Image Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)
A fantastic image of M31 in Andromeda taken by NASA’s Swift satellite. The image consists of 330 individual images combined to create this spectacular view taken in ultraviolet.
Image courtesy of NASA
NASA has chosen the final destination for LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) after a journey of almost 5.6 million miles which took in several orbits around Earth and moon. It’s target is the crater Cabeus (proper) and the impact will take place on 9 October 2009 at 7.30am EDT (12.30 BST,11.30am GMT). By smashing into the lunar surface LCROSS should be able to evaluate whether water ice exists at the moon’s south pole.
LCROSS will send its spent upper stage Centaur rocket to impact the lunar surface and will then fly into the plume of dust and measure the properties. LCROSS itself will then collide with the moons surface.
Dozens of professional astronomers based at international observatories will be aiming telescopes at the moon to maximise the scientific return of the LCROSS impacts. Hubble will also be training it’s refurbished eyes on the moon to image the impact
For more information about the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite Mission.
The kind people at SLOOH have added two additional feeds which will view the impact as it happens.
Image credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ.
Three separate spacecraft have revealed that water molecules are present in the polar regions of the moon and in greater amounts than predicted. Hydroxyl was also found which consists of only one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom. NASA’s Moon Minerology Mapper, also known as M3 gave these results. M3 was carried into space on 22 October 2008 aboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft which was launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation. Data was also collected by the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on NASA’s Cassini spacecraft as well as the High Resolution Infrared Imaging Spectrometer on NASA’s EPOXI spacecraft which helped to confirm the presence of water molecules.
The imaging spectrometers on the spacecraft made it possible to map lunar water more effectively than before.
Due to the confirmation of high levels of water molecules and hydroxyl at these concentrations in the moon’s polar regions this now raises new questions about its origin and effect on the mineralogy of the moon.
Whilst in lunar orbit, M3’s spectrometer measured light reflecting off the moon’s surface at infrared wavelengths, splitting the spectral colors of the lunar surface into small enough bits to reveal a new level of detail in the surface composition. When the M3 science team analysed the data they found the wavelengths of light being absorbed were consistent with the absorption patterns for water molecules and hydroxyl.
The M3 team found water molecules and hydroxyl at diverse areas of the sunlit region of the moon’s surface, but the water signature appeared stronger at the moon’s higher latitudes. Water molecules and hydroxyl previously were suspected in data from a Cassini flyby of the moon in 1999, but the findings were not published until now.
Image Credit: ISRO/NASA/JPL-Caltech/Brown Univ./USGS
For additional confirmation, scientists turned to the EPOXI mission while it was flying past the moon in June 2009 on its way to a November 2010 encounter with comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft not only confirmed the VIMS and M3 findings, but also expanded on them.
For additional information and images from the instruments, visit:
For more information about the Chandrayaan-1 mission, visit:
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio
The Lunar Reconisance Orbiter has taken it’s first images of the areas where the Apollo lunar modules landed.
Normally I’d post the pictures here for you to look at but this time I’d suggest going to the source as you can zoom in see what is there
Credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Salty ice has been discovered on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. The moon replenishes the ring with material from discharging jets and it’s thought that the moon could harbor a reservoir of liquid water, perhaps an ocean, beneath its surface.
The Cassini spacecraft discovered the water ice jets in 2005 on Enceladus. These jets eject tiny ice grains and vapour, some of which escape the moon’s gravity and form Saturn’s outermost ring. Cassini’s cosmic dust analyser has examined the composition of those grains and found salt within them.
The scientists working on Cassini’s cosmic dust detector conclude that liquid water must be present because it is the only way to dissolve the significant amounts of minerals that would account for the levels of salt detected. The process of sublimation, the mechanism by which vapour is released directly from solid ice in the crust, cannot account for the presence of salt.
The outermost ring particles are almost pure water ice, but nearly every time the dust analyser has checked for the composition, it has found at least some sodium within the particles.
However, researchers doing ground-based observations did not see sodium, an important salt component. The ground-based observation team notes that the amount of sodium being expelled from Enceladus is actually less than observed around many other planetary bodies. These scientists were looking for sodium in the plume vapour and could not see it in the expelled ice grains. They argue that if the plume vapour does come from ocean water the evaporation must happen slowly deep underground rather than as a violent geyser erupting into space.
Determining the nature and origin of the plume material is a top priority for Cassini during its extended tour, called the Cassini Equinox Mission.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
You can find out more information at either ESA or NASA
Credit: NASA
NASA’s last mision to the moon, Clementine produced images like this (on the left).
Unfortunately a malfunction in one of the onboard computers cut short the mission which ended on June 1994 due to the telemetry from the spacecraft being inteligible.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Arizona State University
This is one of the latest images sent back by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The orbiter has taken images of a region in the lunar highlands south of Mare Nubium (Sea of Clouds)
As the moon rotates beneath the orbiter photographic maps of the lunar surface will be gradually built up.
The first images have been taken along the moonsdividing line between day and night (it’s terminator) and because of the deep shadow subtle topograpy has been exaggerated.
Credit: NASA, N. Benitez (JHU), T. Broadhurst (The Hebrew University), H. Ford (JHU), M. Clampin(STScI), G. Hartig (STScI), G. Illingworth (UCO/Lick Observatory), the ACS Science Team and ESA
This fantastic image was produced using the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. A natural ‘zoom lens’ in space has been used to boost its view of the distant universe. As well as giving an amazing and dramatic view, it’s hoped that the results will help us to understand more about galaxy evolution and dark matter.
The cluster Abel 1689 is 2.2 billion light years away and for this image the Hubble Space telescope had to gaze at it for over 13 hours. The natural lens that was used by Hubble was created by the gravity of the trillion stars as well as any dark matter within the cluster. This is known as a ‘gravitational lens’ and this bends and magnifies the light of any galaxies found behind it, it also distorts their shape and creates multiple images of the individual galaxies.
Herschel and Planck are two spacecraft which are due for launch on 14 May. Both spacecraft will be launched on an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana. This is an ESA (European Space Agency) project in partnership with NASA. You can follow what is happening with both spacecraft on twitter. They are respectively @ESAHerschel and @Planck. The @EuropeanSpaceAgency twitter also provides useful updates of what is happening with both spacecraft. ESA also has tv broadcasts on the web which you may wish to have a look at.
Herschel will be the most sensitive far-infrared telescope launched todate, whilst Planck’s mission is to understand the origin and evolution of our Universe.
The Surface of Mercury
The MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging spacecraft known as MESSENGER has revealed that Mercurys atmosphere, it’s interaction with the solar wind and it’s geological past show greater activity than originally suspected. A large impact crater called Rembrandt which is approx 430 miles in diameter which was previously unknown was also discovered by the probe.
On it’s second flyby (6 October 2008) it captured more than 1,200 high resolution and colour images of the planet. The probe also showed a further 30 percent of the planets surface. This provided further essential data for planning the remainder of the missions for the probe.
MESSENGER also detected magnesium in Mercury’s thin atmosphere. This has shown that magnesium is an important part of Mercury’s surface, calcium and sodium were also found. Variations were also observed in the magnetosphere and it’s thought that the day to day changes in the atmosphere of Mercury is a result of this.
Until about a year ago we only knew what half of Mercury looked like, but with the images sent back by MESSENGER scientists now know what 90 percent of the planet looks like and also have a better idea how the planet’s crust was formed.
A third flyby of Mercury is scheduled to take place on 29 September and in March of 2011 the probe will go into orbit. During orbit MESSENGER will continually collect information on the planet and its environment for a complete year.
The MESSENGER project is the seventh in NASA’s Discovery Program of low-cost, scientifically focused missions. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory of Laurel, Md., designed, built and operates the spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science instruments were built by the Applied Physics Laboratory; Goddard; the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor; and the University of Colorado in Boulder. GenCorp Aerojet of Sacramento, Calif., and Composite Optics Inc. of San Diego provided the propulsion system and composite structure.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
This fantastic image from NASA is a mosiac combining 6 images, 2 each of red, green and blue spectral filters to create the natural look of this picture. The images were taken by the Cassini spacecraft and use the wide angle camera. The images were taken on 30 December 2008 at a distance of approximately 750,000 miles from Saturn.
The scale of the image is 42 miles per pixel
The image shows Saturn’s rings casting a dramatic shadow against the planet and also shows the difference in colour between the northern hemisphere (blues and greens) and the southern hemisphere (creamy pastels).