Friday, May 31, 2024

Zodiacal Light over Rubin Observatory in Chile

Zodiacal Light over Rubin Observatory in Chile


Vera C. Rubin Observatory sits under the faint glow of a fascinating astronomical phenomenon known as zodiacal light. It appears as a faint, cone-shaped glow that extends along the path followed by the planets and Sun (known as the ecliptic) and is caused by sunlight reflecting off interplanetary dust that sits in the plane of our Solar System. This phenomenon is most easily seen in the western sky just after sunset or in the eastern sky just before sunrise. The dust is thought to be left by comet tails and collisions between asteroids. Zodiacal light is faint and usually drowned out by light-polluted skies or glare from the Moon.

The NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science (DOE/SC). Rubin Observatory is a Program of NSF NOIRLab that will jointly operate Rubin with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

Rubin Observatory is being built on Cerro Pachón, Chile which is one of the best observing sites in the southern hemisphere, making it a great place to capture such a rare sight as zodiacal light. When complete it will use its 8.4-meter mirror combined with the largest camera ever built for astronomy to begin an ambitious decade-long survey of the southern sky called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) that will help answer key questions about the Universe. Rubin Observatory will begin science operations in late 2025.

This photo was taken by Hernán Stockebrand, NOIRLab Audiovisual Ambassador.


Credit: Rubin Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / H. Stockebrand

Release Date: May 29, 2024


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Earth #ZodiacalLight #InterplanetaryDust #SolarSystem #SolarSystem #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #NOIRLab #AURA #NSF #RubinObservatory #Telescopes #Chile #SouthAmerica #STEM #Education

The Nebulous Realm of Wolf-Rayet Star WR 134 in Cygnus

The Nebulous Realm of Wolf-Rayet Star WR 134 in Cygnus


Made with narrowband filters, this cosmic snapshot covers a field of view over twice as wide as the full Moon within the boundaries of the constellation Cygnus. It highlights the bright edge of a ring-like nebula traced by the glow of ionized hydrogen and oxygen gas. Embedded in the region's expanse of interstellar clouds, the complex, glowing arcs are sections of shells of material swept up by the wind from Wolf-Rayet star WR 134, brightest star near the center of the frame. Distance estimates put WR 134 about 6,000 light-years away, making the frame over 100 light-years across. 

Shedding their outer envelopes in powerful stellar winds, massive Wolf-Rayet stars have burned through their nuclear fuel at a prodigious rate and end this final phase of massive star evolution in a spectacular supernova explosion. The stellar winds and final supernova enrich the interstellar material with heavy elements to be incorporated in future generations of stars.


Image Credit & Copyright: Xin Long

Xin's website: 

https://www.astrobin.com/users/xlong/

Release Date: May 31, 2024


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #WolfRayet #WR134 #Cygnus #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #Astrophotography #XinLong #Astrophotographer #STEM #Education #APoD

Wolf-Rayet Star WR 134 in Cygnus | Mayall Telescope

Wolf-Rayet Star WR 134 in Cygnus | Mayall Telescope

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the 4-meter Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. WR 134 is the brightest star below the center of the image. It is a Wolf-Rayet star—a very hot, massive star that is blowing off its outer layers. The layers are shed at very high speeds. Part of these layers can be seen as the blue arc in the upper-left part of the image. The arc was created when the outer layer collided with the ambient nebula surrounding the star.
Distance: ~6,000 light-years
The image was generated with observations in Hydrogen alpha (red) and Sulphur [SII] (blue) filters. In this image, North is left, East is down.

The Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope is a four-meter (158 inches) reflector telescope in Arizona named after Nicholas U. Mayall. It saw first light on February 27, 1973, and was the second-largest telescope in the world at that time.


Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)

Release Date: June 30, 2020


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #WolfRayet #WR134 #Cygnus #Constellation #MilkyWayGalaxy #Cosmos #Universe #KittPeakNationalObservatory #KPNO #MayallTelescope #Arizona #NSF #AURA #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Roadmap to The Moon: LRO to Artemis | NASA Goddard

Roadmap to The Moon: LRO to Artemis (2009-2024) | NASA Goddard

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission is laying the groundwork for future Artemis science.  The orbiter's LOLA (Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter) instrument provides topographical data on the lunar surface. The information collected also makes it possible to simulate sunlight and shadow on the Moon at any date in the past or future. We feature two data visualizations that showcase this at the lunar South Pole. LOLA data is vital to Artemis for planning exploration endeavors.


This year, NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) celebrates its 15th anniversary orbiting the Moon (2009-2024). This mission has given scientists the largest volume of data ever collected by a planetary science mission at NASA. Considering that success and the continuing functionality of the spacecraft and its instruments, NASA awarded the mission an extended mission phase to continue operations. This is LRO's 5th extended science mission (ESM5). LRO continues to be one of NASA's most valuable tools for advancing lunar science.


Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

Video Produced, Edited, and Narrated by: David Ladd (Abacus Technology)

Data Visualizations: Ernie Wright (USRA)

Animations: NASA’s Conceptual Image Lab

Duration: 2 minutes, 51 seconds

Release Date: May 31, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #ApolloProgram #ArtemisProgram #Moon #Geology #Lunar #LRO #Orbiter #LOLA #Technology #Engineering #NASAGoddard #GSFC #UnitedStates #MoonToMars #STEM #Education #Animations #Visualizations #HD #Video

Boeing Starliner at Launch Pad on ULA Atlas V Rocket | International Space Station

Boeing Starliner at Launch Pad on ULA Atlas V Rocket | International Space Station








Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft can be seen atop the United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on the launch pad of Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral in Florida on Thursday, May 30, 2024, ahead of NASA’s Boeing Crew Flight Test (CFT). As part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are the first to launch to the International Space Station aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft. Liftoff is scheduled for 12:25 p.m. ET on Saturday, June 1, 2024.

Launch updates: 

https://www.ulalaunch.com/missions/next-launch/atlas-v-starliner-cft

For more info on CFT and Starliner, visit: 

boeing.com/starliner

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program works with the American aerospace industry to provide safe, reliable, and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station on American-made rockets and spacecraft launching from American soil.

Learn more about NASA’s Commercial Crew Program at: 

https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew


Image Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky/Isaac Watson

Image Date: May 30, 2024


#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #Boeing #Starliner #CST100 #AtlasVRocket #CommercialCrewProgram #CFT #Astronauts #SuniWilliams #BarryWilmore #HumanSpaceflight #Science #SpaceTechnology #Engineering #LaunchAmerica #NASAKennedy #ULA #SLC41 #CapeCanaveral #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

NASA's Space to Ground: Set for Launch | Week of May 31, 2024

NASA's Space to Ground: Set for Launch | Week of May 31, 2024

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station. The Expedition 71 crew continues gearing up for a trio of spacewalks while a cargo craft packed with food, fuel, and supplies orbits Earth headed toward the International Space Station. Back on Earth, two astronauts are counting down to their launch to the orbital lab aboard Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.

Follow Expedition 71 Updates: 


Expedition 71 Crew
Station Commander: Oleg Kononenko (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)
NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:

For more information about STEM on Station:
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Video Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC)

Duration: 2 minutes, 48 seconds

Release Date: May 31, 2024


#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #Astronauts #Astronauts #FlightEngineer #HumanSpaceflight #Science #SpaceTechnology #SpaceLaboratory #Engineering #UnitedStates #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #InternationalCooperation #Expedition71 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Thursday, May 30, 2024

'Starburst' Dwarf Galaxy NGC 4449: Hubble & Webb Views

'Starburst' Dwarf Galaxy NGC 4449: Hubble & Webb Views

This video highlights Webb’s two views of the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449. This galaxy, also known as Caldwell 21, resides roughly 12.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is part of the M94 galaxy group. It lies close to the Local Group that hosts our Milky Way.

The first image is a 2005 image (released in 2007) from the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope of the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449. Hundreds of thousands of vibrant blue and red stars are visible in this image. Hot bluish-white clusters of massive stars are scattered throughout the galaxy, interspersed with numerous dustier reddish regions of current star formation. Massive dark clouds of gas and dust are silhouetted against the flaming starlight.

The second was captured by two instruments on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope: MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera). Observations in the infrared reveal the galaxy’s creeping tendrils of gas, dust and stars. The bright blue spots reveal countless individual stars, while the bright yellow regions that weave throughout the galaxy indicate concentrations of active stellar nurseries, where new stars are forming. The orange-red areas indicate the distribution of a type of carbon-based compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAHs)—the MIRI F770W filter is particularly suited to imaging these important molecules. The bright red spots correspond to regions rich in hydrogen that have been ionized by the radiation from the newly formed stars. The diffuse gradient of blue light around the central region shows the distribution of older stars. The compact light-blue regions within the red ionized gas, mostly concentrated in the galaxy’s outer region, show the distribution of young star clusters.


Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: May 29, 2024


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC4449 #Caldwell21 #DwarfGalaxy #StarburstGalaxy #CanesVenatici #Constellation #Universe #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #Infrared #Hubble #HST #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #CSA #GSFC #STSc #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Stellar Fireworks in Dwarf Galaxy NGC 4449 | Hubble Space Telescope

Stellar Fireworks in Dwarf Galaxy NGC 4449 | Hubble Space Telescope


Hundreds of thousands of vibrant blue and red stars are visible in this new image of galaxy NGC 4449 taken by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope. Hot bluish white clusters of massive stars are scattered throughout the galaxy, interspersed with numerous dustier reddish regions of current star formation. Massive dark clouds of gas and dust are silhouetted against the flaming starlight.

Distance: 12.5 million light-years away


Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Aloisi (STScI/ESA), and The Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

Release Date: July 3, 2007


#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Hubble #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC4449 #Caldwell21 #DwarfGalaxy #StarburstGalaxy #CanesVenatici #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #SpaceTelescope #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #Europe #STEM #Education

Pan of Dwarf 'Starburst' Galaxy NGC 4449 | James Webb Space Telescope

Pan of Dwarf 'Starburst' Galaxy NGC 4449 | James Webb Space Telescope

Featured in this new image from the NASA/European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope is the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449. This galaxy, also known as Caldwell 21, resides roughly 12.5 million light-years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. It is part of the M94 galaxy group. It lies close to the Local Group that hosts our Milky Way.

NGC 4449 has been forming stars for several billion years, but it is currently experiencing a period of star formation at a much higher rate than in the past. Such unusually explosive and intense star formation activity is called a starburst and for that reason NGC 4449 is known as a starburst galaxy. In fact, at the current rate of star formation, the gas supply that feeds the production of stars would only last for another billion years or so. Starbursts usually occur in the central regions of galaxies, but NGC 4449 displays more widespread star formation activity, and the very youngest stars are observed in the nucleus and in streams surrounding the galaxy. It is likely that the current widespread starburst was triggered by interaction or merging with a smaller companion; indeed, astronomers think NGC 4449's star formation has been influenced by interactions with several of its neighbors.

NGC 4449 resembles primordial star-forming galaxies that grew by merging with and accreting smaller stellar systems. Since NGC 4449 is close enough to be observed in great detail, it is the ideal laboratory for astronomers to study what may have occurred during galaxy formation and evolution in the early Universe.

This new image makes use of data from two of Webb’s instruments: MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) and NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera). Observations in the infrared reveal the galaxy’s creeping tendrils of gas, dust and stars. The bright blue spots reveal countless individual stars, while the bright yellow regions that weave throughout the galaxy indicate concentrations of active stellar nurseries, where new stars are forming. The orange-red areas indicate the distribution of a type of carbon-based compounds known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (or PAHs)—the MIRI F770W filter is particularly suited to imaging these important molecules. The bright red spots correspond to regions rich in hydrogen that have been ionized by the radiation from the newly formed stars. The diffuse gradient of blue light around the central region shows the distribution of older stars. The compact light-blue regions within the red ionized gas, mostly concentrated in the galaxy’s outer region, show the distribution of young star clusters.

NGC 4449 was observed by Webb as part of a series of observations collectively titled Feedback in Emerging extrAgalactic Star clusTers, or FEAST (PI: A. Adamo). Two other targets of the FEAST program, M51, and M83, were the subjects of previous ESA/Webb Picture of the Month images in 2023.


Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)

Duration: 30 seconds

Release Date: May 29, 2024

#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC4449 #Caldwell21 #DwarfGalaxy #StarburstGalaxy #CanesVenatici #Constellation #Universe #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #Infrared #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #CSA #GSFC #STSc #UnitedStates #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Dwarf 'Starburst' Galaxy NGC 4449 | James Webb Space Telescope

Dwarf 'Starburst' Galaxy NGC 4449 | James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope captured this image of “starburst” galaxy NGC 4449. Starbursts are intense periods of star formation usually concentrated at a galaxy’s core. However, NGC 4449’s activity is much more widespread—likely due to past interactions with its galactic neighbors. Astronomers can study this galaxy to look into the past. NGC 4449 is similar to early star-forming galaxies that also grew by merging with other systems.

Image Description: This is a close view of the central area of a dwarf galaxy. A huge number of stars fill the entire galaxy as tiny glowing points. They are brightest around the galaxy’s shining core. Thick clouds of gas and dust billow out across the scene, curling like moving flames. They glow in warm colors following their location: orange around the galaxy’s core, and around glowing star clusters in the bottom-left, and dark red elsewhere.


Image Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team

Release Date: May 30, 2024


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Stars #Galaxies #Galaxy #NGC4449 #DwarfGalaxy #StarburstGalaxy #CanesVenatici #Constellation #Cosmos #Universe #JamesWebb #SpaceTelescope #JWST #Infrared #UnfoldTheUniverse #ESA #CSA #GSFC #STSc #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Jupiter's Moon Europa: High-Definition Views of Icy Shell | NASA Juno

Jupiter's Moon Europa: High-Definition Views of Icy Shell | NASA Juno

Jupiter’s moon Europa was captured by the JunoCam instrument aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft during the mission’s close flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. The images show the fractures, ridges, and bands that crisscross the moon’s surface.

This black and white image of Europa's surface was taken by the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) aboard NASA's Juno spacecraft during the Sept. 29, 2022 flyby. The chaos feature nicknamed "the Platypus" is seen in the lower right corner.

This annotated image of Europa's surface from Juno's SRU shows the location of a double ridge running east-west (blue box) with possible plume stains and the chaos feature the team calls "the Platypus" (orange box). These features hint at current surface activity and the presence of subsurface liquid water on the icy Jovian moon. 

Images from the JunoCam visible-light camera aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft supports the theory that the icy crust at the north and south poles of Jupiter’s moon Europa is not where it used to be. Another high-resolution picture of the icy moon, by the spacecraft’s Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), reveals signs of possible plume activity and an area of ice shell disruption where brine may have recently bubbled to the surface.

The JunoCam results recently appeared in the Planetary Science Journal and the SRU results in the journal JGR Planets.

Research article:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023JE008105

True Polar Wander

Juno’s ground track over Europa allowed imaging near the moon’s equator. When analyzing the data, the JunoCam team found that along with the expected ice blocks, walls, scarps, ridges, and troughs, the camera also captured irregularly distributed steep-walled depressions 12 to 31 miles (20 to 50 kilometers) wide. They resemble large ovoid pits previously found in imagery from other locations of Europa.

A giant ocean is thought to reside below Europa’s icy exterior, and these surface features have been associated with “true polar wander,” a theory that Europa’s outer ice shell is essentially free-floating and moves.

“True polar wander occurs if Europa’s icy shell is decoupled from its rocky interior, resulting in high stress levels on the shell, which lead to predictable fracture patterns,” said Candy Hansen, a Juno co-investigator that leads planning for JunoCam at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. “This is the first time that these fracture patterns have been mapped in the southern hemisphere, suggesting that true polar wander’s effect on Europa’s surface geology is more extensive than previously identified.”

The high-resolution JunoCam imagery has also been used to reclassify a formerly prominent surface feature from the Europa map.

“Crater Gwern is no more,” said Hansen. “What was once thought to be a 13-mile-wide impact crater—one of Europa’s few documented impact craters—Gwern was revealed in JunoCam data to be a set of intersecting ridges that created an oval shadow.”

The Platypus

Although all five Europa images from Juno are high-resolution, the image from the spacecraft’s black-and-white SRU offers the most detail. Designed to detect dim stars for navigation purposes, the SRU is sensitive to low light. To avoid over-illumination in the image, the team used the camera to snap the nightside of Europa while it was lit only by sunlight scattered off Jupiter (a phenomenon called “Jupiter-shine”).

This innovative approach to imaging allowed complex surface features to stand out, revealing intricate networks of cross-cutting ridges and dark stains from potential plumes of water vapor. One intriguing feature, which covers an area 23 miles by 42 miles (37 kilometers by 67 kilometers), was nicknamed by the team “the Platypus” because of its shape.

Characterized by chaotic terrain with hummocks, prominent ridges, and dark reddish-brown material, the Platypus is the youngest feature in its neighborhood. Its northern “torso” and southern “bill”—connected by a fractured “neck” formation—interrupt the surrounding terrain with a lumpy matrix material containing numerous ice blocks that are 0.6 to 4.3 miles (1 to 7 kilometers) wide. Ridge formations collapse into the feature at the edges of the Platypus.

For the Juno team, these formations support the idea that Europa’s ice shell may give way in locations where pockets of briny water from the subsurface ocean are present beneath the surface.

About 31 miles (50 kilometers) north of the Platypus is a set of double ridges flanked by dark stains similar to features found elsewhere on Europa that scientists have hypothesized to be cryovolcanic plume deposits.

“These features hint at present-day surface activity and the presence of subsurface liquid water on Europa,” said Heidi Becker, lead co-investigator for the SRU at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which also manages the mission. “The SRU’s image is a high-quality baseline for specific places NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Juice missions can target to search for signs of change and brine.”

Europa Clipper’s focus is on Europa—including investigating whether the icy moon could have conditions suitable for life. It is scheduled to launch on the fall of 2024 and arrive at Jupiter in 2030. Juice (Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer) launched on April 14, 2023. The ESA mission will reach Jupiter in July 2031 to study many targets (Jupiter’s three large icy moons, as well as fiery Io and smaller moons, along with the planet’s atmosphere, magnetosphere, and rings) with a special focus on Ganymede.

Juno executed its 61st close flyby of Jupiter on May 12. Its 62nd flyby of the gas giant, scheduled for June 13, includes an Io flyby at an altitude of about 18,200 miles (29,300 kilometers).

More About the Mission

JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) funded the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.

More information about Juno is available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/juno


Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Image Data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS

Image Processing: Björn Jónsson (CC BY 3.0)

Release Date: May 15, 2024


#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Jupiter #Planet #Europa #Moon #Ocean #Astrobiology #Biosignatures #Habitability #Radiation #JunoMission #JunoSpacecraft #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #JPL #California #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Planet Venus: Ongoing Volcanic Activity Discovered | NASA Magellan Mission

Planet Venus: Ongoing Volcanic Activity Discovered | NASA Magellan Mission

This computer-generated 3D model of Venus’ surface shows the volcano Sif Mons. It is displaying signs of ongoing activity. Using data from NASA’s Magellan mission, Italian researchers detected evidence of an eruption while the spacecraft orbited the planet in the early 1990s. An analysis of data from Magellan’s radar finds two volcanoes erupted in the early 1990s. This adds to the 2023 discovery of a different active volcano in Magellan data.

Direct geological evidence of recent volcanic activity on Venus has been observed for a second time. Scientists in Italy analyzed archival data from NASA’s Magellan mission to reveal surface changes indicating the formation of new rock from lava flows linked to volcanoes that erupted while the spacecraft orbited the planet. Managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Magellan mapped 98% of the planet’s surface from 1990 to 1992, and the images it generated remain the most detailed of Venus to date.

“Using these maps as a guide, our results show that Venus may be far more volcanically active than previously thought,” said Davide Sulcanese of d’Annunzio University in Pescara, Italy, who led the study. “By analyzing the lava flows we observed in two locations on the planet, we have discovered that the volcanic activity on Venus could be comparable to that on Earth.”

This latest discovery builds on the historic 2023 discovery of images from Magellan’s synthetic aperture radar that revealed changes to a vent associated with the volcano Maat Mons near Venus’ equator. The radar images proved to be the first direct evidence of a recent volcanic eruption on the planet. By comparing Magellan radar images over time, the authors of the 2023 study spotted changes caused by the outflow of molten rock from Venus’ subsurface filling the vent’s crater and spilling down the vent’s slopes.

Scientists study active volcanoes to understand how a planet’s interior can shape its crust, drive its evolution, and affect its habitability. The discovery of recent volcanism on Venus provides a valuable insight to the planet’s history and why it took a different evolutionary path than Earth.

Radar Backscatter

For the new study, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the researchers likewise focused on archival data from Magellan’s synthetic aperture radar. Radio waves sent by the radar traveled through Venus’ thick cloud cover, then bounced off the planet’s surface and back to the spacecraft. Called backscatter, these reflected radar signals carried information about the rocky surface material they encountered.

Research article: 

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-024-02272-1.epdf

Need Some Space?

The two locations studied were the volcano Sif Mons in Eistla Regio and the western part of Niobe Planitia, which is home to numerous volcanic features. By analyzing the backscatter data received from both locations in 1990 and again in 1992, the researchers found that radar signal strength increased along certain paths during the later orbits. These changes suggested the formation of new rock, most likely solidified lava from volcanic activity that occurred during that two-year period. But they also considered other possibilities, such as the presence of micro-dunes (formed from windblown sand) and atmospheric effects that could interfere with the radar signal.

To help confirm new rock, the researchers analyzed Magellan’s altimetry (surface height) data to determine slope of the topography and locate obstacles that lava would flow around.

“We interpret these signals as flows along slopes or volcanic plains that can deviate around obstacles such as shield volcanoes like a fluid,” said study co-author Marco Mastrogiuseppe of Sapienza University of Rome. “After ruling out other possibilities, we confirmed our best interpretation is that these are new lava flows.”

Using flows on Earth as a comparison, the researchers estimate new rock that was emplaced in both locations to be between 10 and 66 feet (3 and 20 meters) deep, on average. They also estimate that the Sif Mons eruption produced about 12 square miles (30 square kilometers) of rock — enough to fill at least 36,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. The Niobe Planitia eruption produced about 17 square miles (45 square kilometers) of rock, which would fill 54,000 Olympic swimming pools. As a comparison, the 2022 eruption of Mauna Loa in Hawaii, Earth’s largest active volcano, produced a lava flow with enough material to fill 100,000 Olympic pools.

“This exciting work provides another example of volcanic change on Venus from new lava flows that augments the vent change Dr. Robert Herrick and I reported last year,” said Scott Hensley, senior research scientist at JPL and co-author of the 2023 study. “This result, in tandem with the earlier discovery of present-day geologic activity, increases the excitement in the planetary science community for future missions to Venus.”

Figuring Out Volcanoes

Hensley is the project scientist for NASA’s upcoming VERITAS mission, and Mastrogiuseppe is a member of its science team. Short for Venus Emissivity, Radio science, InSAR, Topography, And Spectroscopy, VERITAS is slated to launch early next decade, using a state-of-the-art synthetic aperture radar to create 3D global maps and a near-infrared spectrometer to figure out what Venus’ surface is made of while also tracking volcanic activity. In addition, the spacecraft will measure the planet’s gravitational field to determine its internal structure.

“These new discoveries of recent volcanic activity on Venus by our international colleagues provide compelling evidence of the kinds of regions we should target with VERITAS when it arrives at Venus,” said Suzanne Smrekar, a senior scientist at JPL and principal investigator for VERITAS. “Our spacecraft will have a suite of approaches for identifying surface changes that are far more comprehensive and higher resolution than Magellan images. Evidence for activity, even in the lower-resolution Magellan data, supercharges the potential to revolutionize our understanding of this enigmatic world.”


More About the Mission

NASA’s VERITAS mission was selected in 2021 under NASA’s Discovery Program. Mission partners include Lockheed Martin Space, the Italian Space Agency, the German Aerospace Center, and Centre National d’Études Spatiales in France. The Discovery Program is managed by the Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Planetary Science Division of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington.


Image & Article Credit: NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)

Release Date: May 27, 2024


#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Venus #Planet #Geology #Volcanism #Volcano #SifMons #MagellanSpacecraft #VERITASMission #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #Research #ComputerScience #3DModel #JPL #Caltech #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Planet Mars: Fly across Nili Fossae Area | Europe's Mars Express

Planet Mars: Fly across Nili Fossae Region | Europe's Mars Express

The Martian surface is covered in all manner of scratches and scars. Its many marks include the fingernail scratches of Tantalus Fossae, the colossal canyon system of Valles Marineris, the oddly orderly ridges of Angustus Labyrinthus, and the fascinating features captured in the "cat scratches" of Nili Fossae by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft—celebrating over 20 years at Mars!

Nili Fossae comprises parallel trenches hundreds of meters deep and several hundred kilometers long, stretching out along the eastern edge of a massive impact crater named Isidis Planitia.

The Mars Express mission was launched on June 2, 2003, from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on board a Russian Soyuz rocket. In addition to being Europe’s first mission to Mars, Mars Express is the first fully European mission to any planet.

This new video features observations from Mars Express's High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC). It first flies northwards towards and around these large trenches, showing their fractured, uneven appearance, before turning back to head southwards. It ends by zooming out to a ‘bird’s eye’ view, with the landing site of NASA’s Perseverance rover, Jezero Crater, visible in the lower-middle part of the final scene.

The trenches of Nili Fossae are actually features known as ‘graben’. They form when the ground sitting between two parallel faults fractures and falls away. As the graben seem to curve around Isidis Planitia, it is likely that they formed as the Martian crust settled following the formation of the crater by an incoming space rock hitting the surface. Similar ruptures—the counterpart to Nili Fossae—are found on the other side of the crater, and named Amenthes Fossae.

Scientists have focused on Nili Fossae in recent years due to the impressive amount and diversity of minerals found in this area, including silicates, carbonates, and clays (many were discovered by Mars Express’s OMEGA instrument). These minerals form in the presence of water, indicating that this region was very wet in ancient martian history. Much of the ground here formed over 3.5 billion years ago, when surface water was abundant across Mars. Scientists believe that water flowed not only across the surface here but also beneath it, forming underground hydrothermal flows that were heated by ancient volcanoes.

Due to what it could tell us about the planet’s ancient and water-rich past, Nili Fossae was considered as a possible landing site for NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover, before it was ultimately sent to Gale Crater in 2012. Another mission, NASA’s Perseverance rover, was later sent to land in the nearby Jezero Crater, visible at the end of this video.

Mars Express has visited Nili Fossae before, imaging the region’s graben system back in 2014. The mission has orbited the Red Planet since 2003, imaging the Martian surface, mapping its minerals, studying its tenuous atmosphere, probing beneath its crust, and exploring how various phenomena interact in the martian environment. 

Disclaimer: This video is not representative of how Mars Express flies over the surface of Mars. See processing notes below.

Processing notes: The video is centered at 23°N, 78°E. It was created using Mars Chart (HMC30) data, an image mosaic made from single-orbit observations from Mars Express’s HRSC. This mosaic was combined with topography derived from a digital terrain model of Mars to generate a three-dimensional landscape. For every second of the movie, 62.5 separate frames are rendered following a pre-defined camera path. The vertical exaggeration is three-fold. Atmospheric effects—clouds and haze—have been added, and start building up at a distance of 50 km.


Credit: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin & NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Duration: 2 minutes, 23 seconds

Release Date: May 30, 2024


#NASA #ESA #Space #Astronomy #Science #Planet #Mars #NiliFossae #Geology #Grabens #MarsExpress #MarsExpressSpacecraft #HRSC #Europe #DLR #FUBerlin #Berlin #Germany #Deutschland #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #STEM #Education #Visualization #HD #Video

NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft: Pre-launch Processing | Kennedy Space Center

NASA’s Europa Clipper Spacecraft: Pre-launch Processing | Kennedy Space Center

    

Technicians inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida monitor movement and guide the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, as a crane hoists it on a stand as part of prelaunch processing on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.

Technicians and engineers inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida inspect the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, as part of prelaunch processing on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. 

Technicians and engineers inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida inspect the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, as part of prelaunch processing on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
As part of prelaunch processing, crews inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida uncrate the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. 

As part of prelaunch processing, crews inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida uncrate the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.
Technicians inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida prepare to rotate the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, to a vertical position on Tuesday, May 28, 2024, as part of prelaunch processing. 
Technicians remove NASA’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, from its protective shipping container inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. 
Technicians remove NASA’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, from its protective shipping container inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, May 28, 2024.

Technicians inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida monitor movement and guide the agency’s largest planetary mission spacecraft, Europa Clipper, as a crane hoists it on a stand as part of prelaunch processing on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. Slated to launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket later this year from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy, Europa Clipper will help determine if conditions exist below the surface Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa that could support life.

Europa Clipper joins the spacecraft’s two five-panel solar arrays that arrived at Kennedy in March. The arrays, each 46.5 feet (14.2 meters) long, will collect enough sunlight to power the spacecraft on its way to Jupiter’s moon. Technicians will install the arrays on the spacecraft before launch.

The spacecraft was designed to withstand the pummeling of radiation from Jupiter and gather the measurements needed to investigate Europa’s surface, interior, and space environment.

Europa Clipper has nine dedicated science instruments, including cameras, spectrometers, a magnetometer, and an ice-penetrating radar. These instruments will study Europa’s icy shell, the ocean beneath, and the composition of the gases in the moon’s atmosphere and surface geology, and provide insights into the moon’s potential habitability. The spacecraft also will carry a thermal instrument to pinpoint locations of warmer ice and any possible eruptions of water vapor. Strong evidence shows the ocean beneath Europa’s crust is twice the volume of all the Earth’s oceans combined.

The Europa Clipper mission demonstrates NASA’s commitment to exploring our solar system and searching for habitability beyond Earth. The data will contribute to our understanding of the Jovian system and will help pave the way for potential future missions to study Europa and other potentially habitable worlds.

Europa Clipper is expected to reach the Jupiter system in April 2030, and it will accomplish a few milestones along the way, including a Mars flyby in February 2025 that will help propel the spacecraft toward Jupiter’s moon through a Mars-Earth gravity assist trajectory.

“After two years of painstaking work on the spacecraft here at JPL, with the help of our partners, it was bittersweet to see the spacecraft encased in its shipping container and on its way to Florida,” said Jordan Evans, Europa Clipper project manager at JPL. “But we already have Europa Clipper engineers and technicians at Kennedy who are welcoming this precious cargo and are set to accomplish the final assembly and testing so that we’re ready for launch.”

NASA and SpaceX are targeting launch aboard a Falcon Heavy rocket from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy later this year. The launch period opens on Oct. 10. After testing and final preparations are complete, the spacecraft will be encapsulated in a protective payload fairing and moved to the SpaceX hangar at the launch complex.

Managed by Caltech in Pasadena, California, JPL leads the development of the Europa Clipper mission in partnership with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The main spacecraft body was designed by APL in collaboration with JPL and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Planetary Missions Program Office at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, executes program management of the Europa Clipper mission.

NASA’s Launch Services Program, based at Kennedy, manages the launch service for the Europa Clipper spacecraft.

For more information on the mission, visit: https://europa.nasa.gov/


Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

Capture Date: May 28, 2024



#NASA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Jupiter #Europa #Moon #Ocean #Astrobiology #Biosignatures #Habitability #Radiation #EuropaClipper #Spacecraft #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #APL #MSFC #GSFC #JPL #KSC #Spaceport #Florida #UnitedStates #STEM #Education

Russian Progress MS-27 Cargo Spacecraft Launch | International Space Station

Russian Progress MS-27 Cargo Spacecraft Launch | International Space Station

A Russian Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle launched the Progress MS-27 spacecraft to resupply the International Space Station (ISS Progress 88 mission) on May 30, 2024, at 09:43 UTC (14:43 local time; 05:43 EDT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Progress MS-27 will deliver more than three tons of food, fuel, and supplies for the Expedition 71 crew aboard the International Space Station. It is will have a two-day journey to the station with docking planned for June 1, 2024, at 11:47 UTC (07:47 EDT). 

Follow Expedition 71 Updates: 


Expedition 71 Crew
Station Commander: Oleg Kononenko (Russia)
Roscosmos (Russia): Nikolai Chub, Alexander Grebenkin (Russia)
NASA: Tracy Dyson, Matthew Dominick, Mike Barrett, Jeanette Epps

An international partnership of space agencies provides and operates the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The principals are the space agencies of the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The ISS has been the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken.

Learn more about the important research being operated on Station:

For more information about STEM on Station:
Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM)

Credit: Roscosmos/NASA TV

Duration: 12 minutes

Release Date: May 30, 2024


#NASA #Space #Earth #ISS #ProgressMS27 #Soyuz #Союз #CargoSpacecraft #Astronauts #HumanSpaceflight #UnitedStates #Cosmonauts #Russia #Россия #Roscosmos #Роскосмос #Science #SpaceTechnology #SpaceLaboratory #Engineering #InternationalCooperation #Expedition71 #STEM #Education #HD #Video

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Dinkinesh Binary Asteroid System: Surprisingly Complex | NASA Lucy Mission

Dinkinesh Binary Asteroid System: Surprisingly Complex | NASA Lucy Mission

Panels a, b, and c each show stereographic image pairs of the asteroid Dinkinesh taken by the NASA Lucy Spacecraft’s L’LORRI Instrument in the minutes around closest approach on Nov. 1, 2023. The yellow and rose dots indicate the trough and ridge features, respectively. These images have been sharpened and processed to enhance contrast. Panel d shows a side view of Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam taken a few minutes after closest approach.

Images from the November 2023 flyby of asteroid Dinkinesh by NASA’s Lucy spacecraft show a trough on Dinkinesh where a large piece—about a quarter of the asteroid—suddenly shifted, a ridge, and a separate contact binary satellite (now known as Selam). Scientists say this complicated structure shows that Dinkinesh and Selam have significant internal strength and a complex, dynamic history.

Panels a, b, and c each show stereographic image pairs of the asteroid Dinkinesh taken by the NASA Lucy Spacecraft’s L’LORRI Instrument in the minutes around closest approach on Nov. 1, 2023. The yellow and rose dots indicate the trough and ridge features, respectively. These images have been sharpened and processed to enhance contrast. Panel d shows a side view of Dinkinesh and its satellite Selam taken a few minutes after closest approach.

“We want to understand the strengths of small bodies in our solar system because that’s critical for understanding how planets like Earth got here,” said Hal Levison, Lucy principal investigator at the Boulder, Colorado, branch of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. “Basically, the planets formed when zillions of smaller objects orbiting the Sun, like asteroids, ran into each other. How objects behave when they hit each other, whether they break apart or stick together, has a lot to do with their strength and internal structure.” Levison is lead author of a paper on these observations published May 29 in Nature.

On November 1, 2023, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft flew by the main-belt asteroid Dinkinesh. Now, the mission has released pictures from Lucy’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager taken over a roughly three-hour period, providing the best views of the asteroid to date. During the flyby, Lucy discovered that Dinkinesh has a small moon, which the mission named “Selam,” a greeting in the Amharic language meaning “peace.” Lucy is the first mission designed to visit the Jupiter Trojans, two swarms of asteroids trapped in Jupiter’s orbit that may be “fossils” from the era of planet formation. 

Researchers think that Dinkinesh is revealing its internal structure by how it has responded to stress. Over millions of years rotating in the sunlight, the tiny forces coming from the thermal radiation emitted from the asteroid’s warm surface generated a small torque that caused Dinkinesh to gradually rotate faster, building up centrifugal stresses until part of the asteroid shifted into a more elongated shape. This event likely caused debris to enter into a close orbit, which became the raw material that produced the ridge and satellite.

If Dinkinesh were much weaker, more like a fluid pile of sand, its particles would have gradually moved toward the equator and flown off into orbit as it spun faster. However, the images suggest that it was able to hold together longer, more like a rock, with more strength than a fluid, eventually giving way under stress and fragmenting into large pieces. (Although the amount of strength needed to fragment a small asteroid like Dinkinesh is miniscule compared to most rocks on Earth.)

“The trough suggests an abrupt failure, more an earthquake with a gradual buildup of stress and then a sudden release, instead of a slow process like a sand dune forming,” said Keith Noll of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, project scientist for Lucy and a co-author of the paper.

“These features tell us that Dinkinesh has some strength, and they let us do a little historical reconstruction to see how this asteroid evolved,” said Levison. “It broke, things moved apart and formed a disk of material during that failure, some of which rained back onto the surface to make the ridge.”

The researchers think some of the material in the disk formed the moon Selam, which is actually two objects touching each other, a configuration called a contact binary. Details of how this unusual moon formed remain mysterious.

Dinkinesh and its satellite are the first two of 11 asteroids that Lucy’s team plans to explore over its 12-year journey. After skimming the inner edge of the main asteroid belt, Lucy is now heading back toward Earth for a gravity assist in December 2024. This close flyby will propel the spacecraft back through the main asteroid belt, where it will observe asteroid Donaldjohanson in 2025, and then on to the first of the encounters with the Trojan asteroids that lead and trail Jupiter in its orbit of the Sun beginning in 2027.

For more information about NASA’s Lucy mission, visit:

https://science.nasa.gov/mission/lucy

Lucy’s principal investigator is based out of the Boulder, Colorado, branch of Southwest Research Institute, headquartered in San Antonio. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, provides overall mission management, systems engineering, and safety and mission assurance. Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado, built and operates the spacecraft. Lucy is the 13th mission in NASA’s Discovery Program. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Discovery Program for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.


Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL/NOIRLab

Release Date: May 29, 2024

#NASA #Space #Astronomy #Science #LucyMission #LucySpacecraft #Planet #Jupiter #Asteroids #Asteroid #Dinkinesh #1999VD57 #BinaryAsteroidSystem #Moon #Selam #Trojans #SolarSystem #SpaceExploration #SpaceTechnology #Engineering #GSFC #SwRI #JHUAPL #UnitedStates #STEM #Education