KAG Kessingland Astronomy Group

Thursday, 8 October 2009

Noctis Labyrinthus

Layers in the lower portion of two neighboring buttes within the Noctis Labyrinthus formation on Mars are visible in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

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Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Colin James Watling
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Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
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Web: http://lyra.freewebsites.com/

Slam-Bang Coverage! Get Ready for the LCROSS Moon Crash


	Slam-Bang Coverage! Get Ready for the LCROSS Moon Crash By SPACE.com Staff posted: 01 October 2009 04:00 pm ET

NASA's LCROSS probe and its spent Centaur rocket stage will be purposely crashed into the large crater Cabeus Friday, Oct. 9, at 7:30 a.m. EDT (1130 GMT) in an effort to kick up lunar dirt to see what's in it. Scientists are hoping to see signs of water.

SPACE.com is providing complete coverage of the mission and related lunar science news, features and video - all on the heels of the exciting recent announcements that there is water in scant quantities across the lunar surface and tentative new evidence of water ice in shaded lunar craters.

Wednesday, Oct. 7

Targeting the Moon: Observatories Gear Up for Friday Lunar Crash
Scientists are hoping for a literal slam dunk with NASA's upcoming Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS mission — an event to be observed by a coordinated network of Earth and space-based equipment.

Tuesday, Oct. 6

How to Watch NASA's Probe Smack the Moon Friday
Get ready for a unique cosmic collision! Early this coming Friday morning (Oct. 9), NASA's Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) will end its mission with a bang — literally.
Controversial New Idea Surfaces on Origin of Moon's Water
Many experts were shocked by the recent discovery of water on the moon, which was long thought to be bone-dry. But not everyone was surprised. A recent study actually predicted the water before it was found, and offers a novel hypothesis for its origin.

Monday, Oct. 5

Our Changing View of the Moon
The moon, so bright and large in the sky compared to other celestial objects, has captured the attention of humans at least since the dawn of consciousness. Over these eras, mankind's view of the moon has evolved, from the more mystical image of it as a god, to the thought it was covered in seas and vegetation. Most recently, it's been viewed as a dry and dusty wasteland.

LCROSS mission coverage:

Related Video Features:

Just for Fun:

Related Recent Coverage:

LCROSS Lunar Impact...

LUNAR IMPACT: NASA has updated the time of Friday morning's lunar impact. The LCROSS booster rocket will plunge into crater Cabeus at 4:31 am PDT (11:31 UT) followed by the LCROSS mothership four minutes later. Tune into NASA TV for live coverage of the event beginning at 3:15 am PDT (10:15 UT).

This morning, amateur astronomer Pete Lawrence photographed the impact site from his backyard observatory in Selsey UK. The red dot marks the spot:

"I used NASA's pointing chart to find target crater Cabeus," says Lawrence.

NASA hopes many amateur astronomers will be watching on Friday. "The more eyes the better," says LCROSS team member Brian Day of NASA/Ames. "We've never done this before and surprises are possible." US sky watchers west of the Mississippi river are favored with darkness and good views of the Moon at the time of the impacts.

To observers on Earth, the initial flashes of light marking the destruction of the two spacecraft will be hidden by crater walls. The debris plumes, however, should be visible in 10-inch class telescopes as they rise 10 km high above the rim of Cabeus. Note the shadows behind the red dot in Lawrence's image. The sunlit plumes will be highlighted by that dark backdrop: observing tips.

The impacts are designed to excavate frozen water from the cold and shadowy floor of crater Cabeus. Moon water is valuable stuff. It costs about $30,000 to rocket a liter of water from Earth to the Moon. If NASA could find water already on the Moon, it would save a lot of money for future thirsty colonists. H₂O also can be split into O₂ for breathing and H₂ for rocket fuel.

Evidence of water will be sought in the plumes of debris that billow out of Cabeus. The Hubble Space Telescope, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and several great telescopes on Earth will monitor the plumes for spectral signs of water (H₂O) or water fragments (OH). Some results could be available only hours after the impacts, so stay tuned.

Lunar Impact Resources:

Lunar Impact Viewer's Guide -- from Science@NASA
Lunar Impact Animation -- a computer-generated view of the impacts
Google's LCROSS Observer's Group -- observing tips and mission updates
NASA's Citizen Science Site -- share your images with scientists
Spaceweather's Image Submission Tool -- share your images with the world!
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Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Colin James Watling
--
Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
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Web: http://lyra.freewebsites.com/

Lunar Impact Update

Space Weather News for Oct. 8, 2009
http://spaceweather.com

LUNAR IMPACT UPDATE: NASA's LCROSS spacecraft and its Centaur booster rocket are on course for a Friday morning impact in crater Cabeus near the Moon's south pole. The Centaur will strike first on Oct. 9th at 11:31:19 UT (7:31:19 EDT, 4:31:19 PDT), followed by the LCROSS mothership at 11:35:45 UTC (7:35:45 EDT, 4:35:45). The spectacular double-impact, designed to excavate water frozen in the crater's shadowy depths, will be broadcast live on NASA TV. Amateur astronomers with 10-inch class backyard telescopes may be able to see debris billowing over the crater's rim. This is a big event! Visit http://spaceweather.com for observing tips and full coverage.

Russian Radar To Help Save Earth...

A U.S. congressman has suggested using a Russian radar together with American optical systems to monitor asteroid threats to Earth. The suggestion came during the discussion of a NASA funding bill approved by the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
The bill committed the U.S. to cooperating with other countries for prevention of any potential asteroid hazard.
Dana Rohrabacher, the deputy chief of the House’s committee for international organisations, said powerful long-range radar was necessary for early identification of asteroids that could collide with Earth. Russian military radar near Ussuriysk in the Far East can do this job, the congressman said.
The head of Russia’s space agency Anatoly Perminov said in an interview with the RIA Novosti news agency he approved of the idea. He offered his support if the project is discussed with the Defence Ministry.
Russia is no stranger to the dangers from space. It experienced a major meteor impact in the wilderness of the Krasnoyarsk Krai region a hundred years ago.
The Tunguska explosion was estimated to be a thousand times more powerful then the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It was considered pure luck that the meteor didn’t land in a populated area where it would have caused mass destruction and loss of life.

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Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
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Colin James Watling
--
Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
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Web: http://lyra.freewebsites.com/

NASA Refines Asteroid Apophis' Path Toward Earth

PASADENA, Calif. -- Using updated information, NASA scientists have recalculated the path of a large asteroid. The refined path indicates a significantly reduced likelihood of a hazardous encounter with Earth in 2036. The Apophis asteroid is approximately the size of two-and-a-half football fields. The new data were documented by near-Earth object scientists Steve Chesley and Paul Chodas at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. They will present their updated findings at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences in Puerto Rico on Oct. 8. "Apophis has been one of those celestial bodies that has captured the public's interest since it was discovered in 2004," said Chesley. "Updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13, 2036, for Apophis has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a million." A majority of the data that enabled the updated orbit of Apophis came from observations Dave Tholen and collaborators at the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy in Manoa made. Tholen pored over hundreds of previously unreleased images of the night sky made with the University of Hawaii's 88-inch telescope, located near the summit of Mauna Kea. Tholen made improved measurements of the asteroid's position in the images, enabling him to provide Chesley and Chodas with new data sets more precise than previous measures for Apophis. Measurements from the Steward Observatory's 90-inch Bok telescope on Kitt Peak in Arizona and the Arecibo Observatory on the island of Puerto Rico also were used in Chesley's calculations. The information provided a more accurate glimpse of Apophis' orbit well into the latter part of this century. Among the findings is another close encounter by the asteroid with Earth in 2068 with chance of impact currently at approximately three-in-a-million. As with earlier orbital estimates where Earth impacts in 2029 and 2036 could not initially be ruled out due to the need for additional data, it is expected that the 2068 encounter will diminish in probability as more information about Apophis is acquired. Initially, Apophis was thought to have a 2.7 percent chance of impacting Earth in 2029. Additional observations of the asteriod ruled out any possibility of an impact in 2029. However, the asteroid is expected to make a record-setting -- but harmless -- close approach to Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029, when it comes no closer than 18,300 miles above Earth's surface. "The refined orbital determination further reinforces that Apophis is an asteroid we can look to as an opportunity for exciting science and not something that should be feared," said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL. "The public can follow along as we continue to study Apophis and other near-Earth objects by visiting us on our AsteroidWatch Web site and by following us on the @AsteroidWatch Twitter feed." The science of predicting asteroid orbits is based on a physical model of the solar system which includes the gravitational influence of the sun, moon, other planets and the three largest asteroids. NASA detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground and space-based telescopes. The Near Earth-Object Observations Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet. JPL manages the Near-Earth Object Program Office for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Cornell University operates the Arecibo Observatory under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation in Arlington, Va. For more information about asteroids and near-Earth objects,

visit:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch

For more information about NASA, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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Good Clear Skies
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Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling
--
Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
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Web: http://lyra.freewebsites.com/

Wednesday, 7 October 2009

Gullies at the Edge of Hale Crater, Mars

This image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows gullies near the edge of Hale crater on southern Mars. Martian gullies carved into hill slopes and the walls of impact craters were discovered several years ago. On Earth, gullies usually form through the action of liquid water -- long thought to be absent on the Martian surface. Whether liquid water carves gullies under today's cold and dry conditions on Mars is a major question that planetary scientists are trying to answer.Gullies at this site are especially interesting because scientists recently discovered actively changing examples at similar locations. Images separated by several years showed changes in the appearance of some of these gullies. Today, planetary scientists are using the HiRISE camera on MRO to examine gullies such as the one in this image for change that might provide a clue about whether liquid water occurs on the surface of Mars. The view covers an area about 1 kilometer, or 0.6 mile, across and was taken on Aug. 3, 2009.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

NASA Space Telescope Discovers Largest Ring Around Saturn

NEWS RELEASE: 2009-150 Oct. 6, 2009

NASA Space Telescope Discovers Largest Ring Around Saturn

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has discovered an enormous ring around
Saturn -- by far the largest of the giant planet's many rings.

The new belt lies at the far reaches of the Saturnian system, with an orbit tilted 27 degrees from the
main ring plane. The bulk of its material starts about six million kilometers (3.7 million miles) away
from the planet and extends outward roughly another 12 million kilometers (7.4 million miles). One of
Saturn's farthest moons, Phoebe, circles within the newfound ring, and is likely the source of its
material.

Saturn's newest halo is thick, too -- its vertical height is about 20 times the diameter of the planet. It
would take about one billion Earths stacked together to fill the ring.

"This is one supersized ring," said Anne Verbiscer, an astronomer at the University of Virginia,
Charlottesville. "If you could see the ring, it would span the width of two full moons' worth of sky,
one on either side of Saturn." Verbiscer; Douglas Hamilton of the University of Maryland, College
Park; and Michael Skrutskie, of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, are authors of a paper
about the discovery to be published online tomorrow by the journal Nature.

An artist's concept of the newfound ring is online at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/spitzer-20091007a.html .

The ring itself is tenuous, made up of a thin array of ice and dust particles. Spitzer's infrared eyes
were able to spot the glow of the band's cool dust. The telescope, launched in 2003, is currently 107
million kilometers (66 million miles) from Earth in orbit around the sun.

The discovery may help solve an age-old riddle of one of Saturn's moons. Iapetus has a strange
appearance -- one side is bright and the other is really dark, in a pattern that resembles the yin-yang
symbol. The astronomer Giovanni Cassini first spotted the moon in 1671, and years later figured out
it has a dark side, now named Cassini Regio in his honor. A stunning picture of Iapetus taken by
NASA's Cassini spacecraft is online at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08384 .

Saturn's newest addition could explain how Cassini Regio came to be. The ring is circling in the same
direction as Phoebe, while Iapetus, the other rings and most of Saturn's moons are all going the
opposite way. According to the scientists, some of the dark and dusty material from the outer ring
moves inward toward Iapetus, slamming the icy moon like bugs on a windshield.

"Astronomers have long suspected that there is a connection between Saturn's outer moon Phoebe
and the dark material on Iapetus," said Hamilton. "This new ring provides convincing evidence of
that relationship."

Verbiscer and her colleagues used Spitzer's longer-wavelength infrared camera, called the multiband
imaging photometer, to scan through a patch of sky far from Saturn and a bit inside Phoebe's orbit.
The astronomers had a hunch that Phoebe might be circling around in a belt of dust kicked up from its
minor collisions with comets -- a process similar to that around stars with dusty disks of planetary
debris. Sure enough, when the scientists took a first look at their Spitzer data, a band of dust jumped
out.

The ring would be difficult to see with visible-light telescopes. Its particles are diffuse and may even
extend beyond the bulk of the ring material all the way in to Saturn and all the way out to
interplanetary space. The relatively small numbers of particles in the ring wouldn't reflect much visible
light, especially out at Saturn where sunlight is weak.

"The particles are so far apart that if you were to stand in the ring, you wouldn't even know it," said
Verbiscer.

Spitzer was able to sense the glow of the cool dust, which is only about 80 Kelvin (minus 316 degrees
Fahrenheit). Cool objects shine with infrared, or thermal radiation; for example, even a cup of ice
cream is blazing with infrared light. "By focusing on the glow of the ring's cool dust, Spitzer made it
easy to find," said Verbiscer.

These observations were made before Spitzer ran out of coolant in May and began its "warm" mission.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the
Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena. Caltech manages
JPL for NASA. The multiband imaging photometer for Spitzer was built by Ball Aerospace
Corporation, Boulder, Colo., and the University of Arizona, Tucson. Its principal investigator is
George Rieke of the University of Arizona.

For additional images relating to the ring discovery and more information about Spitzer, visit
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .

-end-

--
Good Clear Skies
--
Astrocomet
--
Colin James Watling
--
Astronomer and head of the Comet section for LYRA (Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth Regional Astronomers) also head of K.A.G (Kessingland Astronomy Group) and Navigator (Astrogator) of the Stars (Fieldwork)
--
Web: http://lyra.freewebsites.com/

This composite image of the Hydra A galaxy cluster shows 10-million- degree gas observed by Chandra in blue and jets of radio emission observed by the Very Large Array in pink. Optical data from the Canada- France-Hawaii telescope and the Digitized Sky Survey shows galaxies in the cluster. Detailed analysis of the Chandra data shows that the gas located along the direction of the radio jets is enhanced in iron and other metals. Scientists think these elements have been produced by Type Ia supernova explosions in the large galaxy at the center of the cluster. A powerful outburst from the supermassive black hole then pushed the material outwards, over distances extending for almost 400,000 light years, extending beyond the region shown in this image. About 10 to 20 percent of the iron in the galaxy has been displaced, requiring a few percent of the total energy produced by the central black hole. Outbursts from the central, supermassive black hole have not only pushed elements outwards, but have created a series of cavities in the hot gas. As these jets blasted through the galaxy into the surrounding multimillion-degree intergalactic gas, they pushed the hot gas aside to create the cavities. A relatively recent outburst created a pair of cavities visible as dark regions in the Chandra image located around the radio emission. These cavities are so large they would be able to contain the entire Milky Way galaxy, but they are dwarfed by even larger cavities -- too faint to be visible in this image - created by earlier, more powerful outbursts from the black hole. The largest of these cavities is immense, extending for about 670,000 light years.

Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U.Waterloo/C.Kirkpatrick et al.;

Radio: NSF/NRAO/VLA;

Optical: Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope/DSS

New Vista of Milky Way Center Unveiled

A dramatic new vista of the center of the Milky Way galaxy from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory exposes new levels of the complexity and intrigue in the Galactic center. The mosaic of 88 Chandra pointings represents a freeze-frame of the spectacle of stellar evolution, from bright young stars to black holes, in a crowded, hostile environment dominated by a central, supermassive black hole. Permeating the region is a diffuse haze of X-ray light from gas that has been heated to millions of degrees by winds from massive young stars -- which appear to form more frequently here than elsewhere in the Galaxy -- explosions of dying stars, and outflows powered by the supermassive black hole -- known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*). Data from Chandra and other X-ray telescopes suggest that giant X-ray flares from this black hole occurred about 50 and about 300 years earlier. The area around Sgr A* also contains several mysterious X-ray filaments. Some of these likely represent huge magnetic structures interacting with streams of very energetic electrons produced by rapidly spinning neutron stars or perhaps by a gigantic analog of a solar flare. Scattered throughout the region are thousands of point-like X-ray sources. These are produced by normal stars feeding material onto the compact, dense remains of stars that have reached the end of their evolutionary trail – white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes. Because X-rays penetrate the gas and dust that blocks optical light coming from the center of the galaxy, Chandra is a powerful tool for studying the Galactic Center. This image combines low energy X-rays (colored red), intermediate energy X-rays (green) and high energy X- rays (blue). The image is being released at the beginning of the "Chandra's First Decade of Discovery" symposium being held in Boston, Mass. This four-day conference will celebrate the great science Chandra has uncovered in its first ten years of operations. To help commemorate this event, several of the astronauts who were onboard the Space Shuttle Columbia -- including Commander Eileen Collins -- that launched Chandra on July 23, 1999, will be in attendance. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass. More information, including images and other multimedia, can be found at:

http://chandra.harvard.edu/

and

http://chandra.nasa.gov/

Credits: NASA/CXC/UMass/D. Wang et al.

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