[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: December 28, 2015 - January 8, 2016
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES December 28, 2015 - January 8, 2016 o Nili Fossae - False Color (28 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151228a o Hebes Mensa - False Color (29 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151229a o Noachis Terra - False Color (30 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151230a o Ophir Planum - False Color (31 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151231a o Eos Chasma - False Color (01 January 2016) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20160101a o Iani Chaos - False Color (04 January 2016) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20160104a o Nili Fossae - False Color (05 January 2016) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20160105a o Nili Patera - False Color (06 January 2016) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20160106a o Crater - False Color (07 January 2016) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20160107a o Arabia Terra Plains - False Color (08 January 2016) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20160108a All of the THEMIS images are archive here: http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] NASA Office to Coordinate Asteroid Detection, Hazard Mitigation
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4816 NASA Office to Coordinate Asteroid Detection, Hazard Mitigation Jet Propulsion Laboratory January 7, 2016 NASA has formalized its ongoing program for detecting and tracking near-Earth objects (NEOs) as the Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO). The office remains within NASA's Planetary Science Division, in the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The office will be responsible for supervision of all NASA-funded projects to find and characterize asteroids and comets that pass near Earth's orbit around the sun. It will also take a leading role in coordinating interagency and intergovernmental efforts in response to any potential impact threats. More than 13,500 near-Earth objects of all sizes have been discovered to date -- more than 95 percent of them since NASA-funded surveys began in 1998. About 1,500 NEOs are now detected each year. "Asteroid detection, tracking and defense of our planet is something that NASA, its interagency partners, and the global community take very seriously," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "While there are no known impact threats at this time, the 2013 Chelyabinsk super-fireball and the recent 'Halloween Asteroid' close approach remind us of why we need to remain vigilant and keep our eyes to the sky." NASA has been engaged in worldwide planning for planetary defense for some time, and this office will improve and expand on those efforts, working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other federal agencies and departments. In addition to detecting and tracking potentially hazardous objects, the office will issue notices of close passes and warnings of any detected potential impacts, based on credible science data. The office also will continue to assist with coordination across the U.S. government, participating in the planning for response to an actual impact threat, working in conjunction with FEMA, the Department of Defense, other U.S. agencies and international counterparts. "The formal establishment of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office makes it evident that the agency is committed to perform a leadership role in national and international efforts for detection of these natural impact hazards, and to be engaged in planning if there is a need for planetary defense," said Lindley Johnson, longtime NEO program executive and now lead program executive for the office, with the title of Planetary Defense Officer. Astronomers detect near-Earth objects using ground-based telescopes around the world as well as NASA's space-based NEOWISE infrared telescope. Tracking data are provided to a global database maintained by the Minor Planet Center, sanctioned by the International Astronomical Union. Once detected, orbits are precisely predicted and monitored by the Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Select NEOs are further characterized by assets such as NASA's InfraRed Telescope Facility, Spitzer Space Telescope and interplanetary radars operated by NASA and the National Science Foundation. Such efforts are coordinated and funded by NASA's longtime NEO Observations Program, which will continue as a research program under the office. The Planetary Defense Coordination Office is being applauded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), which supports research and education in science and engineering. "NSF welcomes the increased visibility afforded to this critical activity," said Nigel Sharp, program director in the agency's Division of Astronomical Sciences. "We look forward to continuing the fruitful collaboration across the agencies to bring all of our resources -- both ground-based and space-based -- to the study of this important problem." With more than 90 percent of NEOs larger than 3,000 feet (1 kilometer) already discovered, NASA is now focused on finding objects that are slightly bigger than a football field -- 450 feet (140 meters) or larger. In 2005, NASA was tasked with finding 90 percent of this class of NEOs by the end of 2020. NASA-funded surveys have detected an estimated 25 percent of these mid-sized but still potentially hazardous objects to date. NASA's long-term planetary defense goals include developing technology and techniques for deflecting or redirecting objects that are determined to be on an impact course with Earth. NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission concept would demonstrate the effectiveness of the gravity tractor method of planetary defense, using the mass of another object to pull an asteroid slightly from its original orbital path. The joint NASA-European Space Agency Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission concept, if pursued, would demonstrate an impact deflection method of planetary defense. Even if intervention is not possible, NASA would provide
[meteorite-list] Dawn Journal - December 31, 2015
http://dawnblog.jpl.nasa.gov/2015/12/31/dawn-journal-december-31/ Dawn Journal by Dr. Marc Rayman December 31, 2015 Dear Transcendawnts, Dawn is now performing the final act of its remarkable celestial choreography, held close in Ceres' firm gravitational embrace. The distant explorer is developing humankind's most intimate portrait ever of a dwarf planet, and it likely will be a long, long time before the level of detail is surpassed. The spacecraft is concluding an outstandingly successful year 1,500 times nearer to Ceres than it began. More important, it is more than 1.4 million times closer to Ceres than Earth is today. From its uniquely favorable vantage point, Dawn can relay to us spectacular views that would otherwise be unattainable. At an average altitude of only 240 miles (385 kilometers), the spacecraft is closer to Ceres than the International Space Station is to Earth. From that tight orbit, the dwarf planet looks the same size as a soccer ball seen from only 3.5 inches (9.0 centimeters) away. This is in-your-face exploration. The spacecraft has returned more than 16,000 pictures of Ceres this year (including more than 2,000 since descending to its low orbit this month). One of your correspondent's favorites (below) was taken on Dec. 10 when Dawn was verifying the condition of its backup camera. Not only did the camera pass its tests, but it yielded a wonderful, dramatic view not far from the south pole. It is southern hemisphere winter on Ceres now, with the sun north of the equator. From the perspective of the photographed location, the sun is near the horizon, creating the long shadows that add depth and character to the scene. And usually in close-in orbits, we look nearly straight down. Unlike such overhead pictures typical of planetary spacecraft (including Dawn), this view is mostly forward and shows a richly detailed landscape ahead, one you can imagine being in - a real place, albeit an exotic one. This may be like the breathtaking panorama you could enjoy with your face pressed to the porthole of your spaceship as you are approaching your landing sight. You are right there. It looks - it feels! - so real and physical. You might actually plan a hike across some of the terrain. And it may be that a visiting explorer or even a colonist someday will have this same view before setting off on a trek through the Cerean countryside. Of course, Dawn's objectives include much more than taking incredibly neat pictures, a task at which it excels. It is designed to collect scientifically meaningful photos and other valuable measurements. We'll see more below about what some of the images and spectra from higher altitudes have revealed about Ceres, but first let's take a look at the three highest priority investigations Dawn is conducting now in its final orbit, sometimes known as the low altitude mapping orbit (LAMO). While the camera, visible mapping spectrometer and infrared mapping spectrometer show the surface, these other measurements probe beneath. With the spacecraft this close to the ground, it can measure two kinds of nuclear radiation that come from as much as a yard (meter) deep. The radiation carries the signatures of the atoms there, allowing scientists to inventory some of the key chemical elements of geological interest. One component of this radiation is gamma ray photons, a high energy form of electromagnetic radiation with a frequency beyond visible light, beyond ultraviolet, even beyond X-rays. Neutrons in the radiation are entirely different from gamma rays. They are particles usually found in the nuclei of atoms (for those of you who happen to look there). Indeed, outweighing protons, and outnumbering them in most kinds of atoms, they constitute most of the mass of atoms other than hydrogen in Ceres (and everywhere else in the universe, including in your correspondent). To tell us what members of the periodic table of the elements are present, Dawn's gamma ray and neutron detector (GRaND) does more than detect those two kinds of radiation. Despite its name, GRaND is not at all pretentious, but its capabilities are quite impressive. Consisting of 21 sensors, the device measures the energy of each gamma ray photon and of each neutron. (That doesn't lend itself to as engaging an acronym.) It is these gamma ray spectra and neutron spectra that reveal the identities of the atomic species in the ground. Some of the gamma rays are produced by radioactive elements, but most of them and the neutrons are generated as byproducts of cosmic rays impinging on Ceres. Space is pervaded by cosmic radiation, composed of a variety of subatomic particles that originate outside our solar system. Earth's atmosphere and magnetic field protect the surface (and those who dwell there) from cosmic rays, but Ceres lacks such defenses. The cosmic rays interact with nuclei of atoms, and some of the gamma rays and neutrons that are
[meteorite-list] Postal Service Honors NASA Planetary Discoveries with 2016 Stamps
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/postal-service-honors-nasa-planetary-discoveries-with-2016-stamps Postal Service Honors NASA Planetary Discoveries with 2016 Stamps December 30, 2015 The U.S. Postal Service has previewed the New Year's series of stamps highlighting NASA's Planetary Science program, including a do-over of a famous Pluto stamp commemorating the NASA New Horizons' historic 2015 flyby. [Image] Pluto Explored! In 2006, NASA placed a 29-cent 1991 "Pluto: Not Yet Explored" stamp in the New Horizons spacecraft. In 2015 the spacecraft carried the stamp on its history-making mission to Pluto and beyond. With this stamp, the Postal Service recognizes the first reconnaissance of Pluto in 2015 by NASA's New Horizon mission. The souvenir sheet of four stamps contains two new stamps appearing twice. The first stamp shows an artists' rendering of the New Horizons spacecraft and the second shows the spacecraft's enhanced color image of Pluto taken near closest approach. Credits: USPS/Antonio Alcala Copyright 2016 USPS The Postal Service on Wednesday released a preview of its new 2016 stamps, which include an image of Pluto and the New Horizons spacecraft, eight new colorful Forever stamps of NASA images of solar system planets, a Global Forever stamp dedicated to Earth's moon as well as another postal treat for space fans: a tribute to 50 years of Star Trek. "U.S. Postal stamps express the enthusiasm and personality of senders to favorite themes in our society. From Mercury to Neptune, Pluto and Star Trek, it's exciting to see that planetary science and space exploration are being celebrated in these new 2016 stamps," said John Grunsfeld, NASA's associate administrator for science in Washington. "On behalf of NASA scientists across the nation, we're honored that the U.S. Postal Service has chosen to highlight NASA's New Horizons and 50 years of planetary exploration with these iconic images." [Image| Pluto Explored. (left to right): New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern of Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado; New Horizons Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Young, SwRI; Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Director Ralph Semmel; Annette Tombaugh, daughter of Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto in 1930; and New Horizons Co-Investigator Will Grundy, Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, Arizona hold a print of the 1991 Pluto stamp - with their suggested update - on July 14 at APL in Laurel, Maryland. Credits: NASA/Bill Ingalls The Pluto stamps are of special significance to NASA and the New Horizons team, which placed a 29-cent 1991 "Pluto: Not Yet Explored" stamp on board the spacecraft. On July 14, New Horizons carried the tiny postage stamp on its history-making journey to Pluto and beyond, as members of the mission team celebrated with a large print, striking the words "not yet." "The New Horizons project is proud to have such an important honor from the U.S. Postal Service," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. 'Since the early 1990s the old, 'Pluto Not Explored' stamp served as a rallying cry for many who wanted to mount this historic mission of space exploration. Now that NASA's New Horizons has accomplished that goal, it's a wonderful feeling to see these new stamps join others commemorating first explorations of the planets." The souvenir sheet of four stamps contains two new stamps appearing twice. The first stamp shows an artist's rendering of NASA's New Horizons Pluto flyby spacecraft and the second shows the spacecraft's enhanced color image of Pluto taken by New Horizons near its closest approach to Pluto. The view - which is color enhanced to highlight surface texture and composition - is a composite of images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), combined with color data from the imaging instrument Ralph that clearly reveals the now-famous heart-shaped feature stretched across Pluto's surface; this feature has been named Tombaugh Regio in honor of Pluto's discoverer, Clyde Tombaugh. Antonio Alcala of Alexandria, Virginia was the art director for these stamp designs. "Our stamps articulate the American experience through miniature works of art," said Acting Stamp Services Director Mary-Anne Penner. "Our diverse stamp topics for 2016 are sure to appeal to everyone, and with the New Year just around the corner, now is a perfect time to get started in stamp collecting. It's an educational hobby the entire family can enjoy." The "Pluto Explored!" stamps will be dedicated in late May of 2016 at the World Stamp Show in New York. Other space-themed stamps highlighting NASA images of the solar system planets, Earth's moon, and popular culture in the 2016 collection include: [Image] Views of Our Planets With this pane of 16 Forever stamps, the Postal Service showcases some of the more
[meteorite-list] European Mars Probe Arrives at Launch Site (ExoMars)
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/12/27/european-mars-probe-arrives-at-launch-site/ European Mars probe arrives at launch site by Stephen Clark SpaceFlight Now December 27, 2015 Three heavy-duty Antonov cargo planes flew components of Europe's ExoMars orbiter and lander from Italy to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazkhastan last week, setting up for a March 14 launch toward the red planet. The Mars mission materials will be assembled, tested, fueled and attached to a Proton rocket over the coming months on the first of two launches for the ExoMars program, to be followed by the departure of a European-made rover to the red planet in 2018. Liftoff of the first ExoMars mission is set for March 14, at the opening of a 12-day launch period. That launch will carry the Trace Gas Orbiter instrumented with sensors to sniff out methane in the Martian atmosphere, plus the Schiaparelli lander, an entry probe that will attempt to achieve Europe's first successful landing on the red planet. A convoy carrying the two Mars-bound components of the ExoMars 2016 mission, plus a load of ground support equipment, left the Thales Alenia Space factory in Cannes, France, on Dec. 17 en route to Turin, Italy, where three Antonov An-124 cargo flights would take the hardware to Kazakhstan. The three Antonov transport planes departed Turin-Casselle Airport on Dec. 18, Dec. 20 and Dec. 22, carrying equipment to help prepare ExoMars for launch, the Schiaparelli lander and the Trace Gas Orbiter, respectively. The last shipment arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Dec. 23 after a customs check in Moscow, and ground crews unloaded the spacecraft containers into a clean room to start the launch campaign. One of the first tasks at the launch site will be to set up a temporary tent inside the satellite processing facility at Baikonur. The covering will ensure the Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli are free of contaminants, keeping with stringent "planetary protection" protocols aimed at safeguarding Mars from Earth microbes. The Baikonur Cosmodrome currently does not have a facility that meets Western planetary protection requirements, according to Walter Cugno, ExoMars program director at Thales Alenia Space, the mission's prime contractor. The European Space Agency and Roscosmos - the Russian space agency - signed a final agreement in 2013 to collaborate on the ExoMars program. Russia took over much of the work originally assigned to NASA, such as the provision of launchers and a rover descent package, before the U.S. space agency withdrew from the missions due to budget constraints. Then teams will initially prepare the two spacecraft for launch separately. Ground crews planned to work nonstop over the holidays to keep the mission on schedule for its March 14 launch date, and perhaps gain some breathing room in the schedule in case something goes wrong closer to liftoff. The Schiaparelli lander, covered in golden insulation and shaped like a flying saucer, will receive propellants for its descent rockets beginning around Jan. 29, according to Cugno. With a full load of fuel, the lander will weigh about 600 kilograms, or 1,322 pounds. Schiaparelli is based on a simplified design, relying on internal batteries and not recharging solar panels for electricity, and cushioned by a "crushable" carbon-fiber structure instead of landing legs or airbags. The lander is stationary, carrying a weather station and sensors programmed to collect data on the layers of the Martian atmosphere during its descent. Engineers expect Schiaparelli to survive between two and four days - or up to eight days if conditions are benign. It is an introductory course to entry, descent and landing at Mars for Europe, which would become the third entity after the United States and Russia to achieve a successful touchdown on the red planet. Workers will hoist the Schiaparelli lander on top of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter around Feb. 12. The duo will remain attached until Oct. 16, when the lander will separate from the mothership three days before arriving at Mars. A three-day procedure to pump 2.3 metric tons (5,070 pounds) of propellants into the Trace Gas Orbiter is scheduled for Feb. 21-24. Combined operations between the spacecraft and launcher authorities will begin Feb. 26. In the final weeks before liftoff, Russian teams connect the ExoMars spacecraft to the Proton rocket's Breeze M upper stage, enclose it within the launcher's nose shroud, then roll out the booster for fueling with its mixture of hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide propellants. Launch on March 14 is currently set for approximately 0930 GMT (5:30 a.m. EST), according to Jorge Vago, ESA's ExoMars project scientist. The ExoMars orbiter and lander will be the only Mars mission launching in 2016 after NASA's announcement last week that the InSight probe will remain on Earth until at least 2018. The InSight lander's seismometer instrument
[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: December 21-25, 2015
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES December 21-25, 2015 o Auqakuh Vallis (21 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151221a o Phlegra Montes (22 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151222a o Tempe Terra (23 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151223a o Mamers Valles (24 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151224a o Olympica Fossae (25 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151225a All of the THEMIS images are archive here: http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] 1996-2016 meteorite collectors / dealers
I started collecting meteorites in the 1980's. I also recall getting my 1st Peekskill meteorite about 3 weeks after it hit the car, so would of been in 1992. Ron __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] MRO HiRISE Images - December 23, 2015
MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES December 23, 2015 o Boulders on a Landslide http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_035831_1760 This landslide is relatively fresh, as many individual boulders still stand out above the main deposit. o Topography of the Western Edge of Marth Crater http://www.uahirise.org/dtm/dtm.php?ID=ESP_042753_1930 This digital terrain model shows a small portion of the 94-kilometer-diamter Marth Crater, the fictional traverse of astronaut Mark Watney. o Icy Erosion http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_042886_1480 This observation shows an interesting collection of kilometer-scale craters with flat and smooth floors. o A Frost Enhanced Landscape http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_042895_2495 The process of polygon formation is common at these polar latitudes, but polygons are not always as striking as they are here. All of the HiRISE images are archived here: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., built the HiRISE instrument. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Russian Rocket Debris Causses Bright Light in Sky Over Three Western States
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/23/meteor-streaks-across-california-nevada-skies-and-causes-frenzy.html Russian rocket debris causes bright light in sky over three Western states Fox News December 23, 2015 U.S. officals said late Tuesday that debris from a Russian rocket was the cause of a bright light seen in the sky across Southern California, Nevada and Arizona earlier in the evening. U.S. Strategic Command spokeswoman Julie Ziegenhorn said the fireball was an SL-4 rocket body booster from Russia that was launched Monday. She said the booster re-entered Earth's atmosphere over Arizona at approximately 7:08 p.m. local time (9:08 p.m. EST). Thousands of people saw the light Tuesday, sending them into a social media frenzy reminiscent of the unannounced Nov. 7 Navy missile test that caused a similar streak to be seen across the Western U.S. The rocket booster seen Tuesday had a bright white glow and several other streaks could be seen as it broke apart. Airport officials in Las Vegas and Los Angeles confirmed to local media outlets that the object was not a plane. Nevada Highway Patrol trooper Chelsea Stuenkel told Fox 5 Vegas that police were called to an area to investigate a possible meteor impact, but nothing was found. Similarly, the Los Angeles Police Department told the Los Angeles Times that it had not received any calls related to the lights. The Associated Press contributed to this report. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Lowdown on Ceres: Images From Dawn's Closest Orbit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4802 Lowdown on Ceres: Images From Dawn's Closest Orbit Jet Propulsion Laboratory December 22, 2015 [Image] This image of Ceres was taken in Dawn's low-altitude mapping orbit around a crater chain called Gerber Catena. A 3-D view is also available. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA NASA's Dawn spacecraft, cruising in its lowest and final orbit at dwarf planet Ceres, has delivered the first images from its best-ever viewpoint. The new images showcase details of the cratered and fractured surface. 3-D versions of two of these views are also available. Dawn took these images of the southern hemisphere of Ceres on Dec. 10, at an approximate altitude of 240 miles (385 kilometers), which is its lowest-ever orbital altitude. Dawn will remain at this altitude for the rest of its mission, and indefinitely afterward. The resolution of the new images is about 120 feet (35 meters) per pixel. Among the striking views is a chain of craters called Gerber Catena, located just west of the large crater Urvara. Troughs are common on larger planetary bodies, caused by contraction, impact stresses and the loading of the crust by large mountains -- Olympus Mons on Mars is one example. The fracturing found all across Ceres' surface indicates that similar processes may have occurred there, despite its smaller size (the average diameter of Ceres is 584 miles, or 940 kilometers). Many of the troughs and grooves on Ceres were likely formed as a result of impacts, but some appear to be tectonic, reflecting internal stresses that broke the crust. "Why they are so prominent is not yet understood, but they are probably related to the complex crustal structure of Ceres," said Paul Schenk, a Dawn science team member at the Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston. The images were taken as part of a test of Dawn's backup framing camera. The primary framing camera, which is essentially identical, began its imaging campaign at this lowest orbit on Dec. 16. Both cameras are healthy. Dawn's other instruments also began their intense period of observations this month. The visible and infrared mapping spectrometer will help identify minerals by looking at how various wavelengths of light are reflected by the surface of Ceres. The gamma ray and neutron detector is also active. By measuring the energies and numbers of gamma rays and neutrons, two components of nuclear radiation, it will help scientists determine the abundances of some elements on Ceres. Earlier in December, Dawn science team members revealed that the bright material found in such notable craters as Occator is consistent with salt -- and proposed that a type of magnesium sulfate called hexahydrite may be present. A different group of Dawn scientists found that Ceres also contains ammoniated clays. Because ammonia is abundant in the outer solar system, this finding suggests that Ceres could have formed in the vicinity of Neptune and migrated inward, or formed in place with material that migrated in from the outer solar system. "As we take the highest-resolution data ever from Ceres, we will continue to examine our hypotheses and uncover even more surprises about this mysterious world," said Chris Russell, principal investigator of the Dawn mission, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first mission outside the Earth-moon system to orbit two distinct solar system targets. It orbited protoplanet Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012, and arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015. Dawn's mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of mission participants, visit: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission More information about Dawn is available at the following sites: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.nasa.gov/dawn Media Contact Elizabeth Landau / Preston Dyches Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6425 / 354-7013 elizabeth.lan...@jpl.nasa.gov / preston.dyc...@jpl.nasa.gov 2015-384 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] NASA Suspends 2016 Launch of InSight Mission to Mars
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4805 NASA Suspends 2016 Launch of InSight Mission to Mars Jet Propulsion Laboratory December 22, 2015 After thorough examination, NASA managers have decided to suspend the planned March 2016 launch of the Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission. The decision follows unsuccessful attempts to repair a leak in a section of the prime instrument in the science payload. "Learning about the interior structure of Mars has been a high priority objective for planetary scientists since the Viking era," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "We push the boundaries of space technology with our missions to enable science, but space exploration is unforgiving, and the bottom line is that we're not ready to launch in the 2016 window. A decision on a path forward will be made in the coming months, but one thing is clear: NASA remains fully committed to the scientific discovery and exploration of Mars." The instrument involved is the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), a seismometer provided by France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES. Designed to measure ground movements as small as the diameter of an atom, the instrument requires a vacuum seal around its three main sensors to withstand the harsh conditions of the Martian environment. "InSight's investigation of the Red Planet's interior is designed to increase understanding of how all rocky planets, including Earth, formed and evolved," said Bruce Banerdt, InSight Principal Investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Mars retains evidence about the rocky planets' early development that has been erased on Earth by internal churning Mars lacks. Gaining information about the core, mantle and crust of Mars is a high priority for planetary science, and InSight was built to accomplish this." A leak earlier this year that previously had prevented the seismometer from retaining vacuum conditions was repaired, and the mission team was hopeful the most recent fix also would be successful. However, during testing on Monday in extreme cold temperature (-49 degrees Fahrenheit/-45 degrees Celsius) the instrument again failed to hold a vacuum. NASA officials determined there is insufficient time to resolve another leak, and complete the work and thorough testing required to ensure a successful mission. "It's the first time ever that such a sensitive instrument has been built. We were very close to succeeding, but an anomaly has occurred, which requires further investigation. Our teams will find a solution to fix it, but it won't be solved in time for a launch in 2016," said Marc Pircher, Director of CNES's Toulouse Space Centre. The spacecraft, built by Lockheed Martin, was delivered to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, on Dec. 16. With the 2016 launch canceled, the spacecraft will be returned from Vandenberg to Lockheed's facility in Denver. The relative positions of the planets are most favorable for launching missions from Earth to Mars for only a few weeks every 26 months. For InSight, that 2016 launch window existed from March 4 to March 30. "In 2008, we made a difficult, but correct decision to postpone the launch of the Mars Science Laboratory mission for two years to better ensure mission success," said Jim Green, director, Planetary Science Division, in Washington. "The successes of that mission's rover, Curiosity, have vastly outweighed any disappointment about that delay." NASA is on an ambitious journey to Mars that includes sending humans to the Red Planet, and that work remains on track despite Tuesday's decision. Robotic spacecraft are leading the way for NASA's Mars Exploration Program, with the upcoming Mars 2020 rover being designed and built, the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers exploring the Martian surface, the Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft currently orbiting the planet, along with the MAVEN orbiter, which recently helped scientists understand what happened to the Martian atmosphere. NASA and CNES also are participating in the European Space Agency's (ESA's) Mars Express mission currently operating at Mars and plans to participate on ESA's 2016 and 2018 ExoMars missions, including providing telecommunication radios for ESA's 2016 orbiter and a critical element of a key astrobiology instrument on the 2018 ExoMars rover. "The JPL and CNES teams, and their partners, have made a heroic effort to prepare the InSight instrument, but have run out of time given the celestial mechanics of a launch to Mars," said JPL Director Charles Elachi. "It is more important to do it right than take an unacceptable risk." InSight's science payload includes two key instruments: SEIS, provided by CNES, and the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), provided by the
[meteorite-list] U.S. Demonstrates Production of Fuel for Missions to the Solar System and Beyond
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4806 U.S. Demonstrates Production of Fuel for Missions to the Solar System and Beyond Jet Propulsion Laboratory December 22, 2015 The first U.S. production in nearly 30 years of a specialized fuel to power future deep space missions has been completed by researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee. The production of 50 grams of plutonium-238 -roughly the mass of a golf ball - marks the first demonstration in the United States since the Savannah River Plant in South Carolina ceased production in the late 1980s. Radioisotope power systems convert heat from the natural radioactive decay of the isotope plutonium-238 into electricity. These systems have been used to power the exploration of the solar system and beyond, from the Viking missions on Mars, to the Voyager spacecraft entering interplanetary space, and most recently powering the Curiosity Mars Rover and the New Horizons spacecraft sailing past Pluto. "This significant achievement by our team mates at DOE signals a new renaissance in the exploration of our solar system," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Radioisotope power systems are a key tool to power the next generation of planetary orbiters, landers and rovers in our quest to unravel the mysteries of the universe." The success of the engineers and technicians at ORNL comes two years after the project formally started with NASA funding, building on many years of research and testing. This demonstration of the key steps in fuel production will ensure that this vital space power technology will be available to provide electricity and heat for ambitious exploration missions of the solar system in this decade and beyond. In all, 27 past U.S. space missions have used this radioisotope power for their electricity and heat. The Department of Energy (DOE) has successfully and safely provided radioisotope power systems for NASA, Navy and Air Force missions for more than 50 years. "As we seek to expand our knowledge of the universe, the Department of Energy will help ensure that our spacecraft have the power supply necessary to go farther than ever before," said Franklin Orr, Under Secretary for Science and Energy at DOE. "We're proud to work with NASA in this endeavor, and we look forward to our continued partnership." The currently available radioisotope power system, also supplied to NASA by the DOE, is called the Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG). Essentially a nuclear battery, an MMRTG can provide about 110 watts of electrical power to a spacecraft and its science instruments at the beginning of a mission. On some missions, such as NASA's Curiosity Mars rover (now deep into its third Earth year seeking signs of habitable conditions on the Red Planet), the excess heat from the MMRTG can also be used to keep spacecraft systems warm in cold environments. The next NASA mission planning to use an MMRTG is the Mars 2020 rover, due to be launched as part of NASA's Journey to Mars, to seek signs of past life on the Red Planet, test technology for human exploration, and gather samples of rocks and soil that could be returned to Earth in the future. Two (unfueled) MMRTGs are currently built and in storage at DOE facilities; one is reserved for Mars 2020, and the other could be used on a future mission. Fabrication of the fuel pellets for the Mars 2020 MMRTG, using the existing U.S. supply of plutonium dioxide, is already underway. Researchers will analyze the sample for chemical purity and plutonium-238 content to determine whether adjustments need to be made before scaling up the process. With continued coordination, both agencies plan to increase production after this important demonstration milestone and will start with about 12 ounces (300 to 400 grams) of plutonium dioxide per year. After implementing greater automation and scaling up the process, ORNL will produce an average of 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms) in subsequent years. Of the 77 pounds (35 kilograms) of existing plutonium-238, about half provide enough heat to meet power specifications of planned spacecraft. The remainder, due to its age, does not meet specifications, but can be blended with newly produced Pu-238 to extend the usable inventory. The DOE's Office of Nuclear Energy develops, manufactures, tests and delivers radioisotope power systems for space exploration and national security missions and maintains responsibility for nuclear safety throughout all aspects of the missions. NASA's Radioisotope Power System (RPS) program, managed by NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, is funding the development of new, higher efficiency thermoelectric materials that could be incorporated into a next-generation enhanced MMRTG that would provide about 25 percent more power at the start of a
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: December 9-15, 2015
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html#opportunity OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Rover On Steeper Slopes - sols 4222-4228, December 9, 2015-December 15, 2015: Opportunity is inside "Marathon Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is positioned on steep slopes for improved solar array energy production. The near-term object is to position the rover to be able to grind a high-value surface target with the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT). This target may hold some of the clues as to the origin of the clay spectral signature detected in Marathon Valley. On Sol 4222 (Dec. 9, 2015), Opportunity bumped back about 12 feet (3.65 meters) to set up for an approach to this target on a very steep slope. On the next sol, the rover bumped forward about 28 inches (70 centimeters), but because of the steep slopes the drive stopped as wheel currents exceeded protective set points for this steep terrain. A second attempt was made on the next sol to approach this same target. Again the steep terrain caused the drive to stop after only 3.6 feet (1.1 meters) of wheel motion. Slips as high as 50 percent (not uncommon for this steep terrain) were seen on the last drive step. The rover used the next sol to perform a robotic arm salute to allow unobstructed imagery in front of the rover. Then on Sol 4227 (Dec. 14, 2015), Opportunity backed down slope about 10 feet (3 meters), collecting both pre-drive and post-drive imagery. On the next sol, the rover drove about 14 feet (4.4 meters) to approach the target from a more lateral direction. An approach bump is planned for the next sol. As of Sol 4221 (Dec. 8, 2015), the solar array energy production was 407 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.438 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.660. Total odometry is 26.50 miles (42.65 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: December 14-18, 2015
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES December 14-18, 2015 o More Olympica Fossae (14 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151214a o Elysium Fossae (15 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151215a o Hephaestus Fossae (16 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151216a o Dark Slope Streaks (17 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151217a o Athabasca Valles (18 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-201512187776a All of the THEMIS images are archive here: http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Spacecraft Shipped to California for March Launch (InSight)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4797 Mars Spacecraft Shipped to California for March Launch Jet Propulsion Laboratory December 17, 2015 NASA Insight Mission Status Report NASA's next Mars spacecraft has arrived at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, for final preparations before a launch scheduled in March 2016 and a landing on Mars six months later. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built and tested the spacecraft and delivered it on Dec. 16 from Buckley Air Force Base in Denver to Vandenberg, on the central California Coast. Preparations are on a tight schedule for launch during the period March 4 through March 30. The work ahead includes installation and testing of one of the mission's key science instruments, its seismometer, which is scheduled for delivery to Vandenberg in January. "InSight has traveled the first leg of its journey, getting from Colorado to California, and we're on track to start the next leg, to Mars, with a launch in March," said InSight Principal Investigator Bruce Banerdt, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. The seismometer, provided by France's national space agency (CNES), includes a vacuum container around its three main sensors. Maintaining the vacuum is necessary for the instrument's extremely high sensitivity; the seismometer is capable of measuring ground motions as small as the width of an atom. A vacuum leak detected during testing of the seismometer was repaired last week in France and is undergoing further testing. InSight's heat-probe instrument from Germany's space agency (DLR), the lander's robotic arm and the rest of the payload are already installed on the spacecraft. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy and Heat Transport, is the first Mars mission dedicated to studying the deep interior of the Red Planet. This Mars lander's findings will advance understanding about the formation and evolution of all rocky planets, including Earth. One of the newest additions installed on the InSight lander is a microchip bearing the names of about 827,000 people worldwide who participated in an online "send your name to Mars" activity in August and September 2015. InSight will be the first mission to Mars ever launched from California. The mission is part of NASA's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. For more information about InSight, visit: http://insight.jpl.nasa.gov Media Contact Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6278 guy.webs...@jpl.nasa.gov Gary Napier Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver 303-971-4012 gary.p.nap...@lmco.com George Diller NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida 321-861-7643 george.h.dil...@nasa.gov Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077 dwayne.c.br...@nasa.gov / laura.l.canti...@nasa.gov 2015-378 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Rocks Rich in Silica Present Puzzles for Mars Curiosity Rover Team
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4799 Rocks Rich in Silica Present Puzzles for Mars Rover Team Jet Propulsion Laboratory December 17, 2015 In detective stories, as the plot thickens, an unexpected clue often delivers more questions than answers. In this case, the scene is a mountain on Mars. The clue: the chemical compound silica. Lots of silica. The sleuths: a savvy band of Earthbound researchers whose agent on Mars is NASA's laser-flashing, one-armed mobile laboratory, Curiosity. NASA's Curiosity rover has found much higher concentrations of silica at some sites it has investigated in the past seven months than anywhere else it has visited since landing on Mars 40 months ago. Silica makes up nine-tenths of the composition of some of the rocks. It is a rock-forming chemical combining the elements silicon and oxygen, commonly seen on Earth as quartz, but also in many other minerals. "These high-silica compositions are a puzzle. You can boost the concentration of silica either by leaching away other ingredients while leaving the silica behind, or by bringing in silica from somewhere else," said Albert Yen, a Curiosity science team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Either of those processes involve water. If we can determine which happened, we'll learn more about other conditions in those ancient wet environments." Water that is acidic would tend to carry other ingredients away and leave silica behind. Alkaline or neutral water could bring in dissolved silica that would be deposited from the solution. Apart from presenting a puzzle about the history of the region where Curiosity is working, the recent findings on Mount Sharp have intriguing threads linked to what an earlier NASA rover, Spirit, found halfway around Mars. There, signs of sulfuric acidity were observed, but Curiosity's science team is still considering both scenarios -- and others -- to explain the findings on Mount Sharp. Adding to the puzzle, some silica at one rock Curiosity drilled, called "Buckskin," is in a mineral named tridymite, rare on Earth and never seen before on Mars. The usual origin of tridymite on Earth involves high temperatures in igneous or metamorphic rocks, but the finely layered sedimentary rocks examined by Curiosity have been interpreted as lakebed deposits. Furthermore, tridymite is found in volcanic deposits with high silica content. Rocks on Mars' surface generally have less silica, like basalts in Hawaii, though some silica-rich (silicic) rocks have been found by Mars rovers and orbiters. Magma, the molten source material of volcanoes, can evolve on Earth to become silicic. Tridymite found at Buckskin may be evidence for magmatic evolution on Mars. Curiosity has been studying geological layers of Mount Sharp, going uphill, since 2014, after two years of productive work on the plains surrounding the mountain. The mission delivered evidence in its first year that lakes in the area billions of years ago offered favorable conditions for life, if microbes ever lived on Mars. As Curiosity reaches successively younger layers up Mount Sharp's slopes, the mission is investigating how ancient environmental conditions evolved from lakes, rivers and deltas to the harsh aridity of today's Mars. Seven months ago, Curiosity approached "Marias Pass," where two geological layers are exposed in contact with each other. The rover's laser-firing instrument for examining compositions from a distance, Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam), detected bountiful silica in some targets the rover passed on its way to the contact zone. The rover's Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons instrument simultaneously detected that the rock composition was unique in this area. "The high silica was a surprise -- so interesting that we backtracked to investigate it with more of Curiosity's instruments," said Jens Frydenvang of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Gathering clues about silica was a major emphasis in rover operations over a span of four months and a distance of about one-third of a mile (half a kilometer). The investigations included many more readings from ChemCam, plus elemental composition measurements by the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the rover's arm and mineral identification of rock-powder samples by the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument inside the rover. Buckskin was the first of three rocks where drilled samples were collected during that period. The CheMin identification of tridymite prompted the team to look at possible explanations: "We could solve this by determining whether trydymite in the sediment comes from a volcanic source or has another origin," said Liz Rampe, of Aerodyne Industries at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Houston. "A lot of us are in our labs trying to see if there's a way to make tridymite without such a high temperature." Beyond
[meteorite-list] Asteroid 1998 WT24 Looks Even Better Second Time Around
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4800 Asteroid Looks Even Better Second Time Around Jet Propulsion Laboratory December 17, 2015 [Images] On the left is a radar image of asteroid 1998 WT24 taken in December 2001 by scientists using NASA's the 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone, California. Image credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR/NRAO/AUI/NSF Asteroid 1998 WT24 safely flew past Earth on Dec. 11 at a distance of about 2.6 million miles (4.2 million kilometers, 11 lunar distances). During its flyby, NASA scientists used the 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone, California, to probe it with microwave transmissions. Using this technique, they created the highest-resolution radar images of the asteroid. This is the second time asteroid 1998 WT24 has been in the sights of NASA's solar system radar. In December of 2001, Goldstone obtained the first radar images of 1998 WT24 (http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/1998wt24.html), which revealed that the asteroid was about 1,300 feet (400 meters) in diameter and shaped like a Russet potato. The radar images from 2001 had a resolution of about 60 feet (19 meters) per pixel. The new radar images achieve a spatial resolution as fine as 25 feet (7.5 meters) per pixel. They were obtained using the same DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone to transmit high-power microwaves toward the asteroid. However, this time, the radar echoes bounced off the asteroid were received by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's 100-meter (330-foot) Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. "With this upgraded resolution we can see the asteroid's ridges and concavities in much greater detail," said Shantanu Naidu, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who works with the radar team and set up the observing plan for the asteroid's flyby. "One or two other radar bright features that could be outcrops on the surface are also visible." The next visit of asteroid 1998 WT24 to Earth's neighborhood will be on Nov. 11, 2018, when it will make a distant pass at about 12.5-million miles (52 lunar distances). Naidu noted JPL's asteroid radar team is also preparing to observe asteroid 2003 SD220, which will make its closest approach on Dec. 24 at about 28 lunar distances. "From optical observations, we know it could be anything between a few hundred meters and a few kilometers wide and that it is on NASA's list as a potential human-accessible target, said Naidu. "But that is about it. Using radar, we should be able to see the shape of the object. For me, that is what makes this job so exciting. Every time we observe something, we are seeing something nobody has ever seen. We are making an unknown known, and as a scientist what can be better than that?" Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid's size, shape, rotation, surface features and surface roughness, and for improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than would be possible otherwise. NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. In fact, the U.S. has the most robust and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth objects (NEOs). To date, U.S. assets have discovered about 98 percent of known NEOs. In addition to the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it also partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based astronomers, and space science institutes across the country, often with grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA, and also with international space agencies and institutions that are working to track and better understand these objects. In addition, NASA values the work of numerous highly skilled amateur astronomers, whose accurate observational data helps improve asteroid orbits after they are found. JPL hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission Directorate. More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at these sites: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch Media Contact DC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 a...@jpl.nasa.gov Charles Blue National Radio Astronomy Observatory 434.296.0314 cb...@nrao.edu 2015-380 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: December 2-8, 2015
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html#opportunity OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: A Week of Robotic Arm Activities/ - sols 4215-4221, December 2, 2015-December 8, 2015: Opportunity is inside "Marathon Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is positioned on a steep slope with an approximately 19-degree northerly tilt for improved solar array energy production. On Sol 4215 (Dec. 2, 2015), the robotic arm was used to collect imaging of the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) bit. That imagery will allow the assessment of remaining grind bit life before the next RAT grind. Also, with the robotic arm out of the way, unobstructed Panoramic Camera (Pancam) images of the surface target, "Pvt. Hugh McNeal" were taken. Finally, the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) was placed on the surface target by the robotic arm for the next sol's integration. More Pancam imagery was collected over subsequent sols. On Sol 4219 (Dec. 6, 2015), the RAT was used to brush the surface target and then the APXS was placed, slight offset, on the surface target. On Sol 4220 (Dec. 7, 2015), another tuck of the robotic arm was done to allow unobstructed images of the surface to be taken. Then, the Microscopic Imager (MI) was used to collect a detailed surface mosaic, followed by the placement of the APXS for a short integration. On the next sol, another MI mosaic was collected and more color Pancam panoramas were taken. As of Sol 4221 (Dec. 8, 2015), the solar array energy production was 419 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.430 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.660. Total odometry is 26.49 miles (42.63 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Needle Formation Allows Small Asteroids to Impact Earth
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28671-needle-formation-lets-space-rubble-sneak-up-on-us/ Needle formation lets space rubble sneak up on us New Scientist December 15 2015 Look out below! Large, rocky bodies may crash to Earth more frequently than we knew - by rearranging their formation. There have been a number of showstopping meteor strikes in recent memory, like the one that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013. But it was thought that unless the space rocks were at least 50 metres across, or made of very hard material, they would break up and explode as they passed through the atmosphere, never reaching the ground. But that doesn't explain why observations of Venus from the Magellan spacecraft in the 1990s showed many more craters than expected, or events like one in 2007 near Carancas in Peru (pictured above), when an impact left a crater but not the expected hard meteorites or visible fireball. Peter Schultz of Brown University in Rhode Island and his colleagues now suggest an alternative. They say rocks that enter the atmosphere as loosely bound piles of rubble, or that break up in the atmosphere, can rearrange into a needle-like formation, guided by the shock wave they cause by coming in faster than the speed of sound. Sliding through This allows the rocks to pass through the atmosphere with much less resistance, and without the fireball that is the signature of a disintegrating cloud of debris. Schultz simulated this process in experiments at the NASA Ames Vertical Gun Range by breaking up projectiles into a cloud of debris and tracking the clouds path. He presented the results at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco on 14 December. This affects how dangerous space rocks could be, Schultz says. "We didn't think we were at risk from objects less than 10 metres across actually hitting the ground." Such impacts have seldom been reported so far, but that's not actually surprising, he adds. Over human history, most rocks probably landed in the ocean or in uninhabited areas. "The population explosion has made it much more likely that people would see an impact, but that's only happened in the last few hundred years," he says."Life's just been too short." Reference: https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm15/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/80236 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Study Finds Evidence for More Recent Clay Formation on Mars
https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/12/mars Study finds evidence for more recent clay formation on Mars Brown University December 14, 2015 Contact: Kevin Stacey 401-863-3766 PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Recent orbital and rover missions to Mars have turned up ample evidence of clays and other hydrated minerals formed when rocks are altered by the presence of water. Most of that alteration is thought to have happened during the earliest part of Martian history, more than 3.7 billion years ago. But a new study shows that later alteration - within the last 2 billion years or so - may be more common than many scientists had thought. The research, by Brown University geologists Ralph Milliken and Vivian Sun, is in press in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. The lion's share of the clay deposits found on Mars thus far have turned up in terrains that date back to the earliest Martian epoch, known as the Noachian period. Clays also tend to be found in and around large impact craters, where material from deep below the surface has been excavated. Scientists have generally assumed that the clays found at impact sites probably formed in the ancient Noachian, became buried over time, and then were brought back to the surface by the impact. That assumption is particularly true of clay deposits found in crater central peaks. Central peaks are formed when, in the aftermath of an impact, rocks from within the crust rebound upward, bringing layers to the surface that had been buried many kilometers deep. "Because central peaks contain rocks uplifted from depth, some previous studies have assumed the clays found within central peak regions are uplifted too," said Milliken, assistant professor of Earth, environmental and planetary sciences. "What we wanted to do was look at lots of these craters in detail to see if that's actually correct." Milliken and Sun performed a survey of 633 crater central peaks distributed across the Martian surface. They looked at detailed mineralogy data collected by NASA's Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), combined with high-resolution stereo images taken by NASA's HiRISE camera. Both instruments fly aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Of those 633 peaks, Milliken and Sun found 265 that have evidence of hydrated minerals, the majority of which were consistent with clays. The researchers then used HiRISE images to establish a detailed geologic context for each of those craters to help determine if the clays were in rocks that had indeed been excavated from depth. They found that in about 65 percent of cases the clay minerals were indeed associated with uplifted bedrock. "That's a majority," Milliken said, "but it still leaves a substantial number of craters - 35 percent - where these minerals are present and not clearly associated with uplift." Within those 35 percent, Milliken and Sun found examples where clays exist in dunes, unconsolidated soil, or other formations not associated with bedrock. In other cases, clays were found in impact melt - deposits of rock that had been melted by the heat of the impact and then re-solidified as it cooled. Both of these scenarios suggest that the clay minerals at these sites are likely "authigenic," meaning they formed in place sometime after impact occurred, rather than being excavated from underground. In a number of cases, these authigenic clays were found in fairly young craters, ones formed in the last 2 billion years or so. "What this tells us is that the formation of clays isn't restricted to the most ancient time period on Mars," Milliken said. "You do apparently have a lot of local environments in these crater settings where you can still form clays, and it may have occurred more often than many people had thought." One mechanism for forming these clays could be related to the impact process itself, the researchers say. Impacts generate heat, which could melt any ice or pre-existing hydrated minerals that may have been present within the nearby crust. Any liberated water could then percolate through surrounding rock to form clays. Some impact simulations suggest that these hydrothermal conditions could persist for perhaps thousands of years, making for potentially habitable conditions. And that could have implications for the search for evidence of past life on Mars. "So far, much of our surface exploration by rovers has focused on ancient terrains and whether or not the environments they record were habitable," said Sun, lead author on the study and a graduate student working with Milliken. "But if we wanted to look at an environment that was more recent, we've identified craters that might be possible candidates." Note to Editors: Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews, and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call
[meteorite-list] Hayabusa 2 Probe Confirmed on Good Trajectory After Earth Flyby
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/12/14/asteroid-probe-confirmed-on-good-trajectory-after-earth-fly by/ Asteroid probe confirmed on good trajectory after Earth flyby by Stephen Clark SpaceFlight Now December 14, 2015 A Japanese space probe picked up just the right amount of speed when it flew by Earth earlier this month, using the planet's gravity to slingshot toward an asteroid scientists think is a primordial leftover from the ancient solar system, mission managers said Monday. The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft passed about 3,090 kilometers (1,920 miles) above the Pacific Ocean near the Hawaiian islands Dec. 3, returning to Earth's vicinity exactly one year after its launch from Japan. Ground controllers intended to use Earth's gravity to give the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft a boost, bending its trajectory to intercept asteroid Ryugu in June 2018 with the help of further steering impulses from the probe's ion propulsion system. The results of the flyby showed Hayabusa 2 is on the correct path after the Dec. 3 encounter, which turned the probe's orbit by about 80 degrees and increased its speed 1.6 kilometers per second (3,579 mph) relative to the sun's position, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA. The extra speed will propel Hayabusa 2 outward from Earth's orbit toward Ryugu, a near-Earth asteroid that spends most of its time farther from the sun than Earth. Hayabusa 2 is in good health after the Earth flyby, JAXA said in a press release Monday. "I would like to express my deep gratitude to all pertinent parties and people and those who are supporting our operation," said Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa 2's project manager. "All the Hayabusa 2 project team members have been working together and will continue our challenging voyage. "The Hayabusa 2 gained orbit energy through the swing-by to leave the Earth," Tsuda said in a statement. "The target is the asteroid Ryugu. 'See you later, people on Earth!'" As of late Sunday, U.S. time, the Hayabusa 2 spacecraft was 4.15 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) from Earth, about 10 times the distance of the moon. Hayabusa 2 will spend about a year-and-a-half in the vicinity of asteroid Ryugu beginning in mid-2018, dropping four small landers - three from Japan and one from Germany - to the asteroid's surface. The main spacecraft itself will descend to the 900-meter (3,000-foot) asteroid several times, scooping up bits of rock for collection into a chamber. Hayabusa 2 will head back to Earth in 2020 and drop a landing capsule to a parachute-assisted touchdown in Australia with the asteroid material. [Images] This series of images from Hayabusa 2's optical navigation camera show Earth as the probe approached for the Dec. 3 flyby. Credit: JAXA Hayabusa 2 is Japan's second asteroid sample return mission. The Hayabusa spacecraft visited asteroid Itokawa in 2005, but technical problems prevented the spacecraft from gathering the intended samples. Hayabusa successfully landed back on Earth in 2010, and scientists harvested microscopic specimens from the return capsule. NASA plans to launch its own asteroid sample return probe named OSIRIS-REx in September 2016, heading to a different object to collect rocks and return to Earth in 2023. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update - November 10-18, 2015
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Returning to RAM - sols 4194-4201, November 10, 2015 - November 18, 2015 Opportunity is within 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. After several sols of operating using Flash storage, the rover switched to using just RAM during Sol 4194 (Nov. 10, 2015), in order to safely use the robotic arm. The Microscopic Imager (MI) collected a mosaic of the surface target, 'Pvt. Ebenezer Tuttle' which was followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for several sols on integration. On Sol 4195 (Nov. 11, 2015), Opportunity switched back to using Flash memory in order to recover many important science data products still stored in the Flash memory. A reset of the vehicle occurred on Sol 4196 (Nov. 12, 2015), but was quickly recovered to master sequence control by the ground team. On Sol 4200 (Nov. 17, 2015), the rover was configured back to using RAM only. A 43-foot (13-meter) drive to a new location with steeper north-facing slopes was performed on that sol. As of Sol 4201 (Nov. 18, 2015), the solar array energy production was 376 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.494 and a solar array dust factor of 0.612. Total odometry is 26.49 miles (42.63 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Robot Arm Simulates Close Approach to ESA's Asteroid Mission
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Engineering_Technology/Asteroid_Impact_Mission/Robot_arm_simulates_close_approach_of_ESA_s_asteroid_mission Robot Arm Simulates Close Approach to ESA's Asteroid Mission European Space Agency December 8, 2015 The final approach to an asteroid has been practised for ESA's proposed Asteroid Impact Mission using a real spacecraft camera mounted on a robot arm. The 2020 AIM mission would find its way across deep space as usual with startrackers and radio ranging but the real challenge would come after arrival at its target Didymos double asteroids: picking its way around these unprecedented surroundings to close in on the smaller asteroid for detailed observations and setting down a lander. The rehearsal took place at the Madrid headquarters of Spain's GMV company, with ESA's arm-mounted camera using dedicated navigation software to close in on a model asteroid. "By including an actual navigation camera in the loop, we made the test as realistic as possible," explains ESA guidance specialist Massimo Casasco. AIM and lander As the Rosetta comet adventure showed last year, landing on a small body is no easy task. "One of AIM's objectives is to put down a lander on the smaller of the Didymos asteroids using onboard autonomy and very limited resources," says Ian Carnelli, ESA's AIM project manager. The low-budget AIM will avoid costly dedicated proximity sensors, instead calling on smart visual navigation software to track its motion over the surface. In addition, it might reuse its laser communication package for measuring height above the surface. ESA's camera took images for the processing software to first select landmark "feature points' within the field of view and then to follow them from frame to frame. The camera itself has a detector that acquires the images, a "frame store" for their intermediate storage and an image-processing chip to perform the feature tracking, before providing the information to AIM's guidance and navigation computer. "The changing tracks of the various feature points over time (shown in purple in the video) are checked against the onward and rotational motion of the spacecraft to determine its position and orientation," says ESA guidance expert Olivier Dubois-Matra. "The ultimate goal for AIM is to demonstrate new ways to explore small Solar System bodies in the future," adds Ian, "so we are testing this approach as fully as possible. In effect, the test bench is a fully fledged optical and robotic laboratory, testing AIM's approach and the lander descent right down to deployment altitude." Camera on robot arm With a launch window opening in October 2020, AIM would be humanity's first mission to a double asteroid. Its first major design review next month will allow detailed design to begin in February. The Mascot-2 lander is being designed and tested by Germany's DLR space agency and is based on the lander scheduled to reach asteroid Ryugu as part of Japan's Hayabusa-2 in July 2018. NASA's own Double Asteroid Redirection Test, or DART, probe will impact the same asteroid, with AIM providing detailed before-and-after mapping to help assess the effects and test planetary defence techniques. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] MRO HiRISE Images - December 9, 2015
MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES December 9, 2015 o The Coming and Going of Ice http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_042440_1380 The knobby, pitted terrain is caused when ice is deposited and then sublimates over and over again. o Strange Patterns in Echus Chasma http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_042835_1800 This image shows bright and dark patterns with curving boundaries, a good example of Mars art. What caused this appearance? o Curiosity Trek http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_043539_1755 The Mars Science Laboratory, Curiosity, continues its exciting traverse of Mars. Here, we highlight some of its stops. o Inverted Streams in the Aeolis Region http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/PSP_002424_1765 The sinuous ridges in this image display strong characteristics of ancient meandering riverbeds that are preserved as inverted topography. All of the HiRISE images are archived here: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., built the HiRISE instrument. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Reaches Sand Dunes
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4787 NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Reaches Sand Dunes Jet Propulsion Laboratory December 10, 2015 Fast Facts: * Curiosity is using its wheels, as well as its science payload, to investigate sand that forms active dunes on Mars. * Plans call for the rover to scoop up and sieve sand for onboard laboratory analysis. NASA's Curiosity Mars rover has begun an up-close investigation of dark sand dunes up to two stories tall. The dunes are on the rover's trek up the lower portion of a layered Martian mountain. A view of the rippled surface of what's been informally named "High Dune" is online at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20168 A wheel track exposing material beneath the surface of a sand sheet nearby is at: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA20169 The dunes close to Curiosity's current location are part of "Bagnold Dunes," a band along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp inside Gale Crater. Observations of this dune field from orbit show that edges of individual dunes move as much as 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year. The rover's planned investigations include scooping a sample of the dune material for analysis with laboratory instruments inside Curiosity. Curiosity has been working on Mars since early August 2012. It reached the base of Mount Sharp in 2014 after fruitfully investigating outcrops closer to its landing site and then trekking to the mountain. The main mission objective now is to examine successively higher layers of Mount Sharp. For more information about Curiosity, visit: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl Media Contact Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6278 guy.webs...@jpl.nasa.gov Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077 dwayne.c.br...@nasa.gov / laura.l.canti...@nasa.gov 2015-367 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update - November 4-9, 2015
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Opportunity Dips Back Into Flash - sols 4188-4193, November 04, 2015-November 09, 2015 Opportunity is within 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover has been switched to using Flash again. The plan for this week is to return some high-value science data products stored in Flash memory. On Sol 4188 (Nov. 4, 2015), an atmospheric argon measurement was collected using the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer. On Sol 4189 (Nov. 5, 2015), a problem with the Deep Space Network station transmitter prevented our sequence plan from being sent to the rover. Independently on that sol, Opportunity experienced a reset, not unexpected since Flash memory was enabled. New sequences and a recovery plan were sent to the rover on Sol 4190 (Nov. 6, 2015). But a timing error prevented the master sequence from starting. A team came in over the weekend and built a real-time sequence activation command that was sent on Sol 4191 (Nov. 7, 2015), restoring the rover to master sequence operation. As of Sol 4193 (Nov. 9, 2015), the solar array energy production was 359 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.511 and a solar array dust factor of 0.609. Total odometry is 26.48 miles (42.62 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: November 19 - December 1, 2015
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html#opportunity OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Arm Raised to Take in the View - sols 4202-4214, November 19, 2015-December 01, 2015: Opportunity is inside 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover is positioned on steep, north-facing slopes for improved solar array energy production. On Sol 4202 (Nov. 19. 2105), the robotic arm was raised so Panoramic Camera (Pancam) color images could be collected without an obstructed view of the foreground. On Sol 4206 (Nov. 23, 2015), a small bump of less than 3 feet (a meter) was performed to position some surface targets within the work volume of the robotic arm. Additional Flash bank readouts were performed to support the Flash memory diagnostics. On subsequent sols, both Navigation Camera (Navcam) and Pancam imagery were collected. On Sol 4211 (Nov. 28, 2015), the robotic arm was used to collect a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic of the surface target, named 'Pvt. Hugh McNeal.' This was followed with the placing of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on the same for multi-sol integration. As of Sol 4214 (Dec. 1, 2015), the solar array energy production was 387 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.544 and a solar array dust factor of 0.643. Total odometry is 26.49 miles (42.63 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: December 7-11, 2015
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES December 7-11, 2015 o A Hill Divided (07 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151207a o Huo-Hsing Vallis (08 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151208a o Textures (09 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151209a o Tenuis Cavus (10 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151210a o Olympica Fossae (11 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151211a All of the THEMIS images are archive here: http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Pluto's Close-up, Now in Color
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/Multimedia/Science-Photos/image.php?gallery_id=2_id=389 Pluto's Close-up, Now in Color Release Date: December 10, 2015 Keywords: LORRI, MVIC, Pluto, Ralph This enhanced color mosaic combines some of the sharpest views of Pluto that NASA's New Horizons spacecraft obtained during its July 14 flyby. The pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto, with resolutions of about 250-280 feet (77-85 meters) per pixel - revealing features smaller than half a city block on Pluto's surface. Lower resolution color data (at about 2,066 feet, or 630 meters, per pixel) were added to create this new image. The images form a strip 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide, trending (top to bottom) from the edge of 'badlands" northwest of the informally named Sputnik Planum, across the al-Idrisi mountains, onto the shoreline of Pluto's "heart" feature, and just into its icy plains. They combine pictures from the telescopic Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) taken approximately 15 minutes before New Horizons' closest approach to Pluto, with - from a range of only 10,000 miles (17,000 kilometers) - with color data (in near-infrared, red and blue) gathered by the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) 25 minutes before the LORRI pictures. The wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains seen here gives scientists and the public alike a breathtaking, super-high-resolution color window into Pluto's geology. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] New Clues to Ceres' Bright Spots and Origins
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4785 New Clues to Ceres' Bright Spots and Origins Jet Propulsion Laboratory December 9, 2015 Ceres reveals some of its well-kept secrets in two new studies in the journal Nature, thanks to data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. They include highly anticipated insights about mysterious bright features found all over the dwarf planet's surface. In one study, scientists identify this bright material as a kind of salt. The second study suggests the detection of ammonia-rich clays, raising questions about how Ceres formed. About the Bright Spots Ceres has more than 130 bright areas, and most of them are associated with impact craters. Study authors, led by Andreas Nathues at Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany, write that the bright material is consistent with a type of magnesium sulfate called hexahydrite. A different type of magnesium sulfate is familiar on Earth as Epsom salt. Nathues and colleagues, using images from Dawn's framing camera, suggest that these salt-rich areas were left behind when water-ice sublimated in the past. Impacts from asteroids would have unearthed the mixture of ice and salt, they say. "The global nature of Ceres' bright spots suggests that this world has a subsurface layer that contains briny water-ice," Nathues said. A New Look at Occator The surface of Ceres, whose average diameter is 584 miles (940 kilometers), is generally dark -- similar in brightness to fresh asphalt -- study authors wrote. The bright patches that pepper the surface represent a large range of brightness, with the brightest areas reflecting about 50 percent of sunlight shining on the area. But there has not been unambiguous detection of water ice on Ceres; higher-resolution data are needed to settle this question. The inner portion of a crater called Occator contains the brightest material on Ceres. Occator itself is 60 miles (90 kilometers) in diameter, and its central pit, covered by this bright material, measures about 6 miles (10 kilometers) wide and 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers) deep. Dark streaks, possibly fractures, traverse the pit. Remnants of a central peak, which was up to 0.3 miles (0.5 kilometers) high, can also be seen. With its sharp rim and walls, and abundant terraces and landslide deposits, Occator appears to be among the youngest features on Ceres. Dawn mission scientists estimate its age to be about 78 million years old. Study authors write that some views of Occator appear to show a diffuse haze near the surface that fills the floor of the crater. This may be associated with observations of water vapor at Ceres by the Herschel space observatory that were reported in 2014. The haze seems to be present in views during noon, local time, and absent at dawn and dusk, study authors write. This suggests that the phenomenon resembles the activity at the surface of a comet, with water vapor lifting tiny particles of dust and residual ice. Future data and analysis may test this hypothesis and reveal clues about the process causing this activity. "The Dawn science team is still discussing these results and analyzing data to better understand what is happening at Occator," said Chris Russell, principal investigator of the Dawn mission, based at the University of California, Los Angeles. The Importance of Ammonia In the second Nature study, members of the Dawn science team examined the composition of Ceres and found evidence for ammonia-rich clays. They used data from the visible and infrared mapping spectrometer, a device that looks at how various wavelengths of light are reflected by the surface, allowing minerals to be identified. Ammonia ice by itself would evaporate on Ceres today, because the dwarf planet is too warm. However, ammonia molecules could be stable if present in combination with (i.e. chemically bonded to) other minerals. The presence of ammoniated compounds raises the possibility that Ceres did not originate in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, where it currently resides, but instead might have formed in the outer solar system. Another idea is that Ceres formed close to its present position, incorporating materials that drifted in from the outer solar system - near the orbit of Neptune, where nitrogen ices are thermally stable. "The presence of ammonia-bearing species suggests that Ceres is composed of material accreted in an environment where ammonia and nitrogen were abundant. Consequently, we think that this material originated in the outer cold solar system," said Maria Cristina De Sanctis, lead author of the study, based at the National Institute of Astrophysics, Rome. In comparing the spectrum of reflected light from Ceres to meteorites, scientists found some similarities. Specifically, they focused on the spectra, or chemical fingerprints, of carbonaceous chondrites, a type of carbon-rich meteorite thought to be
[meteorite-list] Japaneses Probe Fires Rockets to Steer Into Orbit At Venus (Akatsuki)
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/12/06/japanese-space-probe-to-steer-into-orbit-around-venus/ Japanese probe fires rockets to steer into orbit at Venus by Stephen Clark Spaceflight Now December 6, 2015 Five years after missing a shot to enter orbit at Venus, Japan's Akatsuki spacecraft completed a critical rocket burn late Sunday in a bid to salvage the research mission and become the only space probe operating around Earth's nearest planetary neighbor. Four maneuvering thrusters were scheduled to ignite at 2351 GMT (6:51 p.m. EST) Sunday for approximately 20 minutes and 30 seconds to slow down the Akatsuki probe enough for Venus' gravity to capture it into an elongated, high-altitude orbit. Akatsuki was never designed to fire its secondary attitude control rocket jets for such a long time, but the thrusters were required to steer the craft into orbit after its main engine failed during the mission's first encounter with Venus exactly five years ago. Officials confirmed the burn went as planned early Monday. "It is in orbit!" wrote Sanjay Limaye, a planetary scientist based at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, in an email to Spaceflight Now. "They were cautiously optimistic before the burn, but confident. Now smiling!" reported Limaye from Akatsuki's mission control center in Sagamihara, Japan. He is is a NASA-sponsored participating scientist on the Akatsuki mission. It could take a few days to precisely measure Akatsuki's trajectory to verify it is in the proper orbit around Venus, officials said. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency plans a press conference around 0300 GMT (10 p.m. EST) to update the status of the mission. The reaction control thrusters, originally designed to help point the spacecraft, were not rated for such a hefty propulsive maneuver. Venus was 149.5 million kilometers, or nearly 93 million miles, from Earth at the time of Akatsuki's arrival Sunday. It took radio signals more than 8 minutes to travel at the speed of light between the two planets. The spacecraft's guidance system targeted an orbit with a high point stretching up to 475,000 kilometers (295,000 miles) from Venus, farther than the distance of the moon from Earth, according to Takeshi Imamura, Akatsuki's project scientist at JAXA's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science. The smaller thrusters aboard Akatsuki generate just 5 pounds of thrust, a fraction of the power provided by the probe's main engine. Even with four of the rocket jets operating - there are two sets of four pointing forward and aft from Akatsuki's main body - the secondary thrusters did not have the energy to put the spacecraft into its originally planned orbit. At the low end of its looping path around Venus, Akatsuki should pass as close as 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) from the planet's scorched surface hidden beneath a blanket of thick clouds driven around Venus, Imamura told Spaceflight Now in an email. The pull of the sun's gravity, which is stronger at Venus that at Earth, will gradually perturb Akatsuki's orbit. A follow-up rocket burn tentatively slated for March 26 will tweak Akatsuki's trajectory around Venus, lowering the peak altitude of its orbit to about 330,000 kilometers (205,000 miles). Instead of taking 30 hours to complete a lap around Venus under Akatsuki's original flight plan, the probe was expected to take 15 days to orbit the planet after arriving Monday. That will be changed to a nine-day orbit with the March adjustment. Assuming all the maneuvers go well, then Akatsuki's science mission will begin. "We expect two Earth years or more, but the estimate of the remaining fuel has a large uncertainty," Imamura wrote in response to questions from Spaceflight Now. "We cannot present a precise estimate." Imamura told a meeting of Venus scientists in October that the plan to drive into orbit using Akatsuki's reaction control thrusters was risky, but ground controllers tested the rocket jets in a 10-minute firing half the duration of the orbit insertion maneuver - giving officials some confidence going into the make-or-break burn. Engineers programmed Akatsuki's software to flip the spacecraft around and fire a separate set of four thrusters if the primary rocket jets run into trouble during the 20-minute burn. Akatsuki's main engine, designed for 112 pounds of thrust, was unavailable after a failed burn during the mission's first encounter with Venus five years ago. The engine cut off less than three minutes into a 12 minute burn, providing an insufficient impulse for the craft to be captured in orbit. Engineers believe a salt formation in a check valve inside the spacecraft's propulsion system restricted the flow of fuel to the main engine, starving it of fuel and creating an oxidizer-rich combustion condition, raising temperatures inside the engine before it failed. The probe continued on in an orbit around the sun following the failed insertion
[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: November 30 - December 4, 2015
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES November 30 - December 4, 2015 o Candor Chasma - False Color (30 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151130a o Dunes - False Color (01 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151201a o Southern Dunes - False Color (02 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151202a o Sand Dunes - False Color (03 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151203a o Southern Dunes - False Color (04 December 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151204a All of the THEMIS images are archive here: http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] InSight Mission Team Addressing Vacuum Leak on Key Science Instrument
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4782 Mars Mission Team Addressing Vacuum Leak on Key Science Instrument Jet Propulsion Laboratory December 3, 2015 Mission Status Report A key science instrument that will be carried aboard NASA's Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) spacecraft being prepared for launch in March 2016 is experiencing a leak in the vacuum container carrying its main sensors. The sensors are part of an instrument called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS), which is provided by the French Space Agency (CNES). The seismometer is the prime science payload that will help answer questions about the interior structure and processes within the deep Martian interior. The SEIS instrument has three high-sensitivity seismometers enclosed in a sealed sphere. The seismometers need to operate in a vacuum in order to provide exquisite sensitivity to ground motions as small as the width of an atom. After the final sealing of the sphere, a small leak was detected, that would have prevented meeting the science requirements once delivered to the surface of Mars. The CNES/JPL team is currently working to repair the leak, prior to instrument integration and final environmental tests in France before shipping to the United States for installation into the spacecraft and launch. The InSight lander has completed assembly and testing at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Colorado, and is being prepared to ship to the Vandenberg AFB launch site. Installation of the seismometer is planned for early January. The Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) from Germany and the rest of the scientific payload are already installed. NASA and CNES managers are committed to launching in March and are currently assessing the launch period timeline. This will be the first launch on the West Coast of a Mars mission and the first project devoted to investigating the deep interior of the Red Planet. The InSight Project is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin is building and testing the spacecraft. InSight is part of NASA's Discovery Program, which is managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Media Contact Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6278 guy.webs...@jpl.nasa.gov Dwayne Brown NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 dwayne.c.br...@nasa.gov 2015-361 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Bright Bolide Lights Up Night Over Over Washington State
http://www.theprovince.com/life/exploding+meteor+bright+bolide+lights+friday+night+from+chilliwack+nanaimo+seattle/11567266/story.html Exploding meteor: Bright bolide lights up Friday night sky from Chilliwack to Nanaimo to Seattle By PATRICK JOHNSTON The Province December 5, 2015 Tina Robertson was just trying to catch a stray cat out in front of her property when she heard it. "It freaked me right out," she said. Then she looked up to see a "big ball of fire." "It was moving like hell," she said. "It was big, but not as big as that one in Russia." What she and other witnesses as far afield as Seattle and Nanaimo seem to have seen around 6:50 p.m. Friday was a type of meteor known as a bolide. Bolides are as bright as a full moon; they're a meteor that doesn't just burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, it explodes. (Hat tip to Seattle Twitter user Reb Roush for pointing us all to the term.) Robertson's partner Wilf Krickhan was loading up firewood in a bobcat behind the house when he saw the blue-green bolide flash across the sky. "It had an orange streak behind it," he said. The couple live on a farm about 25 kilometres up Chilliwack Lake Road. >From their vantage point, it looked like the meteor flashed out up the slopes of Mount McGuire, in the direction of Vedder Road and the site of the former CFB Chilliwack. Friday was the start of the Geminid meteor shower, so keep your eyes peeled at the sky for the next two weeks. The peak period will be on Dec. 13 and 14. People in Seattle saw a bright streak in the sky around the same time, and so did Andrew Arthur, who was driving south through Ladner on Highway 17A. "It was close: cloud level almost. Very bright," he told The Province via Twitter. "Burned up as it travelled southwest." Across the Georgia Strait, Marc Kurtagic was out for an evening stroll when he spotted the bright light off in the eastern sky. "It looked like a distant star at first, then became brighter, then produced a green glow with a bright tail," he said over Twitter. Like Robertson, he was reminded of the famous 2013 bolide, captured by video in Chelyabinsk, Russia, but agreed it was much smaller. "What caught me with surprise was the speed of it. It looked like a plane approaching at night at first," he said. As for Robertson's stray cat, she still hasn't caught it. She and Krickhan said people keep dropping off unwanted pets up their way and they wish the practice would stop. "It's heartbreaking," she said. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Dawn Journal - November 30, 2015
http://dawnblog.jpl.nasa.gov/2015/11/30/dawn-journal-november-30/ Dawn Journal | November 30 by Marc Rayman November 30, 2015 Dear Superintendawnts and Assisdawnts, An intrepid interplanetary explorer is now powering its way down through the gravity field of a distant alien world. Soaring on a blue-green beam of high-velocity xenon ions, Dawn is making excellent progress as it spirals closer and closer to Ceres, the first dwarf planet discovered. Meanwhile, scientists are progressing in analyzing the tremendous volume of pictures and other data the probe has already sent to Earth. [Graphic] Dawn's spiral descent from its third mapping orbit (HAMO), at 915 miles (1,470 kilometers), to its fourth (LAMO), at 240 miles (385 kilometers). The two mapping orbits are shown in green. The color of Dawn's trajectory progresses through the spectrum from blue, when it began ion-thrusting in HAMO, to red, when it arrives in LAMO. The red dashed sections show where Dawn is coasting for telecommunications. It requires 118 spiral revolutions around Ceres to reach the low altitude (and additional revolutions to prepare for and conduct the trajectory correction maneuver described below). Compare this to the previous spiral. (Readers with total recall will note that this is fewer loops than illustrated last year. The flight team has made several improvements in the complex design since then, shortening the time required and thus allowing more time for observing Ceres.) Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Dawn is flying down to an average altitude of about 240 miles (385 kilometers), where it will conduct wide-ranging investigations with its suite of scientific instruments. The spacecraft will be even closer to the rocky, icy ground than the International Space Station is to Earth's surface. The pictures will be four times sharper than the best it has yet taken. The view is going to be fabulous! Dawn will be so near the dwarf planet that its sensors will detect only a small fraction of the vast territory at a time. Mission planners have designed the complex itinerary so that every three weeks, Dawn will fly over most of the terrain while on the sunlit side. (The neutron spectrometer, gamma ray spectrometer and gravity measurements do not depend on illumination from the sun, but the camera, infrared mapping spectrometer and visible mapping spectrometer do.) Obtaining the planned coverage of the exotic landscapes requires a delicate synchrony between Ceres' and Dawn's movements. Ceres rotates on its axis every nine hours and four minutes (one Cerean day). Dawn will revolve around it in a little less than five and a half hours, traveling from the north pole to the south pole over the hemisphere facing the sun and sailing northward over the hemisphere hidden in the darkness of night. Orbital velocity at this altitude is around 610 mph (980 kilometers per hour). Last year we had a preview of the plans for this fourth and final mapping orbit (sometimes also known as the low altitude mapping orbit, or LAMO), and we will present an updated summary next month. The planned altitude differs from the earlier, tentative value of 230 miles (375 kilometers) for several reasons. One is that the previous notion for the altitude was based on theoretical models of Ceres' gravity field. Navigators measured the field quite accurately in the previous mapping orbit (using the method outlined here), and that has allowed them to refine the orbital parameters to choreograph Dawn's celestial pas de deux with Ceres. In addition, prior to Dawn's investigations, Ceres' topography was a complete mystery. Hubble Space Telescope had shown the overall shape well enough to allow scientists to determine that Ceres qualifies as a dwarf planet, but the landforms were indiscernible and the range of relative elevations was simply unknown. Now that Dawn has mapped the topography, we can specify the spacecraft's average height above the ground as it orbits. With continuing analyses of the thousands of stereo pictures taken in August - October and more measurements of the gravity field in the final orbit, we will further refine the average altitude. Finally, we round the altitude numbers to the nearest multiple of five (both for miles and kilometers), because, as we will discuss in a subsequent Dawn Journal, the actual orbit will vary in altitude by much more than that. (We described some of the the ups and dawns of the corresponding orbit at Vesta here. The variations at Ceres will not be as large, but the principles are the same.) [Image] Dawn had this view of Urvara crater in mapping cycle #4 from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers) during the third mapping orbit. (Urvara is a Vedic goddess associated with fertile lands and plants.) The crater is 101 miles (163 kilometers) in diameter. It displays a variety of features, including a particularly bright region on the peak at the center,
[meteorite-list] Key Capital Announces Major Potential Meteorite Mining Opportunity Joint Ventured
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/marketwire/1233264.htm
Key Capital Announces Major Potential Meteorite Mining Opportunity Joint
Ventured
CNN Money
December 02, 2015: 08:30 AM ET
Key Capital Corporation (OTC PINK: KCPC) ("Key Capital" or "the Company")
advises that the Company has entered into a joint venture for the exploitation
of a highly promising and exciting Arizona resource property.
The orebody located on the property is well known as a magnetite resource
having been the subject of extensive historic exploration since the 1960s.
In recent years, through identification of extraordinary high-grade iridium
in samples, it became evident that a significant part of the orebody on
the property is of meteorite origin, and it was established that the orebody
presented major potential for precious metals and PGMs.
Iridium is usually found naturally only in small concentration and quantity
and the total annual world production of iridium, which sells for around
US$580 per ounce, is only 3 tons. Concentrations of iridium such as in
the analysis of ore samples from the property, including associated high-grade
osmium, is only found in meteorites in association with other high-grade
precious metals, and the ore in this case appears to be "Achondrite" in
origin.
Recognizing that an alternative assay approach needed to be used, an ore
sample was sent to an independent specialist laboratory and the resultant
reported precious and rare metals content proved to be extraordinary:
In general, the natural composition of a meteorite is relatively consistent
and in most cases very rich in mineralization. The opportunity to capitalize
on the potential of this identified meteorite ore is unique and exciting,
and, subject to expectations being met during the course of bulk sampling
commencing in Q1, 2016, it is planned to then commence mining operations
by 2016 year-end.
The project does not have a proven resource or reserve and is not compliant
with SEC or NI 43-101 reporting standards. However, when considering the
relatively high content of precious and rare metals known to be found
in certain meteorites when compared to traditional mines, the Company
has determined that the most effective and efficient method of development
is to prove up grade, recoverability and viability through bulk sampling,
and then to move directly to scaled-up commercial production.
Christopher Nichols, President/CEO of Key Capital stated: "The idea that
asteroids can be mined for their high-grade valuable resources has been
around for years and in recent times has attracted many high-profile investors
including Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, James Cameron, Ross Perot, and Richard
Branson. The opportunity to mine a meteorite presents unique potential,
but without the high-risk, expected costs and uncertainty of establishing
mining operations in a space environment."
ABOUT KEY CAPITAL: Key Capital is a financial services company providing
alternative finance solutions to resource and energy projects. The Company
is growing a Mineral and Energy Bank of accretive interests in diverse
commodity streams through the provision of structured and equity financing
for mid-market resource production in mines containing gold, silver, or
base metals, or in energy products. The Company is a Georgia corporation
headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Disclaimer Statements made in this press release that express the Key
Capital or Company or management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations
or predictions of future events, are forward-looking statements. The words
"believe," "expect," "intend," "estimate," "anticipate," "will" and similar
expressions are intended to further identify such forward-looking statements,
although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying
words. Those statements are based on many assumptions and are subject
to many known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that
could cause Key Capital's or the Company's actual activities, results
or performance to differ materially from those anticipated or projected
in such forward-looking statements. Key Capital and the Company cannot
assure future financial results, levels of activity, performance or
achievements
and investors should not place undue reliance on Key Capital's or the
Company's forward-looking statements.
__
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[meteorite-list] Hayabasa 2 to Buzz Earth on December 3
Space Weather News for Dec. 2, 2015 http://spaceweather.com SPACECRAFT TO BUZZ EARTH: Japan's Hayabasa 2 spacecraft will buzz Earth on Dec. 3rd in a slingshot maneuver designed to propel it to Asteroid Ryugu. Hayabasa 2 is an amazing mission which, if all goes as planned, will drop as many as four landers on the asteroid and return samples of the space rock to Earth for analysis. The mission, and observing tips for amateur astronomers, are highlighted on today's edition of Spaceweather.com (http://spaceweather.com) . __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Exomars Prepares to Leave Europe for Launch Site
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars_prepares_to_leave_Europe_for_launch_site Exomars Prepares to Leave Europe for Launch Site European Space Agency November 25, 2015 The two ExoMars spacecraft of the 2016 mission are being prepared for shipping to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan ahead of their launch in March. A joint endeavour with Russia's Roscosmos space agency, ExoMars comprises two missions. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli make up the 2016 mission, while the 2018 mission will combine a rover and a surface science platform. Both missions will be launched on Russian Proton rockets from Baikonur. TGO and Schiaparelli are undergoing final preparations at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, where they were today on display for media to view for the last time before they leave Europe. They will be shipped separately in the middle of next month, arriving at the cosmodrome on 21 and 23 December, respectively. EDM module installed at the top of the TGO "It's been a long road for ExoMars to reach this point, but we are now ready to launch in spring next year," says Alvaro Gimenez, ESA Director of Science and Robotic Exploration. "We are about to begin a new era of Mars exploration for Europe and our Russian partners." Sergey Saveliev, Deputy General Director of Roscosmos, says: "ExoMars is a unique example of the Russian-European cooperation in deep-space exploration. "The mission of 2016 is just the first stage of our cooperation and, in the future, Roscosmos and ESA plan many joint projects to explore near and deep space." Donato Amoroso, deputy CEO of Thales Alenia Space, notes, "For Thales Alenia Space, our lead role in the extraordinary ExoMars programme, as producer of the orbiter and the entry, descent and landing module for in situ exploration of Mars, entails huge technological and human challenges." The first ExoMars is scheduled for launch on 14 March, at the start of a launch window that remains open until 25 March. After a cruise of almost seven months to Mars, Schiaparelli will separate from TGO on 16 October for its entry, descent and landing in the Meridani Planum region on 19 October. TGO, along with ESA's Mars Express and NASA satellites already orbiting Mars, will relay data for the few days that Schiaparelli is expected to operate on its batteries. Schiaparelli is primarily a demonstrator to prove a range of technologies enabling controlled landings on Mars in future, but it also carries a small science package to analyse its local environment once on the surface. Meanwhile, after a series of aerobraking manoeuvres in 2017, TGO will enter orbit around Mars, from where it will take a detailed inventory of the gases in the planet's atmosphere. Of special interest are the abundance and distribution of methane: its presence implies an active, current source, and TGO will help to determine whether it stems from a geological or biological source. "TGO will analyse 'trace gases' in the atmosphere," says Hakan Svedhem, ESA's project scientist. "Even though they make up less than one percent of the atmospheric inventory, they should provide key indicators to the nature of any active processes, helping us to determine just how 'alive' Mars may be today. "TGO will also monitor seasonal changes in the composition and temperature of the atmosphere, and will map the subsurface to look for hidden water ice." Finally, TGO will also relay data from the rover and surface science platform of the 2018 mission. For further information, please contact: Markus Bauer ESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer Tel: +31 71 565 6799 Mob: +31 61 594 3 954 Email: Markus.Baueresa.int Hakan Svedhem ESA's ExoMars 2016 project scientist Email: h.sved...@esa.int Rolf de Groot ESA Coordinator for Robotic Exploration Email: rolf.de.gr...@esa.int __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] European Payload Selected for Exomars 2018 Surface Platform
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/European_payload_selected_for_ExoMars_2018_surface_platform European Payload Selected for Exomars 2018 Surface Platform European Space Agency November 27, 2015 Two European instruments and four European contributions on two Russian instruments have been selected for the Russian-led science platform that will land on Mars as part of the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars 2018 mission. The first of the two ExoMars mission is in final preparation for launch next March. It consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter, which will investigate the possible biological or geological origins of important trace gases in the martian atmosphere, and Schiaparelli, an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module. Schiaparelli will test key landing technologies and provide atmospheric and environmental data important for ESA's contributions to subsequent missions to Mars. The second ExoMars mission, planned for launch in May 2018, comprises a European-led rover that will be the first to combine driving across the martian surface with drilling two metres below the surface, and a stationary surface science platform. After landing on Mars in 2019, the rover will descend from the platform via a ramp. Then both will begin their scientific operations. The platform is expected to operate for at least one Earth year, imaging the landing site, monitoring the climate, investigating the atmosphere and analysing the radiation environment. It will also study the distribution of any subsurface water at the landing site, and perform geophysical investigations of the internal structure of Mars. Roscomos and the IKI Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences had already identified a preliminary payload of instrument packages to fulfil these goals, some of which anticipated the inclusion of European elements. Following a call to the European scientific community issued in March 2015, nine proposals were received and assessed. ESA has now approved the selection of six European elements. This includes two fully European-led instruments, and four sensor packages to be included in two Russian-led instruments. The two European-led instruments proposed are the Lander Radioscience experiment (LaRa) and the Habitability, Brine Irradiation and Temperature package (HABIT). LaRa will reveal details of the internal structure of Mars, and will make precise measurements of the rotation and orientation of the planet by monitoring two-way Doppler frequency shifts between the surface platform and Earth. It will also be able to detect variations in angular momentum due to the redistribution of masses, such as the migration of ice from the polar caps to the atmosphere. HABIT will investigate the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere, daily and seasonal variations in ground and air temperatures, and the UV radiation environment. The four European sensor packages in the two Russian-led instruments will monitor pressure and humidity, UV radiation and dust, the local magnetic field and plasma environment. "The surface science platform will serve as a long-lived stationary laboratory to monitor the local environment, which could include passing dust storms, lightning, and space weather effects," says Jorge Vago, ESA's ExoMars 2018 project scientist. "At the same time, the rover will travel several kilometres to search for traces of past life below the surface. It's a very powerful combination of instruments." Last month, the Landing Site Selection Working Group recommended the Oxia Planum region for further detailed evaluation for consideration as the primary landing site for the 2018 mission. A further recommendation was made to also consider Oxia Planum as one of the two candidate landing sites for the backup launch opportunity in 2020, with a second to be selected from Aram Dorsum and Mawrth Vallis. All three sites bear evidence of having been influenced by water in the past, and are likely representative of global processes operating in the Red Planet's early history. ESA and Roscosmos will take a final decision on the landing site about six months before launch. Notes for Editors: The ExoMars 2018 surface science platform payload is listed here. http://exploration.esa.int/mars/56933-exomars-2018-surface-platform/ The mission will be launched on a Russian Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. An ESA module will carry the surface platform and rover during the nine-month cruise to Mars. A descent module provided by Roscosmos with contributions by ESA will deliver the platform and rover to the surface. Roscosmos and IKI are responsible for the surface platform, with ESA contributions. The rover is provided by ESA, with Russian contributions. For further information, please contact: Markus Bauer ESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer Tel: +31 71 565 6799 Mob: +31 61 594 3 954 Email:
[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: November 16-27, 2015
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES November 16-27, 2015 o Ridges and Flows (16 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151116a o Sacra Fossae (17 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151117a o Olympia Rupes (18 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151118a o Polar Cap Layers (19 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151119a o Channels (20 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151120a o Granicus Valles (23 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151123a o Tanaica Montes (24 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151124a o Shalbatana Vallis (25 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151125a o Frosty Crater (26 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151126a o Sirenum Fossae - False Color (27 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151127a All of the THEMIS images are archive here: http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] NASA's Webb Space Telescope Receives First Mirror Installation
November 25, 2015 RELEASE 15-226 NASA's Webb Space Telescope Receives First Mirror Installation NASA has successfully installed the first of 18 flight mirrors onto the James Webb Space Telescope, beginning a critical piece of the observatory's construction. In the clean room at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland this week, the engineering team used a robot arm to lift and lower the hexagonal-shaped segment that measures just over 4.2 feet (1.3 meters) across and weighs approximately 88 pounds (40 kilograms). After being pieced together, the 18 primary mirror segments will work together as one large 21.3-foot (6.5-meter) mirror. The full installation is expected to be complete early next year. "The James Webb Space Telescope will be the premier astronomical observatory of the next decade," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This first-mirror installation milestone symbolizes all the new and specialized technology that was developed to enable the observatory to study the first stars and galaxies, examine the formation stellar systems and planetary formation, provide answers to the evolution of our own solar system, and make the next big steps in the search for life beyond Earth on exoplanets." Several innovative technologies have been developed for the Webb Telescope, which is targeted for launch in 2018, and is the successor to NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Webb will study every phase in the history of our universe, including the cosmos' first luminous glows, the formation of solar systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, and the evolution of our own solar system. The 18 separate segments unfold and adjust to shape after launch. The mirrors are made of ultra-lightweight beryllium chosen for its thermal and mechanical properties at cryogenic temperatures. Each segment also has a thin gold coating chosen for its ability to reflect infrared light. The telescope's biggest feature is a tennis court sized five-layer sunshield that attenuates heat from the sun more than a million times. "After a tremendous amount of work by an incredibly dedicated team across the country, it is very exciting to start the primary mirror segment installation process" said Lee Feinberg, James Webb Space Telescope optical telescope element manager at Goddard. "This starts the final assembly phase of the telescope." The mirrors must remain precisely aligned in space in order for Webb to successfully carry out science investigations. While operating at extraordinarily cold temperatures between minus 406 and minus 343 degrees Fahrenheit, the backplane must not move more than 38 nanometers, approximately one thousandth the diameter of a human hair. "There have many significant achievements for Webb over the past year, but the installation of the first flight mirror is special," said Bill Ochs, James Webb Space Telescope project manager. "This installation not only represents another step towards the magnificent discoveries to come from Webb, but also the culmination of many years of effort by an outstanding dedicated team of engineers and scientists." The mirrors were built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado. Ball is the principal subcontractor to Northrop Grumman for the optical technology and lightweight mirror system. The James Webb Space Telescope is an international project led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency. NASA works with the international science community to explore our solar system and beyond. We look to unravel mysteries that intrigue us all as we explore to answer big questions, like how did our solar system originate and change over time, and how did the universe begin and evolve, and what will be its destiny? You can follow the mirror installation on a live webcam by visiting: http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/webcam.html To learn more about the James Webb Space Telescope, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/webb -end- __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] MRO HiRISE Images: November 25, 2015
MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES November 25, 2015 o Inverted Meandering Rivers at a Possible Future Mars Landing Site http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_021728_1740 This image contains interesting examples of crosscutting, sinuous and straight ridges. o A Youthful Crater in the Cydonia Colles Region http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_027417_2200 Complex craters as small as this one are uncommon and may provide clues to the lithology of the rocks underground. o Down in the Paleochannels http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_042625_1655 One hypothesis for TAR formation is that larger grains like pebbles are rolled on top of smaller ripples and then, finer dust settles into the cracks, "inflating" the pebbles. o A Landing Site for ExoMars 2016 http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_042806_1785 In March 2016, the European Space Agency in partnership with Roscosmos will launch the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. We helped them choose a safe landing spot. All of the HiRISE images are archived here: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., built the HiRISE instrument. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Strange Star Likely Swarmed by Comets
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4777 Strange Star Likely Swarmed by Comets Jet Propulsion Laboratory November 24, 2015 A star called KIC 8462852 has been in the news recently for unexplained and bizarre behavior. NASA's Kepler mission had monitored the star for four years, observing two unusual incidents, in 2011 and 2013, when the star's light dimmed in dramatic, never-before-seen ways. Something had passed in front of the star and blocked its light, but what? Scientists first reported the findings in September, suggesting a family of comets as the most likely explanation. Other cited causes included fragments of planets and asteroids. A new study using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope addresses the mystery, finding more evidence for the scenario involving a swarm of comets. The study, led by Massimo Marengo of Iowa State University, Ames, is accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. One way to learn more about the star is to study it in infrared light. Kepler had observed it in visible light. If a planetary impact, or a collision amongst asteroids, were behind the mystery of KIC 8462852, then there should be an excess of infrared light around the star. Dusty, ground-up bits of rock would be at the right temperature to glow at infrared wavelengths. At first, researchers tried to look for infrared light using NASA's Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, and found none. But those observations were taken in 2010, before the strange events seen by Kepler -- and before any collisions would have kicked up dust. To search for infrared light that might have been generated after the oddball events, researchers turned to Spitzer, which, like WISE, also detects infrared light. Spitzer just happened to observe KIC 8462852 more recently in 2015. "Spitzer has observed all of the hundreds of thousands of stars where Kepler hunted for planets, in the hope of finding infrared emission from circumstellar dust," said Michael Werner, the Spitzer project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the lead investigator of that particular Spitzer/Kepler observing program. But, like WISE, Spitzer did not find any significant excess of infrared light from warm dust. That makes theories of rocky smashups very unlikely, and favors the idea that cold comets are responsible. It's possible that a family of comets is traveling on a very long, eccentric orbit around the star. At the head of the pack would be a very large comet, which would have blocked the star's light in 2011, as noted by Kepler. Later, in 2013, the rest of the comet family, a band of varied fragments lagging behind, would have passed in front of the star and again blocked its light. By the time Spitzer observed the star in 2015, those comets would be farther away, having continued on their long journey around the star. They would not leave any infrared signatures that could be detected. According to Marengo, more observations are needed to help settle the case of KIC 8462852. "This is a very strange star," he said. "It reminds me of when we first discovered pulsars. They were emitting odd signals nobody had ever seen before, and the first one discovered was named LGM-1 after 'Little Green Men.'" In the end, the LGM-1 signals turned out to be a natural phenomenon. "We may not know yet what's going on around this star," Marengo observed. "But that's what makes it so interesting." Ames manages the Kepler and K2 missions for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. operates the flight system with support from the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado in Boulder. JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Spacecraft operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. For more information about Kepler and Spitzer, respectively, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/kepler http://kepler.nasa.gov http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu Media Contact Whitney Clavin Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California 818-354-4673 whitney.cla...@jpl.nasa.gov Michele Johnson Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. 650-604-6982 michele.john...@nasa.gov 2015-357 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Syrian Refugges Join Meteorite Search in Easten Turkey
http://www.menafn.com/1094441161/Syrian-refugees-join-meteorite-search-in-eastern-Turkey Syrian refugees join meteorite search in eastern Turkey MENAFN - The Journal Of Turkish Weekly November 23, 2015 (MENAFN - The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) Syrian refugees in Turkey have been joining the search for meteorite fragments in the eastern province of Bingol. In Saricicek a village 5 km (3 miles) east of the provincial capital Bingol showers of extra-terrestrial rocks have fallen on their land since early September. After hearing rumors that researchers and academics were keen to collect the small meteorites villagers have been gathering them day and night since then. The area still draws hundreds of locals and foreigners after reports that the meteorites whether for research or collectors cost between 20 and 60 per gram. Around 40 families of Syrians living in Diyarbakir Sanliurfa and Kilis provinces arrived in the area nearly a week ago in hopes of finding meteorites that have fallen from the skies. Several Syrians most living in makeshift tents entertain the dream of making money from the stones which they described as a "gift from God". Abbas Mosa Hemo from the Syrian Raqqa province told Anadolu Agency on Sunday that he came with his family to search for the meteorites. "We have come to seek the stone God has sent as a gift" said Hemo adding they had been able to find two meteorites despite all their efforts. Another Syrian Shaban Hemo who fled the Syrian city of Aleppo and now lives in a two-room home in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir said he had not found a single meteorite despite a three-day search. "It is said 'this stone [meteorite] is very precious worth money go and search them'. If I find any I will build a house with that money when we return to Syria" Shaban Hemo said. Muslum Sefer another refugee from the Syrian town of Kobani that was the scene of fierce clashes between Daesh and Kurdish fighters said he came to Bingol four days ago to find a meteorite. "I came here with three four friends of mine. One friend and I found one meteorite each; they offered 300 for them but we declined as we learnt that higher prices are offered in Istanbul" Sefer said. Sefer said he planned to buy a home with the income from the stones they found. Ali Halil Hemo said his house in Syria had been decimated in clashes and he also wanted to build a new one if he made money with the meteorites. "We as family came to the village after learning that a precious stone fell in Bingol; it is holy and precious as it came from the sky and everyone is striving to find this stone" Halil Hemo added. Ozan Unsalan an associate professor at Istanbul University's science faculty has created a website to gather information about the meteorites. On Nov. 16 he told the shards found around Saricicek were part of 4Vesta one of the largest asteroids in the solar system and were considered precious among the scientific community. Last week Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek took to Twitter to ask Turkish users whether they thought the meteorites sold in Saricicek were taxable. More than 28000 twitter users replied to the minister's questions. The majority said the income should not be taxed. By Servet Gunerigok __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Planetary Resources Applauds U.S. Congress in Recognizing Asteroid Resource Property Rights
http://www.planetaryresources.com/2015/11/planetary-resources-applauds-u-s-congress-in-recognizing-asteroid-resource-property-rights/ Planetary Resources Applauds U.S. Congress in Recognizing Asteroid Resource Property Rights November 10, 2015 Redmond, Wash. - November 10, 2015 - Planetary Resources, Inc., the asteroid mining company, praises the members of Congress who promoted historic legislation (H.R. 2262) that recognizes the right of U.S. citizens to own asteroid resources they obtain as property and encourages the commercial exploration and recovery of resources from asteroids, free from harmful interference. This legislation creates a pro-growth environment for the development of the commercial space industry by encouraging private sector investment and ensuring a more stable and predictable regulatory regime. This law is important for the industry and is integral to protecting and supporting U.S. interests as the commercial space sector continues to expand. "We are proud to have the support of Congress. Throughout history, governments have spurred growth in new frontiers by instituting sensible legislation. Long ago, The Homestead Act of 1862 advocated for the search for gold and timber, and today, H.R. 2262 fuels a new economy that will open many avenues for the continual growth and prosperity of humanity. This off-planet economy will forever change our lives for the better here on Earth," said Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer, Planetary Resources, Inc. "Planetary Resources is grateful for the leadership shown by Congress in crafting this legislation and looks forward to President Obama signing the language into law. We applaud the members of Congress who have led this effort and actively sought stakeholder input to ensure a vibrant economy and prosperous way of life now and for centuries to come. Patty Murray (D-WA), Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Lamar Smith (R-TX), Bill Posey (R-FL) and Derek Kilmer (D-WA) have been unwavering in their support and leadership for the growth of the U.S. economy into the Solar System. Their forward-looking stance and active role in enabling the development of an economically and strategically valuable new marketplace will ensure our country's continued leadership in space," said Peter Marquez, Vice President of Global Engagement, Planetary Resources, Inc. Senator Murray said, "I am glad that we've taken this important step forward to update our federal policies to make sure they work for innovative businesses creating jobs in Washington state. Washington state leads in so many ways, and I'm proud that local businesses are once again at the forefront of new industries that will help our economy continue to grow." Congressman Posey said, "This bipartisan, bicameral legislation is a landmark for American leadership in space exploration. Recognizing basic legal protections in space will help pave the way for exciting future commercial space endeavors. Asteroids and other objects in space are excellent potential sources of rare minerals and other resources that can be used to manufacture a wide range of products here on Earth and to support future space exploration missions. Americans willing to invest in space mining operations need legal certainty that they can keep the fruits of their labor, and this bill provides that certainty." Congressman Kilmer said, "The commercial space industry in Washington state is leading the way in developing the cutting edge technology necessary to support human space exploration. The U. S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act will give these ventures the framework they need to continue to innovate, and to keep the United States at the head of this growing, global industry. I congratulate the Senate for taking this step, and I look forward to the House quickly sending this bill to President Obama's desk." Eric Anderson, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Planetary Resources, Inc., said, "Many years from now, we will view this pivotal moment in time as a major step toward humanity becoming a multi-planetary species. This legislation establishes the same supportive framework that created the great economies of history, and it will foster the sustained development of space." __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] NEOWISE Identifies Greenhouse Gases in Comets
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4776 NEOWISE Identifies Greenhouse Gases in Comets Jet Propulsion Laboratory November 23, 2015 After its launch in 2009, NASA's NEOWISE spacecraft observed 163 comets during the WISE/NEOWISE prime mission. This sample from the space telescope represents the largest infrared survey of comets to date. Data from the survey are giving new insights into the dust, comet nucleus sizes, and production rates for difficult-to-observe gases like carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Results of the NEOWISE census of comets were recently published in the Astrophysical Journal. Carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are common molecules found in the environment of the early solar system, and in comets. In most circumstances, water-ice sublimation likely drives the activity in comets when they come nearest to the sun, but at larger distances and colder temperatures, other common molecules like CO and CO2 may be the main drivers. Spaceborne carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide are difficult to directly detect from the ground because their abundance in Earth's own atmosphere obscures the signal. The NEOWISE spacecraft soars high above Earth's atmosphere, making these measurements of a comet's gas emissions possible. "This is the first time we've seen such large statistical evidence of carbon monoxide taking over as a comet's gas of choice when they are farther out from the sun," said James Bauer, deputy principal investigator of the NEOWISE mission from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and author of a paper on the subject. "By emitting what is likely mostly carbon monoxide beyond four astronomical units (4 times the Earth-Sun distance; about 370 million miles, 600 million kilometers) it shows us that comets may have stored most of the gases when they formed, and secured them over billions of years. Most of the comets that we observed as active beyond 4 AU are long-period comets, comets with orbital periods greater than 200 years that spend most of their time beyond Neptune's orbit." While the amount of carbon monoxide and dioxide increases relative to ejected dust as a comet gets closer to the sun, the percentage of these two gases, when compared to other volatile gases, decreases. "As they get closer to the sun, these comets seem to produce a prodigious amount of carbon dioxide," said Bauer. "Your average comet sampled by NEOWISE would expel enough carbon dioxide to provide the bubble power for thousands of cans of soda per second." The pre-print version of this paper is available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/1509.08446 The NEOWISE mission hunts for near-Earth objects using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. Funded by NASA's Planetary Science division, the NEOWISE project uses images taken by the spacecraft to look for asteroids and comets, providing a rich source of measurements of solar system objects at infrared wavelengths. These measurements include emission lines that are difficult or impossible to detect directly from the ground. Media Contact DC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 a...@jpl.nasa.gov 2015-355 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Meteorite Strikes Home in Australia?
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/boom-crash-metorite-strikes-little-mountain-home/2848293/ Boom, crash - meteorite strikes Little Mountain home Sunshine Coast Daily (Australia) November 20, 2015 [Image] Zen Collins holds what she believes to be a meteorite that crashed through their roof in Little Mountain. The metalic chunk of rock smashed through the tin roof, the ceiling and then cracked a tile where it impacted just behind the couch. Zen and her 2 kids Scarlett, 2 and Zavier, 6 checking out the Meteorite. Photo: Che Chapman / Sunshine Coast Daily Che Chapman Popular Stories WHAT is believed to be a meteorite has crashed through the roof of a Little Mountain home. Zen Collins was in the backyard of her Highland Tce home on a telephone call to her mother about 1.20pm today when she heard a loud bang. "I ran inside and did a scan of every level of the house and the doors were fine," she said. "I went on and found the rock on the floor and it was hot - it wasn't read hot but it was definitely warmer than I expected. "And then I looked up and saw the sky." The suspected meteorite had crashed through the Colorbond roof, the insulation, and then the plasterboard ceiling before striking the floor, chipping a tile. A stunned Ms Collins said her first thought was "who through a rock through my roof?" before she realised that it could be a meteorite. She initially rang the SES and then the property manager to arrange a repair of the roof before seeking expert advice about the mysterious missile. The suspected meteorite was roughly 7cm square and about 2cm thick, containing fragments of what appeared to be metal, magnetic, and weighed and estimated 350-400g. Owen Bennedick, of the Wappa Falls Observatory, said the description matched that of a meteorite. "There's a couple of ways to determine if it's a meteorite. It will be all burnt and scuffed, if it's magnetic, and if it's quite heavy." Ms Collins said she was not sure what to do with her surprise gift from the heavens but might consider giving it to a museum in the future. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Earth's Most Abundant, But Hidden Mineral Finally Seen, Named (Bridgmanite)
http://www.livescience.com/46337-elusive-mineral-named-bridgmanite.html Earth's Most Abundant, But Hidden Mineral Finally Seen, Named By Jeanna Bryner Live Science June 16, 2014 [Image] The elusive mineral bridgmanite is shown in a shock melt vein inside a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite found in Queensland, Australia. Credit: Chi Ma Earth's most abundant mineral lies deep in the planet's interior, sealed off from human eyes. Now, scientists for the first time have gotten a glimpse of the material in nature, enclosed inside a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite. The result: They have characterized and named the elusive mineral. The new official name, bridgmanite, was approved for the mineral formerly known by its chemical components and crystal structure - silicate-perovskite. The magnesium-silicate mineral was named after Percy Bridgman, a 1946 Nobel Prize-winning physicist, according to the American Geophysical Union blog. "It is a very exciting discovery," Chi Ma of Caltech and Oliver Tschauner, of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told Live Science in an email. "We finally tracked down natural silicate-perovskite (now bridgmanite) in a meteorite after a five-year investigation, and got to name the most abundant mineral on Earth. How cool is that?" The mineral likely resides beneath Earth's surface in an area called the lower mantle, between the transition zone in the mantle and the core-mantle boundary, or between the depths of416 and 1,802 miles (670 and 2,900 kilometers), scientists said. Scientists have been searching for the mineral for a long time, because in order to identify a mineral one must know its chemical composition and crystal structure, Ma said. Researchers found the bridgmanite in a meteorite that had fallen to Earth near the Tenham station in western Queensland, Australia, in 1879. The meteorite, Ma said, is highly shocked, meaning it endured high temperatures and pressures as it slammed into other rocks in space. Those impacts can create shock veins of minerals within the meteorites. "Scientists have identified high-pressure minerals in its shock-melt veins since 1960s. Now we have identified bridgmanite," Tschauner said, referring to the Tenham meteorite. The meteorite is considered a chondrite, the most common type of meteorite found on Earth; scientists think these meteorites are remnants shed from the original building blocks of planets. Most meteors (which are called meteorites once they strike Earth) are fragments of asteroids, while others are the cosmic dust discarded by comets. Rarely, meteorites represent impact debris from the moon and from Mars. Ma and Tschauner used various methods to characterize the extracted mineral, including so-called synchrotron X-ray diffraction mapping and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy. After five years of work, including multiple experiments, Ma and Tschauner sent their data for review to the International Mineralogical Association's Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification (CNMNC), according to the AGU blog. The commission approved the mineral and new name on June 2. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Meteorite Impacts Can Create DNA Building Blocks
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/tu-mi081715.php Public Release: 18-Aug-2015 Meteorite impacts can create DNA building blocks Tohoku University A new study shown that meteorite impacts on ancient oceans may have created nucleobases and amino acids. Researchers from Tohoku University, National Institute for Materials Science and Hiroshima University discovered this after conducting impact experiments simulating a meteorite hitting an ancient ocean (Fig. 1). With precise analysis of the products recovered after impacts, the team found the formation of nucleobases and amino acids from inorganic compounds. The research is reported this week in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. All the genetic information of modern life is stored in DNA as sequences of nucleobases. However, formation of nucleobases from inorganic compounds available on prebiotic Earth had been considered to be difficult. In 2009, this team reported the formation of the simplest amino acid, glycine, by simulating meteorite impacts. This time, they replaced the carbon source with bicarbonate and conducted hypervelocity impact experiments at 1 km/s using a single stage propellant gun (Figure 2). They found the formation of a far larger variety of life's building blocks, including two kinds of nucleobases and nine kinds of proteinogenic amino acids. The results suggest a new route for how genetic molecules may have first formed on Earth. ### Publication Details Title: Nucleobases and amino acids formation through impacts of meteorites on the early ocean. Authors: Furukawa Y., Nakazawa H., Sekine T., Kobayashi T., Kakegawa T. Journal: Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2015), http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X15004926 Contacts: Dr. Yoshihiro Furukawa Assistant Professor, Department of Earth Science, Tohoku University Email: furuk...@m.tohoku.ac.jp Tel: +81-22-795-3453 Dr. Takamichi Kobayashi Principal Researcher, Ultra-High Pressure Processes Group Materials Processing Unit, National Institute for Materials Science Email: kobayashi.takami...@nims.go.jp Tel: +81-29-860-4419 Dr. Toshimori Sekine Professor, Department of Earth and Planetary System Science, Hiroshima University Email: toshimori-sek...@hiroshima-u.ac.jp Tel: +81-82-424-7474 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Vegetables Planted in Meteorite Soil Could One Day Feed Human Colonies on Alien Planets
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2658956/To-boldly-GROW-Vegetables-planted-meteorite-soil-help-feed-human-colonies-alien-planets.html To boldly GROW: Vegetables planted in meteorite soil could one day feed human colonies on alien planets * Meteorites contain phosphate, nitrates and water that plants can feed on * Dr Michael Mautner grew asparagus, potatoes and algae in meteorite soil * His plan is to find several plants and extraterrestrial soil to farm in space * Dr Mautner thinks it is entirely possible to, in the future, directly grow certain plants on other planets By Ellie Zolfagharifard Daily Mail 16 June 2014 If you thought tending to plants on Earth was tricky, then try growing them in the hostile environment of space. That's exactly what one scientist from Virginia is hoping to do using meteorite soil to grow everything from asparagus to potatoes. If the study proves successful, it could help humans grow their own food in space, helping in the quest to colonise other planets. COULD NASA FARM IN SPACE? At nearly £14,000 ($23,000) to send a kilogram of food into space, cosmic cuisine doesn't come cheap. But Dr Michael Mautner isn't the only one looking at space farming as a possible solution to getting food into space. Nasa currently has plans for a 'space farm' and is already experimenting with growing lettuce on the ISS. As well as cutting costs, Nasa is hoping a 'space farm' will deliver a lasting supply of food for astronauts on deep space missions. It could also provide something called "horticultural therapy" for astronauts to reduce stress, alleviate depression and improve their overall general health. The work is part of the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) to grow six romaine lettuce plants under pink LED lamps. Nasa claims that after extensive testing on plants on Earth, it doesn't expect zero-gravity conditions to affect the growth of the plants. As one of the world's only "astroecologists", Dr Michael Mautner thinks it is entirely possible to, in the future, directly grow certain plants on other planets. This will be vital for a future colony to survive on Mars, he claims. The privately-funded Mars One mission plans to have a human settlement on Mars within a decade. Meanwhile, Nasa believes putting man on the red planet will be possible by 2030. But one of the biggest challenges is providing food to sustain astronauts. Currently its costs nearly £14,000 ($23,000) to send a kilogram of food into space. The ability to grow cosmic cuisine will cut these costs and provide astronauts with "horticultural therapy" to reduce stress. Dr Mautner from Virginia Commonwealth University researcher told Motherboard that meteorites often contain phosphate, nitrates, and even water that plants can feed on. To grow the plants, Dr Mautner ground up meteorites to create something closely resembling soil. "A variety of soil bacteria, algae, and asparagus and potato tissue cultures grew well in these asteroid/meteorite soils and also in Martian meteorite soils," Dr Mautner reported. His plan is to eventually find several different plants and extraterrestrial soil types that provide the best conditions to farm in space. "Given the estimated amounts of asteroid materials shows that these resources can support trillions of humans comfortably in our solar system, and eventually, in billions of other solar systems throughout the galaxy," Dr Mautner said. Dr Mautner's experiment are currently at a very early stage. For instance, he has not yet factored in the lack of oxygen on other planets, or the varying gravity conditions. But, he believes, this is the first step to providing the tools needed for humans to better explore the solar system and beyond. "Life on Earth is fragile, endangered by nuclear proliferation, genetic misengineering, runaway climate change or major asteroid impacts, and limited by depleting resources," Dr Mautner said. "Eventually, Earth will become uninhabitable by the expanding sun. In contrast, life in many independent worlds in space can secure life for trillions of eons." __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Airborne Researchers Catch up with Falling Space Debris (WT1190F)
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/11/16/airborne-researchers-catch-up-with-falling-space-debris/ Airborne researchers catch up with falling space debris by Stephen Clark Spaceflight Now November 16, 2015 Stationed aboard a Gulfstream business jet over the Indian Ocean, an international team of scientists observed a mysterious fragment of space junk falling through Earth's atmosphere Friday years after it was discarded on a deep space mission. Astronomers saw the re-entry, which was predicted after the object's rediscovery in early October, as a prime research opportunity to study the behavior of objects plunging to Earth at high speed, even faster than typical chunks of space junk coming back from low Earth orbit. Named WT1190F, the object was about 1-2 meters (3-6 feet) across with low density, leading experts to conclude it was likely a rocket or spacecraft fragment from an Apollo lunar mission or a more recent deep space launch. It was found in a highly elliptical orbit around Earth taking it twice as far as the moon during each circuit of the planet. After tracking the object twice in 2013, astronomers with the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey detected it again in October and found it on a trajectory to re-enter Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean just south of Sri Lanka. Chartered by the International Astronomical Center and the United Arab Emirates Space Agency, the Gulfstream 450 flight hosted scientists from the IAC, the UAE Space Agency, NASA's Ames Research Center, the SETI Institute, the Clay Center Observatory in Massachusetts, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and two researchers from the University of Stuttgart in Germany sponsored by the European Space Agency. The aircraft had to be positioned in clear skies above a blanket of clouds that blocked ground-based observers from viewing the event. "Much of our flight to the area saw haze above our flight altitude at 45,000 feet, but our navigator, pilot and first officer found a small clearing and managed to put the aircraft there at the right time," scientists from the SETI Institute wrote on their website. "We had a perfect view of the WT1190F reentry, which was bright by naked eye. We have incredible imaging data and also succeeded in doing quality spectroscopy at blue and red wavelengths, which is a first for us in daytime conditions." Scientists say the example of WT1190F, which was discovered to be heading toward Earth a month in advance, is a model for potential asteroid impacts in the future, where incoming objects could be found with weeks of warning. "This event was therefore good to practice some of the procedures that NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program would follow if a small asteroid were on a collision course with Earth," NASA wrote in an update on its website. "Those procedures include detecting and tracking of the object, characterizing its physical parameters, calculating its trajectory with high precision modeling, and delivering accurate predictions to scientists who would like to observe the entry through Earth's atmosphere." __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] 'Chemical Laptop' Could Search for Signs of Life Outside Earth
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4765 'Chemical Laptop' Could Search for Signs of Life Outside Earth Jet Propulsion Laboratory November 16, 2015 If you were looking for the signatures of life on another world, you would want to take something small and portable with you. That's the philosophy behind the "Chemical Laptop" being developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California: a miniaturized laboratory that analyzes samples for materials associated with life. "If this instrument were to be sent to space, it would be the most sensitive device of its kind to leave Earth, and the first to be able to look for both amino acids and fatty acids," said Jessica Creamer, a NASA postdoctoral fellow based at JPL. Like a tricorder from "Star Trek," the Chemical Laptop is a miniaturized on-the-go laboratory, which researchers hope to send one day to another planetary body such as Mars or Europa. It is roughly the size of a regular computing laptop, but much thicker to make room for chemical analysis components inside. But unlike a tricorder, it has to ingest a sample to analyze it. "Our device is a chemical analyzer that can be reprogrammed like a laptop to perform different functions," said Fernanda Mora, a JPL technologist who is developing the instrument with JPL's Peter Willis, the project's principal investigator. "As on a regular laptop, we have different apps for different analyses like amino acids and fatty acids." Amino acids are building blocks of proteins, while fatty acids are key components of cell membranes. Both are essential to life, but can also be found in non-life sources. The Chemical Laptop may be able to tell the difference. What it's looking for Amino acids come in two types: Left-handed and right-handed. Like the left and right hands of a person, these amino acids are mirror images of each other but contain the same components. Some scientists hypothesize that life on Earth evolved to use just left-handed amino acids because that standard was adopted early in life's history, sort of like the way VHS became the standard for video instead of Betamax in the 1980s. It's possible that life on other worlds might use the right-handed kind. "If a test found a 50-50 mixture of left-handed and right-handed amino acids, we could conclude that the sample was probably not of biological origin," Creamer said. "But if we were to find an excess of either left or right, that would be the golden ticket. That would be the best evidence so far that life exists on other planets." The analysis of amino acids is particularly challenging because the left- and right-handed versions are equal in size and electric charge. Even more challenging is developing a method that can look for all the amino acids in a single analysis. When the laptop is set to look for fatty acids, scientists are most interested in the length of the acids' carbon chain. This is an indication of what organisms are or were present. How it works The battery-powered Chemical Laptop needs a liquid sample to analyze, which is more difficult to obtain on a planetary body such as Mars. The group collaborated with JPL's Luther Beegle to incorporate an "espresso machine" technology, in which the sample is put into a tube with liquid water and heated to above 212 degrees Fahrenheit (100 degrees Celsius). The water then comes out carrying the organic molecules with it. The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on NASA's Mars Curiosity rover utilizes a similar principle, but it uses heat without water. Once the water sample is fed into the Chemical Laptop, the device prepares the sample by mixing it with a fluorescent dye, which attaches the dye to the amino acids or fatty acids. The sample then flows into a microchip inside the device, where the amino acids or fatty acids can be separated from one another. At the end of the separation channel is a detection laser. The dye allows researchers see a signal corresponding to the amino acids or fatty acids when they pass the laser. Inside a "separation channel" of the microchip, there are already chemical additives that mix with the sample. Some of these species will only interact with right-handed amino acids, and some will only interact with the left-handed variety. These additives will change the relative amount of time the left and right-handed amino acids are in the separation channel, allowing scientists to determine the "handedness" of amino acids in the sample. Testing for future uses Last year the researchers did a field test at JPL's Mars Yard, where they placed the Chemical Laptop on a test rover. "This was the first time we showed the instrument works outside of the laboratory setting. This is the first step toward demonstrating a totally portable and automated instrument that can operate in the field," said Mora. For this test, the laptop analyzed a sample of "green rust," a mineral
[meteorite-list] NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Heads Toward Active Dunes
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4772 NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover Heads Toward Active Dunes Jet Propulsion Laboratory November 16, 2015 On its way to higher layers of the mountain where it is investigating how Mars' environment changed billions of years ago, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover will take advantage of a chance to study some modern Martian activity at mobile sand dunes. In the next few days, the rover will get its first close-up look at these dark dunes, called the "Bagnold Dunes," which skirt the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. No Mars rover has previously visited a sand dune, as opposed to smaller sand ripples or drifts. One dune Curiosity will investigate is as tall as a two-story building and as broad as a football field. The Bagnold Dunes are active: Images from orbit indicate some of them are migrating as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year. No active dunes have been visited anywhere in the solar system besides Earth. "We've planned investigations that will not only tell us about modern dune activity on Mars but will also help us interpret the composition of sandstone layers made from dunes that turned into rock long ago," said Bethany Ehlmann of the California Institute of Technology and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, both in Pasadena, California. As of Monday, Nov. 16, Curiosity has about 200 yards or meters remaining to drive before reaching "Dune 1." The rover is already monitoring the area's wind direction and speed each day and taking progressively closer images, as part of the dune research campaign. At the dune, it will use its scoop to collect samples for the rover's internal laboratory instruments, and it will use a wheel to scuff into the dune for comparison of the surface to the interior. Curiosity has driven about 1,033 feet (315 meters) in the past three weeks, since departing an area where its drill sampled two rock targets just 18 days apart. The latest drilled sample, "Greenhorn," is the ninth since Curiosity landed in 2012 and sixth since reaching Mount Sharp last year. The mission is studying how Mars' ancient environment changed from wet conditions favorable for microbial life to harsher, drier conditions. Before Curiosity's landing, scientists used images from orbit to map the landing region's terrain types in a grid of 140 square quadrants, each about 0.9 mile (1.5 kilometers) wide. Curiosity entered its eighth quadrant this month. It departed one called Arlee, after a geological district in Montana, and drove into one called Windhoek, for a geological district in Namibia. Throughout the mission, the rover team has informally named Martian rocks, hills and other features for locations in the quadrant's namesake area on Earth. There's a new twist for the Windhoek Quadrant: scientists at the Geological Society of Namibia and at the Gobabeb Research and Training Center in Namibia have provided the rover team with a list of Namibian geological place names to use for features in this quadrant. The Windhoek theme was chosen for this sand-dune-bearing quadrant because studies of the Namib Desert have aided interpretation of dune and playa environments on Mars. What distinguishes actual dunes from windblown ripples of sand or dust, like those found at several sites visited previously by Mars rovers, is that dunes form a downwind face steep enough for sand to slide down. The effect of wind on motion of individual particles in dunes has been studied extensively on Earth, a field pioneered by British military engineer Ralph Bagnold (1896-1990). Curiosity's campaign at the Martian dune field informally named for him will be the first in-place study of dune activity on a planet with lower gravity and less atmosphere. Observations of the Bagnold Dunes with the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter indicate that mineral composition is not evenly distributed in the dunes. The same orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment has documented movement of Bagnold Dunes. "We will use Curiosity to learn whether the wind is actually sorting the minerals in the dunes by how the wind transports particles of different grain size," Ehlmann said. As an example, the dunes contain olivine, a mineral in dark volcanic rock that is one of the first altered into other minerals by water. If the Bagnold campaign finds that other mineral grains are sorted away from heavier olivine-rich grains by the wind's effects on dune sands, that could help researchers evaluate to what extent low and high amounts of olivine in some ancient sandstones could be caused by wind-sorting rather than differences in alteration by water. Ehlmann and Nathan Bridges of the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, lead the Curiosity team's planning for the dune campaign. "These dunes have a different texture from dunes on Earth," Bridges said. "The
[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: November 9-13, 2015
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES November 9-13, 2015 o Bacolor Crater Ejecta (09 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151109a o Auqakuh Vallis (10 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151110a o Crater Chaos (11 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-2015a o Olympia Undae (12 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151112a o Central Pit Crater (13 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151113a All of the THEMIS images are archive here: http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Main-Belt Asteroid 493 Griseldi Shows Evidence of March Collision
http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/info/press-releases/493Griseldis/ Main-Belt Asteroid Shows Evidence of March Collision University of Hawaii For release on November 12, 2015 at 12 noon EST (7 a.m. HST) Contacts: Dr. David Tholen tho...@ifa.hawaii.edu Dr. Roy Gal Media Contact +1 808-956-6235 cell: +1 301-728-8637 r...@ifa.hawaii.edu [Image] Image of main-belt asteroid (493) Griseldis with temporary tail taken with the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea. Credit: D. Tholen, S. Sheppard, C. Trujillo. The main-belt asteroid (493) Griseldis was probably hit by another object last March. The results were reported on November 12 at the annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society near Washington, DC. Observations taken with the 8-meter Subaru Telescope on Maunakea on 17 March 2015 UT showed that the main-belt asteroid (493) Griseldis had "an extended feature," which is astronomer-speak for a tail. However, unlike the tails of comets, which flow in the direction opposite from the sun due to the solar wind, the extension on Griseldis was not in the antisolar direction, and the extension proved to be a short-lived phenomenon. Additional observations taken with the 6.5-m Magellan telescope four nights later still detected the extension, though it was weaker, but exposures taken with the 2.2-meter University of Hawaii telescope on 24 March UT or Magellan on 18 April UT and 21 May UT showed no such feature, nor did images from telescope archives taken in 2010 and 2012. The researchers, David Tholen (Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa), Scott Sheppard (Carnegie Institution) and Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory) have therefore concluded that "the observations are consistent with the occurrence of an impact event on this asteroid." The main asteroid belt is located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Illustrations Uncropped Subaru image (same as above image) Four-panel image: The top three panels are three different exposures with Subaru with asteroid (493) Griseldis moving from left to right as you move from the first panel to the third one. The bottom panel shows all three exposures added together, after suppressing the galaxy that interferes with the "tail" in the first exposure; the asteroid is on the right. Credit: D. Tholen, S. Sheppard, C. Trujillo. 72 dpi 300 dpi Image taken with the Magellan Telescope in Chile four days later shows a reduced "tail." Credit: S. Sheppard. Founded in 1967, the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa conducts research into galaxies, cosmology, stars, planets, and the sun. Its faculty and staff are also involved in astronomy education, deep space missions, and in the development and management of the observatories on Haleakala and Maunakea. The Institute operates facilities on the islands of Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mercury Gets a Meteoroid Shower from Comet Encke
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/mercury-gets-meteoroid-shower-from-comet-encke Mercury Gets a Meteoroid Shower from Comet Encke November 10, 2015 The planet Mercury is being pelted regularly by bits of dust from an ancient comet, a new study has concluded. This has a discernible effect in the planet's tenuous atmosphere and may lead to a new paradigm on how these airless bodies maintain their ethereal envelopes. The findings are to be presented at the annual Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society at National Harbor, Maryland, this week, by Apostolos Christou at the Armagh Observatory in Northern Ireland, Rosemary Killen at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and Matthew Burger of Morgan State University in Baltimore, working at Goddard. [Graphic] Mercury appears to undergo a recurring meteoroid shower when its orbit crosses the debris trail left by comet Encke. (Artist's concept.) Credits: NASA/Goddard Earthlings are no strangers to the effects of cometary dust on a planet and its environment. On a clear, moonless night we witness the demise of countless such dust grains as they burn up in the Earth's atmosphere in the form of meteors or "shooting stars." At certain times of the year, their numbers increase manyfold, creating a natural fireworks display: a meteor shower. This is caused by the Earth passing through a stream of dust particles left behind by certain comets. One of the most well-known showers, the August Perseids, originates from comet Swift-Tuttle, which was last seen back in 1992 and won't be back in the inner solar system for another century. But Earth is not the only planet in the solar system to sweep up cometary dust in this fashion. Last year, comet Siding Spring came within 100,000 miles of Mars, loading its upper atmosphere with several tons of cometary material. The aftermath was recorded by instruments onboard several Mars-orbiting spacecraft such as NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission and ESA's Mars Express. Bodies such as the moon and Mercury are typically thought of as airless, yet we have known since the time of the Apollo moon landings that they are surrounded by clouds of atomic particles either launched from the surface or brought in by the solar wind. Though tenuous by comparison to the dense atmospheres of the Earth or Mars, the observational record has revealed these "surface boundary exospheres" to be complex and dynamic entities, fascinating to study in their own right. NASA's MErcury Surface Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER), the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, measured how certain species in the exosphere vary with time. Analysis of the data by Burger and colleagues found a pattern in the variation of the element calcium that repeats from one Mercury year to the next. To investigate, Killen teamed up with Joe Hahn of the Space Science Institute, based in Austin, Texas, to understand what happens when Mercury ploughs through the so-called zodiacal cloud of interplanetary dust around the sun and its surface is pelted by high-speed meteoroids. The researchers found that both the observed amount of calcium and the pattern in which it varies could be explained in terms of the material thrown off the planet's surface by the impacts. But one feature in the data did not make sense: the peak in calcium emission is seen right after Mercury passes through its perihelion -- the closest point of its orbit to the Sun -- whereas Killen and Hahn's model predicted the peak to occur just before perihelion. Something was still missing. That "something" arrived in the form of a cometary dust stream. Discovered in the 18th century, comet Encke is named after the German mathematician who first computed its orbit. It has the shortest period of any comet, returning to perihelion every 3.3 years at a distance of 31 million miles (nearly 50 million kilometers) from the sun. Its orbit, and that of any dust particles thrown off it, is stable enough so, over millennia, a dense dust stream would have formed. Killen and Hahn proposed that Encke dust impacting Mercury could kick up more calcium from the surface and explain what MESSENGER was seeing. The match was not perfect, however. For one thing, Encke is closest to Mercurys orbit about a week later than the calcium peak. The researchers postulated that the evolution of the dust stream over thousands of years had somehow shifted the stream away from comet Encke's present orbit. But what was causing the shift? To find out, Killen and Burger teamed up with Christou to simulate the evolution of the Encke stream for several tens of thousands of years -- the likely lifetime of the comet. Christou had to first compute a 'best guess' of the comet's orbit many thousands of years before it was first observed. Starting from that point in time, he followed a cloud of
[meteorite-list] Navy Launches Second Test Missile Off Southern California Coast
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-second-missile-launch-pentagon-20151109-story.html Navy launches second test missile off Southern California coast A light created by a naval test fire off the Southern California coast was seen across the Southland and Arizona on Saturday evening. W.J. Hennigan Los Angeles Times November 9, 2015 The U.S. Navy said it launched a second -- and final -- missile in a planned exercise Monday afternoon from a submarine off the Southern California coast. The second test launch of the Trident II (D5) missile from a ballistic submarine in the Pacific Ocean took place Monday afternoon, the Navy said. The blast-off took place to far less fanfare than Saturday night's launch, which provoked residents from San Francisco to Mexico to take to social media, posting photos of an eerie-looking bluish-green plume smeared above the Pacific. Speculations were wide-ranging, including rumors of an otherworldly alien UFO visit. In fact, the streak was generated from the Trident missile's rocket motor. The Navy later confirmed a ballistic submarine launched an unarmed Trident II (D5) missile in a test flight, but would not define the window of time available for conducting additional launches, nor would it disclose where the exercise was actually taking place. "It's important that we test these missiles for our national security," said John M. Daniels, spokesman for the secretive Strategic Systems Programs office, which oversees the Navy's nuclear-tipped missile arsenal. "We don't announce future launches, but this is it for any time soon." The Kentucky, the ballistic submarine, conducted the two launches as part of a demonstration and shakedown operation, or DASO, process that certifies the readiness of a submarine's crew and strategic weapons before returning to operational availability. It occurs after a submarine has its mid-life nuclear refueling, which involves replacing the expended nuclear fuel in the submarine's reactor with new fuel. The Kentucky entered Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash., in February 2012 for an overhaul that ended in April. The Navy is considering posting additional photos -- and possibly video -- of the missile launches after the current exercises are completed, Daniels said, but it has yet to decide. The Navy's fleet of 14 ballistic submarines can each carry 24 Trident missiles, each tipped with 14 independently targetable thermonuclear warheads. The Navy annually tests the Tridents, on the West Coast and on the East Coast, near Florida. The $31 million missile, built by Lockheed Martin Corp. in Sunnyvale, Calif., has had more than 150 successful launches since its first test in 1989. It is capable of hitting a target 4,000 nautical miles away. The test on Saturday featured the launch of a missile outfitted with a dummy warhead toward the Kwajalein Atoll, a missile test site that's part of the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific. While the risk of nuclear confrontation between the United States and Russia declined after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, it has never gone away. The U.S. military's nuclear weapons strategy rests on a triad of delivery systems - bombers, submarines and land-based missiles - developed early in the Cold War to deliver warheads anywhere in the world. The Pentagon recently embarked on a $355-billion program for modernizing each aging leg of the U.S. nuclear triad over the next decade. The submarine missile test came late Saturday after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter addressed a defense forum at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley about the U.S. "adapting our operational posture and contingency plans - to deter Russia's aggression." "We do not seek a cold, let alone a hot, war with Russia," he said to the forum. "We do not seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake; the United States will defend our interests, our allies, the principled international order, and the positive future it affords us all." __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Secondhand Spacecraft Has Firsthand Asteroid Experience (NEOWISE)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4767 Secondhand Spacecraft Has Firsthand Asteroid Experience Jet Propulsoin Laboratory November 11, 2015 The NEOWISE mission hunts for near-Earth objects (NEOs) using the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. Funded by NASA's NEO Observations Program, the NEOWISE mission uses images taken by the spacecraft to look for asteroids and comets, providing a rich source of measurements of solar system objects at infrared wavelengths. These measurements include wavelengths that are difficult or impossible to detect directly from the ground. NEOWISE is one of 54 ongoing projects supported by the NEO Observations Program in fiscal year 2015. NASA-funded survey projects have found 98 percent of the known catalogue of more than 13,000 NEOs. NASA-funded surveys are currently finding NEOs at a rate of about 1,500 per year. The NEOWISE mission uses a repurposed NASA spacecraft to find and characterize asteroids. Launched in December 2009, WISE was tasked with documenting in infrared light some of the most remote objects in not only our galaxy, but our universe. Less than two years later, WISE had done just that, scanning the entire sky not once, but twice. From galaxies, to stars, to black holes, WISE collected data on over 750 million celestial targets of interest. With its mission a complete success after a year of operations, WISE was put into hibernation. In December 2014, the space telescope was revived with an updated mission and a new name. Its job was to find and collect the infrared signatures on some of our closest celestial neighbors - asteroids, comets and near-Earth objects. Now led by Principal Investigator Amy Mainzer of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., the mission was named Near-Earth Object WISE, or NEOWISE. As an infrared telescope, NEOWISE sees the heat emitted from celestial bodies. Although it's common to think of objects in space as very cold, our sun warms the surfaces of asteroids, making them glow brightly in NEOWISE images. Even asteroids as dark as black ink, which can be difficult to see against the darkness of space in visible wavelengths, can be spotted by NEOWISE's camera. "Using visible wavelengths of light, it is difficult to tell if an asteroid is big and dark, or bright and small, because both combinations reflect the same amount of light," said Carrie Nugent, a NEOWISE scientist at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena. "But when you look at an asteroid in the infrared with NEOWISE, the amount of infrared light corresponds with how big the asteroid is, and with some thermal models on a computer, you can figure out how big the asteroids are." With these thermal models, the NEOWISE team has measured the size and brightness of about 20 percent of the known asteroid population. In the first year since reactivation, Nugent and the NEOWISE team have made these measurements for almost 8,000 asteroids, including 201 near-Earth asteroids. "When WISE rolled off the assembly line, it was like a shiny new car with all the latest technology," said Nugent. "Now it's like that first car you get out of school -- more vintage than new and with a lot of miles on the odometer. But NEOWISE is giving us great data and experience behind the wheel and reminding us every day how powerful infrared space telescopes are for finding and studying asteroids." NEOWISE snaps an infrared image of the sky every 11 seconds from its orbit around Earth. Outside of Earth's atmosphere, it always has a clear view of the night sky. NEOWISE's orbit was designed so that the telescope never sees the sun. Although a person may not like the idea of living in darkness, this is perfect for NEOWISE, since too much light would damage its sensitive sensors. Although NEOWISE has been a reliable workhorse operating long past its planned lifetime, its mission will eventually come to an end. The spacecraft's orbit is changing, and sometime in 2017, engineers estimate it will move into too much sunlight to function. However, the team is eyeing a new space telescope, one with a little more muscle. NEOWISE Principal Investigator Amy Mainzer led a proposal for a new asteroid-hunting spacecraft, the Near-Earth Object Camera (NEOCam). Unlike NEOWISE, NEOCam is specifically designed to hunt asteroids. NEOCam is one of five Discovery-class proposals funded for further study this year by NASA. "There's so much left to discover when it comes to asteroids," said Nugent. "And the NEOWISE mission is a great asset for learning more about our closest extraterrestrial neighbors." More information about the NEOWISE mission is at: http://neowise.ipac.caltech.edu/ More information about the NEOCam proposal is at: http://neocam.ipac.caltech.edu/ Media Contact DC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 a...@jpl.nasa.gov
[meteorite-list] Fireball Sighting Over Ireland
http://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/parts-of-a-meteorite-seen-in-irish-skies-could-have-landed-1.2423425 Parts of a meteorite seen in Irish skies could have landed Astronomy Ireland appeals for sightings after reports of colossal explosion on Sunday Aine McMahon Irish Times November 9, 2015 Astronomy Ireland has said parts of a meteorite seen flashing across the sky last night could have landed on earth. It said a "colossal explosion" was seen over Ireland on Sunday night at about 8.15pm and said reports are urgently needed to locate any meteorite that was dropped as a result. The Astronomy Ireland website received numerous reports from people all across Ireland reporting the flash was so bright that it lit up the landscape for several seconds. Astronomy Ireland believes it was was a rock in space colliding with Earth and burning up in the sky hundreds of miles above Ireland. "From a flash this bright it is possible that part of the rock survived the re-entry process and landed on Earth", said rditor of Astronomy Ireland magazine, David Moore. "A fireball in November 1999 that dropped a meteorite on Ireland was found in Co Carlow after a similar analysis by Astronomy Ireland. Collectors were later selling bits of this meteorite for 50 times the price of gold at the time, so meteorites can be very valuable," added Mr Moore. He asked people who saw the event to report sightings on the Astronomy Ireland website, astronomy.ie, so that others can search the area for meteorites. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Upgrade Helps NASA Study Mineral Veins on Mars (MSL)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4766 Upgrade Helps NASA Study Mineral Veins on Mars Jet Propulsion Laboratory November 11, 2015 Scientists now have a better understanding about a site with the most chemically diverse mineral veins NASA's Curiosity rover has examined on Mars, thanks in part to a valuable new resource scientists used in analyzing data from the rover. Curiosity examined bright and dark mineral veins in March 2015 at a site called "Garden City," where some veins protrude as high as two finger widths above the eroding bedrock in which they formed. The diverse composition of the crisscrossing veins points to multiple episodes of water moving through fractures in the bedrock when it was buried. During some wet periods, water carried different dissolved substances than during other wet periods. When conditions dried, fluids left clues behind that scientists are now analyzing for insights into how ancient environmental conditions changed over time. "These fluids could be from different sources at different times," said Diana Blaney, a Curiosity science team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "We see crosscutting veins with such diverse chemistry at this localized site. This could be the result of distinct fluids migrating through from a distance, carrying chemical signatures from where they'd been." Researchers used Curiosity's laser-firing Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument to record the spectra of sparks generated by zapping 17 Garden City targets with the laser. The unusually diverse chemistry detected at Garden City includes calcium sulfate in some veins and magnesium sulfate in others. Additional veins were found to be rich in fluorine or varying levels of iron. As researchers analyzed Curiosity's observations of the veins, the ChemCam team was completing the most extensive upgrade to its data-analysis toolkit since Curiosity reached Mars in August 2012. They more than tripled -- to about 350 -- the number of Earth-rock geochemical samples examined with a test version of ChemCam. This enabled an improvement in their data interpretation, making it more sensitive to a wider range of possible composition of Martian rocks. Blaney said, "The chemistry at Garden City would have been very enigmatic if we didn't have this recalibration." The Garden City site is just uphill from a mudstone outcrop called "Pahrump Hills," which Curiosity investigated for about six months after reaching the base of multi-layered Mount Sharp in September 2014. The mission is examining ancient environments that offered favorable conditions for microbial life, if Mars has ever hosted any, and the changes from those environments to drier conditions that have prevailed on Mars for more than 3 billion years. Curiosity has found evidence that base layers of Mount Sharp were deposited in lakes and rivers. The wet conditions recorded by the Garden City veins existed in later eras, after the mud deposited in lakes had hardened into rock and cracked. Eye-catching geometry revealed in images of the veins offers additional clues. Younger veins continue uninterrupted across intersections with veins that formed earlier, indicating relative ages. ChemCam provides the capability of making distinct composition readings of multiple laser targets close together on different veins, rather than lumping the information together. The chemistry of these veins is also related to mineral alteration observed at other places on and near Mount Sharp. What researchers learned here can be used to help understand a very complex fluid chemical history in the region. Since leaving Garden City, Curiosity has climbed to higher, younger layers of Mount Sharp. Today, Blaney presented findings from ChemCam's Garden City investigations at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Science, in National Harbor, Maryland. The U.S. Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, developed ChemCam in partnership with scientists and engineers funded by the French national space agency. More information is available at: http://www.msl-chemcam.com NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory built Curiosity and manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity http://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity Media Contact Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6278 guy.webs...@jpl.nasa.gov Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077 dwayne.c.br...@nasa.gov/ laura.l.canti...@nasa.gov __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at
[meteorite-list] Mars' Moon Phobos is Slowly Falling Apart
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/phobos-is-falling-apart Mars' Moon Phobos is Slowly Falling Apart November 10, 2015 The long, shallow grooves lining the surface of Phobos are likely early signs of the structural failure that will ultimately destroy this moon of Mars. Orbiting a mere 3,700 miles (6,000 kilometers) above the surface of Mars, Phobos is closer to its planet than any other moon in the solar system. Mars' gravity is drawing in Phobos, the larger of its two moons, by about 6.6 feet (2 meters) every hundred years. Scientists expect the moon to be pulled apart in 30 to 50 million years. [Image] New modeling indicates that the grooves on Mars' moon Phobos could be produced by tidal forces - the mutual gravitational pull of the planet and the moon. Initially, scientists had thought the grooves were created by the massive impact that made Stickney crater (lower right). Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona "We think that Phobos has already started to fail, and the first sign of this failure is the production of these grooves," said Terry Hurford of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The findings by Hurford and his colleagues are being presented Nov. 10, 2015, at the annual Meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society at National Harbor, Maryland. Phobos' grooves were long thought to be fractures caused by the impact that formed Stickney crater. That collision was so powerful, it came close to shattering Phobos. However, scientists eventually determined that the grooves don't radiate outward from the crater itself but from a focal point nearby. More recently, researchers have proposed that the grooves may instead be produced by many smaller impacts of material ejected from Mars. But new modeling by Hurford and colleagues supports the view that the grooves are more like "stretch marks" that occur when Phobos gets deformed by tidal forces. The gravitational pull between Mars and Phobos produces these tidal forces. Earth and our moon pull on each other in the same way, producing tides in the oceans and making both planet and moon slightly egg-shaped rather than perfectly round. The same explanation was proposed for the grooves decades ago, after the Viking spacecraft sent images of Phobos to Earth. At the time, however, Phobos was thought to be more-or-less solid all the way through. When the tidal forces were calculated, the stresses were too weak to fracture a solid moon of that size. The recent thinking, however, is that the interior of Phobos could be a rubble pile, barely holding together, surrounded by a layer of powdery regolith about 330 feet (100 meters) thick. "The funny thing about the result is that it shows Phobos has a kind of mildly cohesive outer fabric," said Erik Asphaug of the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University in Tempe and a co-investigator on the study. "This makes sense when you think about powdery materials in microgravity, but it's quite non-intuitive." An interior like this can distort easily because it has very little strength and forces the outer layer to readjust. The researchers think the outer layer of Phobos behaves elastically and builds stress, but it's weak enough that these stresses can cause it to fail. All of this means the tidal forces acting on Phobos can produce more than enough stress to fracture the surface. Stress fractures predicted by this model line up very well with the grooves seen in images of Phobos. This explanation also fits with the observation that some grooves are younger than others, which would be the case if the process that creates them is ongoing. The same fate may await Neptune's moon Triton, which is also slowly falling inward and has a similarly fractured surface. The work also has implications for extrasolar planets, according to researchers. "We can't image those distant planets to see what's going on, but this work can help us understand those systems, because any kind of planet falling into its host star could get torn apart in the same way," said Hurford. Elizabeth Zubritsky NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Investors Are Betting Asteroid Won't Destroy America
http://www.businessinsider.com/artemis-catastrophe-bond-data-2014-6 The Search For Returns Has Taken Investors To The Nether Regions Of The Solar System Rob Wile Business Insider June 12, 2014 The search for yield has taken investors into the nether regions of the solar system. Last month, according to Artemis, a group that tracks catastrophe bonds, insurer USAA took out a policy against the risk it would have to pay out for tropical cyclones, earthquakes, severe thunderstorms, winter storms, wildfire, volcanic eruption and meteorite impact. The reinsurer, Residential Re then turned around and issued a catastrophe bond worth $130 million to split up their USAA payout risk among investors. Last year, a meteor impact caused millions of dollars' worth of damage to a city in Russia. Here's the listing: [Graphic] In a catastrophe bond, investors sponsor a body's insurance policy, betting the disaster won't occur. First, they pay an up-front amount to subscribe to the bond issuance. That amount is called collateral, and it gets parked in a fund managed by the bond issuer to be invested in low-risk securities. The pool is supposed to make interest payments to the investors as the bond reaches maturity. If the catastrophe is avoided, the investors see a nice return. But if the catastrophe occurs and the policy is triggered, the fund is abruptly converted into a rainy (or earthquake-y, or tornado-y) day fund, and the investors can lose everything. The Wall Street Journal's Ben Edwards said last month USAA's meteor bond was likely to yield 15%. Cat bonds have exploded in popularity thanks to their hefty yields. David Cole, the CFO at Swiss Re, one of the world's largest reinsurers, recently told Bloomberg they're actually probably too popular. The fact that no major natural catastrophes have occurred over the last two or three years doesn't guarantee losses won't occur in the future. Some people are chasing yield and may accept risks that they are not prepared for. Some of the new capital that comes into the market may be not as experienced or able to create a diversified portfolio. Here's a chart showing the frequency of new catastrophe bond issues. Besides yields, of course, there has also been a huge recent uptick in natural disasters. [Chart] Business Insider, data from Artemis The largest catastrophe bond ever was issued last month - a $1.5 billion note for protection against Florida hurricanes. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] At Pluto, New Horizons Finds Geology of All Ages, Possible Ice Volcanoes, Insight into Planetary Origins
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20151109 At Pluto, New Horizons Finds Geology of All Ages, Possible Ice Volcanoes, Insight into Planetary Origins November 9, 2015 [Image] Scientists using New Horizons images of Pluto's surface to make 3-D topographic maps have discovered that two of Pluto's mountains, informally named Wright Mons and Piccard Mons, could possibly be ice volcanoes. The color is shown to depict changes in elevation, with blue indicating lower terrain and brown showing higher elevation; green terrains are at intermediate heights. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute [Image] The informally named feature Wright Mons, located south of Sputnik Planum on Pluto, is an unusual feature that's about 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide and 13,000 feet (4 kilometers) high. It displays a summit depression (visible in the center of the image) that's approximately 35 miles (56 kilometers) across, with a distinctive hummocky texture on its sides. The rim of the summit depression also shows concentric fracturing. New Horizons scientists believe that this mountain and another, Piccard Mons, could have been formed by the 'cryovolcanic' eruption of ices from beneath Pluto's surface. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute >From possible ice volcanoes to geologically diverse surfaces to oddly behaving moons that could have formed through mergers of smaller moons, Pluto system discoveries continue to surprise scientists on NASA's New Horizons mission team. "The New Horizons mission has taken what we thought we knew about Pluto and turned it upside down," said Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "It's why we explore - to satisfy our innate curiosity and answer deeper questions about how we got here and what lies beyond the next horizon." Press Conference Graphics View the graphics from the Nov. 9 New Horizons media briefing at the 2015 AAS Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting. The New Horizons team is discussing numerous findings at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) this week in National Harbor, Maryland. Just four months after the spacecraft encountered Pluto, science team members are presenting more than 50 reports on exciting discoveries. "It's hard to imagine how rapidly our view of Pluto and its moons are evolving as new data stream in each week. As the discoveries pour in from those data, Pluto is becoming a star of the solar system," said mission Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. "Moreover, I'd wager that for most planetary scientists, any one or two of our latest major findings on one world would be considered astounding. To have them all is simply incredible." In one such discovery, New Horizons geologists have combined images of Pluto's surface to make 3-D maps that indicate that two of Pluto's most distinctive mountains could be cryovolcanoes - ice volcanoes that may have been active in the recent geological past. The two cryovolcano candidates are large features measuring tens of miles (tens of kilometers) across and several miles or kilometers high. "These are big mountains with a large hole in their summit, and on Earth that generally means one thing - a volcano," said Oliver White, New Horizons postdoctoral researcher with NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. While their appearance is similar to volcanoes on Earth that spew molten rock, ice volcanoes on Pluto are expected to emit a somewhat melted slurry of substances such as water ice, nitrogen, ammonia, or methane on Pluto. White stresses that the team's interpretation of these features as volcanoes is tentative. However, "If they are volcanic, then the summit depression would likely have formed via collapse as material is erupted from underneath. The strange hummocky texture of the mountain flanks may represent volcanic flows of some sort that have travelled down from the summit region and onto the plains beyond, but why they are hummocky, and what they are made of, we don't yet know." If Pluto is proven to have volcanoes, it will provide an important new clue to its geologic and atmospheric evolution. "After all, nothing like this has been seen in the deep outer solar system," said Jeffrey Moore, New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging team leader, also from NASA Ames. Pluto's Long History of Geologic Activity Another of the more surprising findings from New Horizons is the wide range of surface ages found on Pluto, from ancient to intermediate to relatively young in geological terms. Crater counts used to determine surface unit ages indicate that Pluto has ancient surface areas dating to just after the formation of the planets, about 4 billion years ago. In addition, there's a vast area
[meteorite-list] Bang, Flash Seen in South Africa
http://www.timeslive.co.za/scitech/2015/11/09/Bang-shakes-Eastern-Cape-Kouga-municipality-hunts-for-possible-meteor Bang shakes Eastern Cape, Kouga municipality hunts for possible meteor Lee-Anne Butler Times Live 09 November, 2015 15:24 A disaster management team from the Kouga municipality in the Eastern Cape has been sent to the Baviaans area to inspect what is believed to be the impact site of a meteorite. According to farmers in the Patensie area they felt their homes rattling on Sunday night. Residents of Cambria told The Herald they had seen a blue flash of light which illuminated the sky. The light reportedly travelled from the direction of Jeffrey's Bay towards Steytlerville. A bang was then heard and the impact could be felt for kilometres - the residents said. A number of Herald readers also reported seeing flashes of light and hearing an explosion. At midday on Monday - Kouga municipal spokeswoman Laura-Leigh Randall said disaster management teams were investigating the possibility that a meteorite had hit the area. -RDM News Wire, The Herald __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: November 2-6, 2015
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES November 2-6, 2015 o Danielson Crater Dunes - False Color (02 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151102a o Escorial Crater- False Color (03 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151103a o Hebes Chasma - False Color (04 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151104a o Becquerel Crater - False Color (05 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151105a o Candor Chasma - False Color (06 November 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151106a All of the THEMIS images are archive here: http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mystery Light Over Pacific Ocean Was Missile Test
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/nov/07/mystery-light-sky-military-navy-drill/ Mystery light over ocean was missile test By Pauline Repard San Diego Tribune November 7, 2015 A mysterious light that streaked across San Diego's night sky Saturday, visible as far away as Nevada and Arizona, was a Trident missile test-fired by the Navy. Navy Strategic Systems Programs conducted the scheduled Trident II (D5) missile test flight at sea from the Kentucky, an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, in the Pacific Test Range off the coast of Southern California, a Navy spokesman said. The test was part of a scheduled, on-going system evaluation test, said Cmdr. Ryan Perry with the Navy's Third Fleet. Perry said launches are conducted on a frequent, recurring basis to ensure the continued reliability of the system. "Each test activity provides valuable information about our systems, thus contributing to assurance in our capabilities," he said in a statement. The missile was not armed and Strategic Systems Programs does not routinely announce missile testing. Information regarding the test launch of such missiles is classified prior to the launch, Perry said. The test range is a massive area northwest of Los Angeles. The Navy periodically uses the range to test fire Tomahawk and Standard cruise from surface ships and submarines. Law agencies and news media in San Diego were flooded with calls about 6 p.m. from people reporting everything from a flare to a comet to a nuclear bomb in the western sky. Some people saw it fade from bright red to white or blue, and thought it traveled from south to north. It's not clear if the test has anything to do with flight restrictions issued for Los Angeles International Airport for the coming week. Nighttime flights into and out of the Los Angeles airport are to avoid passing over the Pacific Ocean just the west of the airport because the U.S. military has activated airspace there, Reuters reported. The FAA and the military did not disclose the nature of the activities taking place near the second-busiest U.S. airport. Airplanes normally fly over the ocean when arriving and departing the coastal Los Angeles International Airport during the night to avoid disturbing nearby residents, airport officials said in a statement to the news service. But the FAA has indicated that military airspace over that patch of ocean was activated beginning on Friday night and continuing through Thursday night, airport officials said. As a result, the airport will need to deviate from normal flight patterns during the next six nights, the statement said. Many witnesses to the explosion speculated it was part of the annual Taurid meteor shower, which is reaching its peak. But Brian Keating, an astrophysicist at UC San Diego, quickly dismissed that. "The Taurid meteors would be coming from the east - and this light came from the west," Keating said. "We'd also be more likely to see meteors about midnight, and the flash came near sunset." __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: October 28 - November 3, 2015
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html#opportunity OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Just In Time For Halloween, A Network Problem And An Amnesia Event Slows Down Robotic Arm Work - sols 4181-4187, October 28, 2015-November 03, 2015: Opportunity is within 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The plan ahead was for Opportunity to use the robotic arm to place the Alpha Particle X-ray spectrometer down on a target for a week while the project conducted a weeklong test and readout of Flash memory. However, a Deep Space Network problem prevented the rover's plan from being radiated, so the rover executed run out plans on Sols 4184 and 4185 (Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, 2015). On Sol 4186 (Nov. 2, 2015), commands were sent to the rover to enable the use of Flash memory and to spend the week returning science data already in Flash memory. Although those commands were successful, the rover experienced an amnesia event on Sol 4186 (Nov. 2, 2015). As contingency, Flash Bank 7 readouts were performed instead. On Sol 4187 (Nov. 3, 2015), the rover successfully mounted Flash and began the return of the science data. The plan for the balance of the week is to continue with the return of science data from Flash. As of Sol 4187 (Nov. 3, 2015), the solar array energy production was 344 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.472 and a solar array dust factor of 0.574. Total odometry is 26.48 miles (42.62 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update - October 21-27, 2015
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: A Week of Imaging From South Side of Valley - sols 4174-4180, October 21, 2015-October 27, 2015 Opportunity is within 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater conducting a valley floor survey for clay minerals. >From a location on the south side of the valley, the rover has been conducting a campaign of Panoramic (Pancam) Camera color imaging of Marathon Valley with panorama frames collected on Sols 4175, 4177 and 4180 (Oct. 22, Oct. 24 and Oct. 27, 2015). The rover has also been conducting an in-situ (contact) science campaign at the current location. On Sols 4175, 4177 and 4180, using the robotic arm, Opportunity collected a 2x2 Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on a different surface target. On Sols 4177, 4178 and 4179 (Oct. 24, Oct. 25 and Oct. 26, 2015), additional readouts of Flash Bank 7 were performed. As of Sol 4180 (Oct. 27, 2015), the solar array energy production was 332 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.539 and a solar array dust factor of 0.576. Total odometry is 26.48 miles (42.62 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update - October 15-20, 2015
OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Power Levels Low Due to Winter Setting In - sols 4168-4173, October 15, 2015-October 20, 2015 Opportunity is within 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater conducting a valley floor survey for clay minerals. Low-elevation orbiter relay passes to the west continue to result in little to no data return on some relay passes. This is just a function of orbit geometry and the high valley wall to the west within Marathon Valley. >From a location on the south side of the valley, the rover has been conducting a campaign of Panoramic (Pancam) Camera color imaging of Marathon Valley with panoramas collected on Sols 4169, 4171 and 4173 (Oct. 16, Oct. 18 and Oct. 20, 2015). A salute (raise) of the robotic arm on Sol 4173 (Oct. 20, 2015) was performed so the rover's work volume for the arm could be imaged ahead on an in-situ (contact) science activities. Further readouts of Flash Bank 7 were attempted on Sol 4170 (Oct. 17, 2015). The rover's activities are being constrained by the winter power levels. Opportunity will remain on north-facing slopes for the balance of the winter. As of Sol 4173 (Oct. 20, 2015), the solar array energy production was 337 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.522 and a solar array dust factor of 0.568. Total odometry is 26.48 miles (42.62 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] NASA's New Horizons Completes Record-Setting Kuiper Belt Targeting Maneuvers
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20151105 NASA's New Horizons Completes Record-Setting Kuiper Belt Targeting Maneuvers November 5, 2015 [Graphic] Path to a KBO: Projected route of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft toward 2014 MU69, which orbits in the Kuiper Belt about 1 billion miles beyond Pluto. Planets are shown in their positions on Jan. 1, 2019, when New Horizons is projected to reach the small Kuiper Belt object. NASA must approve an extended mission for New Horizons to study the ancient KBO. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has successfully performed the last in a series of four targeting maneuvers that set it on course for a January 2019 encounter with 2014 MU69. This ancient body in the Kuiper Belt is more than a billion miles beyond Pluto; New Horizons will explore it if NASA approves an extended mission. The four propulsive maneuvers were the most distant trajectory corrections ever performed by any spacecraft. The fourth maneuver, programmed into the spacecraft's computers and executed with New Horizons' hydrazine-fueled thrusters, started at approximately 1:15 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Nov. 4, and lasted just under 20 minutes. Spacecraft operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, began receiving data through NASA's Deep Space Network just before 7 p.m. EST on Wednesday indicating the final targeting maneuver went as planned. The maneuvers didn't speed or slow the spacecraft as much as they "pushed" New Horizons sideways, giving it a 57 meter per second (128 mile per hour) nudge toward the KBO. That's enough to make New Horizons intercept MU69 in just over three years. "This is another milestone in the life of an already successful mission that's returning exciting new data every day," said Curt Niebur, New Horizons program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "These course adjustments preserve the option of studying an even more distant object in the future, as New Horizons continues its remarkable journey." The New Horizons team will submit a formal proposal to NASA for the extended mission to 2014 MU69 in early 2016. The science team hopes to explore even closer to MU69 than New Horizons came to Pluto on July 14, which was approximately 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers). "New Horizons is healthy and now on course to make the first exploration of a building block of small planets like Pluto, and we're excited to propose its exploration to NASA,"said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. Getting the data: Following the last in a series of four maneuvers targeting NASA's New Horizons spacecraft toward Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, flight controller George Lawrence monitors spacecraft data as it streams into the New Horizons Mission Operations Center at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory on Nov. 4, 2015. (Image credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute) The KBO targeting maneuvers were the mission's largest and longest, and carried out in a succession faster than any sequence of previous New Horizons engine burns. They were also incredibly accurate, performing almost exactly as they were designed and setting New Horizons on the course mission designers predicted. "The performance of each maneuver was spot on," said APL's Gabe Rogers, New Horizons spacecraft systems engineer and guidance and control lead. The first three maneuvers were carried out on Oct. 22, 25 and 28. At the time of yesterday's maneuver, New Horizons, speeding toward deeper space at more than 32,000 miles per hour, was approximately 84 million miles (135 million kilometers) beyond Pluto and nearly 3.2 billion miles (about 5.1 billion kilometers) from Earth. The spacecraft is currently 895 million miles (1.44 billion kilometers) from MU69. All systems remain healthy and the spacecraft continues to transmit data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system in July. New Horizons is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research Institute leads the science mission, payload operations, and encounter science planning. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mock Meteorite Strike to Help Train Volunteers for Disaster Recovery
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/mock-meteorite-strike-to-help-train-high-river-volunteers-for-disaster-recovery-1.2583285 Mock meteorite strike to help train High River volunteers for disaster recovery Bill Graveland The Canadian Press Septemer 27, 2015 HIGH RIVER, Alta. -- Hasn't High River suffered enough? After surviving one of the worst flood in Canadian history a couple of years ago, the Alberta town of 12,000, 70 kilometres south of Calgary is preparing for a meteorite to hit this week. The scenario -- hypothetical, of course -- is part of a emergency training exercise that focuses on the days following and disaster and aims to prepare volunteers to help rather than first responders. "We're beyond the first responder, pulling-people-out-of-the-rubble stage when this exercise takes place but it's the same principle -- we know people want to help and rather than push them away we want to figure out how to work with them and make our community safe," says Carly Benson, interim director of emergency management for High River. "We took a look at the exercises we've done in the past couple of years. We've done two flood exercises and an ice storm-animal rescue and we thought we wanted to do something a little more fun to try and engage our community in emergency management." The workshop will involve about 30 volunteers who will be assigned different roles during the simulation to better understand the complexities of the issue and develop creative ways to incorporate volunteers into an effective response. The town is working with the Field Innovation Team, a disaster response group experienced in creating interactive workshops aimed at improving crisis response. "We are looking forward to working with residents and first responders in High River to help them achieve a positive, beneficial working relationship between volunteers and official agencies in responding to a crisis," says Desiree Matel-Anderson, a spokesman for the group. Flooding in parts of southern Alberta in June 2013 resulted in billions of dollars in damage. Hardest hit was High River where entire neighbourhoods were under water for weeks. "We had over 10,000 volunteers come to High River and a lot of them weren't associated with a formal organization. A lot of them just came because they wanted to help -- they saw the devastation on the news," Benson says. "We did find that we really struggled to connect them with the people who needed help. There isn't a really great process out there and that's what we're hoping to address with this workshop." There likely won't be any more "mock" flood disasters, says Benson. "We feel if we continually focus on things like floods there's going to be a barrier for people getting involved because they don't want to relive memories of past disasters." __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Massive Asteroid Landed in Canada 70 Million Years Ago
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/massive-meteorite-struck-canada-70-million-years-ago-killing-everything-1447588 Massive Meteorite Killed Everything after Striking Canada 70 Million Years Ago By Hannah Osborne International Business Times May 7, 2014 [Photo] The crater in Alberta is about eight times as big as the Barringer Crater in Arizona.D. Roddy, U.S. Geological Survey Canada experienced a massive meteorite strike some time in the last 70 million years that killed everything in the near vicinity. Published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, researchers discovered an ancient ring-like structure in southern Alberta that they believe to be the site of the strike. They believe the meteorite strike was large enough to leave an eight kilometre-wide crater, and would have produced an explosion strong enough to destroy modern-day Calgary. The site, dubbed the Bow City crater, was discovered in 2009 by geologist Paul Glombick, who noticed a bowl-shaped structure while logging data from the oil and gas industry. The Alberta Geological Survey then moved in to explore further. Research leader Doug Schmitt said much of the evidence needed to work out the origin of the structure had been eroded away by time and glaciers. [Map] Map showing the structure and contour of the Bow City crater.Alberta Geographic Survey/University of Alberta "We know that the impact occurred within the last 70 million years and in that time about 1.5km of sediment has been eroded," he said. "That makes it really hard to pin down and actually date the impact." To work out where it came from, the team looked at seismic and geological evidence of the ring-like structure. All that was left were the "roots" of the crater, which they established was probably 1.6 to 2.4kms deep when it first formed. Graduate student Wei Xie said a meteorite strike big enough to make this crater would have had a devastating effect on anything living in the area: "An impact of this magnitude would kill everything for quite a distance. If it happened today, Calgary (200km to the northwest) would be completely fried and in Edmonton (500km northwest), every window would have been blown out. "Something of that size, throwing that much debris in the air, potentially would have global consequences; there could have been ramifications for decades." __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mock Meteorite Strike to Help Train Volunteers for Disaster Recovery
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/mock-meteorite-strike-to-help-train-high-river-volunteers-for-disaster-recovery-1.2583285 Mock meteorite strike to help train High River volunteers for disaster recovery Bill Graveland The Canadian Press Septemer 27, 2015 HIGH RIVER, Alta. -- Hasn't High River suffered enough? After surviving one of the worst flood in Canadian history a couple of years ago, the Alberta town of 12,000, 70 kilometres south of Calgary is preparing for a meteorite to hit this week. The scenario -- hypothetical, of course -- is part of a emergency training exercise that focuses on the days following and disaster and aims to prepare volunteers to help rather than first responders. "We're beyond the first responder, pulling-people-out-of-the-rubble stage when this exercise takes place but it's the same principle -- we know people want to help and rather than push them away we want to figure out how to work with them and make our community safe," says Carly Benson, interim director of emergency management for High River. "We took a look at the exercises we've done in the past couple of years. We've done two flood exercises and an ice storm-animal rescue and we thought we wanted to do something a little more fun to try and engage our community in emergency management." The workshop will involve about 30 volunteers who will be assigned different roles during the simulation to better understand the complexities of the issue and develop creative ways to incorporate volunteers into an effective response. The town is working with the Field Innovation Team, a disaster response group experienced in creating interactive workshops aimed at improving crisis response. "We are looking forward to working with residents and first responders in High River to help them achieve a positive, beneficial working relationship between volunteers and official agencies in responding to a crisis," says Desiree Matel-Anderson, a spokesman for the group. Flooding in parts of southern Alberta in June 2013 resulted in billions of dollars in damage. Hardest hit was High River where entire neighbourhoods were under water for weeks. "We had over 10,000 volunteers come to High River and a lot of them weren't associated with a formal organization. A lot of them just came because they wanted to help -- they saw the devastation on the news," Benson says. "We did find that we really struggled to connect them with the people who needed help. There isn't a really great process out there and that's what we're hoping to address with this workshop." There likely won't be any more "mock" flood disasters, says Benson. "We feel if we continually focus on things like floods there's going to be a barrier for people getting involved because they don't want to relive memories of past disasters." __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Historic Rosetta Mission to End with Crash Into Comet
http://www.nature.com/news/historic-rosetta-mission-to-end-with-crash-into-comet-1.18713 Historic Rosetta mission to end with crash into comet There were other options, but super close-up shots on descent will provide science bonanza. Elizabeth Gibney nature.com 04 November 2015 A year since a probe called Philae made history by touching down on a comet, the team that pulled off the feat is plotting a different kind of landing. Next September, the European Space Agency will crash Philae's mothership Rosetta into the icy dust ball, but as gently as possible. The dramatic act will bring the mission to an abrupt end - and give Rosetta's wealth of sensors and instruments their closest view of the comet yet. "The crash landing gives us the best scientific end-of-mission that we can hope for," says Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor. The collision will be emotional for the scientists, some of whom have worked on the mission since its inception in 1993. "There will be a lot of tears," says Taylor. Launched in 2004, the Rosetta orbiter caught up with the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko ten years later as the rock was travelling from deep in space towards the Sun - and dropped Philae onto the surface a few months later, on 12 November. Scientists have not heard from Philae since July, and don't know if they will do so again, but Rosetta's operations to survey the comet from orbit are in full swing. However, the orbiter can't keep up this work indefinitely. Funding for the mission runs out in September 2016 - and by that time 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko will be well on its way back out into deep space, where the solar-powered orbiter will receive too little sunlight to function. Discussions about what to do with Rosetta when that happens have continued for more than a year. Rosetta flight director Andrea Accomazzo says that, ideally, Rosetta would hibernate while the comet remains in deep space, then be resurrected when 67P again approaches the Sun in 4 or 5 years' time. But the cold of deep space would probably damage the craft, Accomazzo says; others fear that fuel and other resources would run out. Moreover, many of the mission's principal investigators (PIs) began their work more than 20 years ago and "there's no point putting an old experiment with old PIs into hibernation", jokes Kathrin Altwegg, a planetary scientist at the University of Bern. Crash-landing Rosetta emerged as the preferred option last year, but only now are orbiter navigators and operators working out how to go about it. Rosetta's closest encounter with the comet so far was from 8 kilometres above the surface, when it dispatched Philae. The current thinking sees Rosetta spiral down to a similar distance next August before creeping ever closer in elliptical orbits and crashing in September, says mission manager Patrick Martin - but that could still change. Although Philae sent back some data during its descent, Rosetta has more powerful - and more varied - sensors and instruments. The orbiter will also descend much more slowly than Philae did, allowing it to gather more data and better pictures. Once it gets to 4 kilometres, for example, Rosetta should be able to distinguish between the gases emerging from each of the duck-shaped comet's two lobes to determine whether the regions vary in composition, says Altwegg, who leads the team behind ROSINA (the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis). That could shed light on the environments in which each was formed. Rosetta's cameras will get their best-resolution shots of the comet's surface yet - less than 1 centimetre per pixel once the craft is within 500 metres of the surface, adds Holger Sierks, PI for Rosetta's OSIRIS (Optical, Spectroscopic, and Infrared Remote Imaging System). This will allow researchers to look at surface properties and link these to comet activity that Rosetta has observed from orbit. Over and out How far into the descent Rosetta will be able to send data back to mission control will depend on whether engineers can design the final trajectory such that the craft crashes on the side of the comet that faces Earth. Navigating while close to the comet will be difficult because the body's gravitational field is uneven, but spacecraft-operations manager Sylvain Lodiot hopes that the orbiter will transmit until the very end. The crash will definitely be a hard stop to the mission, he says, however gentle the landing. Designed to manoeuvre in orbit, once Rosetta is on the comet's surface it will no longer be able to point its antenna to communicate with Earth. Similarly, it will not be able to angle its solar array, so it will lose power, says Lodiot. "Once we touch, hit or crash, whatever you want to call it, it's game over." Before then, though, the mission still has much to accomplish. As the comet approached the Sun, it heated up, with vaporizing ice causing more and more gas and
[meteorite-list] MAVEN Reveals Speed of Solar Wind Stripping Martian Atmosphere
November 05, 2015 RELEASE 15-217 NASA Mission Reveals Speed of Solar Wind Stripping Martian Atmosphere NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission has identified the process that appears to have played a key role in the transition of the Martian climate from an early, warm and wet environment that might have supported surface life to the cold, arid planet Mars is today. MAVEN data have enabled researchers to determine the rate at which the Martian atmosphere currently is losing gas to space via stripping by the solar wind. The findings reveal that the erosion of Mars' atmosphere increases significantly during solar storms. The scientific results from the mission appear in the Nov. 5 issues of the journals Science and Geophysical Research Letters. "Mars appears to have had a thick atmosphere warm enough to support liquid water which is a key ingredient and medium for life as we currently know it," said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator for the NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington. "Understanding what happened to the Mars' atmosphere will inform our knowledge of the dynamics and evolution of any planetary atmosphere. Learning what can cause changes to a planet's environment from one that could host microbes at the surface to one that doesn't is important to know, and is a key question that is being addressed in NASA's journey to Mars." MAVEN measurements indicate that the solar wind strips away gas at a rate of about 100 grams (equivalent to roughly 1/4 pound) every second. "Like the theft of a few coins from a cash register every day, the loss becomes significant over time," said Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN principal investigator at the University of Colorado, Boulder. "We've seen that the atmospheric erosion increases significantly during solar storms, so we think the loss rate was much higher billions of years ago when the sun was young and more active." In addition, a series of dramatic solar storms hit Mars' atmosphere in March 2015, and MAVEN found that the loss was accelerated. The combination of greater loss rates and increased solar storms in the past suggests that loss of atmosphere to space was likely a major process in changing the Martian climate. The solar wind is a stream of particles, mainly protons and electrons, flowing from the sun's atmosphere at a speed of about one million miles per hour. The magnetic field carried by the solar wind as it flows past Mars can generate an electric field, much as a turbine on Earth can be used to generate electricity. This electric field accelerates electrically charged gas atoms, called ions, in Mars' upper atmosphere and shoots them into space. MAVEN has been examining how solar wind and ultraviolet light strip gas from of the top of the planet's atmosphere. New results indicate that the loss is experienced in three different regions of the Red Planet: down the "tail," where the solar wind flows behind Mars, above the Martian poles in a "polar plume," and from an extended cloud of gas surrounding Mars. The science team determined that almost 75 percent of the escaping ions come from the tail region, and nearly 25 percent are from the plume region, with just a minor contribution from the extended cloud. Ancient regions on Mars bear signs of abundant water - such as features resembling valleys carved by rivers and mineral deposits that only form in the presence of liquid water. These features have led scientists to think that billions of years ago, the atmosphere of Mars was much denser and warm enough to form rivers, lakes and perhaps even oceans of liquid water. Recently, researchers using NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter observed the seasonal appearance of hydrated salts indicating briny liquid water on Mars. However, the current Martian atmosphere is far too cold and thin to support long-lived or extensive amounts of liquid water on the planet's surface. "Solar-wind erosion is an important mechanism for atmospheric loss, and was important enough to account for significant change in the Martian climate," said Joe Grebowsky, MAVEN project scientist from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "MAVEN also is studying other loss processes -- such as loss due to impact of ions or escape of hydrogen atoms -- and these will only increase the importance of atmospheric escape." The goal of NASA's MAVEN mission, launched to Mars in November 2013, is to determine how much of the planet's atmosphere and water have been lost to space. It is the first such mission devoted to understanding how the sun might have influenced atmospheric changes on the Red Planet. MAVEN has been operating at Mars for just over a year and will complete its primary science mission on Nov. 16. To view an animation simulating the loss of atmosphere and water on Mars: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?4370 For more information and images on Mars? lost
[meteorite-list] Vitamin B3 Might Have Been Made in Space, Delivered to Earth by Meteorites
http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/vitamin-b3-might-have-been-made-in-space-delivered-to-earth-by-meteorites/ Vitamin B3 Might Have Been Made in Space, Delivered to Earth by Meteorites Bill Steigerwald NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. william.a.steigerw...@nasa.gov April 17, 2014 Ancient Earth might have had an extraterrestrial supply of vitamin B3 delivered by carbon-rich meteorites, according to a new analysis by NASA-funded researchers. The result supports a theory that the origin of life may have been assisted by a supply of key molecules created in space and brought to Earth by comet and meteor impacts. "It is always difficult to put a value on the connection between meteorites and the origin of life; for example, earlier work has shown that vitamin B3 could have been produced non-biologically on ancient Earth, but it's possible that an added source of vitamin B3 could have been helpful," said Karen Smith of Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pa. "Vitamin B3, also called nicotinic acid or niacin, is a precursor to NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), which is essential to metabolism and likely very ancient in origin." Smith is lead author of a paper on this research, along with co-authors from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., now available online in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. This is not the first time vitamin B3 has been found in meteorites. In 2001 a team led by Sandra Pizzarello of Arizona State University, in Tempe discovered it along with related molecules called pyridine carboxylic acids in the Tagish Lake meteorite. In the new work at Goddard's Astrobiology Analytical Laboratory, Smith and her team analyzed samples from eight different carbon-rich meteorites, called "CM-2 type carbonaceous chondrites" and found vitamin B3 at levels ranging from about 30 to 600 parts-per-billion. They also found other pyridine carboxylic acids at similar concentrations and, for the first time, found pyridine dicarboxylic acids. "We discovered a pattern - less vitamin B3 (and other pyridine carboxylic acids) was found in meteorites that came from asteroids that were more altered by liquid water. One possibility may be that these molecules were destroyed during the prolonged contact with liquid water," said Smith. "We also performed preliminary laboratory experiments simulating conditions in interstellar space and showed that the synthesis of vitamin B3 and other pyridine carboxylic acids might be possible on ice grains." Scientists think the solar system formed when a dense cloud of gas, dust, and ice grains collapsed under its own gravity. Clumps of dust and ice aggregated into comets and asteroids, some of which collided together to form moon-sized objects or planetesimals, and some of those eventually merged to become planets. Space is filled with radiation from nearby stars as well as from violent events in deep space like exploding stars and black holes devouring matter. This radiation could have powered chemical reactions in the cloud (nebula) that formed the solar system, and some of those reactions may have produced biologically important molecules like vitamin B3. Asteroids and comets are considered more or less pristine remnants from our solar system's formation, and many meteorites are prized samples from asteroids that happen to be conveniently delivered to Earth. However, some asteroids are less pristine than others. Asteroids can be altered shortly after they form by chemical reactions in liquid water. As they grow, asteroids incorporate radioactive material present in the solar system nebula. If enough radioactive material accumulates in an asteroid, the heat produced as it decays will be sufficient to melt ice inside the asteroid. Researchers can determine how much an asteroid was altered by water by examining chemical and mineralogical signatures of water alteration in meteorites from those asteroids. When asteroids collide with meteoroids or other asteroids, pieces break off and some of them eventually make their way to Earth as meteorites. Although meteorites are valued samples from asteroids, they are rarely recovered immediately after they fall to Earth. This leaves them vulnerable to contamination from terrestrial chemistry and life. The team doubts the vitamin B3 and other molecules found in their meteorites came from terrestrial life for two reasons. First, the vitamin B3 was found along with its structural isomers - related molecules that have the same chemical formula but whose atoms are attached in a different order. These other molecules aren't used by life. Non-biological chemistry tends to produce a wide variety of molecules -- basically everything permitted by the materials and conditions present -- but life makes only the molecules it needs. If contamination from terrestrial life was the source of the vitamin B3 in the meteorites,
[meteorite-list] Study Questions Dates for Cataclysms on Early Moon, Earth
http://news.wisc.edu/24103 Study questions dates for cataclysms on early moon, Earth by David Tenenbaum University of Wisconsin October 16, 2015 Phenomenally durable crystals called zircons are used to date some of the earliest and most dramatic cataclysms of the solar system. One is the super-duty collision that ejected material from Earth to form the moon roughly 50 million years after Earth formed. Another is the late heavy bombardment, a wave of impacts that may have created hellish surface conditions on the young Earth, about 4 billion years ago. Both events are widely accepted but unproven, so geoscientists are eager for more details and better dates. Many of those dates come from zircons retrieved from the moon during NASA's Apollo voyages in the 1970s. A study of zircons from a gigantic meteorite impact in South Africa, now online in the journal Geology, casts doubt on the methods used to date lunar impacts. The critical problem, says lead author Aaron Cavosie, a visiting professor of geoscience and member of the NASA Astrobiology Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the fact that lunar zircons are "ex situ," meaning removed from the rock in which they formed, which deprives geoscientists of corroborating evidence of impact. "While zircon is one of the best isotopic clocks for dating many geological processes," Cavosie says, "our results show that it is very challenging to use ex situ zircon to date a large impact of known age." Although many of their zircons show evidence of shock, "once separated from host rocks, ex situ shocked zircons lose critical contextual information," Cavosie says. The "clock" in a zircon occurs as lead isotopes accumulate during radioactive decay of uranium. With precise measurements of isotopes scientists can calculate, based on the half life of uranium, how long lead has been accumulating. If all lead was driven off during asteroid impact, the clock was reset, and the amount of accumulated lead should record exactly how long ago the impact occurred. Studies of lunar zircons have followed this procedure to produce dates from 4.3 billion to 3.9 billion years ago for the late heavy bombardment. To evaluate the assumption of clock-resetting by impact, Cavosie and colleagues gathered zircons near Earth's largest impact, located in South Africa and known to have occurred 2 billion years ago. The Vredefort impact structure is deeply eroded, and approximately 90 kilometers across, says Cavosie, who is also in the Department of Applied Geology at Curtin University in Perth, Australia. "The original size, estimated at 300 kilometers diameter, is modeled to result from an impactor 14 kilometers in diameter," he says. The researchers searched for features within the zircons that are considered evidence of impact, and concluded that most of the ages reflect when the zircons formed in magma. The zircons from South Africa are "out of place grains that contain definitive evidence of shock deformation from the Vredefort impact," Cavosie says. "However, most of the shocked grains do not record the age of the impact but rather the age of the rocks they formed in, which are about 1 billion years older." The story is different on Earth, says zircon expert John Valley, a professor of geoscience at UW-Madison. "Most zircons on Earth are found in granite, and they formed in the same process that formed the granite. This has led people to assume that all the zircons were reset by impact, so the ages they get from the Moon are impact ages. Aaron is saying to know that, you have to apply strict criteria, and that's not what people have been doing." The accuracy of zircon dating affects our view of Earth's early history. The poorly understood late heavy bombardment, for example, likely influenced when life arose, so dating the bombardment topped a priority list of the National Academy of Sciences for lunar studies. Did the giant craters on the moon form during a brief wave or a steady rain of impacts? "It would be nice to know which," Valley says. "The question of what resets the zircon clock has always been very complicated. For a long time people have been saying if zircon is really involved in a major impact shock, its age will be reset, so you can date the impact. Aaron has been saying, 'Yes, sometimes, but often what people see as a reset age may not really be reset.' Zircons are the gift that keep on giving, and this will not change that, but we need to be a lot more careful in analyzing what that gift is telling us." __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Asteroid, Meteorite Impacts Can Preserve Biodata for Millions of Years
http://www.sci-news.com/geology/science-asteroid-meteorite-impacts-biodata-01867.html Asteroid, Meteorite Impacts Can Preserve Biodata for Millions of Years Sci-News.com Apr 18, 2014 In two separate studies, geologists led by Dr Haley Sapers from the University of Western Ontario and Dr Pete Schultz of Brown University have found floral, microbial and organic matter in glass created by ancient asteroid, comet and meteorite impacts. Such glass samples could provide a snapshot of environmental conditions at the time of those impacts and could be a good place to look for signs of ancient life on Mars. [Image] This image shows microbial trace fossils in 15 million-year-old impact glass from the Ries Impact Structure, Germany. Image credit: H.M Sapers et al. In the first study, published in the journal Geology, Dr Schultz with colleagues found fragments of leaves and preserved organic compounds lodged inside glass created by a several ancient impacts in Argentina. "The soil of eastern Argentina, south of Buenos Aires, is rife with impact glass created by at least seven different impacts that occurred between 6,000 and 9 million years ago," Dr Schultz explained. "One of those impacts, dated to around 3 million years ago, coincides with the disappearance of 35 animal genera." "We know these were major impacts because of how far the glass is distributed and how big the chunks are. These glasses are present in different layers of sediment throughout an area about the size of Texas," he said. Within glass associated with two of those impacts - one from 3 million years ago and one from 9 million years ago - the team found exquisitely preserved plant matter. "These glasses preserve plant morphology from macro features all the way down to the micron scale. It's really remarkable," Dr Schultz said. The glass samples contain centimeter-size leaf fragments, including intact structures like papillae, tiny bumps that line leaf surfaces. Bundles of vein-like structures found in several samples are very similar to modern pampas grass, a species common to that region of Argentina. Chemical analysis of the samples also revealed the presence of organic hydrocarbons, the chemical signatures of living matter. To understand how these structures and compounds could have been preserved, the scientists tried to replicate that preservation in the lab. They mixed pulverized impact glass with fragments of pampas grass leaves and heated the mixture at various temperatures for various amounts of time. The experiments showed that plant material was preserved when the samples were quickly heated to above 1,500 degrees Celsius. "It appears that water in the exterior layers of the leaves insulates the inside layers, allowing them to stay intact. The outside of the leaves takes it for the interior. It's a little like deep frying. The outside fries up quickly but the inside takes much longer to cook," Dr Schultz explained. In the second study, published also in the journal Geology, Dr Sapers and her colleagues discovered microbes preserved in impact glass. They analyzed tubular features in hydrothermally altered impact glass from the Ries Impact Structure, Germany, that are remarkably similar to the bioalteration textures observed in volcanic glasses. Mineral-forming processes cannot easily explain the distribution and shapes of the Ries tubular features; therefore, they suggest the tubules formed by microbes etching their way through the impact glass as they excreted organic acids. A meteorite impact into a water-rich target such as Earth or Mars has the potential to generate a post-impact hydrothermal system. Impact structures, especially post-impact hydrothermal systems, represent an understudied habitat with potential relevance to early life and the evolution of early life on Earth. Understanding the biological significance of impact products such as impact glass on Earth will better inform the search for evidence of life and past life on other terrestrial planets such as Mars. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Russia's First Static Meteor Observing Station is Opened in Siberia
http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0471-russias-first-static-meteor-observing-station-is-opened-in-siberia/ Russia's First Static Meteor Observing Station is Opened in Siberia The Siberian Times 28 October 2015 One early visitor: a fireball streaking across the sky and splashing into Lake Baikal. The station is in remote Tunka valley, in the Republic of Buryatia, an ideal vantage point for observing incoming meteors because of the absence of artificial lighting. Created by the astronomical observatory of the Irkutsk State University (ISU), it operates from two unmanned modules some 58 kilometres apart. This allows researchers to observe the same meteor from two different locations, and to measure its size, light energy, direction, weight of meteoric particles and other parameters, more precisely. [Photo] It operates from two unmanned modules some 58 kilometres apart. Picture: The Siberian Times Kirill Ivanov, researcher at ISU's observatory, explained that the cameras are pointed in such a way that the centres of their field of view match at a height of about 100 km. 'They ensure maximum overlap of the field of view, two thirds, at a height of about 80-120 km. The data is stored in industrial computers.' On a clear night, the equipment has registered up to 40 meteorites. On 22 October, two weeks after the facility opened it recorded recorded a bright fireball, flying from west to east, over the mountains of Mongolia and Buryatia. Having originated in the Asteroid Belt, the meteorite's journey ended as it sank into the waters of Lake Baikal, about 1 km from the shore, and 17 km from the village of Bolshoye Goloustnoye. 'Most likely that meteorite fell under the 'bad' influence of Jupiter, and away from its 'true path',' said Ivanov. Its initial mass was around one kilogram, its size - about 10 centimetres. This meteorite - shown in the video here - was also spotted by locals. A key research aim is to expand our knowledge of the meteors, their characteristics and paths. In November researchers plan to observe the prolific Leonid meteor shower. This occurs when the Earth crosses the orbital path of Comet Tempel-Tuttle. The comet litters its orbit with fragments of bits of debris which enter the Earth's atmosphere and vaporise. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] What Smacks Into Ceres Stays On Ceres
https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/10/ceres What smacks into Ceres stays on Ceres Brown University Contact: Kevin Stacey 401-863-3766 October 14, 2015 Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt and closest dwarf planet to Earth, had been remarkable for its plain surface. New research suggests that most of the material that has struck Ceres in high-speed collisions has stuck - billions of years worth of meteorite material. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - A new set of high-velocity impact experiments suggests that the dwarf planet Ceres may be something of a cosmic dartboard: Projectiles that slam into it tend to stick. The experiments, performed using the Vertical Gun Range at NASA's Ames Research Center, suggest that when asteroids and other impactors hit Ceres, much of the impact material remains on the surface instead of bouncing off into space. The findings suggest the surface of Ceres could consist largely of a mish-mash of meteoritic material collected over billions of years of bombardment. The research, by Terik Daly and Peter Schultz of Brown University, is published in Geophysical Research Letters . Ceres is the largest object in the asteroid belt and the nearest dwarf planet to Earth. Until the recent arrival of the Dawn spacecraft, all that was known about Ceres came from telescopic observations. The observations showed Ceres to be mysteriously low in density, suggesting it is made either of very porous silicate material, or perhaps contains a large layer of water ice. Observations of its surface were remarkable as well - largely for being unremarkable. "It's really bland in the telescopic observations," said Daly, a Ph.D. student at Brown and the study's lead author. "It's like someone took a single color of spray paint and sprayed the whole thing. When we think about what might have caused this homogeneous surface, our thoughts turn to impact processes." And to understand impact processes, the researchers turned to NASA's Vertical Gun Range, a cannon with a 14-foot barrel that can launch projectiles at up to 16,000 miles per hour. For this work, Daly and Schultz wanted to simulate impacts into low-density surfaces that mimic the two broad possibilities for the composition of Ceres' surface: porous silicate or icy. "The idea was to look at those two end-member cases, because we really don't know yet exactly what Ceres is like," Daly said. For the porous silicate case, the researchers launched impactors into a powdered pumice. For the icy case, they used two targets: snow, and snow covered by a thin veneer of fluffy silicate material, simulating the possibility the Ceres' ice sits below a silicate layer. They then blasted these targets with pebble-sized bits of basalt and aluminum, simulating both stony and metallic meteorites. The study showed that in all cases, large proportions of the impact material remained in and around the impact crater. This was especially true in the icy case, Daly said. "We show that when you have a vertical impact into snow - an analog for the porous ice we think might be just beneath the surface of Ceres - you can have about 77 percent of the impactor's mass stay in or near the crater." The results were a bit of a surprise, said Schultz, who has studied impact processes for many years as professor of earth, environmental, and planetary sciences at Brown. "This is really contrary to previous estimates for small bodies," Schultz said. "The thought was that you'd eject more material that you'd collect, but we show you can really deliver a ton of material." The impact speeds used in the experiments were similar to speeds thought to be common in asteroid belt collisions. The findings suggest that a majority of impacts on porous bodies like Ceres cause an accumulation of impact material on the surface. "People have thought that perhaps if an impact was unusually slow, then you could deliver this much material," Schultz said. "But what we're saying is that for a typical, average-speed impact in the asteroid belt, you're delivering a ton of material." Over billions of years of such impacts, Ceres may have accumulated quite a bit of non-native material, Daly and Schultz said, much of it mixing together to create the relatively nondescript surface seen from telescopes. The researchers are hopeful that as the Dawn spacecraft scans the surface at much higher resolution, it might be able to pick out individual patches of this delivered material. That would help confirm the relevance of these experiments to celestial bodies, the researchers say. The results have implications for missions that aim to return asteroid samples to Earth. Unless the landing sites are carefully chosen, the researchers say, those missions could end up with samples that aren't representative of the object's original material. To get that, it might be necessary to find an area where there has been a relatively
[meteorite-list] Mound Near Lunar South Pole Formed by Unique Volcanic Process
https://news.brown.edu/articles/2015/10/mound Mound near lunar south pole formed by unique volcanic process Brown University Contact: Kevin Stacey 401-863-3766 October 15, 2015 Within a giant impact basin near the Moon's south pole, there sits a large mound of mysterious origin. Research by Brown University geologists suggests that the mound was formed by unique volcanic processes set in motion by the impact that formed the basin. PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - A giant mound near the Moon's south pole appears to be a volcanic structure unlike any other found on the lunar surface, according to new research by Brown University geologists. The formation, known as Mafic Mound, stands about 800 meters tall and 75 kilometers across, smack in the middle of a giant impact crater known as the South Pole-Aitken Basin. This new study suggests that the mound is the result of a unique kind of volcanic activity set in motion by the colossal impact that formed the basin. "If the scenarios that we lay out for its formation are correct, it could represent a totally new volcanic process that's never been seen before," said Daniel Moriarty, a Ph.D. student in Brown's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences and the study's lead author. The research has been accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union, and is available online. Mafic Mound (mafic is a term for rocks rich in minerals such as pyroxene and olivine) was first discovered in the 1990s by Carle Pieters, a planetary geologist at Brown and Moriarty's adviser. What makes it curious, other than its substantial size, is the fact that it has a different mineralogical composition than the surrounding rock. The mound is rich in high-calcium pyroxene, whereas the surrounding rock is low-calcium. A volcanic structure "This unusual structure at the very center of the basin begs the question: What is this thing, and might it be related to the basin formation process?" Moriarty said. To investigate that, Moriarty and Pieters looked at a rich suite of data from multiple lunar exploration missions. They used detailed mineralogical data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, which flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. NASA's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter provided precise topographic data, and data from the GRAIL mission characterized gravitational anomalies in the region. Those combined datasets suggested that Mafic Mound was created by one of two unique volcanic processes set in motion by the giant South Pole-Aitken impact. An impact of that size would have created a cauldron of melted rock as much as 50 kilometers deep, some researchers think. As that sheet of impact melt cooled and crystalized, it would have shrunk. As it did, still-molten material in the middle of the melt sheet may have been squeezed out the top like toothpaste from a tube. Eventually, that erupted material may have formed the mound. Such a process could explain the mound's strange mineralogy. Models of how the South Pole-Aitken melt sheet may have crystalized suggest that the erupting material should be rich in high-calcium pyroxene, which is consistent with the observed mineralogy of the mound. Another scenario that fits the data involves possible melting of the Moon's mantle shortly after the South Pole-Aitken impact. The impact would have blasted tons of rock out of the basin, creating a low-gravity region. The lower gravity condition could have enabled the center of the basin to rebound upward. Such upward movement would have caused partial melting of mantle material, which could have erupted to form the mound. These scenarios make for a strong fit to those very detailed datasets, Moriarty said. And if either is true, it would represent a unique process on lunar surface. Moriarty said a sample return mission to the South Pole Aitken Basin would be a great way to try to verify the results. The basin has long been an interesting mission target for lunar scientists. "It's the largest confirmed impact structure in the solar system and has shaped many aspects of the evolution of the Moon,' Moriarty said. "So a big topic in lunar science is studying this basin and the effects it had on the geology of the Moon through time." A sample return mission to the basin could bring back bits of lunar mantle, the composition of which is still not fully understood. A returned sample could also put a firm date on when the impact occurred, which could be used as a standard to date other features on the surface. And in light of this work, a sample could also help to shed light on a unique lunar volcanic process. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
[meteorite-list] MRO HiRISE Images: November 4, 2015
MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES November 4, 2015 o Meanders in Ridge Form in the Zephyria Region http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_024695_1745 In this image, an ancient sinuous meandering river system is surrounded by features called "yardangs." o Small Channels and a Rocky Patch in the Cydonia Region http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_032283_2115 The southern section of this observation is dominated by both a series of craters and the remnants of channels that may be from a past fluvial system. o Marching Dust Devils http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_042201_1715 On an early fall afternoon in Ganges Chasma, we managed to capture a cluster of 8 dust devils. Not too bad! All of the HiRISE images are archived here: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., built the HiRISE instrument. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Radar Images Provide New Details on Halloween Asteroid (2015 TB145)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4763 Radar Images Provide New Details on Halloween Asteroid Jet Propulsion Laboratory November 3, 2015 [Images] Asteroid 2015 TB145 is depicted in eight individual radar images collected on Oct. 31, 2015 between 5:55 a.m. PDT (8:55 a.m. EDT) and 6:08 a.m. PDT (9:08 a.m. EDT). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR/NRAO/AUI/NSF The highest-resolution radar images of asteroid 2015 TB145's safe flyby of Earth have been processed. NASA scientists used giant, Earth-based radio telescopes to bounce radar signals off the asteroid as it flew past Earth on Oct. 31 at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) at about 1.3 lunar distances (300,000 miles, or 480,000 kilometers) from Earth. Asteroid 2015 TB145 is spherical in shape and approximately 2,000 feet (600 meters) in diameter. "The radar images of asteroid 2015 TB145 show portions of the surface not seen previously and reveal pronounced concavities, bright spots that might be boulders, and other complex features that could be ridges," said Lance Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who leads NASA's asteroid radar research program. "The images look distinctly different from the Arecibo radar images obtained on Oct. 30 and are probably the result of seeing the asteroid from a different perspective in its three-hour rotation period." Radar images of asteroid 2015 TB145 acquired by Arecibo Observatory are available at these sites: http://on.fb.me/1MahsY8 https://twitter.com/AreciboRadar/status/661293813713928192 To obtain these highest-resolution radar images of the asteroid, scientists used the 230-foot (70-meter) DSS-14 antenna at Goldstone, California, to transmit high-power microwaves toward the asteroid. The signal bounced off the asteroid, and its radar echoes were received by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's 100-meter (330-foot) Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. The radar images achieve a spatial resolution as fine as 13 feet (4 meters) per pixel. The next time that asteroid 2015 TB145 will be in Earth's neighborhood will be in September 2018, when it will make a distant pass at about 24 million miles (38 million kilometers), or about a quarter the distance between Earth and the sun. Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid's size, shape, rotation, surface features and surface roughness, and for improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than would be possible otherwise. NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. In fact, the U.S. has the most robust and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth objects (NEOs). To date, U.S. assets have discovered about 98 percent of known NEOs. In addition to the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it also partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based astronomers, and space science institutes across the country, often with grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA, and also with international space agencies and institutions that are working to track and better understand these objects. In addition, NASA values the work of numerous highly skilled amateur astronomers, whose accurate observational data helps improve asteroid orbits after they are found. JPL hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission Directorate. More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at these sites: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch Media Contact DC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 a...@jpl.nasa.gov Charles Blue National Radio Astronomy Observatory 434.296.0314 cb...@nrao.edu 2015-341 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Very Bright Fireball Over Europe on Halloween Night
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/11/01/halloween_fireball_bright_meteor_over_europe.html Very Bright Fireball Over Europe Saturday Night By Phil Plait November 1, 2015 Saturday night (Halloween) at around 19:00 local time, a smallish bit of cosmic debris entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up over central Europe. It was very bright, and because it happened in the early evening, a lot of people saw it. Twitter was lit up with reports. It was seen from south Sweden, Germany, Poland, and as far east as Belarus! Impressive. Pictures and video started getting posted to YouTube and Twitter as well. Here's one of the best ones, taken from Poland, that shows the fireball quite well. [Video] As you can see, it gets bright very rapidly, leaves a nice glowing train (the technical term for the trail of glowing debris), and then you see the still-hot solid meteoroid fall away. This is typical behavior for meteors. The solid part (called the meteoroid) is moving so rapidly - usually more a few dozen kilometers per second - it rams the air in front of it violently. A compressed gas heats up, and the shocked air can reach several thousand degrees. This heats the meteoroid up, causing it to glow. The rush of air past it blows the melted material off (this is called ablation), and that leaves the glowing train. The meteoroid decelerates viciously, falls below the speed where it heats the air up, and then begins its long fall to the ground (assuming it's big enough to reach the ground). It may glow for a few more seconds, but at 40-80 km high the air is quite cold, and it cools rapidly. It may break apart, raining meteorites down over some area, or big chunks might hit as well. That last part's rare, though. Unlike movies, where they show small pieces hitting at high speed, the meteoroid(s) slows to terminal velocity, usually a couple of hundred kilometers per hour (or much slower for smaller pieces), for the rest of the trip down. [Video] This video missed the first second or two of the European event, but you can see the sky light up blue-green from it: A lot of folks say it looked green to them, which means it may have been metallic; nickel glows green when heated to incandescence, and metallic meteoroids are generally mostly iron with several percent nickel. Magnesium can be blue-green as well, and that's common in stony meteorites too. On Twitter, I got a lot of people questioning if this was related to 2015 TB145, the 600-meter asteroid/dead comet that passed Earth on Saturday. Almost certainly not; the direction it was moving doesn't line up, and the difference in time makes it unlikely as well (remember, these things are moving at 20-40 kps, and TB145 passed us many hours earlier; they were separated by hundreds of thousands of kilometers at least). [Video] This video, taken by the Polish Fireball Network, shows it moving roughly SE to NW; note the Big Dipper on the horizon. As it happens, the annual Taurid meteor shower is ramping up right now. It's possible this was related; that shower is known for its fireballs. The direction kinda sorta lines up, and the radiant of the shower (the part of the sky from which meteors appear to come) was just on or above the horizon at that time, so it's possible. But if this fireball was in fact from a chunk of metal, it wasn't related; Taurids come from an old comet and have essentially no metal. Hopefully we'll know more soon. The final question is, how big was the meteoroid? It's hard to tell. I'd guess it was less than a meter across, but that really is just a guess. Objects that small rarely survive re-entry intact, but again it depends on what they're made of. All in all, a nice example of a fireball, and a good reminder that our atmosphere does a great job protecting us from the 100 or so tons of material that hits us every day. And, of course, a reminder to look up. You never know what you might see. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mystery Object to Reenter Earth's Atmosphere (WT1190F)
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/mystery-object-to-reenter-earths-atmosphere-1103201534/ Mystery Object to Reenter Earth's Atmosphere David Dickinson Sky & Telescope November 3, 2015 WT1190F will burn up over the Indian Ocean on November 13th, giving researchers an unprecedented opportunity to follow its path - and figure out where it came from. An unknown object is headed for a fiery demise over the Indian Ocean on November 13th - and observations so far show it might be a relic of the early Space Age. The object in question is WT1190F, first observed by the Catalina Sky Survey in 2013. A couple years of observations have characterized its curious orbit: its highly eccentric path around Earth takes the object from its nearest point (perigee) of 21,221 kilometers (13,186 miles) out to an apogee of 655,370 kilometers, 1.7 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. What Is WT1190F? [Graphic] A diagram depicting the looping orbit of WT1190F. The blue circle is the Moon's orbit. Bill Gray / Project Pluto Studies from the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre and the European Space Agency's NEO Coordination Centre European Space Research Institute (ESRIN) suggest that WT1190F is probably a piece of discarded space junk from a Moon mission. Not only because of its orbit, but also because WT1190 interacts with solar radiation pressure in a way that suggests it has low density and might even be hollow - perhaps a rocket booster, solar panel, or SLA Panels (Spacecraft Lunar module Adapter panels used during the Apollo missions). Calculations project WT1190F's reentry above the Indian Ocean, just south of Sri Lanka, on November 13th at 6:19 UT, 11:49 a.m. local time. This event provides astronomers the chance to model a reentry from a highly eccentric orbit, so they can test similar scenarios involving incoming asteroids. "The object is quite small - at most a couple of meters in diameter - and a significant fraction, if not all of it, can be expected to completely burn up in the atmosphere," says Tim Flohrer in a recent ESA press release. To this end, researchers from the SETI Institute and the High Enthalpy Flow Diagnostics Group (HEFDIG) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, will conduct airborne observations of WT1190F's atmospheric reentry using a specially equipped Gulfstream 450 jet supplied by the International Astronomical Center in Abu Dhabi. ESA researchers led similar airborne operations to observe the reentry of Hayabusa, an asteroid sample return mission in 2010, as well as the reentry of ESA's ISS ATV-1 supply spacecraft in 2008. See the video of Hayabusa's reentry: To date, researchers are unsure just what lunar mission WT1190F belongs to. It will probably remain a mystery unless astronomers can link it to earlier observations. "We've managed to identify the object with one found in 2013," says Bill Gray (Project Pluto), who has been working with the PanSTARRS team to identify WT1190F and characterize its orbit. 'That got us a good enough orbit that Marco Micheli was able to find images taken in December 2012 from PanSTARRS in Hawaii. So about all we can say at this point is, it was launched sometime before December 2012." But the more observations of WT1190F, the better. WT1190F won't pose a good observational target for backyard observers - it's currently only at magnitude +21 near apogee, though it'll approach magnitude +15 pre-reentry, in range of large backyard scopes. Dedicated observers can generate topocentric ephemerides using the Minor Planet Center's Distant Artificial Satellite Observations (DASO) page. Space Junk and Low-Flying Space Rocks The Department of Defense's Space Surveillance Network (SSN) uses radar and optical sensors to track more than 21,000 satellites and space debris down to sizes of about 5 centimeters (2 inches) in low-Earth orbit. In farther-out geosynchronous orbits, SSN can track objects down to sizes of about 1 meter. But researchers can only recover objects in wider-ranging orbits using imaging. Small, faint objects on wider orbits are extraordinarily difficult to find, and their orbits, complicated by the gravitational effects of the Moon, are difficult to characterize. Other near-Earth asteroid discoveries have turned out to be space junk as well: J002E3 was a Saturn V third-stage booster from the Apollo 12 mission, and 2010 QW1 turned out to be part of the Chinese Chang'e-2 lunar mission. The reentry of WT1190F, however, marks the first time astronomers have observed such an object returning to Earth. Good luck to the team watching for WT1190F's reentry on November 13th! Further resources: Read Bill Gray's FAQ page at Project Pluto for an in-depth discussion on WT1190F. http://www.projectpluto.com/temp/wt1190f.htm __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the
[meteorite-list] CubeSats To An Asteroid (AIM)
http://phys.org/news/2015-11-cubesats-asteroid.html CubeSats to an asteroid phys.org November 3, 2015 The five CubeSat concepts to be studied to accompany ESA's proposed Asteroid Impact Mission into deep space have been selected. The ideas being looked at include taking a close-up look at the composition of the asteroid surface, measuring the gravity field, assessing the dust and ejecta plumes created during a collision, and landing a CubeSat for seismic monitoring. The Asteroid Impact Mission, or AIM, undergoing detailed design ahead of a final go/no-go decision by ESA's Ministerial Council in December 2016, is a deep-space technology-demonstration mission that would also be humanity's first probe to rendezvous with a double asteroid. AIM is also set to be Europe's contribution to a larger international endeavour called the Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission: the US Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) would strike the smaller of the two Didymos asteroids, with AIM on hand for before-and-after monitoring of any resulting orbital and structural shifts. Like a Russian doll, the main AIM spacecraft would carry smaller probes within it: the Mascot-2 lander from the DLR German Aerospace Center, and an additional pair of triple-unit CubeSats. "CubeSats are nanosatellites based on standardised 10 cm-sized units, which are much cheaper and simpler to build than standard satellites, suitable for higher-risk missions such as envisaged for AIM," explains Roger Walker, overseeing ESA's technology CubeSat effort. "They would in this case be deployed in the vicinity of the asteroid during the DART impact. "Usually, CubeSats offer an easy means of scientists to launch their experiments into low-Earth orbit. But with AIM we are giving European research teams the chance to design instruments based on the CubeSat standard for deep space, to do specialised scientific work that will complement AIM's main science goals. "CubeSat hardware is easy for this community to access and adapt to their needs. It's like taking inexpensive building kits to do top-notch science." "We put out a call for ideas for these CubeSat Opportunity Payloads through the SysNova initiative of ESA's General Studies Programme," says Andrés Galvez, Head of the Science Analysis and System Support Unit, which looks at how new instruments could be used in planned space missions. "Through SysNova we set technology challenges to get competing concepts we can then assess in detail ahead of making a final choice. "There were a large number of proposals to the call and teams variously put forward concepts involving either one or two triple-unit CubeSats. We were very pleased by the response and the diversity of scientific missions put forward with such small satellites." The selected proposals will now be funded by ESA for detailed study, ahead of a final selection to fill the two berths in June next year. o AGEX (Royal Observatory of Belgium, ISAE-SUPAERO, Antwerp Space, EMXYS, Asteroid Initiatives Ltd). A CubeSat touches down to assess the surface material, surface gravity, subsurface structure and of the DART impact effects. Another CubeSat in orbit deploys smaller 'chipsats' dispersed over the asteroid. o ASPECT (VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, University of Helsinki, Aalto University Foundation). A CubeSat equipped with a near-infrared spectrometer to assess the asteroid composition and effects of space weathering and metamorphic shock, as well as post-impact plume observations. o DustCube (University of Vigo, Micos Engineering GmbH, University of Bologna). A CubeSat to measure the size, shape and concentration of fine dust ejected in the aftermath of the collision and its evolution over time. o CUBATA (GMV, Sapienza University of Rome, INTA). Two CubeSats measure the asteroid system's gravity field pre- and post-impact through Doppler tracking of CubeSats, as well as performing close range imaging of the impact event. o PALS (Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Institute for Space Sciences IEEC, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, AAC Microtec, DLR). Two CubeSats characterise the magnetisation, bulk chemical composition and presence of volatiles of the impact ejecta, as well as perform very high resolution imaging of the ejecta components. With these opportunity payloads, ESA is applying current European technology miniaturisation efforts to explore our wider Solar System in unprecedented ways, lowering the cost and risk of interplanetary missions. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Fireball Caught on Dashcam over Bangkok For the Second Time in Recent Months
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/meteor-bangkok-thailand-bolide-a6718571.html Meteor spotted burning above Bangkok sky for the second time in recent months The Independent November 2, 2015 A large, mysterious ball of fire has shot across the sky above Bangkok - the second in recent months. Dashcam videos show a huge green light shooting across the sky above Thailand, burning bright and then disappearing out of sight. The videos were shot this week and show the bright light shooting across the night sky. The meteor is the second bright light to be seen in the Thai skies in recent months. On 7 September, a similar fireball was spotted over many parts of the country. Experts including the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand said that the blaze was caused by a meteor, about 3.5 metres wide, flying into Earth's atmosphere and likely burning up before it hit the ground. "It's all burned away" Worawit Tanwutthibundit, an astronomer at Chachoengsao Observatory, told a local newspaper. "The photo of the white smoke that has been shared a lot is in fact the train of smoke of a meteor. The public need not be concerned. This is a normal phenomenon." It isn't clear whether this week's light was from a similar source. But the quality of the like looks almost the same, with a bright white light followed by a trail. Perhaps the most famous such "bolide" - as astronomers refer to meteors that explode in the atmosphere often with huge, bright flashes - was the one that shot above the sky over Russia in 2013. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Dawn Journal - October 30, 2015
http://dawnblog.jpl.nasa.gov/category/dawn-journal/ Dawn Journal by Dr. Marc Rayman October 30, 2015 Dear Exuldawnt Readers, Dawn has completed another outstandingly successful campaign to acquire a wealth of pictures and other data in its exploration of dwarf planet Ceres. Exultant residents of distant Earth now have the clearest and most complete view ever of this former planet. The stalwart probe spent more than two months orbiting 915 miles (1,470 kilometers) above the alien world. We described the plans for this third major phase of Dawn's investigation (also known as the high altitude mapping orbit, or HAMO) in August and provided a brief progress report in September. Now we can look back on its extremely productive work. Ceres wuth planetary names [Image] This map of Ceres shows the feature names approved by the International Astronomical Union. We described the naming convention in December, and the most up-to-date list of names is here. The small crater Kait (named for the ancient Hattic grain goddess) is used to define the location of the prime meridian. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA Each revolution, flying over the north pole to the south pole and back to the north, took Dawn 19 hours. Mission planners carefully chose the orbital parameters to coordinate the spacecraft's travels with the nine-hour rotation period of Ceres (one Cerean day) and with the field of view of the camera so that in 12 orbits over the lit hemisphere (one mapping "cycle"), Dawn could photograph all of the terrain. In each of six mapping cycles, the robot held its camera and its infrared and visible mapping spectrometers at a different angle. For the first cycle (Aug. 17-26), Dawn looked straight down. For the second, it looked a little bit behind and to the left as it completed another dozen orbits. For the third map, it pointed the sensors a little behind and to the right. In its fourth cycle, it aimed ahead and to the left. When it made its fifth map, it peered immediately ahead, and for the sixth and final cycle (Oct. 12-21) it viewed terrain farther back than in the third cycle but not as far to the right. The result of this extensive mapping is a very rich collection of photos of the fascinating scenery on a distant world. Think for a moment of the pictures not so much from the standpoint of the spacecraft but rather from a location on the ground. With the different perspectives in each mapping cycle, that location has been photographed from several different angles, providing stereo views. Scientists will use these pictures to make the landscape pop into its full three dimensionality. Dawn's reward for these two months of hard work is much more than revealing Ceres' detailed topography, valuable though that is. During the first and fifth mapping cycles, it used the seven color filters in the camera, providing extensive coverage in visible and infrared wavelengths. Hints at Ceres' Composition from Color [Image] This false-color map of Ceres was constructed using images taken in the first mapping cycle at an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers). It combines pictures taken in filters that admit light in what the human eye perceives as violet (440 nanometers), near the limit of visible red (750 nanometers), and invisible infrared (920 nanometers). Because humans are so good at processing visual information, depictions such as this are a helpful way to highlight and illustrate variations in the composition or other properties of the material on Ceres' surface. Full image and caption. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA In addition to taking more than 6,700 pictures, the spacecraft operated its visible and infrared mapping spectrometers to acquire in excess of 12.5 million spectra. Each spectrum contains much finer measurements of the colors and a wider range of wavelengths than the camera. In exchange, the camera has sharper vision and so can discern smaller geological features. As the nerdier among us would say, the spectrometers achieve better spectral resolution and the camera achieves better spatial resolution. Fortunately, it is not a competition, because Dawn has both, and the instruments yield complementary measurements. Even as scientists are methodically analyzing the vast trove of data, turning it into knowledge, you can go to the Ceres image gallery to see some of Dawn's pictures, exhibiting a great variety of terrain, smooth or rugged, strangely bright or dark, unique in the solar system or reminiscent of elsewhere spacecraft have traveled, and always intriguing. Occator Mosaic [Image] Ten photos from Dawn's first mapping cycle were combined to make this view centered on Occator crater. Because of the range of brightness, pictures with two different exposures were required to record the details of the bright regions and the rest of the crater itself, as explained last month. Eight additional pictures show the
[meteorite-list] The Youngest Crater on Charon?
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20151029b The Youngest Crater on Charon? New Horizons October 29, 2015 [Image] This composite image is based on observations from the New Horizons Ralph/LEISA instrument made at 10:25 UT (6:25 a.m. EDT) on July 14, 2015, when New Horizons was 50,000 miles (81,000 kilometers) from Charon. The spatial resolution is 3 miles (5 kilometers) per pixel. The LEISA data were downlinked Oct. 1-4, 2015, and processed into a map of Charon's 2.2 micron ammonia-ice absorption band. Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) panchromatic images used as the background in this composite were taken about 8:33 UT (4:33 a.m. EDT) July 14 at a resolution of 0.6 miles (0.9 kilometers) per pixel and downlinked Oct. 5-6. The ammonia absorption map from LEISA is shown in green on the LORRI image. The region covered by the yellow box is 174 miles across (280 kilometers). New Horizons scientists have discovered a striking contrast between one of the fresh craters on Pluto's largest moon Charon and a neighboring crater dotting the moon's Pluto-facing hemisphere. The crater, informally named Organa, caught scientists' attention as they were studying New Horizons' highest-resolution infrared compositional scan of Charon. Organa and portions of the surrounding material ejected from it show infrared absorption at wavelengths of about 2.2 microns, indicating that the crater is rich in frozen ammonia -- and, from what scientists have seen so far, unique on Pluto's largest moon. The infrared spectrum of nearby Skywalker crater, for example, is similar to the rest of Charon's craters and surface, with features dominated by ordinary water ice. Using telescopes, scientists first observed ammonia absorption on Charon in 2000, but the concentrations of ammonia around this crater are unprecedented. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] On Track: New Horizons Carries Out Third KBO Targeting Maneuver
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20151029 On Track: New Horizons Carries Out Third KBO Targeting Maneuver October 29, 2015 [Graphic] Path to a KBO: Projected route of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft toward 2014 MU69, which orbits in the Kuiper Belt about 1 billion miles beyond Pluto. Planets are shown in their positions on Jan. 1, 2019, when New Horizons is projected to reach the small Kuiper Belt object. NASA must approve an extended mission for New Horizons to study the ancient KBO. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has successfully completed the third in a series of four maneuvers propelling it toward an encounter with the ancient Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, a billion miles farther from the sun than Pluto. The targeting maneuver, performed with the spacecraft's hydrazine-fueled thrusters, started at approximately 1:15 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Oct. 28, and lasted about 30 minutes -- surpassing the Oct. 25 propulsive maneuver as the largest ever conducted by New Horizons. Spacecraft operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, began receiving data through NASA's Deep Space Network at approximately 8:15 p.m. EDT on Wednesday that indicated a successful maneuver. The four maneuvers are designed to alter New Horizons' path to send it toward a close encounter with MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019. The flyby would be part of an extended mission that NASA still must approve; the New Horizons team will submit a formal proposal to NASA for that mission in early 2016. The science team hopes to bring the spacecraft even closer to MU69 than it came to Pluto on July 14, which was approximately 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers) Capping the series, the fourth and final KBO targeting maneuver is scheduled for Nov. 4. As the New Horizons team learns more about the orbit and location of MU69 -- the KBO was only discovered in summer 2014 -- it will plan additional maneuvers to refine the path toward the prospective flyby in 2016 and beyond. At the time of yesterday's maneuver, New Horizons, speeding toward deeper space at more than 32,000 miles per hour, was approximately 79 million miles (127 million kilometers) beyond Pluto and 3.17 billion miles (5.1 billion kilometers) from Earth. The spacecraft is currently 900 million miles (1.45 billion kilometers) from 2014 MU69. All systems remain healthy and the spacecraft continues to transmit data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system in July. New Horizons is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research Institute leads the science mission, payload operations, and encounter science planning. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] NASA to Announce New Findings on Fate of Mars' Atmosphere (MAVEN)
November 02, 2015 MEDIA ADVISORY M15-158 NASA to Announce New Findings on Fate of Mars' Atmosphere (Science and Geophysical Research Letters embargoed details until 2 p.m. EST Nov. 5) NASA will provide details of key science findings from the agency's ongoing exploration of Mars during a news briefing at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 5 in the James Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The event will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's website. The news conference participants will be: * Jim Green, director of planetary science at NASA Headquarters * Bruce Jakosky, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) principal investigator at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder * Jasper Halekas, MAVEN Solar Wind Ion Analyzer instrument lead at the University of Iowa, Iowa City * Yaxue Dong, MAVEN science team member at LASP * Dave Brain, MAVEN co-investigator at LASP A brief question-and-answer session will take place during the event with media on site and by phone. Members of the public also can ask questions during the briefing on social media using #AskNASA. To participate in the briefing by phone, media must email their name, media affiliation and phone number to Laurie Cantillo at laura.l.canti...@nasa.gov by noon EST on Thursday. For NASA TV downlink information and schedules, and to view the news briefing, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv For more information about NASA's journey to Mars: https://www.nasa.gov/journeytomars -end- __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Odyssey THEMIS Images: October 19-30, 2015
MARS ODYSSEY THEMIS IMAGES October 19-30, 2015 o Olympica Fossae (19 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-201510191719424a o Dark Slope Streaks (20 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151020a o Channels (21 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151021a o Proctor Crater Dunes - False Color (22 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151022a o Cloudy Day - False Color (23 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151023a o Aureum Chaos - False Color (26 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151026a o Bamberg Crater Dunes - False Color (27 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151027a o Capri Mensa - False Color (28 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151028a o Iani Chaos - False Color (29 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151029a o Tyndall Crater - False Color (30 October 2015) http://themis.asu.edu/zoom-20151030a All of the THEMIS images are archive here: http://themis.asu.edu/latest.html NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the 2001 Mars Odyssey mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) was developed by Arizona State University, Tempe, in co.oration with Raytheon Santa Barbara Remote Sensing. The THEMIS investigation is led by Dr. Philip Christensen at Arizona State University. Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, is the prime contractor for the Odyssey project, and developed and built the orbiter. Mission operations are conducted jointly from Lockheed Martin and from JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] First Detection of Molecular Oxygen At A Comet (Rosetta)
http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/56727-first-detection-of-molecular-oxygen-at-a-comet/ First detection of molecular oxygen at a comet European Space Agency 28 October 2015 ESA's Rosetta spacecraft has made the first in situ detection of oxygen molecules outgassing from a comet, a surprising observation that suggests they were incorporated into the comet during its formation. [Images] Rosetta's detection of molecular oxygen at comet 67P/C-G. Credit: Spacecraft: ESA/ATG medialab; comet: ESA/Rosetta/NavCam - CC BY-SA IGO 3.0; Data: A. Bieler et al. (2015) Rosetta has been studying Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for over a year and has detected an abundance of different gases pouring from its nucleus. Water vapour, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide are the most prolific, with a rich array of other nitrogen-, sulphur- and carbon-bearing species, and even 'noble gases' also recorded. Oxygen is the third most abundant element in the Universe, but the simplest molecular version of the gas, O2, has proven surprisingly hard to track down, even in star-forming clouds, because it is highly reactive and readily breaks apart to bind with other atoms and molecules. For example, oxygen atoms can combine with hydrogen atoms on cold dust grains to form water, or a free oxygen split from O2 by ultraviolet radiation can recombine with an O2 molecule to form ozone (O3). Despite its detection on the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn, O2 had been missing in the inventory of volatile species associated with comets until now. "We weren't really expecting to detect O2 at the comet - and in such high abundance - because it is so chemically reactive, so it was quite a surprise," says Kathrin Altwegg of the University of Bern, and principal investigator of the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis instrument, ROSINA. "It's also unanticipated because there aren't very many examples of the detection of interstellar O2. And thus, even though it must have been incorporated into the comet during its formation, this is not so easily explained by current Solar System formation models." The team analysed more than 3000 samples collected around the comet between September 2014 and March 2015 to identify the O2. They determined an abundance of 1-10% relative to H2O, with an average value of 3.80 +/- 0.85%, an order of magnitude higher than predicted by models describing the chemistry in molecular clouds. The O2/H2O ratio at comet 67P/C-G. Credit: A. Bieler et al. [2015] The amount of molecular oxygen detected showed a strong relationship to the amount of water measured at any given time, suggesting that their origin on the nucleus and release mechanism are linked. By contrast, the amount of O2 seen was poorly correlated with carbon monoxide and molecular nitrogen, even though they have a similar volatility to O2. In addition, no ozone was detected. Over the six-month study period, Rosetta was inbound towards the Sun along its orbit, and orbiting as close as 10-30 km from the nucleus. Despite the decreasing distance to the Sun, the O2/H2O ratio remained constant over time, and it also did not change with Rosetta's longitude or latitude over the comet. In more detail, the O2/H2O ratio was seen to decrease for high H2O abundances, an observation that might be influenced by surface water ice produced in the observed daily sublimation-condensation process. The team explored the possibilities to explain the presence and consistently high abundance of O2 and its relationship to water, as well as the lack of ozone, by first considering photolysis and radiolysis of water ice over a range of timescales. In photolysis, photons break bonds between molecules, whereas radiolysis involves more energetic photons or fast electrons and ions depositing energy into ice and ionising molecules - a process observed on icy moons in the outer Solar System, and in Saturn's rings. Either process can, in principle, lead to the formation and liberation of molecular oxygen. Radiolysis will have operated over the billions of years that the comet spent in the Kuiper Belt and led to the build-up of O2 to a few metres depth. But these top layers must all have been removed in the time since the comet moved into its inner Solar System orbit, ruling this out as the source of the O2 seen today. More recent generation of O2 via radiolysis and photolysis by solar wind particles and UV photons should only have occurred in the top few micrometres of the comet. "But if this was the primary source of the O2 then we would have expected to see a decrease in the O2/H2O ratio as this layer was removed during the six-month timespan of our observations," says Andre Bieler of the University of Michigan and lead author of the paper describing the new results in the journal Nature this week. "The instantaneous generation of O2 also seems unlikely, as that should lead to variable O2 ratios under different
[meteorite-list] Maneuver Moves New Horizons Spacecraft toward Next Potential Target
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20151023 Maneuver Moves New Horizons Spacecraft toward Next Potential Target Success in First of Four Such Maneuvers over the Next Two Weeks October 23, 2015 NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has carried out the first in a series of four initial targeting maneuvers designed to send it toward 2014 MU69 - a small Kuiper Belt object about a billion miles beyond Pluto, which the spacecraft historically explored in July. The maneuver, which started at approximately 1:50 p.m. EDT on Oct. 22, used two of the spacecraft's small hydrazine-fueled thrusters, lasted approximately 16 minutes and changed the spacecraft's trajectory by about 10 meters per second. Spacecraft operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, began receiving data through NASA's Deep Space Network at approximately 8:30 p.m. EDT that indicated a successful maneuver. All told, the four maneuvers will change New Horizons' trajectory by approximately 57 meters per second, nudging it toward a prospective close encounter with MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019. That flyby would be part of an extended mission that NASA still must approve; the New Horizons team will submit a formal proposal to NASA for that mission in early 2016. The remaining three KBO targeting maneuvers are scheduled for Oct. 25, Oct. 28 and Nov. 4. New Horizons is approximately 74 million miles (119 million kilometers) beyond Pluto and 3.16 billion miles (5.08 billion kilometers) from Earth. The spacecraft is healthy and continues to return data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015. New Horizons is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research Institute leads the science mission, payload operations, and encounter science planning. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] New Horizons Continues Toward Potential Kuiper Belt Target Spacecraft
http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20151026b October 26, 2015 New Horizons Continues Toward Potential Kuiper Belt TargetSpacecraft Team Reports Success in Second of Four Targeting Maneuvers On Course: Projected path of NASA's New Horizons spacecraft toward 2014 MU69, which orbits in the Kuiper Belt about 1 billion miles beyond Pluto. Planets are shown in their positions on Jan. 1, 2019, when New Horizons is projected to reach the small Kuiper Belt object. NASA must approve an extended mission for New Horizons to study MU69. NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has carried out the second in a series of four maneuvers propelling it toward an encounter with the ancient Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, a billion miles farther from the sun than Pluto. The targeting maneuver, performed with the spacecraft's hydrazine-fueled thrusters, started at approximately 1:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 25, and lasted about 25 minutes - the largest propulsive maneuver ever conducted by New Horizons. Spacecraft operators at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, began receiving data through NASA's Deep Space Network at approximately 8:25 p.m. EDT on Sunday that indicated a successful maneuver. All told, the four maneuvers are designed to alter New Horizons' path to send it toward a close encounter with MU69 on Jan. 1, 2019. The flyby would be part of an extended mission that NASA still must approve; the New Horizons team will submit a formal proposal to NASA for that mission in early 2016. The science team hopes to bring the spacecraft closer to MU69 than it came to Pluto on July 14, which was 7,750 miles (12,500 kilometers) The two remaining KBO targeting maneuvers are scheduled for Oct. 28 and Nov. 4. New Horizons, speeding through deep space at more than 32,000 miles per hour, is approximately 76 million miles (122 million kilometers) beyond Pluto and 3.16 billion miles (5.09 billion kilometers) from Earth. All systems are healthy and the spacecraft continues to transmit data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system in July. New Horizons is part of NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed by the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. APL designed, built, and operates the New Horizons spacecraft and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. The Southwest Research Institute leads the science mission, payload operations, and encounter science planning. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Rewrite of Onboard Memory Planned for NASA Mars Orbiter (MRO)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4757 Rewrite of Onboard Memory Planned for NASA Mars Orbiter Jet Propulsion Laboratory October 29, 2015 Mission Status Report Tables stored in flash memory aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) tell locations of Earth and the sun for the past 10 years, but not their locations next year. That needs to be changed. Carefully. The long-lived orbiter relies on these tables to recover in the event of an unplanned computer shutdown. When the spacecraft computer reboots, it checks to see where it should position the antenna for communication and, even more critically, where it should position the solar arrays for power. Flash memory is "nonvolatile" -- meaning that it retains information even while the power is off -- so it works well for this backup role. The tables were loaded before the spacecraft's Aug. 12, 2005, launch and they cover location information through July 12, 2016. To be safe, the mission team plans to begin updating them next week. Doing so will require intentionally rebooting the onboard computer during a one-week suspension of MRO's science observations and communication relay duty. Both of NASA's active Mars rovers will use a different NASA Mars orbiter, Odyssey, for relaying their data to Earth while MRO is out of service. Sixteen times since launch, MRO has experienced unplanned reboots that relied on the stored tables for recovery of the spacecraft. Managers anticipate that such events will continue to happen in coming years. "Updating what's in the memory is essential for spacecraft safety and for extending the mission," said MRO Project Manager Dan Johnston at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. To update the location tables, engineers will rewrite the entire content of the nonvolatile memory on the spacecraft. The orbiter has two identical computers for redundancy, with only one of them active at a time. Each computer has its own nonvolatile memory unavailable to the other, so the rewrite needs to be done twice. The "Side B" computer has been active since an unplanned side swap in April 2015. The plan is to rewrite that computer's nonvolatile memory starting on Nov. 2. The procedure for "Side A" will follow in early 2016. The contents of each computer's 256 megabytes of nonvolatile memory include backup copies of vital computer-operation files. "It's the fundamental operating system of the spacecraft. That's what adds risk," Johnston said. "Just like with your home computer: If you mess with the operating system, the computer won't work." Since MRO launched, the mission team has rewritten the nonvolatile memory just once, in 2009. The Side B rewrite next week will follow procedures similar to those used successfully in 2009, but with an added safeguard. After a partial rewrite, an intentional reboot will be commanded, to confirm that the newly recorded information is usable. If it is not, sufficient information from the 2009 rewrite would still be still available as backup for a successful reboot. After confirmation that the partial rewrite is successful, the rest of the memory contents will be replaced. Though it is already in its fourth mission extension, MRO could remain a cornerstone of NASA's Mars Exploration Program fleet for years to come. The longevity of the mission has given researchers tools to study seasonal and longer-term changes on Mars, including recently discovered seasonal activity of salty liquid water. Among other current activities, the orbiter is examining possible landing sites for future missions to Mars and relaying communications to Earth from Mars rovers. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the MRO Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the orbiter and supports its operations. For more information about MRO, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mro http://mars.nasa.gov/mro Media Contact Guy Webster Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6278 guy.webs...@jpl.nasa.gov Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077 dwayne.c.br...@nasa.gov / laura.l.canti...@nasa.gov 2015-335 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Halloween Skies to Include Dead Comet Flyby (2015 TB145)
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4760 Halloween Skies to Include Dead Comet Flyby Jet Propulsion Laboratory October 30, 2015 [Image] This image of asteroid 2015 TB145, a dead comet, was generated using radar data collected by the National Science Foundation's 1,000-foot (305-meter) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The radar image was taken on Oct. 30, 2015, and the image resolution is 25 feet (7.5 meters) per pixel. Image credit: NAIC-Arecibo/NSF The large space rock that will zip past Earth this Halloween is most likely a dead comet that, fittingly, bears an eerie resemblance to a skull. Scientists observing asteroid 2015 TB145 with NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, have determined that the celestial object is more than likely a dead comet that has shed its volatiles after numerous passes around the sun. The belated comet has also been observed by optical and radar observatories around the world, providing even more data, including our first close-up views of its surface. Asteroid 2015 TB145 will safely fly by our planet at just under 1.3 lunar distances, or about 302,000 miles (486,000 kilometers), on Halloween (Oct. 31) at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT, 17:00 UTC). The first radar images of the dead comet were generated by the National Science Foundation's 305-meter (1,000-foot) Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The radar images from Arecibo indicate the object is spherical in shape and approximately 2,000 feet (600 meters) in diameter and completes a rotation about once every five hours. "The IRTF data may indicate that the object might be a dead comet, but in the Arecibo images it appears to have donned a skull costume for its Halloween flyby," said Kelly Fast, IRTF program scientist at NASA Headquarters and acting program manager for NASA's NEO Observations Program. Managed by the University of Hawaii for NASA, the IRTF's 3-meter (10 foot) telescope collected infrared data on the object. The data may finally put to rest the debate over whether 2015 TB145, with its unusual orbit, is an asteroid or is of cometary origin. "We found that the object reflects about six percent of the light it receives from the sun," said Vishnu Reddy, a research scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, Tucson, Arizona. "That is similar to fresh asphalt, and while here on Earth we think that is pretty dark, it is brighter than a typical comet which reflects only 3 to 5 percent of the light. That suggests it could be cometary in origin -- but as there is no coma evident, the conclusion is it is a dead comet." Radar images generated by the Arecibo team are available at: https://www.facebook.com/notes/national-astronomy-and-ionosphere-center-arecibo-observatory/near-earth-asteroid-2015-tb145-passes-by-without-a-fright/1082765941733673 Asteroid 2015 TB145 was discovered on Oct. 10, 2015, by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) on Haleakala, Maui, part of the NASA-funded Near-Earth Object Observations (NEOO) Program. The next time the asteroid will be in Earth's neighborhood will be in September 2018, when it will make a distant pass at about 24 million miles (38 million kilometers), or about a quarter the distance between Earth and the sun. Radar is a powerful technique for studying an asteroid's size, shape, rotation, surface features and surface roughness, and for improving the calculation of asteroid orbits. Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than would be possible otherwise. NASA places a high priority on tracking asteroids and protecting our home planet from them. In fact, the U.S. has the most robust and productive survey and detection program for discovering near-Earth objects (NEOs). To date, U.S.-funded assets have discovered over 98 percent of the known NEOs. In addition to the resources NASA puts into understanding asteroids, it also partners with other U.S. government agencies, university-based astronomers, and space science institutes across the country, often with grants, interagency transfers and other contracts from NASA, and also with international space agencies and institutions that are working to track and better understand these objects. In addition, NASA values the work of numerous highly skilled amateur astronomers, whose accurate observational data helps improve asteroid orbits after they are found. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission Directorate. More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects is at these websites: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch Media Contact DC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 a...@jpl.nasa.gov
[meteorite-list] Dawn Heads Toward Final Orbit
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4751 Dawn Heads Toward Final Orbit Jet Propulsion Laboratory October 26, 2015 Dawn Mission Status Report NASA's Dawn spacecraft fired up its ion engine on Friday, Oct. 23, to begin its journey toward its fourth and final science orbit at dwarf planet Ceres. The spacecraft completed two months of observations from an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers) and transmitted extensive imagery and other data to Earth. The spacecraft is now on its way to the final orbit of the mission, called the low-altitude mapping orbit. Dawn will spend more than seven weeks descending to this vantage point, which will be less than 235 miles (380 kilometers) from the surface of Ceres. In mid-December, Dawn will begin taking observations from this orbit, including images at a resolution of 120 feet (35 meters) per pixel. Of particular interest to the Dawn team is Occator crater, home to Ceres' bright spots. A new mosaic of images from Dawn's third science orbit highlights the crater and surrounding terrain. More information on the Dawn mission is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/dawn http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov Media Contact Elizabeth Landau NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6425 elizabeth.lan...@jpl.nasa.gov 2015-329 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Assembly Complete for NASA's Asteroid Sample Return Spacecraft (OSIRIS-REx)
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/10/25/assembly-complete-for-nasas-asteroid-sample-return-spacecraft/ Assembly complete for NASA's asteroid sample return spacecraft by Stephen Clark SpaceFlight Now October 25, 2015 NASA's first asteroid-sampling probe, OSIRIS-REx, has been assembled at a Lockheed Martin satellite factory in Colorado and is now being tested to ensure it can withstand the harsh journey to an asteroid and back. The OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is now set for a sequence of tests simulate the conditions it will encounter on a round-trip journey to asteroid Bennu, where it will attempt to retrieve at least 60 grams (2.1 ounces) of material for return to Earth. OSIRIS-REx is short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer. The eight-year journey begins Sept. 3, 2016, when the mission's 39-day launch window opens. Liftoff from Cape Canaveral will occur aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket, flying in a rarely-used configuration with one strap-on solid rocket booster. The mission, with a cost of approximately $1 billion, has a tight window to depart Earth and reach its destination. "We entered the testing phase right on schedule, but we do have plenty of schedule margin still available as well," said Erin Morton, OSIRIS-REx's communications lead at the University of Arizona in Tucson, the home institution for the mission's chief scientist, Dante Lauretta. The mission must launch in September or October 2016 or else wait 18 months for the next flight opportunity, a restriction caused by the alignment of Earth and Bennu, a near-Earth object about 500 meters, or 1,600 feet, in diameter. In a business where precision is paramount, calculations have already determined what time the mission must launch to head off on the proper course toward Bennu, Morton said, resulting in an estimated launch window opening at 7:10 p.m. EDT (2310 GMT) and extending 90 minutes each day. The times could be adjusted slightly as the launch date nears. The launch period is set to allow OSIRIS-REx, with its five science instruments and sampling mechanism, to arrive at asteroid Bennu in late 2018 after a gravity-assist slingshot flyby of Earth in 2017. The spacecraft will conduct several touch-and-go maneuvers, dropping to Bennu's surface and firing compressed gas into the asteroid to force dust and rock fragments into a collection chamber. OSIRIS-REx is scheduled to drop off a re-entry canister in 2023 with samples collected from Bennu for a parachute-assisted landing in Utah. Scientists believe the specimens will help them learn about how water and the building blocks of life were delivered to Earth billions of years ago. Asteroids may have played a role in seeding Earth after its formation at the birth of the solar system. NASA also bills the mission as a pathfinder for future spacecraft that could steer near-Earth objects away from Earth before a potential impact. OSIRIS-REx's road to the launch pad continues over the next five months with a series of environmental tests to mimic the the vibrations and extreme temperatures the spacecraft will experience during launch and interplanetary flight. "This is an exciting time for the program as we now have a completed spacecraft and the team gets to test drive it, in a sense, before we actually fly it to asteroid Bennu," said Rich Kuhns, OSIRIS-REx program manager at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. "The environmental test phase is an important time in the mission as it will reveal any issues with the spacecraft and instruments, while here on Earth, before we send it into deep space." The test series include acoustic, separation and deployment shock, vibration, electromagnetic interference and thermal vacuum tests, according to NASA. "This milestone marks the end of the design and assembly stage," Lauretta said in a statement. "We now move on to test the entire flight system over the range of environmental conditions that will be experienced on the journey to Bennu and back. This phase is critical to mission success, and I am confident that we have built the right system for the job." The solar-powered spacecraft will be shipped from Lockheed Martin's satellite plant near Denver to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in May, where will be fueled and encapsulated inside the Atlas 5's payload fairing, then hoisted atop the rocket weeks before liftoff. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: October 9-14, 2015
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html#opportunity OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: The Rover Is Now On Northerly Slopes To Charge The Solar Panels For The Winter - sols 4162-4167, October 09, 2015-October 14, 2015: Opportunity is within 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater completing a valley floor survey for clay minerals before moving to the winter location on the south side of the valley. Low-elevation orbiter relay passes to the west have resulted in little to no data return on some relay passes. This is a function of orbit geometry and the high valley wall to the west within Marathon Valley. On Sol 4163 (Oct. 10, 2015), Opportunity drove over 33 feet (10 meters) in a dogleg maneuver, first north then east, avoiding some terrain obstacles. The rover collected some mid-drive images of the departed location to assist analysis of some wheel/terrain interaction during the last turn in place. On the next sol, the rover collected both Panoramic Camera (Pancam) and Navigation Camera (Navcam) panoramas and continued with the diagnostic readout of Flash Bank 7. More Pancam panoramas were taken on the sol after that. On Sol 4166 (Oct. 13, 2015), Opportunity drove again, this time about 66 feet (20 meters) to the southeast. Afterward, more Pancam and Navcam panoramas where collected. The rover is now on some favorable northerly tilted terrain. Opportunity will remain on northerly slopes for the balance of the winter. As of Sol 4166 (Oct. 13, 2015), the solar array energy production was 325 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.557 and a solar array dust factor of 0.577. Total odometry is 26.48 miles (42.62 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
