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https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-eyes-on-the-earth-puts-the-world-at-your-fingertips

NASA’s Eyes on the Earth Puts the World at Your Fingertips

The 3D real-time visualization tool lets users track NASA satellites as well as the vital Earth science data they provide. Recent upgrades make for an even more fascinating experience.

NASA’s real-time 3D visualization toolEyes on the Earthgot a recent upgrade to include more datasets, putting the world at your fingertips. Using the tool, you can track the planet’s vital signs – everything from carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide to sea level and soil moisture levels – as well as follow the fleet of Earth satellites providing those measurements.Eyes on the Earth offers an engaging, interactive resource to learn more about environmental phenomena and their impacts.For instance, to see measurements of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in a particular part of the globe, navigate to the Vital Signs menu and click the carbon dioxide button. Eyes on the Earth will show avisualization of datafrom NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 (OCO-2) satellite, which measures the gas from the ground to the top of the atmosphere. (To ensure the greatest accuracy, the mission reprocesses the data in the months prior to it appearing in Eyes.) Click “animate data,” specify a date range and see how levels shift over time.How to use Eyes on the EarthVisit Eyes on the EarthThere are eight vital signs to choose from, with background information on the role each plays.The newest version of Eyes on the Earth also provides snapshots of significant events in the natural world. For instance, you can see details about the maximum wind speeds of a tropical storm, the impacts of a northern California fire, even see the scale of aphytoplankton bloomoff of New Zealand and why it matters.The improvements also include upgrades for a more seamless user experience.“With the latest advancements in technology, we are able to harness these innovations to combine larger amounts of data and imagery for users to visualize how our planet is constantly changing,” said Jon Nelson, group supervisor of the Visualization Technology Applications and Development at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which developed Eyes.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERIf you want to know more about the Aqua satellite, just click the icon that shows the spacecraft’s course around the globe. Along with background information about the mission, there’s an interactive 3D model to provide a closer look.While you’re at it, you can check out the recently launchedLandsat 9as well as two powerful forthcoming missions:NISAR(short for NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) andSWOT(Surface Water and Ocean Topography).An Inside Perspective of the SWOT MissionThe graphics are as rich as the data, making for fascinating deep dives as you learn about the science, get to know the planet better, and learn about some of the many NASA missions that track the globe’s health. And while no downloads are required, the web-based application makes a great addition to any device with a browser and an internet connection including your smartphone.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/voyager-2-enters-final-planetary-encounter

Voyager 2 Enters Final Planetary Encounter

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft today entered the observatoryphase of its flyby of Neptune, signaling the beginning of its final planetary encounter after nearly 12 years of exploring the outer solar system.

NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft today entered the observatoryphase of its flyby of Neptune, signaling the beginning of its final planetary encounter after nearly 12 years of exploring the outer solar system.Voyager mission controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will now be tracking the spacecraft around the clock as Voyager begins taking systematic images of Neptune and sending back about 50 pictures day."Now that we've entered the observatory phase we'll be taking about six images every three hours to study changes in the atmosphere from rotation to rotation," said Dr. Ellis Miner, Voyager deputy project scientist.Signals from Voyager 2 marking the beginning of the observatory phase were received at 3:40 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. This official start of the Neptune encounter places Voyager at the top of the priority list of spacecraft being tracked by the NASA/JPL Deep Space Network. Before today, Voyager had to compete with other projects for DSN coverage. During the observatory phase, the spacecraft will be monitored at regular intervals by more than one antenna at each of the DSN sites in California, Spain and Australia.In addition to taking images of the planet, Voyager 2 will also be making systematic ultraviolet observations of Neptune looking for any auroral activity and escaping gases. Calibrations of the spacecraft's instruments will also be done in preparation for critical near-encounter observations.In observations of Neptune made by Voyager 2 in late 1988 and January of 1989, scientists saw bright spot in the southern hemisphere of the planet. Since January, that spot has dimmed and larger dark area has been seen in the images. Recently, the bright spot has begun to brighten again and other spots are becoming apparent. Neptune's atmosphere has also revealed regions of dark banding near its southern pole and similar banding has been seen north of the planet's equator.Voyager's observatory phase ends and its far encounter phase starts on Aug. 6, 1989.The near-encounter phase of the mission includes Voyager's closest approach to Neptune at 9 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Aug. 24, 1989, when the spacecraft passes just 4,850 kilometers (3,000 miles) from the planet's cloud tops. Five hours later, the spacecraft will fly about 39,000 kilometers (24,000 miles) from the planet's major moon Triton.Voyager 2 is now 117 million kilometers (73 million miles) from Neptune. The Neptune flyby will be Voyager 2's fourth and final planetary encounter before the spacecraft heads out of the solar system to explore interstellar space.Launched in 1977, Voyager 2 and its twin Voyager 1 have encountered Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 went on to fly by Uranus in January 1986 while Voyager 1 continues its trek out of the solar system.Now 4.271 billion kilometers (2.654 billion miles) from Earth, Voyager 2 is so far away that data radioed at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) take nearly four hours to reach Earth. Voyager's images are being recorded on the spacecraft's tape recorders and will be played back to Earth beginning Tuesday morning.The Voyager project is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-sea-level-satellite-arrives-at-california-launch-site

New Sea Level Satellite Arrives at California Launch Site

The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft will launch from the U.S. West Coast aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in November.

The world's latest ocean-monitoring satellite has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base in Central California to be prepared for its Nov. 10 launch. The product of a historic U.S.-European partnership, the Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich spacecraft touched down at Vandenberg in an Antonov 124 aircraft at around 10:40 a.m. PDT (1:40 p.m. EDT) on Sept. 24 after a two-day journey from an IABG engineering facility near Munich, Germany."The spacecraft had a smooth trip from Europe and is in good shape," said Parag Vaze, the mission's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. "Final preparations are under way to see the satellite safely into Earth orbit in a little under seven weeks."The satellite is named after Dr. Michael Freilich, the former director of NASA's Earth Science Division and an instrumental figure in advancing ocean observations from space. Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is one of two identical spacecraft that compose the Sentinel-6/Jason-CS (Continuity of Service) mission developed in partnership with ESA (the European Space Agency). ESA is developing the new Sentinel family of missions to support the operational needs of the European Union's Copernicus program, the EU's Earth observation program managed by the European Commission. The spacecraft's twin, Sentinel-6B, will launch in 2025."It has been a long journey of planning, development, and testing for the mission team," said Pierrik Vuilleumier, the mission's project manager at ESA."We are proud to work with our international partners on such a critical mission for sea level studies and are looking forward to many years of Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich taking critical sea level and atmospheric data from orbit."Once in orbit, each satellite will collect sea surface height measurements down to the centimeter for more than 90% of the world's oceans. They'll be contributing to a nearly 30-year-long dataset built by an uninterrupted series of spacecraft that started with the TOPEX/Poseidon mission in the early 1990s and that continues today with Jason-3. Instruments aboard the spacecraft will also provide atmospheric data that will improve weather forecasts, help to track hurricanes, and bolster climate models.Although Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich has already undergonerigorous testing, it will go through a final checkout at the SpaceX payload processing facility at Vandenberg to verify that the satellite is healthy and ready for launch.Once tests are complete, Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich will be mounted atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base's Space Launch Complex 4E. The launch is scheduled for 11:31 a.m. PST (2:31 p.m. EST) on Nov. 10."The Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich satellite will extend our observation record of global sea level, advance our understanding of the Earth as a system, and inform decision-makers, from federal to local levels, who must manage the risks associated with rising sea level," said Karen St. Germain, director of NASA's Earth Science Division in Washington.Sentinel-6/Jason-CS is being jointly developed by ESA, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), NASA, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with funding support from the European Commission and technical support from France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, is contributing three science instruments for each Sentinel-6 satellite: the Advanced Microwave Radiometer, the Global Navigation Satellite System - Radio Occultation, and the Laser Retroreflector Array. NASA is also contributing launch services, ground systems supporting operation of the NASA science instruments, the science data processors for two of these instruments, and support for the international Ocean Surface Topography Science Team.To learn more about NASA's study of sea level science, visit:https://sealevel.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/two-exoplanets-may-be-mostly-water-nasas-hubble-and-spitzer-find

Two Exoplanets May Be Mostly Water, NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Find

Though the telescopes can’t directly observe the planets’ surfaces, their densities indicate they’re lighter than rock worlds but heavier than gas-dominated ones.

A team led by of researchers at the University of Montreal has found evidence that two exoplanets orbiting a red dwarf star are “water worlds,” where water makes up a large fraction of the entire planet. These worlds, located in a planetary system 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra, are unlike any planets found in our solar system.The team, led byCaroline Piauletof theInstitute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx)at the University of Montreal, published a detailed study of this planetary system, known as Kepler-138, in the journal Nature Astronomy today.Piaulet and colleagues observed exoplanets Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d with NASA’s Hubble and the retiredSpitzerspace telescopes and discovered that the planets could be composed largely of water. These two planets and a smaller planetary companion closer to the star, Kepler-138b, had been discovered previously by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. The new study found evidence for a fourth planet, too.Water wasn’t directly detected at Kepler-138c and d, but by comparing the sizes and masses of the planets to models, astronomers conclude that a significant fraction of their volume – up to half of it – should be made of materials that are lighter than rock but heavier than hydrogen or helium (which constitute the bulk of gas giant planets like Jupiter). The most common of these candidate materials is water.“We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that’s why we called them super-Earths,” explainedBjörn Benneke, study co-author and professor of astrophysics at the University of Montreal. “However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time.”This illustration shows cross-sections of the Earth and the exoplanet Kepler-138d. Measurements of Kepler-138d’s density suggest it could have a water layer that makes up more than 50% of its volume, to a depth of about 1,243 miles (2,000 kilometers).Credit: Benoit Gougeon (University of Montreal)With volumes more than three times that of Earth and masses twice as big, planets c and d have much lower densities than Earth. This is surprising because most of the planets just slightly bigger than Earth that have been studied in detail so far all seemed to be rocky worlds like ours. The closest comparison, say researchers, would be some of the icy moons in the outer solar system that are also largely composed of water surrounding a rocky core.“Imagine larger versions of Europa or Enceladus, the water-rich moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn, but brought much closer to their star,” explained Piaulet. “Instead of an icy surface, they would harbor large water-vapor envelopes.”Researchers caution the planets may not have oceans like those on Earth directly at the planet’s surface. “The temperature in Kepler-138d’s atmosphere is likely above the boiling point of water, and we expect a thick, dense atmosphere made of steam on this planet. Only, under that steam atmosphere there could potentially be liquid water at high pressure, or even water in another phase that occurs at high pressures, called a supercritical fluid,” Piaulet said.In 2014, data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope allowed astronomers to announce the detection of three planets orbiting Kepler-138. This was based on a measurable dip in starlight as the planet momentarily passed in from of their star.Benneke and his colleague Diana Dragomir, from the University of New Mexico, came up with the idea of re-observing the planetary system with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes between 2014 and 2016 to catch more transits of Kepler-138d, the third planet in the system, in order to study its atmosphere.A new exoplanet in the systemThe two possible water worlds, Kepler-138c and d, are not located in the habitable zone, the area around a star where temperatures would allow liquid water on the surface of a rocky planet. But in the Hubble and Spitzer data, researchers additionally found evidence for a new planet in the system, Kepler-138e, in the habitable zone.This newly found planet is small and farther from its star than the three others, taking 38 days to complete an orbit. The nature of this additional planet, however, remains an open question because it does not seem to transit its host star. Observing the exoplanet’s transit would have allowed astronomers to determine its size.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERWith Kepler-138e now in the picture, the masses of the previously known planets were measured again via the transit timing-variation method, which consists of tracking small variations in the precise moments of the planets’ transits in front of their star caused by the gravitational pull of other nearby planets.The researchers had another surprise: They found that the two water worlds Kepler-138c and are “twin” planets, with virtually the same size and mass, while they were previously thought to be drastically different. The closer-in planet, Kepler-138b, on the other hand, is confirmed to be a small Mars-mass planet, one of the smallest exoplanets known to date.“As our instruments and techniques become sensitive enough to find and study planets that are farther from their stars, we might start finding a lot more of these water worlds,” Benneke concluded.More About the MissionThe entire body of scientific data collected by Spitzer during its lifetime is available to the public via theSpitzer data archive, housed at the Infrared Science Archive at IPAC at Caltech in Pasadena, California. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, managed Spitzer mission operations for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations were conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at IPAC at Caltech. Spacecraft operations were based at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado.For more information about NASA’s Spitzer mission, go to:https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/spitzer-space-telescope

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-curiosity-nearing-first-anniversary-on-mars

NASA's Curiosity Nearing First Anniversary on Mars

NASA's Curiosity rover will mark one year on Mars next week and has already achieved its main science goal of revealing ancient Mars could have supported life.

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity rover will mark one year on Mars next week and has already achieved its main science goal of revealing ancient Mars could have supported life. The mobile laboratory also is guiding designs for future planetary missions."Successes of our Curiosity -- that dramatic touchdown a year ago and the science findings since then -- advance us toward further exploration, including sending humans to an asteroid and Mars," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "Wheel tracks now, will lead to boot prints later."After inspiring millions of people worldwide with its successful landing in a crater on the Red Planet on Aug. 5, 2012, PDT (Aug. 6, 2012, EDT), Curiosity has provided more than 190 gigabits of data; returned more than 36,700 full images and 35,000 thumbnail images; fired more than 75,000 laser shots to investigate the composition of targets; collected and analyzed sample material from two rocks; and driven more than one mile (1.6 kilometers).Curiosity team members at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,will share remembrances about the dramatic landing night and the overall mission in an event that will air on NASA Television and the agency's website from 7:45 to 9 a.m. PDT (10:45 a.m. to noon EDT) on Tuesday, Aug. 6. Immediately following that program, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. (noon to 1:30 p.m.), NASA TV will carry a live public event from NASA Headquarters in Washington. That event will feature NASA officials and crew members aboard the International Space Station as they observe the rover anniversary and discuss how its activities and other robotic projects are helping prepare for a human mission to Mars and an asteroid. Social media followers may submit questions on Twitter and Google+ in advance and during the event using the hashtag #askNASA.Curiosity, which is the size of a car, traveled 764 yards (699 meters) in the past four weeks since leaving a group of science targets where it worked for more than six months. The rover is making its way to the base of Mount Sharp, where it will investigate lower layers of a mountain that rises three miles from the floor of the crater.NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft and its unprecedented sky crane landing system placed Curiosity on Mars near the base of Mount Sharp. The mountain has exposed geological layers, including ones identified by Mars orbiters as originating in a wet environment. The rover landed about one mile (1.6 kilometers) from the center of that carefully chosen, 12-mile-long (20-kilometer-long) target area.Scientists decided first to investigate closer outcrops where the mission quickly found signs of vigorous ancient stream flow. These were the first streambed pebble deposits ever examined up close on Mars.Evidence of a past environment well suited to support microbial life came within the first eight months of the 23-month primary mission from analysis of the first sample material ever collected by drilling into a rock on Mars."We now know Mars offered favorable conditions for microbial life billions of years ago," said the mission's project scientist, John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. "It has been gratifying to succeed, but that has also whetted our appetites to learn more. We hope those enticing layers at Mount Sharp will preserve a broad diversity of other environmental conditions that could have affected habitability."The mission measured natural radiation levels on the trip to Mars and is monitoring radiation and weather on the surface of Mars, which will be helpful for designing future human missions to the planet. The Curiosity mission also found evidence Mars lost most of its original atmosphere through processes that occurred at the top of the atmosphere. NASA's next mission to Mars, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN), is being prepared for launch in November to study those processes in the upper atmosphere.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Curiosity mission and built the rover for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.To follow the conversation online about Curiosity's first year on Mars, use hashtag #1YearOnMars or follow @NASA and @MarsCuriosity on Twitter.For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/ntv. The events airing on Tuesday also will be carried on Ustream athttp://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl.A movie made with Hazard-Avoidance Camera images from Curiosity's first year, titled "Twelve Months in Two Minutes," is available athttp://mars.nasa.gov/msl/1yearin2mins.For more information about the mission, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/mslandhttp://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/astronomers-rule-out-possibility-of-asteroid-impact-on-mars

Astronomers Rule Out Possibility of Asteroid Impact on Mars

As expected, scientists at JPL's Near-Earth Object Office have further refined the trajectory estimate for asteroid 2007 WD5 and ruled out any possibility of a Mars impact on Jan. 30.

Updated Jan 9, 2008 – As expected, scientists at JPL's Near-Earth Object Office have further refined the trajectory estimate for asteroid 2007 WD5 and ruled out any possibility of a Mars impact on Jan. 30. The latest trajectory plot of the asteroid was made possible by adding to previously obtained data some new data from a round of observations acquired by three observatories on the evenings of Jan. 5 through 8. Based on this latest analysis, the odds for the asteroid impacting Mars on Jan. 30 are 0.0 percent. The latest observations come from the German-Spanish Astronomical Center, Calar Alto, Spain; the Multi-Mirror Telescope, Mt. Hopkins, Ariz.; and the University of Hawaii telescope, Mauna Kea, Hawaii.For more information, visit the Near-Earth Object site athttp://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/.Updated Jan 2, 2008 – With new observations taken Dec. 29, Dec. 31 and Jan. 2 by the Magdalena Ridge Observatory in New Mexico, scientists at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., have updated their trajectory estimates for the asteroid. Based on this latest analysis, the odds for the asteroid impacting Mars on Jan. 30 are now about 1-in-28, or 3.6 percent. New Mexico Tech operates the Magdalena Ridge Observatory.Updated Dec. 28, 2007 -- Astronomers have identified asteroid 2007 WD 5 in archival imagery. With these new observations, scientists at NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif have refined their trajectory estimates for the asteroid. Based on this latest analysis, the odds for the asteroid impacting Mars on Jan. 30 are now 1-in-25 -- or about 4 percent.WASHINGTON - Astronomers funded by NASA are monitoring the trajectory of an asteroid estimated to be 50 meters (164 feet) wide that is expected to cross Mars' orbital path early next year. Observations provided by the astronomers and analyzed by NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., indicate the object may pass within 30,000 miles of Mars at about 6 a.m. EST (3 a.m. PST) on Jan. 30, 2008."Right now asteroid 2007 WD5 is about half-way between Earth and Mars and closing the distance at a speed of about 27,900 miles per hour," said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near Earth Object Office at JPL. "Over the next five weeks, we hope to gather more information from observatories so we can further refine the asteroid's trajectory."NASA detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth. The Near Earth Object Observation Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," plots the orbits of these objects to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.Asteroid 2007 WD5 was first discovered on Nov. 20, 2007, by the NASA-funded Catalina Sky Survey and put on a "watch list" because its orbit passes near Earth. Further observations from both the NASA-funded Spacewatch at Kitt Peak, Ariz., and the Magdalena Ridge Observatory in New Mexico gave scientists enough data to determine that the asteroid was not a danger to Earth, but could potentially impact Mars. This makes it a member of an interesting class of small objects that are both near Earth objects and "Mars crossers."Because of current uncertainties about the asteroid's exact orbit, there is a 1-in-75 chance of 2007 WD5 impacting Mars. If this unlikely event were to occur, it would be somewhere within a broad swath across the planet north of where the Opportunity rover is located."We estimate such impacts occur on Mars every thousand years or so," said Steve Chesley, a scientist at JPL. "If 2007 WD5 were to thump Mars on Jan. 30, we calculate it would hit at about 30,000 miles per hour and might create a crater more than half-a-mile wide." The Mars Rover Opportunity is exploring a crater approximately this size right now.Such a collision could release about three megatons of energy. Scientists believe an event of comparable magnitude occurred here on Earth in 1908 in Tunguska, Siberia, but no crater was created. The object was disintegrated by Earth's thicker atmosphere before it hit the ground, although the air blast devastated a large area of unpopulated forest.NASA and its partners will continue to track asteroid 2007 WD5 and will provide an update in January when further information is available. For more information on the Near Earth Object program, visit:http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/.An audio interview/podcast regarding 2007 WD5 is available at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/podcast/mars-asteroid-20071221/A videofile related to this story is available on NASA TV and the Web. For information and schedules, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/ntv.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-comet-and-jupiter-missions-offer-educator-fellowships

NASA Comet and Jupiter Missions Offer Educator Fellowships

Two NASA space missions are seeking candidates to apply for educator fellowships to help field-test educational modules and to plan and participate in teacher training workshops developed by the projects.

Two NASA space missions are seeking candidates to apply for educator fellowships to help field-test educational modules and to plan and participate in teacher training workshops developed by the projects.NASA's Stardust mission, which will launch in 1999, fly to a comet and collect a sample for return to Earth, is seeking applicants for 10 educator fellowships. As part of a nationwide teacher training initiative, the Stardust project is developing educational modules, targeted at grades 4 through 8, that will be tested by the Stardust Educator Fellows chosen from around the country.In late spring/summer 1998, a second announcement of opportunity will be distributed to solicit candidates from which an additional 15 Stardust Educator Fellows will be selected and trained in fall 1998.Those selected for the educator fellowships will receive an all-expenses-paid intensive training workshop about the comet sample return mission this spring at Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, CO. Fellows will also receive guidance on presentation strategies and a complete teacher training presenter package so they can conduct their own Stardust teacher training workshops.Ideal candidates are actively teaching or conducting teacher training in a formal or informal science environment (school district, science center, museum, educational organization, etc.). Selected candidates will be announced by March 6, 1998. Additional information for Stardust Educator Fellowship applicants is available on the Stardust home page athttp://stardust.jpl.nasa.govCandidates are also being sought for the Galileo Europa Mission Educator Fellowship Program for 1998 and 1999. A team of 15 Educator Fellows will be selected for training at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. Individuals selected will receive a complete workshop package and educational materials to conduct their own teacher training geared toward middle and high school teachers. More information is available athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/The fellowships will focus on the Galileo Europa Mission, a two-year extension of the Galileo Mission to Jupiter, which will study two of Jupiter's moons with opposite and extreme conditions. Icy Europa may have liquid oceans hidden under its surface, while Io is dotted with volcanoes.Applications for the Galileo Europa Mission Educator Fellowships must be received by Feb. 16, with selected candidates to be announced on Feb. 27.Application information for both Stardust and Galileo Europa Mission programs may be requested by contacting Kerri Beisser, Challenger Center for Space Science Education,1029 N. Royal Street, Suite 300, Alexandria, VA 22314; or by sending a query via fax to (703) 683-7546. Applicants should specify for which program they wish to apply.The Stardust Mission and the Galileo Europa Mission are managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/europa-glows-radiation-does-a-bright-number-on-jupiters-moon

Europa Glows: Radiation Does a Bright Number on Jupiter's Moon

New lab experiments re-create the environment of Europa and find that the icy moon shines, even on its nightside. The effect is more than just a cool visual.

As the icy, ocean-filled moonEuropaorbits Jupiter, it withstands a relentless pummeling of radiation. Jupiter zaps Europa's surface night and day with electrons and other particles, bathing it in high-energy radiation. But as these particles pound the moon's surface, they may also be doing something otherworldly: making Europa glow in the dark.New research from scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California details for the first time what the glow would look like, and what it could reveal about the composition of ice on Europa's surface. Different salty compounds react differently to the radiation and emit their own unique glimmer. To the naked eye, this glow would look sometimes slightly green, sometimes slightly blue or white and with varying degrees of brightness, depending on what material it is.Get the Latest JPL NewsSubscribe to the NewsletterScientists use a spectrometer to separate the light into wavelengths and connect the distinct "signatures," or spectra, to different compositions of ice. Most observations using a spectrometer on a moon like Europa are taken using reflected sunlight on the moon's dayside, but these new results illuminate what Europa would look like in the dark."We were able to predict that this nightside ice glow could provide additional information on Europa's surface composition. How that composition varies could give us clues about whether Europa harbors conditions suitable for life," said JPL's Murthy Gudipati, lead author of the work published Nov. 9 in Nature Astronomy.That's becauseEuropaholds a massive, global interior ocean that could percolate to the surface through the moon's thick crust of ice. By analyzing the surface, scientists can learn more about what lies beneath.Shining a LightScientists have inferred from prior observations that Europa's surface could be made of a mix of ice and commonly known salts on Earth, such as magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) and sodium chloride (table salt). The new research shows that incorporating those salts into water ice under Europa-like conditions and blasting it with radiation produces a glow.That much was not a surprise. It's easy to imagine an irradiated surface glowing. Scientists know the shine is caused by energetic electrons penetrating the surface, energizing the molecules underneath. When those molecules relax, they release energy as visible light."But we never imagined that we would see what we ended up seeing," said JPL's Bryana Henderson, who co-authored the research. "When we tried new ice compositions, the glow looked different. And we all just stared at it for a while and then said, 'This is new, right? This is definitely a different glow?' So we pointed a spectrometer at it, and each type of ice had a different spectrum."To study a laboratory mockup of Europa's surface, the JPL team built a unique instrument called Ice Chamber for Europa's High-Energy Electron and Radiation Environment Testing (ICE-HEART). They took ICE-HEART to a high-energy electron beam facility in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and started the experiments with an entirely different study in mind: to see how organic material under Europa ice would react to blasts of radiation.They didn't expect to see variations in the glow itself tied to different ice compositions. It was - as the authors called it - serendipity."Seeing the sodium chloride brine with a significantly lower level of glow was the 'aha' moment that changed the course of the research," said Fred Bateman, co-author of the paper. He helped conduct the experiment and delivered radiation beams to the ice samples at the Medical Industrial Radiation Facility at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Maryland.A moon that's visible in a dark sky may not seem unusual; we see our own Moon because it reflects sunlight. But Europa's glow is caused by an entirely different mechanism, the scientists said. Imagine a moon that glows continuously, even on its nightside - the side facing away from the Sun."If Europa weren't under this radiation, it would look the way our moon looks to us - dark on the shadowed side," Gudipati said. "But because it's bombarded by the radiation from Jupiter, it glows in the dark."Set to launch in the mid-2020s, NASA's upcoming flagship missionEuropa Clipperwill observe the moon's surface in multiple flybys while orbiting Jupiter. Mission scientists are reviewing the authors' findings to evaluate if a glow would be detectable by the spacecraft's science instruments. It's possible that information gathered by the spacecraft could be matched with the measurements in the new research to identify the salty components on the moon's surface or narrow down what they might be."It's not often that you're in a lab and say, 'We might find this when we get there,'" Gudipati said. "Usually it's the other way around - you go there and find something and try to explain it in the lab. But our prediction goes back to a simple observation, and that's what science is about."Missions such as Europa Clipper help contribute to the field ofastrobiology, the interdisciplinary research on the variables and conditions of distant worlds that could harbor life as we know it. While Europa Clipper is not a life-detection mission, it will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Europa and investigate whether the icy moon, with its subsurface ocean, has the capability to support life. Understanding Europa's habitability will help scientists better understand how life developed on Earth and the potential for finding life beyond our planet.More information about Europa and Europa Clipper can be found here:europa.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/three-jpl-discovery-missions-selected-for-possible-development

Three JPL Discovery Missions Selected for Possible Development

Three mission concepts developed in cooperation with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to study the Sun, the atmosphere of Venus and the tail of an active comet have been selected to compete for launch in 1999 as part of NASA's Discovery program, designed to develop and launch small, low-cost planetary spacecraft with highly focused science goals.

Three mission concepts developed in cooperation with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to study the Sun, the atmosphere of Venus and the tail of an active comet have been selected to compete for launch in 1999 as part of NASA's Discovery program, designed to develop and launch small, low-cost planetary spacecraft with highly focused science goals.The three Discovery missions, announced today by NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Wesley T. Huntress Jr., will be studied over the next six to nine months, leading to a fall 1995 decision to select one of them for development and launch.The three missions are:-- Stardust, which would fly through the extended coma, or tail, of the active comet P/Wild 2, taking images and returning a sample of its cometary dust to Earth for further analysis;-- Suess-Urey, which would collect samples of solar particle matter streaming outward from the Sun and return it to Earth for laboratory study; and-- The Venus Multiprobe Mission, which would drop 16 small probes into the thick Venusian atmosphere to enable study of its unusual atmospheric circulation."I am absolutely thrilled with the potential of these missions, and with the universally high quality of the 28 proposals submitted to us," said NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin. "The university and aerospace industry communities should be proud of their efforts, which represent a model of how to pursue scientifically first-rate space exploration using small, advanced spacecraft."JPL will conduct studies of the three mission concepts over the summer with partners in industry, academia and the scientific community. The missions will be modeled after JPL's Mars Pathfinder mission, one of the first missions to be approved under NASA's Discovery program. Pathfinder will place a lander and small, semiautonomous rover on the surface of Mars in July 1997, testing new technologies that will be incorporated into future flights to Mars.Plans call for Stardust to be launched on a Med-Lite launch vehicle -- roughly half the size of a Delta II launch vehicle -- in February 1999 for a total cost to NASA of $208 million. The Stardust team is led by Principal Investigator Dr. Donald Brownlee of the University of Washington in Seattle, with Martin Marietta Astronautics of Denver, Colo., as the contractor. Dr. Paul Swanson of JPL has been named project manager.The Venus Multiprobe Mission would be launched on a Delta II launch vehicle in June 1999 for a total cost to NASA of $202 million. This Discovery mission will be led by Principal Investigator Dr. Richard Goody of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., with Hughes Space and Communications Group, El Segundo, Calif., as the industry contractor. Willis Meeks will become JPL project manager.The Suess-Urey mission, named after two prominent scientists in the field of solar physics -- Drs. Hans E. Suess and Harold C. Urey -- would be launched on a NASA MedLite launch vehicle in August 1999 for a total mission cost to NASA of $214 million. The Suess-Urey team would be led by Principal Investigator Dr. Donald Burnett of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., with Martin Marietta as the contractor. This mission to study the Sun's solar wind would be managed by Dr. Firouz Naderi of JPL.Twenty-eight formal proposals for the next Discovery missions were received by NASA in October 1994 in response to an August 1994 announcement of opportunity. NASA officials plan to release future announcements of opportunity under the Discovery program about every 18 months.JPL carries out its portion of the work on the selected missions for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-juno-mission-measures-oxygen-production-at-europa

NASA’s Juno Mission Measures Oxygen Production at Europa

The ice-covered Jovian moon generates 1,000 tons of oxygen every 24 hours – enough to keep a million humans breathing for a day.

Scientists with NASA’sJunomission to Jupiter have calculated the rate of oxygen being produced at the Jovian moon Europa to be substantially less than most previous studies. Published on March 4 inNature Astronomy, the findings were derived by measuring hydrogen outgassing from the icy moon’s surface using data collected by the spacecraft’s Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument.The paper’s authors estimate the amount of oxygen produced to be around 26 pounds every second (12 kilograms per second). Previous estimates range from a few pounds to over 2,000 pounds per second (over 1,000 kilograms per second). Scientists believe that some of the oxygen produced in this manner could work its way into the moon’s subsurface ocean as a possible source of metabolic energy.With an equatorial diameter of 1,940 miles (3,100 kilometers), Europa is the fourth largest ofJupiter’s 95 known moonsand the smallest of the four Galilean satellites. Scientists believe a vast internal ocean of salty water lurks beneath its icy crust, and they are curious about the potential for life-supporting conditions to exist below the surface.This illustration shows charged particles from Jupiter impacting Europa’s surface, splitting frozen water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen molecules. Scientists believe some of these newly created oxygen gases could migrate toward the moon’s subsurface ocean, as depicted in the inset image.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/PUIt is not just the water that has astrobiologists’ attention: The Jovian moon’s location plays an important role in biological possibilities as well. Europa’s orbit places it right in the middle of the gas giant’s radiation belts. Charged, or ionized, particles from Jupiter bombard the icy surface, splitting water molecules in two to generate oxygen that might find its way into the moon’s ocean.“Europa is like an ice ball slowly losing its water in a flowing stream. Except, in this case, the stream is a fluid of ionized particles swept around Jupiter by its extraordinary magnetic field,” said JADE scientist Jamey Szalay from Princeton University in New Jersey. “When these ionized particles impact Europa, they break up the water-ice molecule by molecule on the surface to produce hydrogen and oxygen. In a way, the entire ice shell is being continuously eroded by waves of charged particles washing up upon it.”Capturing the BombardmentAs Juno flew within 220 miles (354 kilometers) of Europa at 2:36 p.m. PDT Sept. 29, 2022, JADE identified and measured hydrogen and oxygen ions that had been created by the bombarding charged particles and then “picked up” by Jupiter’s magnetic field as it swept past the moon.“Back when NASA’SGalileomission flew by Europa, it opened our eyes to the complex and dynamic interaction Europa has with its environment. Juno brought a new capability to directly measure the composition of charged particles shed from Europa’s atmosphere, and we couldn’t wait to further peek behind the curtain of this exciting water world,” said Szalay. “But what we didn’t realize is that Juno’s observations would give us such a tight constraint on the amount of oxygen produced in Europa’s icy surface.”To learn more about Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, click anywhere on this interactive visualization from NASA’s Eyes on the solar system.Juno carries 11 state-of-the-art science instruments designed to study the Jovian system, including nine charged-particle and electromagnetic-wave sensors for studying Jupiter’s magnetosphere.“Our ability to fly close to the Galilean satellites during ourextended missionallowed us to start tackling a breadth of science, including some unique opportunities to contribute to the investigation of Europa’s habitability,” said Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “And we’re not done yet. More moon flybys and the first exploration of Jupiter’s close ring and polar atmosphere are yet to come.”Oxygen production is one of many facets that NASA’sEuropa Clippermission will investigate when it arrives at Jupiter in 2030. The mission has a sophisticated payload of ninescience instrumentsto determine if Europa has conditions that could be suitable for life.Get the Latest JPL NewsSubscribe to the NewsletterNow Bolton and the rest of the Juno mission team are setting their sights on another Jovian world, the volcano-festooned moon Io. On April 9, the spacecraft will come within about 10,250 miles (16,500 kilometers) of its surface. The data Juno gathers will add to findings from past Io flybys, including two extremely close approaches of about 932 miles (1,500 kilometers) on Dec. 30, 2023, and Feb. 3, 2024.More About the MissionNASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 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

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-damage-maps-may-help-in-future-quakes

NASA Damage Maps May Help in Future Quakes

Researchers have developed a way to make maps of natural disaster damage using remote sensing technology.

Nepal's magnitude 7.8 Gorkha earthquake caused significant damage and loss of life in 2015. In natural disasters like this, it is critical to locate areas that are in the most need of assistance as fast as possible.Quickly assessing and communicating where the hardest-hit areas are and prioritizing which regions or communities have the greatest need for first-response teams is difficult when a disaster unevenly devastates various parts of a large area. It helps to get a bigger-picture view of where the damage is located from a high vantage point: low-Earth orbit.Researchers led by Sang-Ho Yun at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, have developed a way to make maps of damage using the remote sensing technology of satellites. This method works even if the satellite images are taken at night or when skies are cloudy. They recently published the results of using this new approach, to study impacts of the Gorkha earthquake, in the journal Seismological Research Letters."Our mapping system shows great potential, especially for isolated remote areas where there is no communication and the roads are blocked. Those are the communities in desperate need of help, and our maps could help responders provide efficient assistance," said Yun.Creating the MapsYun and colleagues made use of data from the Italian Space Agency's (ASI) COSMO-SkyMed system and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA) ALOS-2 satellite. These radar systems are complementary to each other, yet have different sensitivities, resolutions and orbits.Using software developed at JPL, the researchers produced damage proxy maps using COSMO-SkyMed and ALOS-2 data, respectively, covering an area near Kathmandu, Nepal. For each data set, they examined the similarities between two radar images: two archival images from before the earthquake and one taken after.The software allowed researchers to generate a distribution of colored pixels on a transparent background, which they overlaid on top of maps from Google Earth. The colors are on a scale from yellow to red, with red representing the areas of greatest potential damage. At 100-foot (30-meter) resolution, it is possible to see damage to major buildings, as well as large landslides."The colors are determined by the change between the before and after radar images. The more the images are different, the redder the image," Yun said.The researchers then compared their damage proxy maps to maps that were made from human inspection of high-resolution optical satellite imagery, which came from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the United Nations Operational Satellite Applications Programme. There was a strong agreement among the maps."We verified that the radar-based maps Sang-Ho generated so quickly were very consistently providing good information about where damage had occurred," said Kenneth Hudnut, geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Pasadena, California, who co-authored the study.With COSMO-SkyMed data, the damage proxy maps found clear evidence of building collapses. The damage proxy maps from ALOS-2 data additionally detected devastating landslides impacting communities in the Langtang Valley, a popular Himalayan trekking destination. ALOS-2 maps roughly found the extent of debris from three major landslides in the area, such as the rocks and ice that buried almost the entire Langtang village.Technology That Made It HappenBoth satellite systems used in the study make use of "synthetic aperture radar," or SAR, a technology that allows for detailed radar imaging from space without an extremely large antenna. Like a real-aperture radar system, a SAR satellite transmits microwave signals that are reflected by Earth's surface, and those reflections produce radar images.SAR technology is unique because it makes use of the relative motion of the satellite, using a phenomenon called Doppler shift. From the perspective of an object on the ground, the frequency of the satellite's signal appears higher as the satellite moves toward it, and lower as the satellite moves away -- much like the way the pitch of a siren sounds higher as an ambulance approaches, and lower after it passes by. Using this effect, researchers have the same capability of discerning detail as a much larger antenna.A challenge for using satellites for disaster sensing is that Earth orbiters may not always be acquiring data of a hard-hit area when they pass over it. For this reason, it may take days to image the area with SAR satellites. The COSMO-SkyMed satellite acquired data in the Kathmandu area four days after the earthquake, while the ALOS-2 satellite obtained data seven days after the main shock.Ideally, radar data would be acquired, transmitted and processed into damage proxy maps within a single day. With more planned SAR satellites on the horizon -- including the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar, or NISAR, satellite -- this is possible, researchers say.A mapping technique similar to that used for the SAR-based damage proxy maps in Nepal was used to chart damage from Typhoon Haiyan in Southeast Asia in 2013, Hurricane Sandy in the United States' Atlantic region in 2012, and the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand in 2011.How the Maps Were UsedIn several ways, the damage maps assisted with relief efforts in the aftermath of the Nepal earthquake. DigitalGlobe, a company specializing in high-resolution Earth imagery, said its crisis management team used the information in the damage proxy maps to help them decide where to collect images of affected areas."The damage proxy maps were used to ultimately help the team decide on these specific focus areas, as well as an input to help assign priorities for the imagery collection plan," said Andrew Steele, senior product specialist at DigitalGlobe.Though the maps sometimes overestimated the breadth of damaged areas, they helped the United States Agency International Development team in Nepal be better prepared with other types of information to coordinate a relief response, said Indra Sharan K.C., geographic information systems specialist for USAID in Kathmandu."This proxy map communicated very well the probability of damage in the early days, giving a larger perspective of the earthquake's effect," Sharan said.The collaborative efforts with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency also helped analyses in challenging mountainous areas outside of Kathmandu. The damage proxy maps helped guide the agency's search through vast amounts of imagery to locate pockets of damage in a very wide region.Next StepsNow that the researchers know their maps correspond well with other sources, they are working toward a faster, more efficient system of creating these rapid-response products."I see the red pixels as people's beating hearts. I would like to continue developing this system to make it robust enough and rapid enough to save lives," Yun said.Other co-authors were: Susan Owen, Frank Webb, Eric Gurrola, Gerald Manipon, Cunren Liang, Eric Fielding, Pietro Milillo and Hook Hua from JPL; Marks Simons of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, which manages JPL for NASA; and Patrizia Sacco and Alessandro Coletta of the Italian Space Agency, Rome. NASA's Applied Sciences Disasters Program sponsored this research.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/renowned-comet-hunters-to-gather-at-caltech

Renowned Comet Hunters to Gather at Caltech

Astronomers Dr. Alan Hale, Thomas Bopp, David Levy and Dr. Don Yeomans will participate in a Comet Hale-Bopp viewing event and panel discussion about comet exploration titled "Comet Chasers: On the Trail of a Comet," at the California Institute of Technology's Beckman Auditorium on Friday, April 11.

Astronomers Dr. Alan Hale, Thomas Bopp, David Levy and Dr. Don Yeomans will participate in a Comet Hale-Bopp viewing event and panel discussion about comet exploration titled "Comet Chasers: On the Trail of a Comet," at the California Institute of Technology's Beckman Auditorium on Friday, April 11.Admission to the public event is free, but tickets are required to attend. Tickets are available from the Caltech Ticket Office, 332 S. Michigan Avenue, Pasadena; by phone at (818)395-4652; via fax at (818)795-1378; or via the Internet athttp://www.caltech.edu/~tickets/. There is a limit of four tickets per request. For those outside Southern California, the panel discussion will also be broadcast via Internet.The event will present an opportunity for the public to view Comet Hale-Bopp and Comet Wild-2 (pronounced "vilt two") through telescopes provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Astronomy Club.Following the comet viewing, an hour-long panel discussion introduced by JPL Director Dr. Edward Stone and moderated by Levy will take place in Caltech's Beckman Auditorium. Astronomers Hale, Bopp, Yeomans and Levy will comprise the panel, discussing comets Hale-Bopp and Wild-2, and NASA's future spacecraft designed to fly past the rare celestial visitors.Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered independently on July 22, 1995, by astronomer Hale and amateur astronomer Bopp from outside their respective locations of Cloudcroft, NM, and Phoenix, AZ. At the time of its discovery, Comet Hale-Bopp was more than 929 million kilometers (577 million miles) from Earth, appearing over 1,000 times brighter than Comet Halley did at that same distance.Recently, Comet Hale-Bopp has been visible in the northeast sky in the early morning before dawn, and in the northwest sky just after evening twilight. In the coming days, the comet will no longer be visible in the early morning hours. At the time of the "Comet Chasers" event, Hale-Bopp will appear quite bright and about 25 degrees up from the horizon in the northwest sky just after sunset. This will be the highest point at which the comet will appear, and it will set in the west after about two hours.Levy, the panel discussion's moderator, is an amateur astronomer who discovered Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in March 1993 along with Dr. Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker using a 1.2-meter (48-inch) Schmidt telescope on Mount Palomar in California. That comet went on to impact Jupiter in July 1994, providing the first Earth- and space-based observation opportunities for viewing a planetary collision by a comet."Comet Hale-Bopp is living up to its advanced billing" said Yeomans, supervisor of JPL's Solar Systems Dynamics Group. "It's the brightest comet in 20 years, and can be easily seen by inexperienced observers. The only comparable comet was Comet West seen in March 1976, which at its best was slightly brighter than Hale-Bopp is now, but I'm hopeful that this comet will become as bright as Comet West. It's rare that you get one that's so civilized -- showing up in the evening sky about an hour after sunset in the middle of prime time."Comets, composed of ice and dust, are believed to be remnants of the birth of the solar system. Their primordial material may lend clues in learning more about the origin and evolution of the planets. Originating in a region from beyond the orbit of Pluto, comets can have orbits taking several thousand years to complete. Hale-Bopp last passed by Earth 4,200 years ago, and is not expected to return for another 2,400 years.Panelists will discuss several ambitious NASA missions that will further study the nature of comets in order to learn more about the evolution of the solar system. Stardust, scheduled for launch in 1999, will capture material thrown off by Comet Wild-2 in 2004 and return those samples to Earth in 2006. Deep Space 1, a mission under JPL's New Millennium program that is scheduled for launch in 1998, will fly by the asteroid McAuliffe and Comet West-Kohoutek-Ikemura in a demonstration of new spacecraft technologies.Telescope viewing of Comet Hale-Bopp will be available from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on the lawn west of Beckman Institute at the southeast corner of Lura Street at Wilson Avenue in Pasadena. In the event of rain or thick cloud cover, telescopes will not be available. The panel discussion will begin at 9 p.m. at Caltech's Beckman Auditorium, located on Michigan Avenue one block south of Del Mar Boulevard. Doors to Beckman will open at 8 p.m., and those attending the panel discussion must be seated by 8:45 p.m."Comet Chasers: On the Trail of a Comet" is sponsored by JPL's Galileo and Stardust projects. JPL manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science. Stardust is a partnership between JPL, the University of Washington and Lockheed Martin Astronautics.A live simulcast of the panel discussion will be available over the Internet via CuSeeMe. Information on how to connect will be available on the Comet Hale-Bopp home page athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cometorhttp://galileo.ivv.nasa.gov/comet. Additional information on Comet Hale-Bopp is athttp://encke.jpl.nasa.gov. Information on the Stardust mission is athttp://pdcsrva.jpl.nasa.gov/stardust/home.html. Information on the Galileo mission is athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo.818-354-5011

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-rover-examines-odd-material-at-small-young-crater

Mars Rover Examines Odd Material at Small, Young Crater

Weird coatings on rocks beside a young Martian crater remain puzzling after a preliminary look at data from examination of the site by NASA's Opportunity rover.

PASADENA, Calif -- Weird coatings on rocks beside a young Martian crater remain puzzling after a preliminary look at data from examination of the site by NASA's Opportunity rover.The rover spent six weeks investigating the crater called "Concepción" before resuming its long journey this month. The crater is about 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter. Dark rays extending from it, as seen from orbit, flagged it in advance as a target of interest because the rays suggest the crater is young. An image from orbit showing Opportunity beside Concepción is athttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12969.The rocks ejected outward from the impact that dug Concepción are chunks of the same type of bedrock Opportunity has seen at hundreds of locations since landing in January 2004: soft, sulfate-rich sandstone holding harder peppercorn-size dark spheres like berries in a muffin. The little spheres, rich in iron, gained the nickname "blueberries.""It was clear from the images that Opportunity took on the approach to Concepción that there was strange stuff on lots of the rocks near the crater," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit. "There's dark, grayish material coating faces of the rocks and filling fractures in them. At least part of it is composed of blueberries jammed together as close as you could pack them. We've never seen anything like this before."Opportunity used tools on its robotic arm to examine this unusual material on a rock called "Chocolate Hills." In some places, the layer of closely packed spheres lies between thinner, smoother layers. "It looks like a blueberry sandwich," said Matt Golombek, a rover science-team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. An image of the coating material is athttp://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA12970.Initial analysis of the coating's composition does not show any obvious component from whatever space rock hit Mars to dig the crater, but that is not a surprise, Golombek said. "The impact is so fast, most of the impactor vaporizes," he said. "Thin films of melt get thrown out, but typically the composition of the melt is the stuff that the impactor hit, rather than the impactor material."The composition Opportunity found for the dark coating material fits at least two hypotheses being evaluated, and possibly others. One is that the material resulted from partial melting of blueberry-containing sandstone from the energy of the impact. Another is that it formed from filling of fractures in this type of rock before the impact occurred."It's possible that when you melt this rock, the sandstone melts before the blueberries do, leaving intact blueberries as part of a melt layer," Squyres said. "As an alternative, we know that this type of rock has fractures and that the sandstone can dissolve. Long ago, water flowing through fractures could have dissolved the sandstone and liberated blueberries that fell down into the fracture and packed together. In this hypothesis, the impact that excavated the crater did not play a role in forming this material, but split rocks along fractures so the material is exposed on the exterior like a coating."Golombek said, "One consideration that jumps out is that we've been driving around this part of Mars for six years and never seen this stuff before, then we get to this young crater and it's coating rocks all around the crater. Sure looks like there's a connection, but it could just be a coincidence."The observation that the rocks thrown from the crater have not yet eroded away much is evidence that the crater is young, confirming the suggestion from the dark rays. Squyres said, "We're not ready to attach a number to it, but this is really young. It is the youngest crater we've ever seen with Opportunity and probably the youngest either rover has seen."One question Opportunity's visit did answer was about the dark rays: "We wondered before getting to Concepción why the rays are dark," Golombek said. "We found out that the rays are areas with blocks of light-toned sandstone ejected from the crater. They look dark from orbit because of the shadows that the blocks are casting when the orbital images are taken in mid-afternoon."Since departing Concepción on March 9, Opportunity has driven 614 meters (2,014 feet) farther along the route to its long-term destination at Endeavour Crater, about 19 kilometers (12 miles) in diameter and still at a drive distance of more than 12 kilometers (7 miles).Squyres said, "We're on the road again. We have a healthy rover and we have enough power for substantial drives. We want to get to Endeavour with a healthy rover. It takes a compelling target for us to stop and study. And Concepción was a compelling target." JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about the Mars rovers, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/rovers.› View all related images

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-exploration-rover-spirit-mission-status

Mars Exploration Rover Spirit Mission Status

Navigators for NASA's Spirit Mars Exploration Rover put the spacecraft so close to a bull's-eye with earlier maneuvers that mission managers chose to skip the final two optional maneuvers for adjusting course before arrival at Mars.

Navigators for NASA's Spirit Mars Exploration Rover put the spacecraft so close to a bull's-eye with earlier maneuvers that mission managers chose to skip the final two optional maneuvers for adjusting course before arrival at Mars.With less than four hours of flight time remaining, Spirit was on course to land within a targeted ellipse 62 kilometers long by 3 kilometers wide (39 miles by 2 miles) within Mars' Gusev Crater. A trajectory correction maneuver scheduled for four hours before landing was cancelled."The navigation status is truly excellent," said Dr. Lou D'Amario, the mission's navigation team chief at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. A slight trajectory adjustment on Dec. 26 was the fourth and final for the flight.Preparations in the past two days for arrival at Mars have included an adjustment that will open Spirit's parachute about two seconds earlier than it would have been without the change, in order to compensate for recent weather on Mars. "A dust storm seen on the other side of the planet has caused global heating and thinning of the atmosphere at high altitudes" said JPL's Dr. Mark Adler, Spirit mission manager.Also, engineers sent commands today to alter the timing when several pyro devices (explosive bolts) will be put into an enabled condition prior to firing. Enabling will begin 40 minutes earlier than it would have under previous commands. These pyro devices will be fired to carry out necessary steps of descent and landing, such as deploying the parachute and jettisoning the heat shield.Mars is 170 million kilometers (106 million miles) away from Earth today, a distance that takes nearly 10 minutes for radio signals to cross at the speed of light. Counting that communication delay, Spirit will hit the top of Mars' atmosphere at about 04:29 Jan. 4, Universal Time (8:29 p.m. Jan. 3, Pacific Standard Time), and reach the surface six minutes later.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about the project is available athttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov,http://www.nasa.govand from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., athttp://athena.cornell.edu.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/dawn-mission-status-spacecraft-tests-ion-engine

Dawn Mission Status: Spacecraft Tests Ion Engine

NASA's Dawn spacecraft successfully completed the first test of its ion propulsion system over the weekend. The system is vital to the success of Dawn's 8-year, 4.9 billion-kilometer journey to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres.

NASA's Dawn spacecraft successfully completed the first test of its ion propulsion system over the weekend. The system is vital to the success of Dawn's 8-year, 4.9 billion-kilometer (3-billion-mile) journey to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres."Dawn is our baby and over the weekend it took some of its first steps," said Dawn project manager Keyur Patel of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We have two months more checkout and characterization remaining before Dawn is considered mission operational, but this is a great start."Members of the Dawn mission control team have been sending up commands and checking out spacecraft systems ever since its successful launch on Sept. 27. The first test firing of one of Dawn's three ion engines was the culmination of several days of careful preparation.On Saturday, Oct. 6 at 6:07 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (9:07 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time), the ion propulsion system began thrusting. Over the next 27 hours, spacecraft controllers and navigators at JPL monitored the engine's performance as it was put through its paces."We evaluated the engine's capabilities at five different throttle levels," said Jon Brophy, the Dawn project's ion propulsion manager at JPL. "From flight idle through full throttle, the engine performed flawlessly."Dawn's ion engines are extremely frugal powerhouses. The 27 hours of thrusting from the ion engine resulted in the consumption of less than .28 kilograms (10 ounces) of the spacecraft's xenon fuel supply -- less than the contents of a can of soda. Dawn's fuel tank carries 425 kilograms (937 pounds) of xenon propellant. Over their lifetime, Dawn's three ion propulsion engines will fire cumulatively for about 50,000 hours (over five years) -- a record for spacecraft.Dawn will begin its exploration of asteroid Vesta in 2011 and the dwarf planet Ceres in 2015. These two icons of the asteroid belt have been witness to so much of our solar system's history. By utilizing the same set of instruments at two separate destinations, scientists can more accurately formulate comparisons and contrasts. Dawn's science instrument suite will measure shape, surface topography, tectonic history, elemental and mineral composition, and will seek out water-bearing minerals. In addition, the Dawn spacecraft itself and how it orbits both Vesta and Ceres will be used to measure the celestial bodies' masses and gravity fields.The Dawn mission to asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The University of California, Los Angeles is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Other scientific partners include: Los Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg, Germany; DLR Institute for Planetary Research, Berlin, Germany; Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, Rome; and the Italian Space Agency. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the Dawn spacecraft.Additional information about Dawn is online athttp://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/deep-impact-launched-and-flying-toward-date-with-a-comet

Deep Impact Launched and Flying Toward Date With a Comet

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft began its 431 million kilometer (268 million mile) journey to comet Tempel 1 today at 1:47:08 p.m. EST.

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft began its 431 million kilometer (268 million mile) journey to comet Tempel 1 today at 1:47:08 p.m. EST.Data received from the spacecraft indicate it has deployed and locked its solar panels, is receiving power and achieved proper orientation in space. Data also indicate the spacecraft has placed itself in a safe mode and is awaiting further commands from Earth.Deep Impact mission managers are examining data returns from the mission. Further updates on the mission will be posted tohttp://www.nasa.gov/deepimpactandhttp://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/.Deep Impact is comprised of two parts, a "fly-by" spacecraft and a smaller "impactor." The impactor will be released into the comet's path for a planned collision on July 4. The crater produced by the impactor is expected to be up to the size of a football stadium and two to 14 stories deep. Ice and dust debris will be ejected from the crater, revealing the material beneath.The fly-by spacecraft will observe the effects of the collision. NASA's Hubble, Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes, and other telescopes on Earth, will also observe the collision.Comets are time capsules that hold clues about the formation and evolution of the Solar System. They are composed of ice, gas and dust, primitive debris from the Solar System's distant and coldest regions that formed 4.5 billion years ago.The management of the Deep Impact launch was the responsibility of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla. Deep Impact was launched from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. Delta II launch service was provided by Boeing Expendable Launch Systems, Huntington Beach, Calif. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corporation, Boulder, Colo. Deep Impact project management is by JPL.For more information about the mission on the Internet, visithttp://www.nasa.gov/deepimpactorhttp://deepimpact.jpl.nasa.gov/.For information about NASA and other agency programs, visithttp://www.nasa.gov.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-exploration-rover-mission-status-6

Mars Exploration Rover Mission Status

NASA's Spirit rover communicated with Earth in a signal detected by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain, at 12:34 Universal Time (4:34 a.m. PST) this morning.

NASA's Spirit rover communicated with Earth in a signal detected by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna complex near Madrid, Spain, at 12:34 Universal Time (4:34 a.m. PST) this morning.The transmissions came during a communication window about 90 minutes after Spirit woke up for the morning on Mars. The signal lasted for 10 minutes at a data rate of 10 bits per second.Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., plan to send commands to Spirit seeking additional data from the spacecraft during the subsequent few hours.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about the project is available from JPL athttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.govand from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., athttp://athena.cornell.edu.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-satellite-data-reveal-new-clues-about-el-ni%C3%B1os-influence-on-us-coastal-waters

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https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-garners-7-webby-award-nominations

NASA Garners 7 Webby Award Nominations

Nominees include four JPL projects: the solar system and climate websites, InSight social media, and a 360-degree Earth video. Public voting closes April 18, 2019.

Want to talk about how to land spacecraft onto other planets? We're here for you. Looking for the latest news or in-depth stories about science, technology and exploration? We've got those, too.And apparently, people have noticed. Seven of NASA's digital properties have been nominated for the 2019 Webby Awards, which recognize excellence in digital communications. Three others have been designated honorees in this year's awards."We're really excited to have all of these efforts recognized," said Bettina Inclán, NASA's associate administrator for communications. "They represent hundreds of people across NASA who are committed to bringing the excitement of exploration to everyone."The social media efforts for NASA'sInSight Mars lander, nominated in the Education & Discovery category, helped to make the hashtag #MarsLanding the No. 1 globally trending topic on Twitter on Nov. 26, 2018, the spacecraft's landing day. That day was also the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, reputed to be the busiest online shopping day of the year. #MarsLanding trended higher than the hashtag #CyberMonday.The combined excellence of all of NASA'sflagship social media accountsled to nominations in the Corporate Communications and Best Overall Social Presence (Brand) categories. The agency reached 40 million followers on Instagram this year, with more than 30 million on Twitter and 21 million on Facebook.Three NASA websites were nominated for Webbys:NASA.gov, the agency's flagship website, in the Government and Civil Innovation category;Solar System Exploration, for Science; andGlobal Climate Change, for Green. Now averaging nearly 8 million visits a month, NASA.gov has been the agency's primary website since the early 1990s. It has received 10 Webby Award nominations since 1998, winning the public People's Voice award 10 times and three juried Webbys. In 2018, Gizmodo named it one of the "100 Websites that Shaped the Internet as We Know It."The Solar System Exploration site is NASA's real-time encyclopedia of deep-space exploration, with in-depth information on the variety of bodies found in our solar system and the missions that are exploring them. It has received three People's Voice awards and a Webby to date and receives about 750,000 visits a month.The Global Climate Change site, established in 2009 and visited 1.2 million times monthly, has received two People's Voice awards and two Webbys, one each in the Science and Green categories. Since 2015, it has been the top Google search result for the query "climate change."The video "The Call of Science," produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was nominated in the 360 Video category. The video describes NASA research on glaciers and coral reefs, highlighting its importance in understanding changing environments.JPL's social mediaefforts also received an "honoree" designation forBest Use of Earned Media.JPL's Open Source Roveris aScience Websitehonoree; and its podcast,"On a Mission"is aScience & Education Podcasthonoree.NASA has a long history of striving for digital distinction and has beenhonoredby the Webby Awards over the years. Established in 1996 by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, the Webby Awards honor excellence on the internet, including websites, advertising and media, online film and video, mobile sites, apps and social media. The Webby in each category is awarded by a judging panel, but members of the public can register with the Webby Awards and vote for thePeople's Voice Awardin each category. Members of the public can vote for their favorite sites and services in hundreds of categories until April 18; registration is required.The InSight Mars lander social media, Solar Exploration Site and Global Climate Change site are managed for NASA by JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California. NASA's flagship social media accounts and NASA.gov are managed by the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters, Washington.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/cassini-huygens-mission-status

Cassini-Huygens Mission Status

"All the probe subsystems and probe instruments did just what they are supposed to do,"

The Huygens probe, riding aboard the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft, stepped flawlessly through a test run last week of the activities it will perform when it descends through the soupy atmosphere of Titan less than 28 months from now."All the probe subsystems and probe instruments did just what they are supposed to do," said European Space Agency systems engineer Shaun Standley, stationed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. For the multinational Cassini-Huygens mission, NASA provided the large Cassini spacecraft, which will begin orbiting Saturn July 1, 2004, and the European Space Agency provided the Huygens probe, which will parachute into the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, on Jan. 14, 2005.Last week's Huygens checkout was the 10th since launch on Oct. 15, 1997. The probe is sleeping for most of the seven-year journey. About every six months, though, engineers wake it up to check its health and exercise the moving parts in its valves and pumps."As nearly as possible, we put the probe through all the stages of the real descent sequence," Standley said. The sequence lasts about five hours. Since Huygens remains inside a protective shell, the simulation can't include every instrument activity nor, of course, one-time events such as parachute deployment. The checkout does turn on each instrument for the periods they will be used as the probe descends, take data from each, and send the data to Cassini for transmission to Earth. That allows evaluation of the subsystems, such as power, computers and transmitter, as well as each instrument.Results of the checkout have been evaluated by engineers and scientists at the Huygens Probe Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, and at the home institutions for each of the probe's instruments in France, United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States.The Huygens atmospheric structure instrument will analyze features such as temperature, pressure and lightning at different layers of Titan's atmosphere. Instruments named the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer and the aerosol collector and pyrolyser will work in tandem to collect, break down and identify particles and gases, including organic chemicals in the atmosphere. The descent imager/spectral radiometer will take pictures and spectra of the atmosphere and surface. The Doppler wind experiment will track how winds carry the probe. And the surface science package will investigate physical properties of Titan's surface.Additional information about the Cassini-Huygens mission is available online athttp://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov. The mission is a cooperative effort of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-psyche-mission-moves-forward-passing-key-milestone

NASA’s Psyche Mission Moves Forward, Passing Key Milestone

Now just a year and a half from launch, the mission to explore a metal-rich asteroid will soon begin assembling and testing the spacecraft.

NASA’s Psyche mission has passed a critical milestone that moves it a step closer to launch. After an intense review of the mission’s progress in building its science instruments and engineering systems, Psyche won clearance to progress into what NASA calls Phase D of its life cycle – the final phase of operations prior to its scheduled launch in August 2022.Until now, the mission has focused on planning, designing, and building the body of the spacecraft, its solar-electric propulsion system, the three science instruments, electronics, the power subsystem, and the like. The successful review of those elements means the mission can now begin delivering components to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission and will test, assemble, and integrate each piece.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER“It’s really the final phase, when all of the puzzle pieces are coming together and we’re getting on the rocket. This is the most intense part of everything that happens on the ground,” said Arizona State University’s Lindy Elkins-Tanton, who as principal investigator for Psyche leads the mission.Psyche’s target is an intriguing,metal-rich asteroidof the same name, which orbits the Sun in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists think that, unlike rocky or icy asteroids, Psyche is largely iron and nickel and could be the heart of an early planet that lost its outer layers. Exploring the asteroid Psyche (about 140 miles, or 226 kilometers, wide) could lend valuable insight into how Earth and other planets formed.Scientists don’t yet have images of the asteroid Psyche; this interactive version is based on modeling. To see how it compares to other asteroids, zoom in and give it a spin. View the full interactive experience atEyes on the Solar System.The Psyche spacecraft will use a magnetometer to detect a potential magnetic field; if the asteroid has one, it’s a strong indicator that it once was the core of an early planet. A multispectral imager will capture images of the surface, as well as gather information about the asteroid’s composition and topography.Spectrometerswill analyze the neutrons and gamma rays coming from the surface to reveal the elements that make up the object.The main structure of the spacecraft, called the Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) Chassis, was designed and built by Maxar Technologies and is nearly complete. The Maxar team in Palo Alto, California, is preparing to ship it to JPL’s main clean room in March, when assembly, test, and launch operations begin.Each instrument will then undergo further testing. That includes a laser technology demonstration called Deep Space Optical Communications, led by JPL, which uses a super-efficient method of transmitting data with photons, or fundamental particles of visible light. Also undergoing testing will be the thermal, telecommunications, propulsion, power, avionics, and other engineering subsystems, along with the flight computer.“The project has made tremendous progress, particularly given the world around us and COVID-19 and dealing with the constraints that imposes,” said JPL’s Henry Stone, the Psyche project manager. “We’re in very good shape. We’re on track and have a plan to go forward to make launch.”Although engineers and technicians have had to deal with shutdowns forced by the pandemic and to adhere to additional safety protocols for those doing hands-on work on the spacecraft, the project remains on schedule.“The fact that we can still make this happen and we’re overcoming our challenges feels near-miraculous,” Elkins-Tanton said. “And it’s also an incredible gift to keep us all focused and moving forward in a difficult time. So reaching this milestone has special meaning – not just for this project that we’ve been working on for a decade, but also because of what’s been happening more recently in all of our lives.”By spring of 2022, the spacecraft will be fully assembled and ready to ship to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it will launch in August 2022. Psyche will fly by Mars for a gravity assist in May 2023. And in early 2026, it will slip into orbit around the asteroid, where it will spend 21 months gathering data for analysis.More About the MissionASU leads the mission. JPL in Southern California is responsible for the mission’s overall management, system engineering, integration and test, and mission operations. Maxar is providing a high-power solar electric propulsion spacecraft chassis.For more information about NASA’s Psyche mission go to:http://www.nasa.gov/psychehttps://psyche.asu.edu/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-cassini-listens-to-eerie-new-sounds-of-space-near-jupiter

NASA's Cassini Listens to Eerie New 'Sounds' of Space Near Jupiter

One audio clip produced from radio waves that NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected near Jupiter.

One audio clip produced from radio waves that NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected near Jupiter was described last week by the Los Angeles Times as sounding "like a troop of howler monkeys battling underwater." A new audio clip is available online today from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, at:http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/acoustic.htmlCassini's radio and plasma wave science instrument detected the waves at low radio frequencies, which University of Iowa scientists have converted to sound waves to make the patterns audible. The waves from which the new audio clip was developed were in the thin solar wind of charged particles that fills the space between the Sun and its planets. Cassini detected the waves Jan. 1 at a distance of 10 million kilometers (6.2 million miles) from Jupiter.Cassini, a cooperative mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, passed Jupiter Dec. 30 for a gravity boost to reach its ultimate destination, Saturn. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages Cassini for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-next-mars-rover-is-ready-for-the-most-precise-landing-yet

NASA’s Next Mars Rover Is Ready for the Most Precise Landing Yet

What to expect when the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover arrives at the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021.

With about 2.4 million miles (3.9 million kilometers) left to travel in space, NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is days away from attempting to land the agency’s fifth rover on the Red Planet. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the mission is managed, have confirmed that the spacecraft is healthy and on target to touch down inJezero Craterat around 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST) on Feb. 18, 2021.“Perseverance is NASA’s most ambitious Mars rover mission yet, focused scientifically on finding out whether there was ever any life on Mars in the past,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “To answer this question, the landing team will have its hands full getting us to Jezero Crater – the most challenging Martian terrain ever targeted for a landing.”Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERJezero is a basin where scientists believe an ancient river flowed into a lake and deposited sediments in a fan shape known as a delta. Scientists think the environment here was likely to have preserved signs of any life that gained a foothold billions of years ago – but Jezero also has steep cliffs, sand dunes, and boulder fields. Landing on Mars is difficult – only about 50% of all previous Mars landing attempts have succeeded – and these geological features make it even more so. The Perseverance team is building on lessons from previous touchdowns and employingnew technologiesthat enable the spacecraft to target its landing site more accurately and avoid hazards autonomously.“The Perseverance team is putting the final touches on the complex choreography required to land in Jezero Crater,” said Jennifer Trosper, deputy project manager for the mission at JPL. “No Mars landing is guaranteed, but we have been preparing a decade to put this rover’s wheels down on the surface of Mars and get to work.”All landings on Mars are difficult, but NASA's Perseverance rover is attempting to touch down in the most challenging terrain on Mars ever targeted.You will get to watch the drama of Perseverance’s entry, descent, and landing (EDL) – the riskiest portion of the rover’s mission that some engineers call the “seven minutes of terror” – live onNASA TV. Commentary starts at 2:15 p.m. EST (11:15 a.m. PST) on Feb. 18. Engineers expect to receive notice of key milestones for landing at the estimated times below. (Because of the distance the signals have to travel from Mars to Earth, these events actually take place on Mars 11 minutes, 22 seconds earlier than what is noted here.)Cruise stage separation:The part of the spacecraft that has been flying Perseverance – with NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter attached to its belly – through space for the last six-and-a-half months will separate from the entry capsule at about 3:38 p.m. EST (12:38 p.m. PST).Atmospheric entry:The spacecraft is expected to hit the top of the Martian atmosphere traveling at about 12,100 mph (19,500 kph) at 3:48 p.m. EST (12:48 p.m. PST).Peak heating:Friction from the atmosphere will heat up the bottom of the spacecraft to temperatures as high as about 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1,300 degrees Celsius) at 3:49 p.m. EST (12:49 p.m. PST).Parachute deployment:The spacecraft will deploy its parachute at supersonic speed at around 3:52 p.m. EST (12:52 p.m. PST). The exact deployment time is based on the newRange Triggertechnology, which improves the precision of the spacecraft’s ability to hit a landing target.Heat shield separation:The protective bottom of the entry capsule will detach about 20 seconds after the parachute deployment. This allows the rover to use a radar to determine how far it is from the ground and employ itsTerrain-Relative Navigationtechnology to find a safe landing site.Back shell separation:The back half of the entry capsule that is fastened to the parachute will separate from the rover and its “jetpack” (known as the descent stage) at 3:54 p.m. EST (12:54 p.m. PST). The jetpack will use retrorockets to slow down and fly to the landing site.Touchdown:The spacecraft’s descent stage, using thesky crane maneuver, will lower the rover down to the surface on nylon tethers. The rover is expected to touch down on the surface of Mars at human walking speed (about 1.7 mph, or 2.7 kph) at around 3:55 p.m. EST (12:55 p.m. PST).A variety of factors can affect the precise timing of the milestones listed above, including properties of the Martian atmosphere that are hard to predict until the spacecraft actually flies through.Mission controllers also may not be able to confirm these milestones at the times listed above because of the complexity of deep-space communications. The flow of detailed engineering data (called telemetry) in near-real-time relies on a new kind ofrelay capabilityadded this past year to NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Engineers expect additional data to return to Earth directly through NASA’s Deep Space Network and two other Earth-based antennas until shortly before touchdown.It’s important to note that the rover can land safely on Mars without communications with Earth: Perseverance has pre-programmed landing instructions and significant autonomy. Additional communication passes are planned in the hours and days following the landing event.Once on the surface, one of Perseverance’s first activities will be to take pictures of its new home and transmit them back to Earth. Over the following days, engineers will also check on the health of the rover and deploy the remote sensing mast (otherwise known as its “head”) so it can take more pictures. The Perseverance team will then take more than a month to thoroughly inspect the rover and load new flight software to prepare for its search for ancient life on Mars. During the same period, the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter team will be making sure theirsmall but mighty robotis prepared for the first attempt at controlled, powered aerodynamic flight on another planet.“The Ingenuity team will be on the edge of our seats with the Perseverance team on landing day,” said MiMi Aung, the Ingenuity project manager at JPL. “We can’t wait until the rover and the helicopter are both safely on the surface of Mars and ready for action.”More About the Perseverance MissionA key objective of Perseverance’s mission on Mars isastrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and will be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and sediment for later return to Earth.Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 mission is part of a larger NASA initiative that includes missions to the Moon as a way to prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon through NASA’sArtemis lunar exploration plans.JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission and the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter technology demonstration for NASA.The press kit for Perseverance’s landing can be found at:go.nasa.gov/perseverance-landing-press-kitA press kit for Ingenuity can be found at:go.nasa.gov/ingenuity-press-kit

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-encounters-the-perfect-storm-for-science

NASA Encounters the Perfect Storm for Science

One of the most intense Martian dust storms ever observed is being studied by a record number of NASA spacecraft.

One of the thickest dust storms ever observed on Mars has been spreading for the past week and a half. The storm has caused NASA's Opportunity rover to suspend science operations, but also offers a window for four other spacecraft to learn from the swirling dust.NASA has three orbiters circling the Red Planet, each equipped with special cameras and other atmospheric instruments. Additionally, NASA's Curiosity rover has begun to see an increase in dust at its location in Gale Crater."This is the ideal storm for Mars science," said Jim Watzin, director of NASA's Mars Exploration Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "We have a historic number of spacecraft operating at the Red Planet. Each offers a unique look at how dust storms form and behave -- knowledge that will be essential for future robotic and human missions."Dusty With a Chance of DustDust storms are a frequent feature on Mars, occurring in all seasons. Occasionally, they can balloon into regional storms in a matter of days, and sometimes even expand until they envelop the planet. These massive, planet-scaled storms are estimated to happen about once every three to four Mars years (six to eight Earth years); the last onewas in 2007. They can last weeks, or even months at the longest.The current storm above Opportunity, which is still growing, now blankets 14 million square miles (35 million square kilometers) of Martian surface -- about a quarter of the planet.All dust events, regardless of size, help shape the Martian surface. Studying their physics is critical to understanding the ancient and modern Martian climate, said Rich Zurek, chief scientist for the Mars Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California."Each observation of these large storms brings us closer to being able to model these events -- and maybe, someday, being able to forecast them," Zurek said. "That would be like forecasting El Niño events on Earth, or the severity of upcoming hurricane seasons."The thin atmosphere makes these storms vastly different from anything encountered on Earth: Despitethe drama of "The Martian,"the most powerful surface winds encountered on Mars would not topple a spacecraft, although they can sand-blast dust particles into the atmosphere.TeamworkMembers of NASA's spacecraft "family" at Mars often help each other out. The agency's orbiters regularly relay data from NASA's rovers back to Earth. Orbiters and rovers also offer different perspectives on Martian terrain, allowing their science to complement one another.The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has a special role, acting as an early warning system for weather events such as the recent storm. It was the orbiter's wide-angle camera, called the Mars Color Imager, that offered the Opportunity team a heads up about the storm. This imager, built and operated by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, can create dailyglobal mapsof the planet that track how storms evolve, not unlike weather satellites that track hurricanes here on Earth.NASA's two other orbiters -- 2001 Mars Odyssey and MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution) -- also provide unique science views. Odyssey has an infrared camera called THEMIS (Thermal Emission Imaging System) that can measure the amount of dust below it; MAVEN is designed to study the behavior of the upper atmosphere and the loss of gas to space.Science happens on the ground as well, of course. Despite being on the other side of the planet from the evolving dust storm, NASA's Curiosity rover is beginning to detect increased "tau," the measure of the veil of dusty haze that blots out sunlight during a storm. As of Tuesday, June 12, the tau inside Gale Crater was varying between 1.0 and 2.0 -- figures that are average for dust season, though these levels usually show up later in the season.Fortunately, Curiosity hasa nuclear-powered battery. That means it doesn't face the same risk as the solar-powered Opportunity.The Next Big One?Since 2007, Mars scientists have been patiently waiting for a planet-encircling dust event -- less precisely called a "global" dust storm, though the storms never truly cover the entire globe of Mars. In 1971, one of these storms came close, leaving just the peaks of Mars' Tharsis volcanoes poking out above the dust.The most recent dust storm is the earliest ever observed in the northern hemisphere of Mars, said Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, deputy principal investigator for the Mars Color Imager. But it could take several more days before anyone can tell whether the storm is encircling the planet.If it does "go global," the storm will offer a brand new look at Martian weather. Four spacecraft stand ready to collect the science that shakes out.Fine PrintJPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission; the Mars Science Laboratory/Curiosity rover; the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project; and the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the MAVEN project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. MAVEN's principal investigator is based at the University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey, MRO and MAVEN projects, having developed and built all three orbiters. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL for Odyssey and MRO, and jointly with the GSFC for MAVEN.The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in collaboration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Philip Christensen at Arizona State University.For more updates about the Martian dust storm visit:https://mars.nasa.gov/weatherFor more information about NASA's Mars missions, visit:https://mars.nasa.gov/

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-hosts-media-teleconference-to-announce-latest-kepler-discovery

NASA Hosts Media Teleconference to Announce Latest Kepler Discovery

NASA will host a news teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) Thursday, April 17, to announce a new discovery made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.

NASA will host a news teleconference at 11 a.m. PDT (2 p.m. EDT) Thursday, April 17, to announce a new discovery made by its planet-hunting mission, the Kepler Space Telescope.The journal Science has embargoed the findings until the time of the news conference.The briefing participants are:-- Douglas Hudgins, exoplanet exploration program scientist, NASA's Astrophysics Division in Washington-- Elisa Quintana, research scientist, SETI Institute at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.-- Tom Barclay, research scientist, Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames-- Victoria Meadows, professor of astronomy at the University of Washington, Seattle, and principal investigator for the Virtual Planetary Laboratory, a team in the NASA Astrobiology Institute at AmesLaunched in March 2009, Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone -- the range of distance from a star in which the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might sustain liquid water. The telescope has since detected planets and planet candidates spanning a wide range of sizes and orbital distances, including those in the habitable zone. These findings have led to a better understanding of our place in the galaxy.The public is invited to listen to the teleconference live on UStream at:http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nasa-arcandhttp://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl2Audio of the teleconference also will be streamed live at:http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudioQuestions can be submitted on Twitter using the hashtag #AskNASA.A link to relevant graphics will be posted at the start of the teleconference on NASA's Kepler site:http://www.nasa.gov/kepler

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-scientists-become-hurricane-chasers

NASA Scientists Become Hurricane Chasers

Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will head into hurricanes this summer, hoping to improve predictions of these deadly storms by using new data-collecting technology.

Scientists from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will head into hurricanes this summer, hoping to improve predictions of these deadly storms by using new data-collecting technology.The four scientists are part of NASA's fourth Convection and Moisture Experiment, a massive field experiment based at Jacksonville Naval Station, Fla., from Aug.16 through Sept. 24. Their instruments will be on two NASA aircraft as they fly over, through and around selected hurricanes in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic.The goal of the experiment is to take the mystique out of hurricanes. By examining how a hurricane evolves and behaves, investigators hope to make possible more accurate, longer-range forecasts. Since evacuation is often the key to saving lives during a hurricane, researchers are paying special attention to a hurricane's behavior when it hits land.Participants in this year's Convection and Moisture Experiment from JPL include:--Bjorn H. Lambrigtsen, who led the team that designed and built the High Altitude Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Sounding Radiometer for this mission. An advanced atmospheric microwave sounder, the instrument can "see" through clouds. On previous investigations of this project, two separate microwave sounders recorded temperature and humidity. This new instrument, smaller and lighter than its predecessors, will have the ability to do both.The radiometer will fly in one of the wing pods of the high-altitude Earth Research- 2 aircraft, a former U2 spy plane. From an altitude of about 20 kilometers (65,000 feet), it will scan the atmosphere below the plane from side to side with a searchlight-type beam and map the temperature, humidity and cloud distributions inside a hurricane.Lambrigtsen and his team will participate in all flights of the Earth Research-2 craft. From their instrument's measurements, they will derive vertical profiles of temperature, water vapor and liquid water. They will also estimate rain rates and create an ice-particle scattering index, which will be used to develop a formula for calculating cloud ice. Co-investigators are Drs. Lance Riley and Evan Fishbein, also from JPL.-- Dr. Robert Herman, who will lead the JPL Laser Hygrometer team. The laser hygrometer is a miniature laser spectrometer for rapid measurements of water vapor. During this mission, the instrument will be mounted on a NASA DC-8 aircraft to measure water vapor as the airplane flies through tropical hurricanes. The data will help scientists understand just how much moisture the air can hold before ice clouds form. The instrument will also provide information on latent heat, the heat released when water condenses, which is an important energy source that drives storms. These data should provide a better understanding of the processes that regulate water in the atmosphere and tropical storms.-- Dr. Michael Mahoney, the principal investigator for the DC-8 Microwave Temperature Profiler and the Earth Research-2 Microwave Temperature Profiler. The instruments scan vertically in each aircraft's flight direction. Looking straight down, straight ahead and straight up, they measure temperature at different frequencies to create a complete temperature profile.On the DC-8, the Microwave Temperature Profiler displays air temperature data in real-time and is updated every 15 seconds. An experimenter onboard the DC-8 can control this real-time data and provide it to scientists immediately. The temperature profile of the atmosphere is a vital part of hurricane research because it helps scientists understand the stability of the atmosphere. The instrument can also help pinpoint the exact location of the troposphere, the lower part of Earth's atmosphere. In addition, it can measure the flow of air parcels to determine if there are gravity waves in the atmosphere that could affect the level of ozone depletion.On the Earth Research-2 aircraft, the microwave temperature profiler operates autonomously, and the data is processed later.-- Dr. Eastwood Im, who will administer the Dual Frequency Airborne Precipitation Radar, an airborne dual-frequency radar that will measure the 3-D structure of rainfall. Two crucial parts of the new instrument -- the pressure box and antenna -- are from a previous airborne radar developed by JPL, called Airborne Rain Mapping Radar. The new instrument is an improvement over the earlier radar because it has two frequencies, which will improve rainfall measurements, and can process data in real time.The instrument team plans to fly this radar in a rotating figure-four pattern across the rainstorm through the hurricane's eye, as well as through the rainbands at the storm's edge. Data collected will help determine rain rate, vertical motion and location of melting ice along the DC-8 flight track below the aircraft.The fourth Convection and Moisture Experiment is sponsored by NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. These investigations will be conducted in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Hurricane Research Division and the U.S. Weather Research Program. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-mars-helicopter-testing-enters-final-phase

NASA's Mars Helicopter Testing Enters Final Phase

The Mars Helicopter - a small, autonomous aircraft that will demonstrate the viability of heavier-than-air vehicles on Mars - has passed several key tests with flying colors.

NASA's Mars Helicopter flight demonstration project has passed a number of key tests with flying colors. In 2021, the small, autonomous helicopter will be the first vehicle in history to attempt to establish the viability of heavier-than-air vehicles flying on another planet."Nobody's built a Mars Helicopter before, so we are continuously entering new territory," said MiMi Aung, project manager for the Mars Helicopter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "Our flight model - the actual vehicle that will travel to Mars - has recently passed several important tests."The laws of physics may say it's near impossible to fly on Mars, but actually flying a heavier-than-air vehicle on the Red Planet is much harder than that. NASA's Mars 2020 mission will deliver a technology demonstration that will put the idea to the test -- a helicopter that will perform controlled flight on Mars.Back in January 2019 the team operated the flight model in a simulatedMartian environment. Then the helicopter was moved to Lockheed Martin Space in Denver for compatibility testing with the Mars Helicopter Delivery System, which will hold the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) spacecraft against the belly of the Mars 2020 rover during launch and interplanetary cruise before deploying it onto the surface of Mars after landing.As a technology demonstrator, the Mars Helicopter carries no science instruments. Its purpose is to confirm that powered flight in the tenuous Martian atmosphere (which has 1% the density of Earth's) is possible and that it can be controlled from Earth over large interplanetary distances. But the helicopter also carries a camera capable of providing high-resolution color images to further demonstrate the vehicle's potential for documenting the Red Planet.Future Mars missions could enlist second-generation helicopters to add an aerial dimension to their explorations. They could investigate previously unvisited or difficult-to-reach destinations such as cliffs, caves and deep craters, act as scouts for human crews or carry small payloads from one location to another. But before any of that happens, a test vehicle has to prove it is possible.In Denver, the Mars Helicopter and its delivery system were checked to make sure that the electrical connections and mechanisms that linked the flight vehicle with its cradle fit snuggly. Then, while still mated, the duo endured the sorts of vibrations they will experience during launch and in-flight operations. The thermal vacuum portion of the testing introduced them to the kinds of extreme temperatures (down to -200 degrees Fahrenheit, or -129 degrees Celsius) that they will encounter in space and on Mars and that could cause components to malfunction or fail.The Mars Helicopter returned to JPL on May 11, 2019, for further testing and finishing touches. Among the highlights: A new solar panel that will power the helicopter has been installed, and the vehicle's rotor blades have been spun up to ensure that the more than 1,500 individual pieces of carbon fiber, flight-grade aluminum, silicon, copper, foil andaerogelcontinue to work as a cohesive unit. Of course, there's more testing to come."We expect to complete our final tests and refinements and deliver the helicopter to the High Bay 1 clean room for integration with the rover sometime this summer," said Aung, "but we will never really be done with testing the helicopter until we fly at Mars."The Mars Helicopter will launch with the Mars 2020 rover on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in July 2020 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. When it lands in Jezero Crater on Feb. 18, 2021, the rover will also be the first spacecraft in the history of planetary exploration with the ability to accurately retarget its point of touchdown during the landing sequence.The 2020 rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient Martian life and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers. In another first, scientists will use the instruments aboard the rover to identify and collect samples of rock and soil, encase them in sealed tubes, and leave them on the planet's surface for potential return to Earth on a future Mars mission.JPL is building and will manage operations of the Mars 2020 rover and Mars Helicopter for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's headquarters in Washington. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management.If you want to send your name to Mars with NASA's 2020 mission you can do so until Sept. 30, 2019. Add your name to the list and obtain a souvenir boarding pass to Mars here:https://go.nasa.gov/Mars2020PassFor more information about the mission, go to:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/For more information about NASA's Mars missions, go to:https://www.nasa.gov/mars

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/tally-ho-deep-impact-spacecraft-eyes-comet-target

Tally-Ho! Deep Impact Spacecraft Eyes Comet Target

NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has beamed down the first of over 64,000 images it will be taking of Comet Hartley 2.

On Sunday, Sept. 5, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft beamed down the first of more than 64,000 images it's expected to take of Comet Hartley 2. The spacecraft, now on an extended mission known as EPOXI, has an appointment with the comet on Nov. 4, 2010.It will use all three of the spacecraft's instruments (two telescopes with digital color cameras and an infrared spectrometer) to scrutinize Hartley 2 for more than two months."Like any tourist who can't wait to get to a destination, we have already begun taking pictures of our comet -- Hartley 2," said Tim Larson, the project manager for EPOXI from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We have to wait for Nov. 4 to get the close-up pictures of the cometary nucleus, but these approach images should keep the science team busy for quite some time as well."The imaging campaign, along with data from all the instruments aboard Deep Impact, will afford the mission's science team the best extended view of a comet in history during its pass through the inner solar system. With the exception of one, six-day break to calibrate instruments and perform a trajectory correction maneuver, the spacecraft will continuously monitor Hartley 2's gas and dust output for the next 79 days.This first image of comet Hartley 2 taken by Deep Impact was obtained by the spacecraft's Medium Resolution Imager on Sept. 5 when the spacecraft was 60 million kilometers (37.2 million miles) away from the comet.EPOXI is an extended mission that utilizes the already "in flight" Deep Impact spacecraft to explore distinct celestial targets of opportunity. The name EPOXI itself is a combination of the names for the two extended mission components: the extrasolar planet observations, called Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (EPOCh), and the flyby of comet Hartley 2, called the Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI). The spacecraft will continue to be referred to as "Deep Impact."NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the EPOXI mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The University of Maryland, College Park, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Michael A'Hearn. Drake Deming of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., is the science lead for the mission's extrasolar planet observations. The spacecraft was built for NASA by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colo. For more information about EPOXI visithttp://epoxi.umd.edu/.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/healthy-spirit-cleans-a-mars-rock-opportunity-rolls

Healthy Spirit Cleans a Mars Rock; Opportunity Rolls

NASA's Spirit has returned to full health and resumed doing things never attempted on Mars before.

NASA's Spirit has returned to full health and resumed doing things never attempted on Mars before."Our patient is healed, and we're very excited about that," said Jennifer Trosper of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., mission manager for Spirit.Spirit temporarily stopped communicating Jan. 22; the problem was later diagnosed as a memory-management issue. Engineers regained partial control of the spacecraft within days and reformatted Spirit's flash memory Wednesday to prevent recurrence of the problem.JPL's Glenn Reeves, flight software architect for the Mars Exploration Rovers, said Friday, "We're confident we know what the problem is, and we have a procedure in place we believe can work around this problem indefinitely."Spirit's first day of science operations after the memory reformatting featured the first brushing of a rock on a foreign planet to remove dust and allow inspection of the rock's cleaned surface. Steel bristles on the rover's rock abrasion tool cleaned a circular patch on the rock unofficially named Adirondack. The tool's main function is to grind off the weathered surface of rocks with diamond teeth, but the brush for removing the grinder's cuttings can also be used to sweep dust off the intact surface.The brushing on Thursday was the first use of a rock abrasion tool by either Spirit or its twin rover, Opportunity. The brush swirled for five minutes, said Stephen Gorevan of Honeybee Robotics, New York, lead scientist for the rock abrasion tools on both rovers."I didn't expect much of a difference. This is a big surprise," Gorevan said about a picture showing the brushed area is much darker than the rest of the rock's surface. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present you the greatest interplanetary brushing of all time."One reason scientists first selected Adirondack for close inspection is because it appeared relatively dust free compared to some other rocks nearby. "To our surprise, there was quite a bit of dust on the surface," said Dr. Ken Herkenhoff of the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Team, Flagstaff, Ariz., lead scientist for the rovers' microscopic imagers.Spirit was instructed Friday afternoon to grind the surface of Adirondack with the rock abrasion tool. After the grinding, the turret of tools at the end of the rover's robotic arm will be rotated to inspect the freshly exposed interior of the rock. Controllers plan to tell Spirit tomorrow to begin driving again.Meanwhile, halfway around Mars, NASA's Opportunity drove early Friday for the second day in a row. It arrived within about a half a meter (20 inches) of the northeastern end of a rock outcrop scientists are eager for the rover to examine. "We expect to complete that approach tomorrow," said JPL's Matt Wallace, mission manager for Opportunity.During Friday's drive, Opportunity did not travel as far as planned. The rover is climbing a slope of about 13 degrees, and the shortage in distance traveled is probably due to slippage in the soil, Wallace said.The main task for both rovers is to explore the areas around their landing sites for evidence in rocks and soils about whether those areas ever had environments that were watery and possibly suitable for sustaining life.Each martian day, or "sol," lasts about 40 minutes longer than an Earth day. Spirit begins its 35th sol on Mars at 4:02 a.m. Saturday, Pacific Standard Time. Opportunity begins its 15th sol on Mars at 4:23 p.m. Saturday, PST.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Images and additional information about the project are available from JPL athttp://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.govand from Cornell University athttp://athena.cornell.edu.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/space-buff-volunteers-wanted-as-solar-system-ambassadors

Space-Buff Volunteers Wanted as Solar System Ambassadors

Want to guide others on an armchair adventure to the moons of Jupiter and the surface of Mars?

Want to guide others on an armchair adventure to the moons of Jupiter and the surface of Mars?NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is inviting applications from space enthusiasts nationwide for the Solar System Ambassador program. The program brings together motivated volunteers from across the nation with top space scientists and engineers to help tell the public about exciting solar system discoveries and future explorations.Applications for year 2002 ambassadors will be accepted during the month of September 2001. Final selections will be announced in December."We now have 206 ambassadors in 47 states, and they come from a variety of backgrounds, from teachers to retirees to amateur astronomers," said JPL's Kay Ferrari, coordinator of the program. The first session next year focuses on Europa - a moon of Jupiter thought to have an ocean beneath its icy crust. JPL's Europa Orbiter mission is being planned to discover whether such an ocean really exists.Online information is available about the Solar System Ambassador program athttp://solarsystem.nasa.gov/ssa/home.cfm.The Solar System Ambassador program equips volunteers to arrange public events such as lectures, star parties, community displays and library appearances. Through these events, ambassadors share fresh findings about planetary exploration and news about technology developments from the space program that are used on Earth.Mike Obland, a graduate student who volunteers as a Solar System Ambassador in Bozeman, Mont., said, "I think space exploration is important, and this is a good way to keep up with all the latest happenings and get information about them to the public."Deanna Walvatne, an ambassador who teaches high school science in Waverly, Iowa, said when she presents space-exploration programs, people of all ages seem hungry for the information. "A lot of people are interested in the missions to different parts of the solar system, but don't know much about them," she said. Pictures and posters provided by JPL, as well as opportunities for contacts with mission scientists and engineers, help her satisfy the public's interest, she said.Ferrari said, "The ideal candidate is a space enthusiast who is active in his or her community. Solar System Ambassadors agree to arrange, conduct and report a minimum of four space-related events during their calendar year of service and participate in training sessions via the Internet." Ambassadors may renew their applications during subsequent years and will be accepted based upon their reporting and training records.For more information about the Solar System Ambassadors program, contact the coordinator, Kay Ferrari, at ambassadors@jpl.nasa.gov or (818) 354-7581.NOTE TO EDITORS: Current Solar System Ambassadors are listed athttp://solarsystem.nasa.gov/ssa/home.cfm. Guy Webster, at (818) 354-6278, can help you contact them.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-selects-new-mission-to-study-storms-impacts-on-climate-models

NASA Selects New Mission to Study Storms, Impacts on Climate Models

Called INCUS, it aims to directly address why convective storms, heavy precipitation, and clouds occur exactly when and where they form.

NASA has selected a new Earth science mission that will study the behavior of tropical storms and thunderstorms, including their impacts on weather and climate models. The mission will be a collection of three SmallSats, flying in tight coordination, called Investigation of Convective Updrafts (INCUS), and is expected to launch in 2027 as part of NASA’s Earth Venture Program.NASA selected INCUS through the agency’s Earth Venture Mission-3 (EVM-3) solicitation that sought complete, space-based investigations to address important science questions and produce data of societal relevance within the Earth science field. NASA received 12 proposals for EVM-3 missions in March 2021. After detailed review by panels of scientists and engineers, the agency selected INCUS to continue into development.“Every one of our Earth science missions is carefully chosen to add to a robust portfolio of research about the planet we live on,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “INCUS fills an important niche to help us understand extreme weather and its impact on climate models – all of which serves to provide crucial information needed to mitigate weather and climate effects on our communities.”Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTERINCUS aims to directly address why convective storms, heavy precipitation, and clouds occur exactly when and where they form. The investigation stems from the 2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which lays out ambitious, but critically necessary, research and observation guidance.“In a changing climate, more accurate information about how storms develop and intensify can help improve weather models and our ability to predict risk of extreme weather,” said Karen St. Germain, NASA’s Earth Science division director. “This information not only deepens our scientific understanding about the changing Earth processes, but can help inform communities around the world.”Climate change is increasing the heat in the oceans and making it more likely that storms will intensify more often and more quickly, a phenomenon NASA scientists continue to study.Storms begin with rapidly rising water vapor and air that create towering clouds primed to produce rain, hail, and lighting. The greater the mass of water vapor and air that is transported upward in the atmosphere, the higher the risk of extreme weather. This vertical transport of air and water vapor, known as convective mass flux (CMF), remains one of the great unknowns in weather and climate. Systematic CMF measurements over the full range of conditions would improve the representation of storm intensity and constrain high cloud feedbacks – which can add uncertainty – in weather and climate models.The principal investigator for INCUS is Susan van den Heever at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. The mission will be supported by several NASA centers, including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, with key satellite system components to be provided by Blue Canyon Technologies and Tendeg LLC, both in Colorado. The mission will cost approximately $177 million, not including launch costs. NASA will select a launch provider in the future.NASA’s Earth Venture Program consists of science-driven, competitively selected, low-cost missions/investigations. This program provides opportunities for investment in innovative science to enhance our capability to better understand the current state of the Earth system and further improve predictions of future changes. The current Earth Venture program include full missions, satellite instruments for flights of opportunity, instruments for Earth science data record continuity, and sustained suborbital investigations.For more information about NASA’s Earth science programs, visit:https://www.nasa.gov/earth

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-extends-ingenuity-helicopter-mission

NASA Extends Ingenuity Helicopter Mission

With its recent 21st flight complete, the Red Planet rotorcraft is on its way to setting more records during its second year of operations.

NASA has extended flight operations of the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter through September. In the months ahead, history’s first aircraft to operate from the surface of another world will support the Perseverance rover’s upcoming science campaign exploring the ancient river delta of Jezero Crater. Along the way, it will continue testing its own capabilities to support the design of future Mars air vehicles.The announcement comes on the heels of the rotorcraft’s 21st successful flight, the first of at least three needed for the helicopter to cross the northwest portion of a region known as “Séítah” and reach its next staging area.“Less than a year ago we didn’t even know if powered, controlled flight of an aircraft at Mars was possible,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Now, we are looking forward to Ingenuity’s involvement in Perseverance’s second science campaign. Such a transformation of mindset in such a short period is simply amazing, and one of the most historic in the annals of air and space exploration.”NASA’s hard at work on the Red Planet. Watch the latest Mars Report for more on Ingenuity, along with the agency’s Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechIngenuity’s new area of operations is entirely different from the modest, relatively flat terrain it has been flying over since its first flight last April. Several miles wide and formed by an ancient river, the fan-shaped delta rises more than 130 feet (40 meters) above the crater floor. Filled with jagged cliffs, angled surfaces, projecting boulders, and sand-filled pockets that could stop a rover in its tracks (or upend a helicopter upon landing), the delta promises to hold numerous geologic revelations – perhaps even the proof necessary to determine that microscopic life once existed on Mars billions of years ago.Upon reaching the delta, Ingenuity’s first orders will be to help determine which of two dry river channels Perseverance should take when it’s time to climb to the top of the delta. Along with routing assistance, data provided by the helicopter will help the Perseverance team assess potential science targets. Ingenuity may even be called upon to image geologic features too far afield (or outside of the rover’s traversable zone), or perhaps scout landing zones and caching sites for theMars Sample Returnprogram.NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter acquired this image in the northwest portion of a region known as “Séítah” using its high-resolution color camera during its 20th flight on Feb. 25, 2022.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech“The Jezero river delta campaign will be the biggest challenge the Ingenuity team faces since first flight at Mars,” said Teddy Tzanetos, Ingenuity team lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “To enhance our chances of success, we have increased the size of our team and are making upgrades to our flight software geared toward improving operational flexibility and flight safety.”Higher FlightsSeveral of these upgrades have led to reduced navigation errors during flight, which increases both flight and landing safety. A recent software change already on the rotorcraft frees Ingenuity from its previously programmed maximum altitude of 50 feet (15 meters). The altitude gains could result in incremental increases in both air speed and range. A second upgrade allows Ingenuity to change airspeed as it flies. Another enables it to better understand and adjust to changes in terrain texture during flight. Future software upgrades may include adding terrain elevation maps into the navigation filter and a landing-hazard-avoidance capability.This annotated image depicts the multiple flights – and two different routes – NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter could take on its trip to Jezero Crater’s delta.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/USGSBefore aerial reconnaissance of the delta can begin, Ingenuity has to complete its journey to the area. Scheduled for no earlier than March 19, Ingenuity’s next flight will be a complex journey, about 1,150 feet (350 meters) in length, that includes a sharp bend in its course to avoid a large hill. After that, the team will determine whether two or three more flights will be required to complete the crossing of northwest Séítah.Thefirst experimental flighton another world took place on April 19, 2021, and lasted 39.1 seconds. After another four flights, six more minutes in the air, and traveling a total distance of 1,637 feet (499 meters), NASA transitioned Ingenuity into anoperations demonstration phase, testing its ability to provide an aerial dimension to the Perseverance mission. With the completion of Flight 21, the rotorcraft has logged over 38 minutes aloft and traveled 2.9 miles (4.64 kilometers). As Ingenuity pushes farther into uncharted territory, these numbers will inevitably go up, and previous flight records will more than likely fall.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER“This upcoming flight will be my 22nd entry in our logbook,” said Ingenuity chief pilot Håvard Grip of JPL. “I remember thinking when this all started, we’d be lucky to have three entries and immensely fortunate to get five. Now, at the rate we’re going, I’m going to need a second book.”More About IngenuityThe Ingenuity Mars Helicopter was built by JPL, which also manages this technology demonstration project for NASA Headquarters. It is supported by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, provided significant flight performance analysis and technical assistance during Ingenuity’s development. AeroVironment Inc., Qualcomm, and SolAero also provided design assistance and major vehicle components. Lockheed Space designed and manufactured theMars Helicopter Delivery System.At NASA Headquarters, Dave Lavery is the program executive for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.More About PerseveranceA key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars isastrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includesArtemismissions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.For more information about Ingenuity:mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-finds-each-state-has-its-own-climatic-threshold-for-flu-outbreaks

NASA Finds Each State Has Its Own Climatic Threshold for Flu Outbreaks

NASA satellite data illuminates a critical relationship between low humidity and the outbreak of flu in the U.S.

What triggers an outbreak of the influenza virus? A newstudyof the flu in the 48 contiguous U.S. states, using data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite, has found that the answer is closely tied to local weather – specifically, to low humidity – and varies from state to state.Average humidity varies widely across the United States, but even in the most humid states, it begins to drop as winter approaches. Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the University of Southern California correlated AIRS measurements of water vapor in the lower atmosphere with flu case estimates for each week from 2003 to 2015. The researchers found that in each state, there is a specific level of low humidity that may signal a flu outbreak is imminent. When this threshold is crossed each year, a large increase in flu cases follows within two or three weeks, on average.This chart shows low-humidity thresholds that signal flu outbreaks in 48 U.S. states. The color range from lighter to darker indicates lower to higher humidity thresholds, with the driest state, Wyoming, having the lowest threshold and Florida the highest. Units are kilograms of water per kilogram of air.Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThese threshold levels of low humidity closely parallel each state’s average climate. Although all 48 states have different thresholds, states with humid climates, such as those in the Southeast, have higher threshold values than arid states, including those in the West and Southwest.The study wasn’t designed to answer why lower humidity leads to flu outbreaks.Get the Latest JPL NewsSUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/healthy-rover-shows-its-new-neighborhood-on-mars

Healthy Rover Shows Its New Neighborhood on Mars

NASA's Spirit Rover is starting to examine its new surroundings, revealing a vast flatland well suited to the robot's unprecedented mobility and scientific toolkit.

NASA's Spirit Rover is starting to examine its new surroundings, revealing a vast flatland well suited to the robot's unprecedented mobility and scientific toolkit."Spirit has told us that it is healthy," Jennifer Trosper of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said today. Trosper is Spirit mission manager for operations on Mars' surface. The rover remains perched on its lander platform, and the next nine days or more will be spent preparing for egress, or rolling off, onto the martian surface.With only two degrees of tilt, with the deck toward the front an average of only about 37 centimeters (15 inches) off the ground, and with apparently no large rocks blocking the way, the lander is in good position for egress. "The egress path we're working toward is straight ahead," Trosper said.The rover's initial images excited scientists about the prospects of exploring the region after the roll-off."My hat is off to the navigation team because they did a fantastic job of getting us right where we wanted to be," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., principal investigator for the science payload. By correlating images taken by Spirit with earlier images from spacecraft orbiting Mars, the mission team has determined that the rover appears to be in a region marked with numerous swaths where dust devils have removed brighter dust and left darker gravel behind."This is our new neighborhood," Squyres said. "We hit the sweet spot. We wanted someplace where the wind had cleared off the rocks for us. We've landed in a place that's so thick with dust devil tracks that a lot of the dust has been blown away."The terrain looks different from any of the sites examined by NASA's three previous successful landers -- the two Vikings in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder in 1987."What we're seeing is a section of surface that is remarkably devoid of big boulders, at least in our immediate vicinity, and that's good news because big boulders are something we would have trouble driving over," Squyres said. "We see a rock population that is different from anything we've seen elsewhere on Mars, and it comes out very much in our favor."Spirit arrived at Mars Jan. 3 (EST and PST; Jan. 4 Universal Time) after a seven month journey. Its task is to spend the next three months exploring for clues in rocks and soil about whether the past environment at this part of Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life.Spirit's twin Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, will reach its landing site on the opposite side of Mars on Jan. 25 (EST and Universal Time; Jan. 24 PST) to begin a similar examination of a site on the opposite side of the planet from Gusev Crater.JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Mars Exploration Rover project for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. Additional information about the project is available from JPL at:http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.govand from Cornell University at:http://athena.cornell.edu.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/dawn-wins-national-air-and-space-museum-trophy

Dawn Wins National Air and Space Museum Trophy

Dawn receives prestigious National Air and Space Museum Trophy.

The team in charge of NASA's Dawn mission, history's first detailed exploration of a celestial body inside the main asteroid belt, received the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's highest group honor at a dinner in Washington on March 26. Dawn, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., received the 2014 Trophy for Current Achievement, which honors outstanding achievements in the fields of aerospace science and technology.Having explored the giant asteroid Vesta and on its way to the dwarf planet Ceres, the Dawn spacecraft is designed to conduct an in-depth and up-close study of these two celestial bodies formed early in the history of the solar system. In 50 years of space exploration, no other spacecraft has orbited a distant solar system body, then left to travel to-and eventually orbit-another extraterrestrial body.The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft.Several NASA planetary mission teams have won the award in previous years, including last year, when NASA's Curiosity rover, also managed by JPL, picked up the trophy. The year before that, NASA's Cassini mission to Saturn, also managed by JPL, took the honor. For a full listing of previous awardees, along with a video about Dawn's award, visit:http://airandspace.si.edu/events/trophy/For more information about Dawn, visit:http://www.nasa.gov/dawnandhttp://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/bounce-skid-wobble-how-huygens-landed-on-titan

Bounce, Skid, Wobble: How Huygens Landed on Titan

New analysis of data from the Huygens probe shows a complex surface.

The European Space Agency's Huygens probe, ferried to Saturn's moon Titan by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, bounced, slid and wobbled its way to rest in the 10 seconds after touching down on Titan in January 2005, a new analysis reveals. The moon's surface is more complex than previously thought.Scientists reconstructed the chain of events by analyzing data from a variety of instruments that were active during the impact, in particular changes in the acceleration. The instrument data were compared with results from computer simulations and a drop test using a model of Huygens designed to replicate the landing.The analysis reveals that, on first contact with Titan's surface, Huygens made a dent 4.7 inches (12 centimeters) deep, before bouncing out onto a flat surface. The Huygens probe, which had a mass of about 400 pounds (200 kilograms), hit the ground with an impact speed that was similar to dropping a ball on Earth from a height of about 3 feet (one meter). The probe, tilted by about 10 degrees in the direction of motion, then slid 12 to 16 inches (30 to 40 centimeters) across the surface. It slowed due to friction with the surface and, upon coming to its final resting place, wobbled back and forth five times. Each wobble was about half as large as the previous one. Huygens' sensors continued to detect small vibrations for another two seconds, until motion subsided nearly 10 seconds after touchdown."A spike in the acceleration data suggests that during the first wobble, the probe likely encountered a pebble protruding by around an inch [2 centimeters] from the surface of Titan, and may have even pushed it into the ground, suggesting that the surface had a consistency of soft, damp sand," said Stefan Schröder of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany, lead author of the paper reporting the results in the journal Planetary and Space Science.Previous work measured the firmness of Titan's surface during the Huygens impact. Those results found the surface to be quite soft. The new work goes one step farther to demonstrate that if something put little pressure on the surface, the surface was hard, but if an object put more pressure on the surface, it sank in significantly."It is like snow that has been frozen on top," said Erich Karkoschka, a co-author at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "If you walk carefully, you can walk as on a solid surface, but if you step on the snow a little too hard, you break in very deeply."Had the probe impacted a wet, mud-like substance, its instruments would have recorded a "splat" with no further indication of bouncing or sliding. The surface must have therefore been soft enough to allow the probe to make a sizeable depression, but hard enough to support Huygens rocking back and forth."We also see in the Huygens landing data evidence of a 'fluffy' dust-like material - most likely organic aerosols that are known to drizzle out of the Titan atmosphere - being thrown up into the atmosphere and suspended there for around four seconds after the impact," said Schröder.Since the dust was easily lifted, it was most likely dry, suggesting that there had not been any rain of liquid ethane or methane for some time prior to the landing."This study takes us back to the historical moment of Huygens touching down on the most remote alien world ever visited by a landing probe," added ESA's Cassini-Huygens project scientist, Nicolas Altobelli. "Huygens data, even years after mission completion, are providing us with a new dynamical 'feeling' for these crucial first seconds of landing."A new animation of the landing can be seen here:http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMJP13S18H_index_0.html.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/new-selfie-shows-curiosity-the-mars-chemist

New Selfie Shows Curiosity, the Mars Chemist

The NASA rover performed a special chemistry experiment at the location captured in its newest self-portrait.

A new selfie taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover is breathtaking, but it's especially meaningful for the mission's team: Stitched together from 57 individual images taken bya camera on the end of Curiosity's robotic arm, the panorama also commemorates only the second time the rover has performeda special chemistry experiment.The selfie was taken on Oct. 11, 2019 (Sol 2,553) in a location named "Glen Etive" (pronounced "glen EH-tiv"), which is part of the"clay-bearing unit,"a region the team has eagerly awaited reaching since before Curiosity launched. Visible in the left foreground are two holes Curiosity drilled named "Glen Etive 1" (right) and "Glen Etive 2" (left) by the science team. The rover can analyze the chemical composition of rock samples by powderizing them with the drill, then dropping the samples into a portable lab in its belly called Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM).About 984 feet (300 meters) behind the rover is Vera Rubin Ridge, which Curiositydepartednearly a year ago. Beyond the ridge, you can see the floor of Gale Crater and the crater's northern rim. Curiosity has been ascending Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-tall (5-kilometer-tall) mountain inside the crater.The special chemistry experiment occurred on Sept. 24, 2019, after the rover placed the powderized sample from Glen Etive 2 into SAM. The portable lab contains 74 small cups used for testing samples. Most of the cups function as miniature ovens that heat the samples; SAM then "sniffs" the gases that bake off, looking for chemicals that hold clues about the Martian environment billions of years ago, when the planet was friendlier to microbial life.But nine of SAM's 74 cups are filled with solvents the rover can use for special "wet chemistry" experiments. These chemicals make it easier for SAM to detect certain carbon-based molecules important to the formation of life, called organic compounds.Because there's a limited number of wet-chemistry cups, the science team has been saving them for just the right conditions. In fact, the experiment at Glen Etive is only the second time Curiosity has performed wet chemistry since touching down on Mars in August 2012."We've been eager to find an area that would be compelling enough to do wet chemistry," said SAM Principal Investigator Paul Mahaffy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Now that we're in the clay-bearing unit, we've finally got it."Clay-based rocks are good at preserving chemical compounds, which break down over time and when bombarded by radiation from space and the Sun. The science team is intrigued to see which organic compounds, if any, have been preserved in the rocks at Glen Etive. Understanding how this area formed will give them a better idea of how the Martian climate was changing billions of years ago.While this marks Curiosity's second wet-chemistry experiment, it is the rover's first on a drilled sample. In December 2016, whenCuriosity's drill malfunctioned, the rover still had a bit of sand that had been scooped up in a place called "Ogunquit Beach." It wasn't a drilled sample, but the team wasn't sure whether they'd get the drill working and be able to perform wet chemistry in the future. So they delivered the Ogunquit Beach sand into one of SAM's wet chemistry cups since there was still science to be gained.Scientists consider Glen Etive a strategic location that will reveal more about how the clay-bearing unit formed. They built upon the valuable dress rehearsal at Ogunquit Beach to make adjustments that improved the recent experiment.The results will be known next year. "SAM's data is extremely complex and takes time to interpret," Mahaffy said. "But we're all eager to see what we can learn from this new location, Glen Etive."The individual images in this selfie were taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), a camera on the end of the rover's robotic arm. The images are stitched together into a panorama, and the robotic arm is digitally removed from the composite.MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego. The SAM instrument suite was built at Goddard Space Flight Center with significant elements provided by industry, university, and national and international NASA partners. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.More information about Curiosity:https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/http://nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl