Friends of NASA (FoN) is an independent non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to building international support for peaceful space exploration, commerce, scientific discovery, and STEM education.
June 8, 2018: A new crew aboard the space station, Curiosity rover’s new science findings on Mars, and—Celebrating 60 years of NASA. . .a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA! Credit: NASA Duration: 2 minutes, 50 seconds Release Date: June 8, 2018
June 7, 2018: NASA discusses new science results from NASA's Mars Curiosity rover. The media and public were invited to ask questions. Michelle Thaller, assistant director of science for communications, from NASA's Planetary Science Division, hosted the chat.
Participants included: Paul Mahaffy, director of the Solar System Exploration Division at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland Jen Eigenbrode, research scientist at Goddard Chris Webster, senior research fellow, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California Ashwin Vasavada, Mars Science Laboratory project scientist, JPL
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC Duration: 58 minutes Release Date: June 7, 2018
A panorama around Gale Crater, the Curiosity rover's location on Mars. Ancient Organics Discovered on Mars June 7, 2018: NASA's Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on the Red Planet. While not necessarily evidence of life itself, these findings are a good sign for future missions exploring the planet's surface and subsurface.
The new findings—"tough" organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface, as well as seasonal variations in the levels of methane in the atmosphere—appear in the June 8 edition of the journal Science.
Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and also may include oxygen, nitrogen and other elements. While commonly associated with life, organic molecules also can be created by non-biological processes and are not necessarily indicators of life.
"With these new findings, Mars is telling us to stay the course and keep searching for evidence of life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in Washington. "I'm confident that our ongoing and planned missions will unlock even more breathtaking discoveries on the Red Planet."
"Curiosity has not determined the source of the organic molecules," said Jen Eigenbrode of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is lead author of one of the two new Science papers. "Whether it holds a record of ancient life, was food for life, or has existed in the absence of life, organic matter in Martian materials holds chemical clues to planetary conditions and processes."
Although the surface of Mars is inhospitable today, there is clear evidence that in the distant past, the Martian climate allowed liquid water - an essential ingredient for life as we know it—to pool at the surface. Data from Curiosity reveal that billions of years ago, a water lake inside Gale Crater held all the ingredients necessary for life, including chemical building blocks and energy sources.
"The Martian surface is exposed to radiation from space. Both radiation and harsh chemicals break down organic matter," said Eigenbrode. "Finding ancient organic molecules in the top five centimeters of rock that was deposited when Mars may have been habitable, bodes well for us to learn the story of organic molecules on Mars with future missions that will drill deeper."
Seasonal Methane Releases In the second paper, scientists describe the discovery of seasonal variations in methane in the Martian atmosphere over the course of nearly three Mars years, which is almost six Earth years. This variation was detected by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite.
Water-rock chemistry might have generated the methane, but scientists cannot rule out the possibility of biological origins. Methane previously had been detected in Mars' atmosphere in large, unpredictable plumes. This new result shows that low levels of methane within Gale Crater repeatedly peak in warm, summer months and drop in the winter every year.
"This is the first time we've seen something repeatable in the methane story, so it offers us a handle in understanding it," said Chris Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, lead author of the second paper. "This is all possible because of Curiosity's longevity. The long duration has allowed us to see the patterns in this seasonal 'breathing.'"
Finding Organic Molecules To identify organic material in the Martian soil, Curiosity drilled into sedimentary rocks known as mudstone from four areas in Gale Crater. This mudstone gradually formed billions of years ago from silt that accumulated at the bottom of the ancient lake. The rock samples were analyzed by SAM, which uses an oven to heat the samples (in excess of 900 degrees Fahrenheit, or 500 degrees Celsius) to release organic molecules from the powdered rock.
SAM measured small organic molecules that came off the mudstone sample -fragments of larger organic molecules that don't vaporize easily. Some of these fragments contain sulfur, which could have helped preserve them in the same way sulfur is used to make car tires more durable, according to Eigenbrode.
The results also indicate organic carbon concentrations on the order of 10 parts per million or more. This is close to the amount observed in Martian meteorites and about 100 times greater than prior detections of organic carbon on Mars' surface. Some of the molecules identified include thiophenes, benzene, toluene, and small carbon chains, such as propane or butene.
In 2013, SAM detected some organic molecules containing chlorine in rocks at the deepest point in the crater. This new discovery builds on the inventory of molecules detected in the ancient lake sediments on Mars and helps explains why they were preserved.
Finding methane in the atmosphere and ancient carbon preserved on the surface gives scientists confidence that NASA's Mars 2020 rover and ESA's (European Space Agency's) ExoMars rover will find even more organics, both on the surface and in the shallow subsurface.
These results also inform scientists' decisions as they work to find answers to questions concerning the possibility of life on Mars.
"Are there signs of life on Mars?" said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, at NASA Headquarters. "We don't know, but these results tell us we are on the right track."
This work was funded by NASA's Mars Exploration Program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in Washington. Goddard provided the SAM instrument. JPL built the rover and manages the project for SMD.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC Release Date: June 7, 2018
June 7, 2018: Since arriving at Mars in 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover has drilled into rocks in search of organics—molecules containing carbon. Organics are the building blocks of all life on Earth, though they can also come from non-living sources. The surface of Mars readily destroys these molecules, making them difficult to detect. Now, Curiosity has discovered ancient organics that have been preserved in rocks for billions of years. This finding helps scientists better understand the habitability of early Mars, and it paves the way for future missions to the Red Planet.
Music provided by Killer Tracks: "Crystalline" by Enrico Cacace & Manuel Bandettini, "Based On True Events" by Eric Chevalier, "Mirrored Cubes" by Laurent Dury, "Lost In The Sky" by Matthews Samar
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Duration: 3 minutes, 17 seconds Release Date: June 7, 2018
NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered ancient organic molecules on Mars, embedded within sedimentary rocks that are billions of years old. June 7, 2018: NASA's Curiosity rover has found new evidence preserved in rocks on Mars that suggests the planet could have supported ancient life, as well as new evidence in the Martian atmosphere that relates to the search for current life on the Red Planet. While not necessarily evidence of life itself, these findings are a good sign for future missions exploring the planet's surface and subsurface.
The new findings—"tough" organic molecules in 3-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks near the surface, as well as seasonal variations in the levels of methane in the atmosphere—appear in the June 8 edition of the journal Science.
Organic molecules contain carbon and hydrogen, and also may include oxygen, nitrogen and other elements. While commonly associated with life, organic molecules also can be created by non-biological processes and are not necessarily indicators of life.
"With these new findings, Mars is telling us to stay the course and keep searching for evidence of life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in Washington. "I'm confident that our ongoing and planned missions will unlock even more breathtaking discoveries on the Red Planet."
"Curiosity has not determined the source of the organic molecules," said Jen Eigenbrode of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who is lead author of one of the two new Science papers. "Whether it holds a record of ancient life, was food for life, or has existed in the absence of life, organic matter in Martian materials holds chemical clues to planetary conditions and processes."
Although the surface of Mars is inhospitable today, there is clear evidence that in the distant past, the Martian climate allowed liquid water - an essential ingredient for life as we know it—to pool at the surface. Data from Curiosity reveal that billions of years ago, a water lake inside Gale Crater held all the ingredients necessary for life, including chemical building blocks and energy sources.
"The Martian surface is exposed to radiation from space. Both radiation and harsh chemicals break down organic matter," said Eigenbrode. "Finding ancient organic molecules in the top five centimeters of rock that was deposited when Mars may have been habitable, bodes well for us to learn the story of organic molecules on Mars with future missions that will drill deeper."
Seasonal Methane Releases In the second paper, scientists describe the discovery of seasonal variations in methane in the Martian atmosphere over the course of nearly three Mars years, which is almost six Earth years. This variation was detected by Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite.
Water-rock chemistry might have generated the methane, but scientists cannot rule out the possibility of biological origins. Methane previously had been detected in Mars' atmosphere in large, unpredictable plumes. This new result shows that low levels of methane within Gale Crater repeatedly peak in warm, summer months and drop in the winter every year.
"This is the first time we've seen something repeatable in the methane story, so it offers us a handle in understanding it," said Chris Webster of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, lead author of the second paper. "This is all possible because of Curiosity's longevity. The long duration has allowed us to see the patterns in this seasonal 'breathing.'"
Finding Organic Molecules To identify organic material in the Martian soil, Curiosity drilled into sedimentary rocks known as mudstone from four areas in Gale Crater. This mudstone gradually formed billions of years ago from silt that accumulated at the bottom of the ancient lake. The rock samples were analyzed by SAM, which uses an oven to heat the samples (in excess of 900 degrees Fahrenheit, or 500 degrees Celsius) to release organic molecules from the powdered rock.
SAM measured small organic molecules that came off the mudstone sample -fragments of larger organic molecules that don't vaporize easily. Some of these fragments contain sulfur, which could have helped preserve them in the same way sulfur is used to make car tires more durable, according to Eigenbrode.
The results also indicate organic carbon concentrations on the order of 10 parts per million or more. This is close to the amount observed in Martian meteorites and about 100 times greater than prior detections of organic carbon on Mars' surface. Some of the molecules identified include thiophenes, benzene, toluene, and small carbon chains, such as propane or butene.
In 2013, SAM detected some organic molecules containing chlorine in rocks at the deepest point in the crater. This new discovery builds on the inventory of molecules detected in the ancient lake sediments on Mars and helps explains why they were preserved.
Finding methane in the atmosphere and ancient carbon preserved on the surface gives scientists confidence that NASA's Mars 2020 rover and ESA's (European Space Agency's) ExoMars rover will find even more organics, both on the surface and in the shallow subsurface.
These results also inform scientists' decisions as they work to find answers to questions concerning the possibility of life on Mars.
"Are there signs of life on Mars?" said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, at NASA Headquarters. "We don't know, but these results tell us we are on the right track."
This work was funded by NASA's Mars Exploration Program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) in Washington. Goddard provided the SAM instrument. JPL built the rover and manages the project for SMD.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC Release Date: June 7, 2018
Rollout to the launch pad of the Soyuz rocket with the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft inside, June 4, 2018. The spacecraft launched European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst into space alongside NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 6.
The 50-m tall Soyuz rocket propelled the astronauts to their cruising speed of around 28,800 km/h. Within 10 minutes of rising from the pad, the trio traveled over 1640 km and gained 210 km altitude. Every second for nine minutes, their spacecraft accelerated 50 km/h on average.
The rocket is rolled to the launch pad on a train, the astronauts are not allowed to see this part of the launch preparation—it is considered bad luck.
This will be Alexander’s second spaceflight, called Horizons. He will also be the second ESA astronaut to take over command of the International Space Station. The Horizons science program is packed with European research: over 50 experiments will deliver benefits to people on Earth as well as prepare for future space exploration.
U.S. astronaut Ricky Arnold: "The straits separating the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia is home to Anak Krakatau—the island reborn after Krakatau erupted in 1883. Jakarta shines brightly in the early morning sun."
Credit: NASA Astronaut Ricky Arnold Release Date: June 5, 2018
"Like the rainforest that surrounds and depends upon it, the Amazon river system is a prodigy of speciation and diversity..."—Candice Millard U.S. astronaut Ricky Arnold: "From the International Space Station, it is also a place where you can see the Earth breathe."
The Amazon rainforest, also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 km2 (2,700,000 sq mi), of which 5,500,000 km2 (2,100,000 sq mi) are covered by the rainforest. This region includes territory belonging to nine nations. The majority of the forest is contained within Brazil, with 60% of the rainforest, followed by Peru with 13%, Colombia with 10%, and with minor amounts in Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. States or departments in four nations contain "Amazonas" in their names. The Amazon represents over half of the planet's remaining rainforests, and comprises the largest and most biodiverse tract of tropical rainforest in the world, with an estimated 390 billion individual trees divided into 16,000 species. (Source: Wikipedia)
Candice Sue Millard (born 1967/1968) is an American writer and journalist. She is a former writer and editor for National Geographic. (Source: Wikipedia)
Credit: NASA Astronaut Ricky Arnold Release Date: June 4, 2018
The six member Expedition 55 crew aboard the International Space Station posed for a portrait in the Japanese Kibo laboratory module. Clockwise from left are Flight Engineers Norishige Kanai; NASA astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel; Oleg Artemyev and NASA astronaut Scott Tingle. In the center is International Space Station Expedition#55 Commander Anton Shkaplerov.
Next, the International Space Station Program turned its attention to the undocking Sunday, June 3 of Shkaplerov with crewmates Scott Tingle and Norishige Kanai inside the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft. The trio parachuted to a landing in Kazakhstan after 168 days in space.
The Expedition 56 crew—Commander Drew Feustel and Ricky Arnold of NASA, and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos—will operate the station and prepare for the arrival of three new crew members on Friday, June 8. Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA, Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency), and Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch Wednesday, June 6, from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. NASA Television will broadcast the launch and docking. NASA Television will broadcast the launch and docking.
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/JSC Image Date: May 5, 2018
Airing as a global event on FOX and National Geographic, the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning COSMOS will return for its third season in Spring 2019. It will once again be executive-produced, written and directed by Ann Druyan (NASA’s Voyager Record, “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,” “Contact”) and executive-produced by Seth MacFarlane (Family Guy, The Orville, COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey), Brannon Braga (The Orville, COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey), who also is co-writer and director of the series, and Jason Clark (The Orville, COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey). Neil deGrasse Tyson, the famed pop-culture icon, astrophysicist and host of the Emmy Award-nominated “StarTalk,” will return as host.
Co-created by the legendary astronomer Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan in 1980, COSMOS has transported a global audience to the farthest reaches and most deeply hidden recesses of the universe. In the course of those journeys, the series has examined the real stories of the forgotten searchers who helped us understand our place in the universe. Following the wildly successful second season, COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey, seen by more than 135 million people worldwide on National Geographic and FOX, and the most-watched series ever on National Geographic Channels internationally, the new season, COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS, will premiere in the U.S. on both FOX and National Geographic and globally on National Geographic in 180 countries and 43 languages.
Continuing the legacy of its predecessors, COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS will translate the revelations of science into a lavishly transporting experience, taking audiences on a series of spiritual voyages of exploration. We are living in the golden age of discovery of new worlds to explore and possibly inhabit. In the vastness of time and the immensity of space, their number and the stories they contain are virtually infinite. The new season will reveal previously uncharted realms, including lost worlds and worlds to come, and those that we may one day inhabit in a thrilling future we can still have.
In conjunction with the launch of the new season, National Geographic Books also will publish a companion book, COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS, by Ann Druyan, the long-awaited follow-up to Carl Sagan’s historic international bestseller, COSMOS: A Personal Voyage.
Tracking the space station’s next crew, a distant and lonely neutron star, and taking the bite out of some very dangerous bugs—a few of the stories to tell you about—This Week at NASA!
Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Duration: 3 minutes, 7 seconds Release Date: June 1, 2018
NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.
Three Expedition 55 crew members are returning to Earth Sunday, but first the Commander will hand over control of the International Space Station in a ceremony Friday afternoon. In the meantime, the crew managed to continue ongoing space research and station maintenance.
Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, who has been leading the station crew since February, will turn over command of the orbital laboratory to NASA astronaut Drew Feustel during the traditional Change of Command Ceremony at 2:25 p.m. EDT Friday live on NASA TV.
Next, the International Space Station Program turns its attention to the undocking Sunday at 5:16 a.m. of Shkaplerov with crewmates Scott Tingle and Norishige Kanai inside the Soyuz MS-07 spacecraft. The trio will parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan at 8:40 a.m. (6:40 p.m. Kazakh time) after 168 days in space. NASA TV begins it live coverage starting at 1:30 a.m. when the crew says farewell and closes the hatches to their Soyuz vehicle.
Feustel worked throughout Thursday installing improved communications gear inside Europe’s Columbus lab module. Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold strapped himself into an exercise bike to research how exercising in microgravity affects the human body.
Credit: NASA's Johnson Space Center Duration: 2 minutes, 13 seconds Release Date: June 1, 2018
This oblique photograph, taken by an astronaut from the International Space Station, shows the city of Bangkok illuminated by city lights. As the capital and largest city in Thailand, Bangkok is home to more than 9 million people.
The adjacent waters of the Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand are illuminated by hundreds of green lights on fishing boats. Fishermen use the lights to attract plankton and fish, the preferred diet of commercially important squid. As the bait swims to the surface, the squid follow to feed and get caught by fishermen. The same fishing practices are used off the Atlantic coast of South America.
In the photo, the border between Thailand and neighboring Cambodia to the east is distinguished by a marked difference in the number of city lights. Cambodia has less urbanized area and its population is smaller than that of neighboring countries. The majority of Cambodia’s population lives in rural farming areas where electricity is sparse. Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city in Cambodia, with a population of approximately 1.5 million people.
Astronaut photograph ISS053-E-451778 was acquired on December 10, 2017, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 24 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 53 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public.
STEM in 30 | Interested in stargazing, but don't know where to begin? Check out this video for some simple tips on beginning to identify what's in the night sky.
