Europa Plumes Discovered by Hubble
The Moon, Europa
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Possible Geysers On Europa
On September 26th, NASA released photos taken by the Hubble telescope that showed evidence of geysers on Europa. The photos, taken in January, March and April of 2014, were not released until initial analysis was completed and researchers were reasonably sure of what they were seeing. The research teams complete findings will be published in the September 29th issue of the Astrophysical Journal.
Europa Plumes Discovered by Hubble
Europa Plumes Discovered by Hubble
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Psyche
Yesterday, after reviewing 27 submissions, NASA chose to fund five projects for initial mission investigation. The five projects will receive 3 million dollars to conduct concept design and analysis studies. Sometime in September 2016 NASA will choose one or two of the projects for mission funding.
My personal favorite is the Psyche project.
Psyche is an asteroid that appears to be solid metal, a property making it very different from the usual drifting space rock. In addition to possibly being a very large magnet, and depending on the level of magnetism could wreak havoc on a vehicle's equipment, Psyche may be a potentially useful resource both for knowledge of the way planetary cores cool and what asteroids could provide commercially. Here is the summary story on Gizmodo, or if you want to geek-out a little the summary from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
My personal favorite is the Psyche project.
Psyche is an asteroid that appears to be solid metal, a property making it very different from the usual drifting space rock. In addition to possibly being a very large magnet, and depending on the level of magnetism could wreak havoc on a vehicle's equipment, Psyche may be a potentially useful resource both for knowledge of the way planetary cores cool and what asteroids could provide commercially. Here is the summary story on Gizmodo, or if you want to geek-out a little the summary from the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
Friday, September 18, 2015
Pluto - Images from the New Horizons Spacecraft
Finally, some new images from New Horizons!
This shot of Pluto's atmosphere is stunning!
The closeup of the mountains is amazing as well. However...
The feature I found most remarkable is a potentially active nitrogen glacier! The ices may have evaporated from the surface and fallen into the mountains, re-compressed into solid ice again and flowed back onto the plain; a cycle nearly identical to water ice (snow) on Earth falling in the mountains, being compressed into ice and flowing downward in the form of a glacier.
Apologies for the first photos getting cut off on the top of the page but I wanted to post them as large as possible. The the full story and complete set of photos may be viewed the NASA link below:
Pluto - Backlit Panorama and Glacial Flows
This shot of Pluto's atmosphere is stunning!
The closeup of the mountains is amazing as well. However...
The feature I found most remarkable is a potentially active nitrogen glacier! The ices may have evaporated from the surface and fallen into the mountains, re-compressed into solid ice again and flowed back onto the plain; a cycle nearly identical to water ice (snow) on Earth falling in the mountains, being compressed into ice and flowing downward in the form of a glacier.
Apologies for the first photos getting cut off on the top of the page but I wanted to post them as large as possible. The the full story and complete set of photos may be viewed the NASA link below:
Pluto - Backlit Panorama and Glacial Flows
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)