The Great Red Sunburn

Jupiter has one of the largest planetary atmospheres in the solar system, with three atmosphere layers made up of ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide and water clouds at different altitudes.   As chaotic and beautiful Jupiter's atmosphere is, the great red spot out-shines them all.

The Great Red Spot is a vortex the size of three Earths.  Researchers have been theorising for hundreds of years as to the cause of the Great Red Spot's color. Up until recently it was thought that the color was some kind of red phosphorus or sulfur compound rising from beneath Jupiter's clouds.

Scientists at Nasa's JPL have been studying data gained from Nasa's Cassini spacecraft, which flew by Jupiter in December 2000 on its way to Saturn and its moons.  They also conducted laboratory experiments  by blasting ammonia and acetylene gases (chemicals known to exist in Jupiter's atmosphere) with ultraviolet light, in order to simulate how the sun affects these chemicals.  The experiment produced a reddish material that matched a model of the Great Red Spot where the red-colored material had been confined to the uppermost reaches of the vortex.

"Our models suggest most of the Great Red Spot is actually pretty bland in color, beneath the upper cloud layer of reddish material," said Kevin Baines, a Cassini team scientist from JPL. "Under the reddish 'sunburn' the clouds are probably whitish or greyish."

Read more in the article on International Business Time site

Voyager Argument All Over Again.......

Yep, that's right.  The Voyager argument continues to rage on.  Has it or Hasn't it?  

According to NASA's JPL which continues to monitor Voyager:

• A paper recently published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters describes an alternate model for the interaction between the heliosphere ....... and the interstellar medium. It  proposes a test for whether Voyager 1 has, indeed, left the heliosphere.

NASA's Voyager project scientist, Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena explains:

• (the) models, which he and colleagues used to conclude that Voyager 1 entered interstellar space, predict that the density of interstellar wind outside the heliosphere is 40 times greater than the density of the solar wind inside.
• The observational data .... revealed a plasma density that was 40 times higher.  (So) they concluded that Voyager 1 had ... entered interstellar space around August 25, 2012.

However new models:

• (argue) that solar wind inside the heliosphere can be compressed to the point that the solar wind density inside is just as high as interstellar space outside. Therefore, Voyager 1 could still be inside.

If Voyager 1 is still inside the heliosphere, it should observe a reversal in direction of the solar magnetic field sometime before the end of 2015. 

Scientists at JPL will be looking carefully at the  data  coming in  over the next 18 months to see if Voyager picks up this change.

To read the complete NASA JPL article click HERE

Rock Climbing Robot!

Check out this video of JPL's robot that is capable of rock climbing...hell I would say mountain climbing if they develop an autonomous version!

This tech comes from earlier versions that were developed for satellites giving them the ability to reach out and grab onto asteroids or other space debris.   The newer version has been integrated into a robot that can not only grab but climb.

The robot has four articulate arms. Each is arm has a gripper at the end that has 750 tiny claws that can easily engage a rock's surface and then release, allowing the robot to climb.

As the video also shows, the "limbs" can also be used by astronauts for a variety of functions in varied environments.  

Full article HERE on Gizmodo



 

Curiosity Rover - On the Move...Sorta

Curiosity performed a set of maneuvers at Bradbury Landing putting it about 20 feet from where it landed. Did I hear you say "uhhhhhh whaaa, wait....where?' Yep you heard right, Curiosity's landing spot has been renamed Bradbury Landing after the renowned author Ray Bradbury.

Curiosity's movements consisted of forward, turn and reverse segments. This placed the rover roughly 20 feet from the spot where it landed 16 days ago.

In a news conference NASA/JPL confirmed the health of Curiosity saying "We have a fully functioning mobility system"

The rover will spend several more days of working beside Bradbury Landing, performing instrument checks and studying the surroundings, before embarking toward its first driving destination approximately 1,300 feet to the east-southeast.

For more info on this latest test, go to nasa.gov

Curiosity Rover - upcoming events

Curiosity has been on the Martian surface now for a couple of weeks, but they have been a long way from idle weeks. JPL engineers have been testing Curiosity’s test instruments, which have passed all test and are working perfectly.

Next tests will involve the wheels which will involve position alignment and movement. These should be completed over the next few days. Soon afterwards, Curiosity will be instructed to un-ship its' laser and move to its' first target which is a rock with the designation N165.

This rock will be used quite literally for target practice for the laser which will shoot N165 with 30 laser blasts in a 10 second period. JPL hopes the laser will disintegrate a piece of the rock for spectrometer analysis of the rock's composition.


Curiosity recently underwent a complete software overhaul.  NASA/JPL needed to swap out the software that ran the rover during flight/landing phases was not appropriate for roaming the Martian surface.  Since the rover did not have the memory resources to hold and execute both programs, they needed to be swapped before Curiosity could begin exploration duties.   The procedure took four days because of the distance involved, plus extreme caution had to be taken not to overload the rover and lose communications or worse.  

Voyager 2 Completes Switch to Backup Thrusters

In an effort to help control power consumption, controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory instructed the Voyager 2 space-craft to switch to it's backup thruster assembly.

The switch will now allow NASA to switch off fuel heaters to the primary thruster package. This will result in a substantial power saving for the 34-year-old spacecraft. This power reduction will lighten the load on Voyager 2's small nuclear power source which now only has to heat the backup thrusters fuel.

Even though the savings are small, it will allow Voyager 2 to operate for another decade. Also it should be noted that the backup thrusters have never been pressed into operation and are therefor completely new even though they are 35 years old.

Deep Impact Still Making History / UPDATE!!!

For only the fifth time in the history of the space program, a spacecraft will fly close enough to image a comet. The probe Deep Impact first made history when it launched an 800 pound impactor into the comet Tempel 1, July fourth of 2005 totally changing what we thought we knew about the makeup of the comet.

That impact was supposed to be the end of the spectacularly successful 300 million dollar mission. However NASA gave mission controllers permission to go for another close encounter with a comet and JPL decided that a comet discovered 24 years ago was a good candidate. This comet was Hartley2 discovered by Malcom Hartley using the Schmidt Telescope in Australia.

At 7:00am on Thursday November fourth, Deep Impact Extended investigation ( DIXI) will approach the comet within apx 400 miles, taking pictures along the way.

NASA's Goddard Space Center article Wiki Deep Inpact and DIXI mission

And here are some spectacular photos from Comet Hartley 2

Amateur Astronomers Hunt Bigger Game.

Amateur Astronomers have long been active in the hunt for comets and asteroids, but now the art of exoplanet hunting has reached a level where amateur astronomers are making serious contributions. JPL's PlanetQuest website lists eight exoplanets discovered by amateurs. The main blog of these exoplanet hunters is Greg Laughlin's Systemic (Oklo.org). "Oklo.org users can employ a program called Systemic to comb through data about how certain stars wobble as they travel through space; this information can then be used to detect planets, which pull on their host stars as they orbit." According to PlanetQuest, these amateur astronomers are using telescopes with mirrors as small as 10-12cm!

For those slightly less ambitious, JPL's PlanetQuest is a fantastic site for those interested in exoplanets. It has information on all 307 (currently) known exoplanets in its atlas as well as information about planet hunting techniques, current and future planet hunting missions, and much more. This site and the much more bare-bones Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia are filled with fascinating information as well as demonstrations of how much more there is to learn.

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<JPL PlanetQuest article on amateur exoplanet hunters>
<Systemic Blog>
<Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia>

Asteroid Impact on Mars: Collision Probability Increased

The chance that asteroid 2007 WD5 will impact Mars on January 30th has increased from 1.3 percent to 3.9 percent. That’s the new estimation from the Near Earth Object Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The impact probability resulting from recent orbital refinement that have increased the chances to a surprising 3.9 percent.