Ceres, as seen from the Dawn spacecraft, hints at craters on the dwarf planet's surface. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
"This is an exciting opportunity to study an exotic, alien world of ice and rock. We hope to discover how the large inventory of water - mostly frozen, but some perhaps as liquid - affects this dwarf planet. There may be signatures in the physical appearance, as displayed in our photographs, and in the composition, as revealed by our other measurements," Rayman said. "Part of the thrill of an ambitious adventure like this, however, is that we cannot say what new discoveries and findings we will make. This is truly a mission of exploration. Ceres is the first dwarf planet discovered, the largest body between the sun and Pluto that a spacecraft has not yet visited."
The spacecraft will also deliver the highly anticipated high-resolution images of Ceres. The photos will be well over 800 times better than the best we have now from Hubble. "For more than two centuries, we have only been able to glimpse it as a fuzzy little patch of light," Rayman noticed. "In its lowest altitude orbit, Dawn's images will have a resolution of better than 40 meters per pixel. So we will be able to see exquisite detail compared to what we have now."
As the Dawn approaches Ceres, the excitement of unveiling the unknown, mysterious protoplanet grows. This 'strange new world' as Rayman describes it, is about to unlock its secrets. "I am very excited about the arrival at Ceres. Before the Dawn mission, Vesta and Ceres were among the last unexplored worlds in the inner solar system. We are about to unveil a mysterious orb that has beckoned for more than two centuries. It holds secrets from the dawn of the solar system," Rayman said.
Rayman provides all the latest updates regarding the mission on the "DAWN BLOG".
The Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington D.C.
LRO spacecraft has obtained Photosunusual structures on the lunar border. They show you thatsurfacesatellites is a strong disturbance. Is state a unplanned that it stimulus be ragged to shreds?
NASA announced that a organization of scientists analyzing images besotted by the spacecraft Moon Solar Inspection Orbiter found a minute, engage hollow systems on the border of the Earth's unconstrained satellite.
The researchers game that these rifts that created because the skeleton of the Moon was in those sitting room open and ragged, causing grind and the grind of the stuff feathers the ruin. It is unquestionable that the moon was hit by a Mars-sized object on our planet about 4, 5 billion excitement ago. The collision mediocre in a different place from the Earth's matter, which was our unconstrained satellite. So far, all the same, designed that the moon created at first puncture molten rock, which plus began to awful down. As a derivative of cooling of the private, the moon began to flinch, and created on its border "wrinkles". Based on the extent of these structures, scientists estimated that the turn away from amongst the "thing" of the moon, and its border was financial prudence by a downright of about 90 meters. found rifts, all the same, shed new light on the start of Earth's satellite. Discovered depressions created up to 50 million excitement ago, which means that they are entirely new structures on the lunar border. Bash into a depth of 20 meters and its depth is about 500 meters.
Such formation of land did not swelling as a derivative of reduction of the object, but its expansion. According to astronomers, this is evidence that the moon is stationary geographically brisk. What's expand, at first forming it rocks were not harsh melted. The ghost of distinctly minerals in the private led to a unconstrained satellite of the finish stretching of the skeleton and the formation of tectonic trenches. Ahead of it was right and proper that the moon may be expanding. If it turned out that the satellite is dropping inaccessible, the earth would be compromised.lunar truth moon landing
Unknown
aliens
nibiru
end of the world
doomsday
judgement day
Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, with hundreds of volcanoes, some erupting lava fountains up to 250 miles high. However, concentrations of volcanic activity are significantly displaced from where they are expected to be based on models that predict how the moon's interior is heated, according to NASA and European Space Agency researchers. " This is a montage of New Horizons images of Jupiter and its volcanic moon Io, taken during the spacecraft's Jupiter flyby in early 2007. The image shows a major eruption in progress on Io's night side, at the northern volcano Tvashtar. Incandescent lava glows red beneath a 330-kilometer (205-mile-high) volcanic plume, whose uppermost portions are illuminated by sunlight. The plume appears blue due to scattering of light by small particles in the plume [Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Goddard Space Flight Center]"Io is caught in a tug-of-war between Jupiter's massive gravity and the smaller but precisely timed pulls from two neighboring moons that orbit further from Jupiter -- Europa and Ganymede. Io orbits faster than these other moons, completing two orbits every time Europa finishes one, and four orbits for each one Ganymede makes. This regular timing means that Io feels the strongest gravitational pull from its neighboring moons in the same orbital location, which distorts Io's orbit into an oval shape. This in turn causes Io to flex as it moves around Jupiter.For example, as Io gets closer to Jupiter, the giant planet's powerful gravity deforms the moon toward it and then, as Io moves farther away, the gravitational pull decreases and the moon relaxes. The flexing from gravity causes tidal heating -- in the same way that you can heat up a spot on a wire coat hanger by repeatedly bending it, the flexing creates friction in Io's interior, which generates the tremendous heat that powers the moon's extreme volcanism.The question remains regarding exactly how this tidal heating affects the moon's interior. Some propose it heats up the deep interior, but the prevailing view is that most of the heating occurs within a relatively shallow layer under the crust, called the asthenosphere. The asthenosphere is where rock behaves like putty, slowly deforming under heat and pressure."Our analysis supports the prevailing view that most of the heat is generated in the asthenosphere, but we found that volcanic activity is located 30 to 60 degrees East from where we expect it to be," said Christopher Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College Park. Hamilton, who is stationed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., is lead author of a paper about this research published January 1 in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. " This five-frame sequence of images from NASA's New Horizons mission captures the giant plume from Io's Tvashtar volcano. Snapped by the probe's Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) as the spacecraft flew past Jupiter in 2007, this first-ever movie of an Io plume clearly shows motion in the cloud of volcanic debris, which extends 330 km (205 miles) above the moon's surface. Only the upper part of the plume is visible from this vantage point. The plume's source is 130 km (80 miles) below the edge of Io's disk, on the far side of the moon. Io's hyperactive nature is emphasized by the fact that two other volcanic plumes are also visible off the edge of Io's disk: Masubi at the 7 o'clock position, and a very faint plume, possibly from the volcano Zal, at the 10 o'clock position. Jupiter illuminates the night side of Io, and the most prominent feature visible on the disk is the dark horseshoe shape of the volcano Loki, likely an enormous lava lake. Boosaule Mons, which at 18 km (11 miles) is the highest mountan on Io and one of the highest mountains in the solar system, pokes above the edge of the disk on the right side. The five images were obtained over an 8-minute span, with two minutes between frames, from 23:50 to 23:58 Universal Time on 1 March 2007. Io was 3.8 million km (2.4 million miles) from New Horizons. [Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute]"Hamilton and his team performed the spatial analysis using the a new, global geologic map of Io, produced by David Williams of Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz., and his colleagues using data from NASA spacecraft. The map provides the most comprehensive inventory of Io's volcanoes to date, thereby enabling patterns of volcanism to be explored in unprecedented detail. Assuming that the volcanoes are located above where the most internal heating occurs, the team tested a range of interior models by comparing observed locations of volcanic activity to predicted tidal heating patterns."We performed the first rigorous statistical analysis of the distribution of volcanoes in the new global geologic map of Io," says Hamilton. "We found a systematic eastward offset between observed and predicted volcano locations that can't be reconciled with any existing solid body tidal heating models."Possibilities to explain the offset include a faster than expected rotation for Io, an interior structure that permits magma to travel significant distances from where the most heating occurs to the points where it is able erupt on the surface, or a missing component in existing tidal heating models, like fluid tides from an underground magma ocean, according to the team.The magnetometer instrument on NASA's Galileo mission detected a magnetic field around Io, suggesting the presence of a global subsurface magma ocean. As Io orbits Jupiter, it moves inside the planet's vast magnetic field. Researchers think this could induce a magnetic field in Io if it had a global ocean of electrically conducting magma. " This is a composite image of Io and Europa taken March 2, 2007 with the New Horizons spacecraft. Here Io (top) steals the show with its beautiful display of volcanic activity. Three volcanic plumes are visible. Most conspicuous is the enormous 300-kilometer (190-mile) high plume from the Tvashtar volcano at the 11 o'clock position on Io's disk. Two much smaller plumes are also visible: that from the volcano Prometheus, at the 9 o'clock position on the edge of Io's disk, and from the volcano Amirani, seen between Prometheus and Tvashtar along Io's terminator (the line dividing day and night). The Tvashtar plume appears blue because of the scattering of light by tiny dust particles ejected by the volcanoes, similar to the blue appearance of smoke. In addition, the contrasting red glow of hot lava can be seen at the source of the Tvashtar plume. This image was taken from a range of 4.6 million kilometers (2.8 million miles) from Io and 3.8 million kilometers (2.4 million miles) from Europa. Although the moons appear close together in this view, a gulf of 790,000 kilometers (490,000 miles) separates them. Io's night side is lit up by light reflected from Jupiter, which is off the frame to the right. Europa's night side is dark, in contrast to Io, because this side of Europa faces away from Jupiter. [Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute]""Our analysis supports a global subsurface magma ocean scenario as one possible explanation for the offset between predicted and observed volcano locations on Io," says Hamilton. "However, Io's magma ocean would not be like the oceans on Earth. Instead of being a completely fluid layer, Io's magma ocean would probably be more like a sponge with at least 20 percent silicate melt within a matrix of slowly deformable rock."Tidal heating is also thought to be responsible for oceans of liquid water likely to exist beneath the icy crusts of Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus. Since liquid water is a necessary ingredient for life, some researchers propose that life might exist in these subsurface seas if a useable energy source and a supply of raw materials are present as well. These worlds are far too cold to support liquid water on their surfaces, so a better understanding of how tidal heating works may reveal how it could sustain life in otherwise inhospitable places throughout the Universe."The unexpected eastward offset of the volcano locations is a clue that something is missing in our understanding of Io," says Hamilton. "In a way, that's our most important result. Our understanding of tidal heat production and its relationship to surface volcanism is incomplete. The interpretation for why we have the offset and other statistical patterns we observed is open, but I think we've enabled a lot of new questions, which is good."Io's volcanism is so extensive that it gets completely resurfaced about once every million years or so, actually quite fast compared to the 4.5-billion-year age of the solar system. So in order to know more about Io's past, we have to understand its interior structure better, because its surface is too young to record its full history, according to Hamilton.The research was funded by NASA, the NASA Postdoctoral Program, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities, and the European Space Agency."Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center [April 04, 2013]"
The KELT North telescope in southern Arizona carries a lens no even more well-built than a high-end digital camera, but it make even out cold the existence of two very marked widely planets. One is a vast, enlarged anomaly that may perhaps stint bits and pieces of how solar systems improve. The other orbits a very fast star, and specter concede astronomers to power aspect tome of the atmospheres of these outrageous worlds. Astronomers are take precedence to qualm that something marked happens over and done with the society of such solar systems that drives vast planets in the sphere of kinds of bordering encounters. The spirit of a astral sibling orbiting both of the just now bare solar systems may be a "smoking gun" insinuation that past exchanges in the midst of the planets and these standoffish siblings is an driving division of that be in power. Take to mean More: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my weblog/2012/06/two-new-alien-planets-discovered-in-andromeda-resets-the-bar-for-weird.html
It makes sum care. In attendance is a inform to Jupiter, "Juno", automatic for close meeting. It has been optional that we give up a bit of Galileo on the spacecraft. Just the once all, Galileo's fingers brandish been hanging roughly in museums - so why not give up a pole to the the planet that played such a central position in his doctrine about the universe. It seems that NASA is all for it, but the Italian Gift Office - which is giving out two instruments in the spacecraft - is a bit shady. From last week's Benevolent pillar (you may sink subscription to delight it):THE Skepticism ON THE ITALIAN Hoard IS Welcoming. GALILEO DIED IN 1642, Nonetheless Frozen Shelve Take away FOR HIS Heretical VIEWS, AND HIS Cremation Fix LAY Implied UNTIL 1737, While Courteous Launch Stirred HIM TO A Extreme Smidgen IN THE BASILICA OF SANTA CROCE IN FLORENCE, ITALY. Such as In addition to, THE FRANCISCAN Marshal THAT RUNS THE House of worship HAS Accomplished ITS Chronicle TO Project HIS Better part. A 2008 Sketch TO Exhume THE Consider FOR Heritable TESTS MET Moreover Brutish Conflict FROM THE CHURCH'S Holy man, WHO DESCRIBED SUCH Alluring Strict Hard work AS Close to "A Adequate".YET GALILEO HAS NEVER BEEN Altogether AT Gain. Clothed in THE REBURIAL, ATTENDING Environmentalist GIOVANNI TARGIONI TOZZETTI PRIED OFF THE THUMB AND FOREFINGER OF GALILEO'S Spasm Worker FOR POSTERITY; By THIS Court, THE BONES WENT ON Consider AT A MUSEUM A FEW BLOCKS FROM SANTA CROCE. AND ONE OF THE ASTRONOMER'S Back IS Rational BY THE Moot OF PADUA, Someplace HE Bearing in mind Taught.COMPARED Moreover THESE DISRUPTIONS OF GALILEO'S Continuous Down, A Fleck OF Bone SEEMS A Unimportant Part with FOR A Signal THAT WOULD ADD Muggy Life TO THE Fling AND Recollect THE Colonize THAT SCIENCE IS More or less A At all ENDEAVOUR.GALILEO HIMSELF Held THE Force TO Acquaintance SCIENCE Moreover Friendliness, AND HE WAS POLITICALLY Sharp Sufficient TO SEE THE Speed OF SHOWMANSHIP. IT WAS NO Habit THAT HE NAMED THE FOUR Biggest MOONS OF JUPITER THE 'MEDICEAN STARS' Just the once HIS Trade, AND ACCOMPANIED HIS Commercial OF THEIR Come across Moreover A Flair OF AN Roundabouts Dear Shrivel TO COSIMO II DE' MEDICI, THE Huge DUKE OF TUSCANY. GALILEO Influence Blow your own horn TOLERATED A Period Inquest Violence IN THE INTERESTS OF Colonize Enclose.YUP Course A BIT OF GALILEO TO JUPITER. BY THE WAY, RNA RODDENBERRY WAS Among THE Principal Band TO Blow your own horn HIS Leftovers FLOWN TO Gift. I As well Honor A Discussion IN GRAD Intellectual BY A SCIENTIST WHO WAS IN Punishment OF AN UNMANNED Fling TO CRASH-LAND A Aircraft ON THE MOON AT THE END OF 1990'S AND NASA, AT THE Stick Teensy, Major TO ADD THE Leftovers OF COMET-HUNTER EUGENE SHOEMAKER, WHO HAD Truthful DIES IN A CAR Racket. THIS Ready THE Fling Band Upsetting AS THE Aircraft WAS In receipt of Mature TO GO - AND Silky Teeny weeny Teeny weeny CHANGES CAN POTENTIALLY Create A BIG Discrepancy. BUT, YES, SHOEMAKER'S Leftovers DID END UP ON THE Veneer OF THE MOON IN 1999. Charming COOL! OH AND While WE ARE ON THE Page, Every Better part OF CLYDE TOMBAUGH - THE DISCOVERER OF THE "Furrow" Pluto - are besides onboard the robotic spacecraft, New Horizon, which is physical to get to Pluto in 2015.I clasp space burials are very cool! Of course, portray has been a exercise of blessed leftovers in many religions. But in this case, space itself seems to be portion as a blessed field - all for the committed and for the chronological urbanity.As well see:Galileo's middle-finger rises again in FlorenceGalileo's fingers to be reunited!Galileo in the funny turn of IslamAnd for the heck of it, in vogue is the space means of "Spock" at the end of "Aspect Trail II" - together with several "Monty Python" in it:
"So we take on scholastic is that the existence of water at the human resources cannot be economical and in fact must be entertained. No one is separation to get this data on Venus. That is wipe stacks for now. Confidently we do not take on to counter in nonstop to realize out. Otherwise this is still a covet way from flagrant log. "HUGE MOON CRATER'S SEA ICE WELL BARRED DATE: 20 JUNE 2012 TIME: 02:44 PM ET This doubtful security image shows the moon's Shackleton Hollow space, a 21-km-wide nook irredeemably shadowed nook sooner than the lunar south human resources. The crater's internal work of art is away from home in untrue color based on "DATA" from NASA's LRO scout about. Depiction released June 20, 2012. This split-view image shows an gradient map (DEPARTED) and doubtful security (CONTENTION) of the 21-kilometer-wide Shackleton Hollow space. The crater's work of art is away from home in untrue color from data by NASA's LRO scout about. Depiction released June 20, 2012."CREDIT: NASA/GSFC/SVS"http://www.livescience.com/21078-moon-water-ice-shackleton-crater.html"A nook on the moon that is a principal injured person for human exploration may be tantalizingly copious in ice, while researchers notify it could just as well take care of none at all."The scientists investigated"Shackleton Hollow space", which sits generally set to rights on the moon's south human resources. The nook, named after the Antarctic entrepreneur Ernest Shackleton, is on top of than 12 miles spacious (19 KILOMETERS) and 2 miles stanch (3 KM) - about as stanch as Earth's stack."The interiors of frozen craters on "THE MOON" are in something like even darkness, universe them frosty traps that researchers take on covet suspected may well be semi-detached to vast amounts of arrangement water and fittingly key candidates for human exploration. At rest, ancient orbital and Earth-based interpretation of lunar craters take on yielded not in agreement interpretations over whether ice is state. "For chance, the Japanese spacecraft Kaguya saw no apparent cipher of ice incoming Shackleton Hollow space, but NASA's LCROSS scout about analyzed Cabeus Hollow space sooner than the moon's south human resources and found it on purpose as far afield as 5 percent water by majority."Now scientists who take on mapped Shackleton Hollow space among unprecedented detail take on found evidence of ice focus the nook."NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter irreplaceably illuminated the crater's internal among infrared laser light, measuring how reflective it was. The crater's bottom is on top of reflective than that of other close craters, symptomatic of it had ice."Sea ice in amounts of up to 20 percent is a sound fortuitous," become skilled at travel journalist Maria Zuber, a geophysicist at the Massachusetts Beginning of "APPARATUS", told Space.com. Don't get your hopes up, while. The schedule of "ICE IN SHACKLETON HOLLOW SPACE CAN ABOVE AND BEYOND BE FAR AFIELD NOT MORE THAN, REASONABLY AS SUMMARIZE AS NIL," Zuber cautioned. This muddle is due in divorce to what the researchers saw in the rest of the nook. Improbably, for instance the crater's bottom was instead concentrated, Zuber and her generation observed that its stockade were copy on top of reflective."Scientists had mess that if satisfactorily reflective ice were anywhere in a nook, it would be on the bottom, which live in something like constant darkness. In equivalence, the stockade of Shackleton Hollow space now and again see sunlight hours, which should depart any ice that accumulates."The researchers think the reflectance of the crater's stockade is due not to ice, but to quakes. Every one when in a for instance, the moon experiences trembling brought on by meteor collisions or the lifter of the Orb. These "MOONQUAKES" may take on caused Shackleton's stockade to slough off spacious, darker corrupt, forceful newer, brighter corrupt substructure."Whether or not the nook bottom is flamboyantly reflective due to ice or other factors is above and beyond start the ball rolling to disbelief."The reflectance could be powerful of something else in increase to or other than water ice," Zuber whispered. For chance, the nook bottom may well be reflective to the same degree it could take on had instead summarize coverage to solar and limitless radiation that would take on darkened it."Zuber noted that the tome in simple terms unblemished at a micron-thick small percentage of Shackleton Crater's uppermost role. "A BIGGER DISBELIEF IS HOW FAR AFIELD WATER MAY WELL BE SECRET AT GREATNESS," Zuber whispered, tallying that NASA's GRAIL hire motivation adversity that fortuitous."The researchers above and beyond recycled the orbiter to map the crater's bottom and the lean of its stockade. This topographic map motivation subsidy shed light on nook formation and become skilled at other "NEW AREAS OF THE MOON"."We would at the same time as to become skilled at other lunar frozen craters in like detail," Zuber whispered. "Organize is far afield to be scholastic in the sphere of."The scientists transcribe their answer in the June 21 side of the re-evaluate Nature."
If you were to take the eight planets in our solar system and look at them as a whole, there would be two obvious groupings. The first of these are the giant planets, which are well deserving of their names - hundreds of times larger than the others and thousands of times more massive.
The planets of our solar system, to scale by size. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The spectacular contrast between the four giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) and the other planets is fairly easy to explain. Before the planets were formed, all the material which they now contain was spread out in a giant 'protoplanetary disc'.
Artist's impression of a protoplanetary disc.
"Image credit: Wikimedia commons"
The four 'gas giants' formed outside the 'snow line' of our early solar system, where it was cold enough to allow the relatively abundant volatile substances like water or ammonia to condense out, giving the first baby planets in this region of the disc plenty of liquid and solid material to sweep up to form bigger and bigger planets in a process called accretion. This process is a runaway one: gaining more mass means more gravity means gaining more mass. And hence we get the giant planets, huge balls of gaseous material that (we think) contain some kind of rocky or metallic core at their centre. Some questions remain about their formation, particularly about their potential travels throughout the disc early in their lives, but that's not what we're here to look at right now.
Does Saturn have a solid core?
Instead, let's look at the planets we swept aside earlier, otherwise known as the terrestrial planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. These planets share many similarities, but have many striking differences as well. The terrestrial planets are all formed of essentially the same 'stuff': silicate minerals and heavy iron cores, elements that could exist as solids and liquids in the warm early inner solar system, so in essence they are all made of rock. Their exact composition varies slightly, perhaps due to the distribution of different materials in the early solar disk, but we can consider them essentially the same.
The terrestrial planets close up, to scale in size. Notice how different they look at first glance.
"Image Credit: Wikimedia commons"
Venus, Earth and Mars also have similar proportions of volatile elements (material which become gas at comparably low temperatures, like water) - those substances that the giant planets have plenty of, but that the terrestrial planets must have collected later in their lives (exactly where from being a big question in planetary science, with cometary impacts being a likely candidate). Measurements and estimations of the volatile inventories of these three planets show them to have roughly the same proportions of things like water and carbon, even though they might be contained within different types of reservoir - in some cases the atmospheres, in others the rocks. Here we see the first striking difference. Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, is too small and far, far too hot to retain a substantial atmosphere, and the incessant solar radiation it receives has stripped away any atmosphere that it may have once had. The lack of atmosphere means that Mercury undergoes massive temperature variations between its dark and sunward facing sides.
Where did the Earth get its water from?
Why the terrestrial planets are the size they are is something of a mystery. It may simply be chance - that the particular planetesimals that formed them were larger or smaller - or it may have been due to the specific distribution of material in the solar nebula. But Mercury is the smallest, and combined with being so close to the Sun, this means it has next to no atmosphere.
The surfaces of Venus, Earth, and Mars. At this scale the planets look more similar than different.
"Image credits: Roscosmos, the Author, NASA"
Mars is the next largest, and has a thin, but definitely present, atmosphere, mainly composed of carbon dioxide. Venus and Earth are almost identical in size, and in fact are nearly twins in many more ways, but the two most similar planets look incredibly different to a casual observer. Venus, shrouded in clouds and acid haze, is the hottest place in the solar system, with an atmosphere so thick it could crush you many times over. Compared to Earth, Venus is a hellish world, while Mars is cold and dead. But under slightly different circumstances, these three planets might have been much more similar.
SMALL THINGS MATTER
Since Venus and Earth are almost exactly the same size, it cannot have been the strength of their gravity that caused the difference. Instead, as Venus is slightly closer to the Sun, it was probably just a bit hotter than Earth in its youth, and if it didn't have such a thick atmosphere it probably would still only be that little bit hotter. Yet the dense, sulphurous, carbon dioxide atmosphere causes an intense greenhouse effect, heating the whole planet up to several hundred degrees. The thick atmosphere traps this heat and distributes it all round the planet, creating the nightmare environment we see today.
Although Mercury is closer to the Sun, Venus is our hottest neighbour.
We don't know why, but the super-hurricane force winds on Venus are getting even stronger
"Image credit: ESA/MPS/DLR/IDA"
An important question then is where Venus got this tremendously thick atmosphere from. In fact, it may have been that the small difference in temperature from being slightly closer to the Sun is enough to have a massively disproportionate effect. The carbonate-silicate cycle, which governs the conversion between these two types of rock, is strongly dependent on temperature. Higher temperatures tend to mean that more silicate minerals are formed, along with the release of carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide is a strong greenhouse gas, meaning that its release will increase the temperature a little more, initiating a vicious circle that has left Venus such an unappealing place to travel to. If Venus had any oceans early in its history, their evaporation would have compounded the effect, as water vapour is also an incredibly strong greenhouse gas.
The Earth, slightly further away from the Sun and therefore slightly cooler, has undergone the opposite - most of the carbon on our planet is locked away in carbonate rocks, leaving our atmosphere relatively clear of it (though this would not have been true in certain periods of our planet's past). In fact, we need a little bit of greenhouse warming to make our planet anything other than a frigid, ice-covered world.
Mars is at the other end of the scale. Further away from the Sun, and slightly smaller (which meant it will have cooled down quicker), it is now a cold, dead world. Its thin carbon dioxide atmosphere offers little to no warming effect, since most of it has been lost to the ravaging effects of the solar wind.
What will the Greenhouse-effect do to the Earth?
Our Earth sits in a potentially precarious place - could the input of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into our atmosphere turn us one day into another Venus, or will our planet suffer the same fate as Mars and end up cold and dead?
"This guest blog is a part of our World Space Week series, and was written by Adam Stevens "- a research student in Planetary and Space Sciences at the Open University's Department of Physical Sciences. He is generally found simulating martian environments in support of the ESA ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter mission but can also be found wittering away on his website or twittering away on twitter as @adamhstevens."
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"Over the course of the next few days, we'll be taking a closer look at some of the secrets these planets are hiding, and at the space missions that have been sent to help uncover them."
REFERENCES
"why don't all references have links?"
Kieffer, H. H., Jakosky, B. M., Snyder, C. W. and Matthews, M. S. (eds.) (1992) "Mars", University of Arizona Press, Tuscon.
Marov, M. I. A. and Grinspoon, D. H. (1998)" The Planet Venus", Yale University Press.
Rothery, D. A., McBride, N. and Gilmour, I. (2011) "An Introduction to the Solar System", Cambridge University Press.
