NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Month in Review

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Month in Review

MARS

NASA’s InSight ‘Hears’ Its First Meteoroid Impacts on Mars

Sept. 19, 2022

These craters were formed by a Sept. 5, 2021, meteoroid impact on Mars, the first to be detected by NASA’s InSight. Taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, this enhanced-color image highlights the dust and soil disturbed by the impact in blue in order to make details more visible to the human eye.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

The Mars lander’s seismometer has picked up vibrations from four separate impacts in the past two years.

NASA’s InSight lander has detected seismic waves from four space rocks that crashed on Mars in 2020 and 2021. Not only do these represent the first impacts detected by the spacecraft’s seismometer since InSight touched down on the Red Planet in 2018, it also marks the first time seismic and acoustic waves from an impact have been detected on Mars.

A new paper published Monday in Nature Geoscience details the impacts, which ranged between 53 and 180 miles (85 and 290 kilometers) from InSight’s location, a region of Mars called Elysium Planitia.

The first of the four confirmed meteoroids – the term used for space rocks before they hit the ground – made the most dramatic entrance: It entered Mars’ atmosphere on Sept. 5, 2021, exploding into at least three shards that each left a crater behind.

Learn more about the first meteoroid impact NASA’s InSight lander detected on Mars in this video.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Then, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the estimated impact site to confirm the location. The orbiter used its black-and-white Context Camera to reveal three darkened spots on the surface. After locating these spots, the orbiter’s team used the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, or HiRISE, to get a color close-up of the craters (the meteoroid could have left additional craters in the surface, but they would be too small to see in HiRISE’s images).

“After three years of InSight waiting to detect an impact, those craters looked beautiful,” said Ingrid Daubar of Brown University, a co-author of the paper and a specialist in Mars impacts.

After combing through earlier data, scientists confirmed three other impacts had occurred on May 27, 2020; Feb. 18, 2021; and Aug. 31, 2021.

Researchers have puzzled over why they haven’t detected more meteoroid impacts on Mars. The Red Planet is next to the solar system’s main asteroid belt, which provides an ample supply of space rocks to scar the planet’s surface. Because Mars’ atmosphere is just 1% as thick as Earth’s, more meteoroids pass through it without disintegrating.

InSight’s seismometer has detected over 1,300 marsquakes. Provided by France’s space agency, the Centre National d’Études Spatiales, the instrument is so sensitive that it can detect seismic waves from thousands of miles away. But the Sept. 5, 2021, event marks the first time an impact was confirmed as the cause of such waves.

InSight’s team suspects that other impacts may have been obscured by noise from wind or by seasonal changes in the atmosphere. But now that the distinctive seismic signature of an impact on Mars has been discovered, scientists expect to find more hiding within InSight’s nearly four years of data.

Listen to a Meteoroid Hitting the Red Planet

The sound of a meteoroid striking Mars – created from data recorded by NASA’s InSight lander – is like a “bloop” due to a peculiar atmospheric effect. In this audio clip, the sound can be heard three times: when the meteoroid enters the Martian atmosphere, explodes into pieces, and impacts the surface.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CNES/IPGP

Science Behind the Strikes

Seismic data offer various clues that will help researchers better understand the Red Planet. Most marsquakes are caused by subsurface rocks cracking from heat and pressure. Studying how the resulting seismic waves change as they move through different material provides scientists a way to study Mars’ crust, mantle, and core.

The four meteoroid impacts confirmed so far produced small quakes with a magnitude of no more than 2.0. Those smaller quakes provide scientists with only a glimpse into the Martian crust, while seismic signals from larger quakes, like the magnitude 5 event that occurred in May 2022, can also reveal details about the planet’s mantle and core.

Read postcards people have sent to InSight

But the impacts will be critical to refining Mars’ timeline. “Impacts are the clocks of the solar system,” said the paper’s lead author, Raphael Garcia of Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace in Toulouse, France. “We need to know the impact rate today to estimate the age of different surfaces.”

Scientists can approximate the age of a planet’s surface by counting its impact craters: The more they see, the older the surface. By calibrating their statistical models based on how often they see impacts occurring now, scientists can then estimate how many more impacts happened earlier in the solar system’s history.

InSight’s data, in combination with orbital images, can be used to rebuild a meteoroid’s trajectory and the size of its shock wave. Every meteoroid creates a shock wave as it hits the atmosphere and an explosion as it hits the ground. These events send sound waves through the atmosphere. The bigger the explosion, the more this sound wave tilts the ground when it reaches InSight. The lander’s seismometer is sensitive enough to measure how much the ground tilts from such an event and in what direction.

“We’re learning more about the impact process itself,” Garcia said. “We can match different sizes of craters to specific seismic and acoustic waves now.”

The lander still has time to study Mars. Dust buildup on the lander’s solar panels is reducing its power and will eventually lead to the spacecraft shutting down. Predicting precisely when is difficult, but based on the latest power readings, engineers now believe the lander could shut down between October of this year and January 2023.

More About the Mission

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages InSight for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.

A number of European partners, including France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES) and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure (SEIS) instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at IPGP (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris). Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL. DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center (CBK) of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología (CAB) supplied the temperature and wind sensors.

Hear Meteoroid Striking Mars, Captured by NASA’s InSight Lander

Sep 19, 2022 NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s InSight lander detected seismic waves from a meteoroid and was able to capture the sound of the space rock striking the surface of Mars for the first time. The meteoroid – the term used for incoming space rocks before they hit the ground – entered Mars’ atmosphere on Sept. 5, 2021, exploding into at least three shards that each left craters behind. Mars’ atmosphere is just 1% as dense as Earth’s, allowing far more meteoroids to pass through and impact the Red Planet’s surface. This event marks the first time seismic and acoustic waves from an impact were detected on the Red Planet. Why does this meteoroid impact sound like a “bloop” in the video? It has to do with a peculiar atmospheric effect that’s also observed in deserts on Earth. After sunset, the atmosphere retains some heat accumulated during the day. Sound waves travel through this heated atmosphere at different speeds, depending on their frequency. As a result, lower-pitched sounds arrive before high-pitched sounds. An observer close to the impact would hear a “bang,” while someone many miles away would hear the bass sounds first, creating a “bloop.” NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter flew over the estimated impact site to confirm the location. The orbiter used its black-and-white Context Camera to reveal three darkened spots on the surface. After locating these spots, the orbiter’s team used the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment camera, or HiRISE, to get a color close-up of the craters. Because HiRISE sees wavelengths the human eye can’t detect, scientists change the camera’s filters to enhance the color of the image. The areas that appear blue around the craters are where dust has been removed or disturbed by the blast of the impact. Martian dust is bright and red, so removing it makes the surface appear relatively dark and blue. For more information on InSight, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Maryland/University of Arizona/CNES/IPGP/Manchu/Bureau 21/ETH Zurich/Kirschner/van Driel

News Media Contact

Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-2433

andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson

NASA Headquarters, Washington

301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501

karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

2022-136

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EARTH

NASA, USGS Map Minerals to Understand Earth Makeup, Climate Change

Sept. 30, 2022

A photo of a NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft with the AVIRIS and HyTES instruments installed.

Credit: NASA

These new observations can be used to identify the presence of a wide variety of minerals as well as mineral weathering or alteration.

NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) will map portions of the southwest United States for critical minerals using advanced airborne imaging.

Hyperspectral data from hundreds of wavelengths of reflected light can provide new information about Earth’s surface and atmosphere to help scientists understand Earth’s geology and biology, as well as the effects of climate change.

The research project, called the Geological Earth Mapping Experiment (GEMx), will use NASA’s Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and Hyperspectral Thermal Emission Spectrometer (HyTES) instruments flown on NASA’s ER-2 and Gulfstream V aircraft to collect the measurements over the country’s arid and semi-arid regions, including parts of California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.

“This exciting new project is just one example of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to a clean energy future,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “NASA has a long history of Earth observation that shows us how the planet is responding to climate change. This project builds on our 60-year legacy, and can show us where to look for the resources that support our transition to a clean energy economy. With our partners at USGS, NASA has led the way in developing these Earth observation systems to gather information to measure and monitor the environment and climate change.”

These new observations record the spectroscopic fingerprints of surface minerals across hundreds of wavelength bands. In other words, these are measurements not only of visible light our eyes can see but also of wavelengths of light beyond the visible into the infrared. The data can be used to identify the presence of a wide variety of minerals including primary rock-forming minerals as well as mineral weathering or alteration.

This project will complement data from NASA’s newest instrument on the International Space Station, the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT). EMIT is focused on mapping the mineral dust source composition of Earth’s arid regions to better understand how mineral dust affects heating and cooling of the planet. The instrument also makes spectroscopic measurements of the hundreds of wavelengths of light reflected from materials on Earth. The mission provided its first view of Earth on July 27 and is expected to become fully operational next month.

The $16 million GEMx research project will last five years and is funded by the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, through investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The initiative will capitalize on both the technology developed by NASA for spectroscopic imaging as well as the expertise in analyzing the datasets and extracting critical mineral information from them. Beyond providing additional detail over the mineral maps made by EMIT, GEMx will provide NASA with critical high-resolution data at regional scales to support development of the Surface Biology and Geology mission, part of NASA’s new Earth System Observatory. The Surface Biology and Geology mission will answer questions about the fluxes of carbon, water, nutrients, and energy within and between ecosystems and the atmosphere, the ocean, and Earth.

“This exciting scientific effort is made possible through the President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law investments and will enable NASA and the USGS to leverage our unique capabilities toward a common goal,” said USGS Director David Applegate. “The data we’re collecting will be foundational for not only critical minerals research but also for a wide range of other scientific applications, from natural hazards mitigation to ecosystem restoration.”

In 1979, NASA started developing spectral imaging systems at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The first system, the Airborne Imaging Spectrometer, led to the development of AVIRIS. NASA and USGS have a long history of collaborating on collecting and analyzing spectroscopic data, including the 17-year Earth Observing-1 mission, which carried the first Earth orbiting instrument spanning the AVIRIS spectral range, Hyperion. This type of spectroscopic imaging has a long history of use in mineral research. These data are also useful for understanding a variety of other Earth science, ecological, and biological issues including geological acid mine drainage, debris flows, agriculture, wildfires, and biodiversity.

For more information about NASA’s Earth science programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/earth

News Media Contact

Tylar Greene

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-0030

tylar.j.greene@nasa.gov

2022-141

For more information, please visit the following link:

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SOLAR SYSTEM

NASA’s Juno Shares First Image From Flyby of Jupiter’s Moon Europa

Sept. 29, 2022

Observations from the spacecraft’s pass of the moon provided the first close-up in over two decades of this ocean world, resulting in remarkable imagery and unique science.

The complex, ice-covered surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft during a flyby on Sept. 29, 2022. At closest approach, the spacecraft came within a distance of about 219 miles (352 kilometers).

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SWRI/MSSS

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The first picture NASA’s Juno spacecraft took as it flew by Jupiter’s ice-encrusted moon Europa has arrived on Earth. Revealing surface features in a region near the moon’s equator called Annwn Regio, the image was captured during the solar-powered spacecraft’s closest approach, on Thursday, Sept. 29, at 2:36 a.m. PDT (5:36 a.m. EDT), at a distance of about 219 miles (352 kilometers).

This is only the third close pass in history below 310 miles (500 kilometers) altitude and the closest look any spacecraft has provided at Europa since Jan. 3, 2000, when NASA’s Galileo came within 218 miles (351 kilometers) of the surface.

Europa is the sixth-largest moon in the solar system, slightly smaller than Earth’s moon. Scientists think a salty ocean lies below a miles-thick ice shell, sparking questions about potential conditions capable of supporting life underneath Europa’s surface.

This segment of the first image of Europa taken during this flyby by the spacecraft’s JunoCam (a public-engagement camera) zooms in on a swath of Europa’s surface north of the equator. Due to the enhanced contrast between light and shadow seen along the terminator (the nightside boundary), rugged terrain features are easily seen, including tall shadow-casting blocks, while bright and dark ridges and troughs curve across the surface. The oblong pit near the terminator might be a degraded impact crater.

Find out where Juno is right now with NASA’s interactive Eyes on the Solar System. With its blades stretching out some 66 feet (20 meters), the spacecraft is a dynamic engineering marvel, spinning to keep itself stable as it orbits Jupiter and flies by some of the planet’s moons. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

With this additional data about Europa’s geology, Juno’s observations will benefit future missions to the Jovian moon, including the agency’s Europa Clipper. Set to launch in 2024, Europa Clipper will study the moon’s atmosphere, surface, and interior, with its main science goal being to determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life.

As exciting as Juno’s data will be, the spacecraft had only a two-hour window to collect it, racing past the moon with a relative velocity of about 14.7 miles per second (23.6 kilometers per second).

“It’s very early in the process, but by all indications Juno’s flyby of Europa was a great success,” said Scott Bolton, Juno principal investigator from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “This first picture is just a glimpse of the remarkable new science to come from Juno’s entire suite of instruments and sensors that acquired data as we skimmed over the moon’s icy crust.”

During the flyby, the mission collected what will be some of the highest-resolution images of the moon (0.6 miles, or 1 kilometer, per pixel) and obtained valuable data on Europa’s ice shell structure, interior, surface composition, and ionosphere, in addition to the moon’s interaction with Jupiter’s magnetosphere.

See more images from JunoCam

Images of Ganymede from Juno’s 2021 flyby

“The science team will be comparing the full set of images obtained by Juno with images from previous missions, looking to see if Europa’s surface features have changed over the past two decades,” said Candy Hansen, a Juno co-investigator who leads planning for the camera at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona. “The JunoCam images will fill in the current geologic map, replacing existing low-resolution coverage of the area.”

Juno’s close-up views and data from its Microwave Radiometer (MWR) instrument will provide new details on how the structure of Europa’s ice varies beneath its crust. Scientists can use all this information to generate new insights into the moon, including data in the search for regions where liquid water may exist in shallow subsurface pockets.

Building on Juno’s observations and previous missions such as Voyager 2 and Galileo, NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, slated to arrive at Europa in 2030, will study the moon’s atmosphere, surface, and interior – with a goal to investigate habitability and better understand its global subsurface ocean, the thickness of its ice crust, and search for possible plumes that may be venting subsurface water into space.

The close flyby modified Juno’s trajectory, reducing the time it takes to orbit Jupiter from 43 to 38 days. The flyby also marks the second encounter with a Galilean moon during Juno’s extended mission. The mission explored Ganymede in June 2021 and is scheduled to make close flybys of Io, the most volcanic body in the solar system, in 2023 and 2024.

More About the Mission

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.

More information about Juno is available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/juno

and

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu

News Media Contact

DC Agle

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011

agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson

NASA Headquarters, Washington

301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501

karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

Deb Schmid

Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio

210-522-2254

dschmid@swri.org

2022-140

For more information, please visit the following link:

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     WEATHER

NASA-Built Weather Sensors Capture Vital Data on Hurricane Ian

Sept. 28, 2022

From aboard the International Space Station, NASA-built instruments Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer (COWVR) and Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems (TEMPEST) captured wind and water vapor data from Hurricane Ian as the storm neared Cuba.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A pair of microwave radiometers collected data on the storm as they passed over the Caribbean Sea aboard the International Space Station.

Two recently launched instruments that were designed and built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California to provide forecasters data on weather over the open ocean captured images of Hurricane Ian on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2022, as the storm approached Cuba on its way north toward the U.S. mainland.

COWVR (short for Compact Ocean Wind Vector Radiometer) and TEMPEST (Temporal Experiment for Storms and Tropical Systems) observe the planet’s atmosphere and surface from aboard the International Space Station, which passed in low-Earth orbit over the Caribbean Sea at about 12:30 a.m. EDT.

Ian made landfall in Cuba’s Pinar del Rio province at 4:30 a.m. EDT, according to the National Hurricane Center. At that time, it was a Category 3 hurricane, with estimated wind speeds of 125 mph (205 kph).

The image above combines microwave emissions measurements from both COWVR and TEMPEST. White sections indicate the presence of clouds. Green portions indicate rain. Yellow, red, and black indicate where air and water vapor were moving most swiftly. Ian’s center is seen just off of Cuba’s southern coast, and the storm is shown covering the island with rain and wind.

COWVR and TEMPEST sent the data for this image back to Earth in a direct stream via NASA’s tracking and data relay satellite (TDRS) constellation. The data were processed at JPL and made available to forecasters less than two hours after collection.

About the size of a minifridge, COWVR measures natural microwave emissions over the ocean. The magnitude of the emissions increases with the amount of rain in the atmosphere, and the strongest rain produces the strongest microwave emissions. TEMPEST – comparable in size to a cereal box – tracks microwaves at a much shorter wavelength, allowing it to see ice particles within the hurricane’s cloudy regions that are thrust into the upper atmosphere by the storm.

Both microwave radiometers were conceived to demonstrate that smaller, more energy-efficient, more simply designed sensors can perform most of the same measurements as current space-based weather instruments that are heavier, consume more power, and cost much more to construct.

COWVR’s development was funded by the U.S. Space Force, and TEMPEST was developed with NASA funding. The U.S. Space Test Program-Houston 8 (STP-H8) is responsible for hosting the instruments on the space station under Space Force funding in partnership with NASA. Data from the instruments is being used by government and university weather forecasters and scientists. The mission will inform development of future space-based weather sensors, and scientists are working on mission concepts that would take advantage of the low-cost microwave sensor technologies to study long-standing questions, such as how heat from the ocean fuels global weather patterns.

News Media Contact

Andrew Wang / Jane J. Lee

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

626-379-6874 / 818-354-0307

andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov

2022-139

For more information, please visit the following link:

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ASTEROIDS AND COMETS

NASA’s Asteroid-Striking DART Mission Team Has JPL Members

Sept. 22, 2022

This illustration depicts NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft prior to impact at the Didymos binary asteroid system.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben

It’s a bold and complex undertaking to try impacting an asteroid. JPL is there to assist with navigators, communications, and more.

On Monday, Sept. 26, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission has the challenging goal of crashing its spacecraft into Dimorphos, a small moonlet orbiting a larger asteroid by the name of Didymos. While the asteroid poses no threat to Earth, this mission will test technology that could be used to defend our planet against potential asteroid or comet hazards that may be detected in the future.

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, designed and leads the ambitious mission for NASA. But as with many missions, the endeavor calls on expertise from various NASA centers. In the case of the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, that expertise is for navigation, precise location of the target, asteroid science, and Earth-to-spacecraft communications.

“Strategic partnerships like ours with APL are the lifeblood of cutting-edge space mission development,” said Laurie Leshin, director of JPL. “Our history of working with APL goes all the way back to Voyager and extends well into the future, with missions like Europa Clipper. The work we do together makes us all – and our missions – better. We’re proud to support the DART mission and team.”

Teachable Moment

THE SCIENCE BEHIND DART

Launched in November 2021, the approximately 1,320-pound (about 600-kilogram) DART spacecraft will be at a point 6.8 million miles (11 million kilometers) from Earth when it impacts Dimorphos, which is just 525 feet (160 meters) across. Making matters more challenging still, the spacecraft will be closing in on the space rock at about 4 miles (6.1 kilometers) per second. Dimorphos orbits Didymos, which is roughly half a mile (780 meters) in diameter, every 11.9 hours.

Getting to Dimorphos

JPL’s navigation section is experienced at getting spacecraft to faraway locations accurately (think: Cassini to Saturn, Juno to Jupiter, Perseverance to Mars). Each mission brings its own set of challenges, and DART has many.

“It’s a difficult job,” said JPL’s Julie Bellerose, who leads the DART spacecraft navigation team. “A big part of what the navigation team is working on is getting DART to a 9-mile-wide (15-kilometer-wide) box in space 24 hours before impact.” At that point, Bellerose said, the mission’s final trajectory correction maneuver (the firing of thrusters to modify the direction of flight) will be executed by mission controllers back on Earth. From then on, it’s up to DART.

During the final hours of its one-way journey, DART will utilize an autonomous onboard navigator created by APL to stay on course. SMART Nav, or Small-body Maneuvering Autonomous Real Time Navigation, collects and processes images of Didymos and Dimorphos from DART’s DRACO (Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation) high-resolution camera, and then uses a set of computational algorithms to determine what maneuvering needs to be done in the final four hours before impact.

Along with the DART team, another set of JPL navigators is calculating and planning the trajectory of DART’s spacecraft companion: The Italian Space Agency’s (ASI) Light Italian CubeSat for Imaging Asteroids, or LICIACube, which has the important task of imaging DART’s impact effects on Dimorphos. The toaster-size spacecraft disconnected from DART on Sept. 11 to navigate interplanetary space on its own – with an assist from the team at JPL.

“We are working with ASI to get LICIACube to within 25 to 50 miles (40 to 80 kilometers) of Dimorphos just two to three minutes after DART’s impact – close enough to get good images of the impact and ejecta plume, but not so close LICIACube could be hit by ejecta,” said JPL’s LICIACube navigation lead Dan Lubey.

While not necessary for the DART mission to succeed, the pre- and post-impact images this small satellite’s two optical cameras LEIA (LICIACube Explorer Imaging for Asteroid) and LUKE (LICIACube Unit Key Explorer) will provide could benefit the scientific community for studies of near-Earth objects and aid in the interpretation of the DART results.

Time and Space

JPL’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), an element of NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO), was tasked with determining not only the location of Didymos in space to within 16 miles (25 kilometers), but also when Dimorphos would be visible – and accessible – from DART’s direction of approach.

Along with investigators at other institutions, members of CNEOS will study the plume of rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) ejected by the impact, as well as the newly formed impact crater and the movement of Dimorphos in its orbit around its parent asteroid. Led by JPL’s Steve Chesley, they will not only examine data and imagery from DART and LICIACube, but also data from space and ground-based telescopes.

Scientists think the impact should shorten the moonlet’s orbital period around the larger asteroid by several minutes. That duration should be long enough for the effects to be observed and measured by telescopes on Earth. It should also be enough for this test to demonstrate whether kinetic impact technology – impacting an asteroid to adjust its speed and therefore its path – could in fact protect Earth from an asteroid strike.

Important contributors among those Earth-based telescopes include NASA’s Deep Space Network, the array of giant radio telescope dishes that JPL manages. With radar observations led by JPL scientist Shantanu Naidu, the massive 70-meter (230-foot) dish of Deep Space Station 14 at the network’s Goldstone complex near Barstow, California, will begin observing the aftermath of the celestial collision about 11 hours after impact, when Earth’s rotation brings Didymos and Dimorphos into view of Goldstone. Data from the echoes bounced off the two space rocks should help determine what changes occurred in the moonlet’s orbit and may even provide some coarse-resolution radar images.

Of course, radio science is only part of the Deep Space Network’s role. The navigation teams depend on it as well because the network is the means by which NASA has been communicating with spacecraft at the Moon and beyond since 1963.

More About the Mission

Johns Hopkins APL manages the DART mission for PDCO as a project of the agency’s Planetary Missions Program Office. DART is the world’s first planetary defense test mission, intentionally executing a kinetic impact into Dimorphos to slightly change its motion in space. While the asteroid does not pose any threat to Earth, the DART mission will demonstrate that a spacecraft can autonomously navigate to a kinetic impact on a relatively small asteroid and prove this is a viable technique to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth if one is ever discovered. DART will reach its target on Sept. 26, 2022.

ASI’s LICIACube mission is operated by Argotec with independent navigation provided by JPL, the University of Bologna, and Politecnico di Milano. LICIACube rode along with DART throughout launch and cruise and then was released 15 days before DART’s impact. LICIACube’s mission focuses on imaging the results of the DART’s impact (the crater and ejecta plume) as well as the unimpacted side of Dimorphos.

News Media Contact

DC Agle / Ian J. O’Neill

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011 / 818-354-2649

agle@jpl.nasa.gov / ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov

Josh Handal

NASA Headquarters, Washington

202-358-2307

joshua.a.handal@nasa.gov

Justyna Surowiec / Michael Buckley

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

240-302-9268 / 240-228-7536

justyna.surowiec@jhuapl.edu / michael.buckley@jhuapl.edu

2022-137

For more information, please visit the following link:

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SOLAR SYSTEM

NASA’s Juno Will Perform Close Flyby of Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa

Sept. 22, 2022

This image of Jupiter’s moon Europa was taken by the JunoCam imager aboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft on Oct. 16, 2021, from a distance of about 51,000 miles (82,000 kilometers).

Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS. Image processing: Andrea Luck CC BY

Full Image Details

As the spacecraft makes a close approach of the moon, it is expected to provide valuable science – and remarkable imagery – for NASA’s upcoming Europa Clipper mission.

On Thursday, Sept. 29, at 2:36 a.m. PDT (5:36 a.m. EDT), NASA’s Juno spacecraft will come within 222 miles (358 kilometers) of the surface of Jupiter’s ice-covered moon, Europa. The solar-powered spacecraft is expected to obtain some of the highest-resolution images ever taken of portions of Europa’s surface, as well as collect valuable data on the moon’s interior, surface composition, and ionosphere, along with its interaction with Jupiter’s magnetosphere.

Such information could benefit future missions, including the agency’s Europa Clipper, which is set to launch in 2024 to study the icy moon. “Europa is such an intriguing Jovian moon, it is the focus of its own future NASA mission,” said Juno Principal Investigator Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. “We’re happy to provide data that may help the Europa Clipper team with mission planning, as well as provide new scientific insights into this icy world.”

Juno’s extended mission includes flybys of the moons Ganymede, Europa, and Io. This graphic depicts the spacecraft’s orbits of Jupiter – labeled “PJ” for perijove, or point of closest approach to the planet – from its prime mission in gray to the 42 orbits of its extended mission in shades of blue and purple.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI

Full Image Details

With an equatorial diameter of 1,940 miles (3,100 kilometers), Europa is about 90% the size of Earth’s Moon. Scientists think a salty ocean lies below a miles-thick ice shell, sparking questions about potential conditions capable of supporting life underneath Europa’s surface.

The close flyby will modify Juno’s trajectory, reducing the time it takes to orbit Jupiter from 43 to 38 days. It will be the closest a NASA spacecraft has approached Europa since Galileo came within 218 miles (351 kilometers) on Jan. 3, 2000. In addition, this flyby marks the second encounter with a Galilean moon during Juno’s extended mission. The mission explored Ganymede in June 2021 and plans to make close approaches of Io in 2023 and 2024.

Data collection will begin an hour prior to closest approach, when the spacecraft is 51,820 miles (83,397 kilometers) from Europa.

“The relative velocity between spacecraft and moon will be 14.7 miles per second (23.6 kilometers per second), so we are screaming by pretty fast,” said John Bordi, Juno deputy mission manager at JPL. “All steps have to go like clockwork to successfully acquire our planned data, because soon after the flyby is complete, the spacecraft needs to be reoriented for our upcoming close approach of Jupiter, which happens only 7 ½ hours later.”

Find out where Juno is right now with NASA’s interactive Eyes on the Solar System. With its three giant blades stretching out some 66 feet (20 meters), the spacecraft is a dynamic engineering marvel, spinning to keep itself stable as it makes oval-shaped orbits around Jupiter. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The spacecraft’s full suite of instruments and sensors will be activated for the Europa encounter. Juno’s Jupiter Energetic-Particle Detector Instrument (JEDI) and its medium-gain (X-band) radio antenna will collect data on Europa’s ionosphere. Its Waves, Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE), and Magnetometer (MAG) experiments will measure plasma in the moon’s wake as Juno explores Europa’s interaction with Jupiter’s magnetosphere.

MAG and Waves will also search for possible water plumes above Europa’s surface. “We have the right equipment to do the job, but to capture a plume will require a lot of luck,” said Bolton. “We have to be at the right place at just the right time, but if we are so fortunate, it’s a home run for sure.”

See raw images from the spacecraft’s JunoCam imager

Inside and Out

Juno’s Microwave Radiometer (MWR) will peer into Europa’s water-ice crust, obtaining data on its composition and temperature. This is the first time such data will have been collected to study the moon’s icy shell.

In addition, the mission expects to take four visible-light images of the moon with JunoCam (a public-engagement camera) during the flyby. The Juno science team will compare them to images from previous missions, looking for changes in Europa’s surface features that might have occurred over the past two decades. These visible-light images will have an expected resolution better than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) per pixel.

Although Juno will be in Europa’s shadow when closest to the moon, Jupiter’s atmosphere will reflect enough sunlight for Juno’s visible-light imagers to collect data. Designed to take images of star fields and search for bright stars with known positions to help Juno get its bearings, the mission’s star camera (called the Stellar Reference Unit) will take a high-resolution black-and-white image of Europa’s surface. Meanwhile, the Jovian Infrared Auroral Mapper (JIRAM) will attempt to collect infrared images of its surface.

Juno’s closeup views and data from its MWR instrument will inform the Europa Clipper mission, which will perform nearly 50 flybys after it arrives at Europa in 2030. Europa Clipper will gather data on the moon’s atmosphere, surface, and interior – information that scientists will use to better understand Europa’s global subsurface ocean, the thickness of its ice crust, and possible plumes that may be venting subsurface water into space.

More About the Mission

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott J. Bolton, of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Juno is part of NASA’s New Frontiers Program, which is managed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built and operates the spacecraft.

More information about Juno is available at:

https://www.nasa.gov/juno

and

https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu

News Media Contact

DC Agle

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011

agle@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson

NASA Headquarters, Washington

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Deb Schmid

Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio

210-522-2254

dschmid@swri.org

2022-138

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VIDEO

What’s Up: October 2022

The Orionid meteor shower peaks in late October, and Mars appears to halt its usual eastward motion, wandering toward the west for a bit.

Read More

What are some skywatching highlights in October 2022? Enjoy giant planets Jupiter and Saturn all night throughout the month. Then watch as Mars begins its retrograde motion, moving westward each night instead of eastward, for the next few months. Finally, check out the Orionid meteors overnight on Oct. 20.

Transcript:

What’s Up for October? Evenings with giants, Mars changes course, and meteors from Orion.

Giant planets Jupiter and Saturn are visible throughout the night in October. Early in the evening, you’ll find them to the southeast, moving slowly westward with the stars over the course of the night. They form a triangle with bright star Fomalhaut.

When observing this trio, note how the planets shine with a steady light, while the star twinkles. This can be an easy way to know if what you’re looking at is a planet or a star.

Mars has been steadily working its way toward the east all year like it usually does, relative to the background stars. But at the end of October, Mars halts this apparent motion, and then appears to reverse course. Over the next three months, from November to late January, Mars moves toward the west each night. Then near the end of January, it reverses direction again, and continues its eastward journey.

This is what’s called the retrograde motion of Mars. It happens about every two years, and it really threw early observers for a loop. That Mars appears to change its direction is an illusion caused by the motions of our planet in its orbit passing by the Red Planet in its orbit.

See, Earth and Mars are on these roughly circular paths around the Sun, like cars on a racetrack, and Earth is on the inner, faster track. About every 26 months, we overtake Mars, which is moving slower in its orbit. During that period when we’re passing Mars, and before we round the bend in our orbit to pull away from it, we see Mars in retrograde, appearing to change direction, even though it’s still moving forward in its orbit.

So take note of Mars over the next few months, as it appears to reverse course. Note how its position changes with respect to Betelgeuse, Aldebaran and the Pleiades over the weeks, and you’ll be witnessing what was once a source of intense curiosity for astronomers, but which we now know is just a sign of two planets passing in the night.

The Orionid meteor shower is active throughout October and November, and peaks on the night of October 20. It’s a moderate shower, usually producing 10-20 meteors per hour at its peak, under clear, dark skies. This year, the Moon will be about 20 percent full on the peak nights. So it will interfere a bit when it rises a couple of hours before dawn, but shouldn’t totally spoil the viewing.

The shower’s name comes from the fact that you can trace the paths of its meteors back to an area on the sky near Orion. These meteors are fragments of dust left behind by Comet Halley in a trail that extends along its orbit. They tend to be bright and fast moving, and they often leave persistent trails that can glow in the sky for a few seconds after they streak by.

No special equipment is needed to observe meteor showers. Just make sure you’re warm enough, and viewing from a safe, dark spot away from bright lights. Then all you have to do is look up and enjoy the show.

Here are the phases of the Moon for October. Stay up to date with all of NASA’s missions to explore the solar system and beyond at nasa.gov. I’m Preston Dyches from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and that’s What’s Up for this month.

For more information, please visit the following link:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/videos/whats-up-october-2022?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=monthly20220930-11

What’s Up: October 2022 Skywatching Tips from NASA

Sep 30, 2022  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

What are some skywatching highlights in October 2022? Enjoy giant planets Jupiter and Saturn all night throughout the month. Then watch as Mars begins its retrograde motion, moving westward each night instead of eastward, for the next few months. Finally, check out the Orionid meteors overnight on Oct. 20. 0:00 Intro 0:11 Evenings with Jupiter & Saturn 0:37 Mars’ retrograde motion 2:07 Orionid meteor shower 3:04 October Moon phases Additional information about topics covered in this episode of What’s Up, along with still images from the video, and the video transcript, are available at https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/skywatch…. — Additional Resources — Skywatching resources from NASA: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/skywatch… NASA “Watch the Skies” blog: https://blogs.nasa.gov/Watch_the_Skies/ NASA’s Night Sky Network: https://nightsky.jpl.nasa.gov/

Chapters

Intro 0:00Evenings with Jupiter & Saturn 0:11

Mars’ retrograde motion 0:37

Orionid meteor shower 2:07

October Moon phases 3:04

Mars

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Investigates Geologically Rich Mars Terrain

Sept. 15, 2022

NASA’s Perseverance rover puts its robotic arm to work around a rocky outcrop called “Skinner Ridge” in Mars’ Jezero Crater. Composed of multiple images, this mosaic shows layered sedimentary rocks in the face of a cliff in the delta, as well as one of the locations where the rover abraded a circular patch to analyze a rock’s composition.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

The latest findings provide greater detail on a region of the Red Planet that has a watery past and is yielding promising samples for the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return campaign.

NASA’s Perseverance rover is well into its second science campaign, collecting rock-core samples from features within an area long considered by scientists to be a top prospect for finding signs of ancient microbial life on Mars. The rover has collected four samples from an ancient river delta in the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater since July 7, bringing the total count of scientifically compelling rock samples to 12.

“We picked the Jezero Crater for Perseverance to explore because we thought it had the best chance of providing scientifically excellent samples – and now we know we sent the rover to the right location,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA’s associate administrator for science in Washington. “These first two science campaigns have yielded an amazing diversity of samples to bring back to Earth by the Mars Sample Return campaign.”

Twenty-eight miles (45 kilometers) wide, Jezero Crater hosts a delta – an ancient fan-shaped feature that formed about 3.5 billion years ago at the convergence of a Martian river and a lake. Perseverance is currently investigating the delta’s sedimentary rocks, formed when particles of various sizes settled in the once-watery environment. During its first science campaign, the rover explored the crater’s floor, finding igneous rock, which forms deep underground from magma or during volcanic activity at the surface.

“The delta, with its diverse sedimentary rocks, contrasts beautifully with the igneous rocks – formed from crystallization of magma – discovered on the crater floor,” said Perseverance project scientist Ken Farley of Caltech in Pasadena, California. “This juxtaposition provides us with a rich understanding of the geologic history after the crater formed and a diverse sample suite. For example, we found a sandstone that carries grains and rock fragments created far from Jezero Crater – and a mudstone that includes intriguing organic compounds.”

Composed of multiple images from NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover, this mosaic shows a rocky outcrop called “Wildcat Ridge,” where the rover extracted two rock cores and abraded a circular patch to investigate the rock’s composition.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

“Wildcat Ridge” is the name given to a rock about 3 feet (1 meter) wide that likely formed billions of years ago as mud and fine sand settled in an evaporating saltwater lake. On July 20, the rover abraded some of the surface of Wildcat Ridge so it could analyze the area with the instrument called Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals, or SHERLOC.

SHERLOC’s analysis indicates the samples feature a class of organic molecules that are spatially correlated with those of sulfate minerals. Sulfate minerals found in layers of sedimentary rock can yield significant information about the aqueous environments in which they formed.

The most detailed panorama ever returned from Mars – combining 1,118 images taken by the Mastcam-Z instrument on NASA’s Perseverance rover in June 2022 – reveals the intriguing landscape of Jezero Crater’s delta. In this video, rover science operations team member Rachel Kronyak gives a tour of the panorama.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

What Is Organic Matter?

Organic molecules consist of a wide variety of compounds made primarily of carbon and usually include hydrogen and oxygen atoms. They can also contain other elements, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. While there are chemical processes that produce these molecules that don’t require life, some of these compounds are the chemical building blocks of life. The presence of these specific molecules is considered to be a potential biosignature – a substance or structure that could be evidence of past life but may also have been produced without the presence of life.

In 2013, NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover found evidence of organic matter in rock-powder samples, and Perseverance has detected organics in Jezero Crater before. But unlike that previous discovery, this latest detection was made in an area where, in the distant past, sediment and salts were deposited into a lake under conditions in which life could potentially have existed. In its analysis of Wildcat Ridge, the SHERLOC instrument registered the most abundant organic detections on the mission to date.

See more images from the Perseverance mission

Where Is Perseverance Right Now?

Explore with Perseverance in 3D

Perseverance Video File

“In the distant past, the sand, mud, and salts that now make up the Wildcat Ridge sample were deposited under conditions where life could potentially have thrived,” said Farley. “The fact the organic matter was found in such a sedimentary rock – known for preserving fossils of ancient life here on Earth – is important. However, as capable as our instruments aboard Perseverance are, further conclusions regarding what is contained in the Wildcat Ridge sample will have to wait until it’s returned to Earth for in-depth study as part of the agency’s Mars Sample Return campaign.”

The first step in the NASA-ESA (European Space Agency) Mars Sample Return campaign began when Perseverance cored its first rock sample in September 2021. Along with its rock-core samples, the rover has collected one atmospheric sample and two witness tubes, all of which are stored in the rover’s belly.

The geologic diversity of the samples already carried in the rover is so good that the rover team is looking into depositing select tubes near the base of the delta in about two months. After depositing the cache, the rover will continue its delta explorations.

“I’ve studied Martian habitability and geology for much of my career and know first-hand the incredible scientific value of returning a carefully collected set of Mars rocks to Earth,” said Laurie Leshin, director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “That we are weeks from deploying Perseverance’s fascinating samples and mere years from bringing them to Earth so scientists can study them in exquisite detail is truly phenomenal. We will learn so much.”

More About the Mission

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including caching samples that may contain signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith.

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

Perseverance Explores the Jezero Crater Delta

Sep 14, 2022  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover has arrived at an ancient delta in Jezero Crater, one of the best places on the Red Planet to search for potential signs of ancient life. The delta is an area where scientists surmise that a river once flowed billions of years ago into a lake and deposited sediments in a fan shape. Rachel Kronyak, a member of the Perseverance science operations team, guides the viewer through this Martian panorama and its intriguing sedimentary rocks. It’s the most detailed view ever returned from the Martian surface, consisting of 2.5 billion pixels and generated from 1,118 individual Mastcam-Z images. Those images were acquired on June 12, 13, 16, 17, and 20, 2022 (the 466th, 467th, 470th, 471st, and 474th Martian day, or sol, of Perseverance’s mission). In this panorama, an area called Hogwallow Flats is visible, as is Skinner Ridge, where two rock core samples were taken. The color enhancement in this image improves the visual contrast and accentuates color differences. This makes it easier for the science team to use their everyday experience to interpret the landscape. For more information on the Perseverance rover, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/perseverance. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

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For more about Perseverance:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

News Media Contact

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

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WEATHER

NASA’s AIRS Instrument Records Typhoon Hinnamnor Before Landfall

Sept. 8, 2022

NASA’s AIRS instrument imaged Typhoon Hinnamnor on the afternoon of Sept. 5, shortly before the storm made landfall in South Korea on Sept. 6. This image captured Hinnamnor – the first super typhoon of the Western Pacific season – as it spiraled northward through the East China Sea.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder aboard the Aqua satellite captured the outer bands of the powerful tropical cyclone as the storm approached the Korean Peninsula.

NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard the Aqua satellite captured imagery of Typhoon Hinnamnor in the West Pacific Ocean just before 2 p.m. local time on Sept. 5. Typhoon Hinnamnor was one of the strongest in South Korea’s recorded history, dropping some 40 inches (102 centimeters) of rain and unleashing record winds.

In an infrared image from AIRS, the typhoon can be seen moving northward over the Korean Peninsula, with the coast of China to the west and the southernmost Japanese islands to the east. The large purple area of the image indicates very cold clouds at about minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 67 degrees Celsius), carried high into the atmosphere by deep thunderstorms. These storm clouds are associated with heavy rainfall. The image’s extensive areas of red beyond the storm indicate temperatures of around 80 F (26 C), typical of Earth’s daytime surface during late summer. These areas are mostly cloud-free, with the clear air caused by air motion outward from the cold clouds in the storm center then downward in the surrounding areas.

U.S. Hurricane Hunter planes don’t monitor the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean, so AIRS and other satellite instruments are essential for tracking typhoons as they grow. AIRS, launched in 2002, was the first instrument to reveal the 3D distribution of rain within tropical storms like Hinnamnor. These 3D images have made a major contribution to knowledge of how hurricanes and typhoons develop, improving forecasts and saving lives.

One of six instruments aboard Aqua, AIRS provides data that is improving weather forecasts and advancing our understanding of Earth’s climate. AIRS, along with its partner microwave instrument the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, AMSU-A, was a generational advancement in atmospheric sounding systems at its launch and has provided two decades of high-quality atmospheric observations. These instruments are part of NASA’s larger Earth observing fleet, which works to measure components of the global water and energy cycles, climate variation and trends, and the response of the climate system to increased greenhouse gases.

AIRS, in conjunction with AMSU-A, senses infrared and microwave radiation emitted from Earth to provide a 3D look at the planet’s weather and climate, making observations down to Earth’s surface. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, 3D map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations, and many other atmospheric phenomena. AIRS is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, a division of Caltech.

More information about AIRS can be found at:

https://airs.jpl.nasa.gov

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Written by Sally Younger

2022-133

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STARS AND GALAXIES

A Cosmic Tarantula, Caught by NASA’s Webb

Sept. 6, 2022

In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) displays the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

The cycle of star formation is on display in this nearby nebula. Webb’s MIRI instrument captures protostars nestled deep in clouds of gas and dust, still gathering mass.

Once upon a space-time, a cosmic creation story unfolded: thousands of never-before-seen young stars spotted in a stellar nursery called 30 Doradus, captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Nicknamed the Tarantula Nebula for the appearance of its dusty filaments in previous telescope images, the nebula has long been a favorite for astronomers studying star formation. In addition to young stars, Webb reveals distant background galaxies, as well as the detailed structure and composition of the nebula’s gas and dust.

At only 161,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy, the Tarantula Nebula is the largest and brightest star-forming region in the Local Group, the galaxies nearest our Milky Way. It is home to the hottest, most massive stars known. Astronomers focused three of Webb’s high-resolution infrared instruments on the Tarantula. Viewed with Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), the region resembles a burrowing tarantula’s home, lined with its silk. The nebula’s cavity centered in the NIRCam image has been hollowed out by blistering radiation from a cluster of massive young stars, which sparkle pale blue in the image. Only the densest surrounding areas of the nebula resist erosion by these stars’ powerful stellar winds, forming pillars that appear to point back toward the cluster. These pillars contain forming protostars, which will eventually emerge from their dusty cocoons and take their turn shaping the nebula.

At the longer wavelengths of light captured by its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), Webb focuses on the area surrounding the central star cluster and unveils a very different view of the Tarantula Nebula. Full Image Details

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

Webb’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) caught one very young star doing just that. Astronomers previously thought this star might be a bit older and already in the process of clearing out a bubble around itself. However, NIRSpec showed that the star was only just beginning to emerge from its pillar and still maintained an insulating cloud of dust around itself. Without Webb’s high-resolution spectra at infrared wavelengths, this episode of star formation in action could not have been revealed.

The region takes on a different appearance when viewed in the longer infrared wavelengths detected by Webb’s Mid-infrared Instrument (MIRI). The hot stars fade, and the cooler gas and dust glow. Within the stellar nursery clouds, points of light indicate embedded protostars, still gaining mass. While shorter wavelengths of light are absorbed or scattered by dust grains in the nebula, and therefore never reach Webb to be detected, longer mid-infrared wavelengths penetrate that dust, ultimately revealing a previously unseen cosmic environment.

One of the reasons the Tarantula Nebula is interesting to astronomers is that the nebula has a similar type of chemical composition as the gigantic star-forming regions observed at the universe’s “cosmic noon,” when the cosmos was only a few billion years old and star formation was at its peak. Star-forming regions in our Milky Way galaxy are not producing stars at the same furious rate as the Tarantula Nebula and have a different chemical composition. This makes the Tarantula the closest (i.e., easiest to see in detail) example of what was happening in the universe as it reached its brilliant high noon. Webb will provide astronomers the opportunity to compare and contrast observations of star formation in the Tarantula Nebula with the telescope’s deep observations of distant galaxies from the actual era of cosmic noon.

Despite humanity’s thousands of years of stargazing, the star-formation process still holds many mysteries – many of them due to our previous inability to get crisp images of what was happening behind the thick clouds of stellar nurseries. Webb has already begun revealing a universe never seen before, and is only getting started on rewriting the stellar creation story.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

News Media Contact

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

626-808-2469

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2022-132

For more information, please visit the following link:

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EXOPLANETS

NASA’s Webb Takes Its First-Ever Direct Image of Distant World

Sept. 2, 2022

This image shows the exoplanet HIP 65426 b in different bands of infrared light, as seen from the James Webb Space Telescope. The images at bottom look different because of the ways the different Webb instruments capture light. A coronagraph blocks the host star’s light so the planet can be seen.

Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI)

One of the telescope’s instruments used to observe the planet is managed by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

For the first time, astronomers have used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to take a direct image of a planet outside our solar system. The exoplanet is a gas giant, meaning it has no rocky surface and is not habitable. The finding is detailed in NASA’s latest JWST blog entry.

Two of Webb’s instruments observed the planet: the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California managed MIRI during its design, construction, and commissioning. Both instruments are equipped with coronagraphs, which are sets of tiny masks that block out starlight, enabling Webb to take direct images of certain exoplanets like this one, called HIP 65426 b. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, slated to launch later this decade, will use the even more advanced Coronagraph Instrument, which is also managed by JPL.

News Media Contact

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Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

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For more information, please visit the following link:

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SOLAR SYSTEM

Explore the Solar System With NASA’s New-and-Improved 3D ‘Eyes’

Sept. 2, 2022

NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System includes renderings of 126 NASA spacecraft, including Juno, seen here flying by Jupiter.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The agency’s newly upgraded “Eyes on the Solar System” visualization tool includes Artemis I’s trajectory along with a host of other new features.

NASA has revamped its “Eyes on the Solar System” 3D visualization tool, making interplanetary travel easier and more interactive than ever. More than two years in the making, the update delivers better controls, improved navigation, and a host of new opportunities to learn about our incredible corner of the cosmos – no spacesuit required. All you need is a device with an internet connection.

Anyone with an internet-enabled device browser can explore the past, present, and future of the solar system in 3D with NASA’s interactive Eyes on the Solar System. Click anywhere on the image to get a closer look at a 3D rendering of NASA’s Cassini spacecraft flying by Saturn’s moon Enceladus in 2015.

Learn the basics about dwarf planets or the finer points of gas giants, and ride alongside no fewer than 126 space missions past and present – including Perseverance during its harrowing entry, descent, and landing on the Red Planet. In fact, you can follow the paths of spacecraft and celestial bodies as far back as 1949 and as far into the future as 2049.

While you’re at it, you can rotate objects, compare them side by side, and even modulate the perspective as well as the lighting. The visuals are striking. This latest version of “Eyes” also lets you scroll through rich interactive journeys, including Voyager’s Grand Tour of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Watch a video tutorial to get started with ‘Eyes’

“The beauty of the new browser-based ‘Eyes on the Solar System’ is that it really invites exploration. You just need an internet connection, a device that has a web browser, and some curiosity,” said Jason Craig, the producer of the “Eyes” software at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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2022-130

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Ocean Worlds Life Surveyor

The Ocean Worlds Life Surveyor (OWLS) is the first life detection suite to explore a wide range of size scales, from single molecules to microscopic organisms, in a water sample.

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NASA: Jet Propulsion Laboratory News – Month in Review – October 2021 

NASA: Jet Propulsion Laboratory News – Month in Review – October 2021 

JPL News – Month in Review

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory <jplnewsroom@jpl.nasa.gov>

Friday, October 1, 2021

MONTH IN REVIEW

What’s Up – October 2021
What are some skywatching highlights in October? See several groupings of the Moon, planets, and stars at sunrise and sunset. Then get to know two bright stars that take turns with Polaris as North Star over thousands of years. Plus, Oct. 16 is International Observe the Moon Night!
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NASA’s Mars Fleet Lies Low With Sun Between Earth and Red Planet
The missions will continue collecting data about the Red Planet, though engineers back on Earth will stop sending commands to them until mid-October.
› Read the full story

  NASA’s Perseverance Rover Cameras Capture Mars Like Never Before
Scientists tap into an array of imagers aboard the six-wheeled explorer to get a big picture of the Red Planet.
› Read the full story

NASA’s InSight Finds Three Big Marsquakes, Thanks to Solar-Panel Dusting
The lander cleared enough dust from one solar panel to keep its seismometer on through the summer, allowing scientists to study the three biggest quakes they’ve seen on Mars.
› Read the full story

NASA Robots Compete in DARPA’s Subterranean Challenge Final
Led by NASA JPL, Team CoSTAR will participate in the SubT final this week to demonstrate multi-robot autonomy in a series of tests in extreme environments.
› Read the full story

NASA’s Delta-X Helps With Disaster Response in Wake of Hurricane Ida
Researchers flying a radar instrument over coastal wetlands in Louisiana helped with monitoring oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico.
› Read the full story

Solar Electric Propulsion Makes NASA’s Psyche Spacecraft Go
Futuristic electric thrusters emitting a cool blue glow will guide the Psyche spacecraft through deep space to a metal-rich asteroid.
› Read the full story

NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Captures a Mars Rock Feature in 3D
The rotorcraft captures nuances of rocky outcrop during aerial reconnaissance.
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Take a 3D Spin on Mars and Track NASA’s Perseverance Rover
Two interactive web experiences let you explore the Martian surface, as seen by cameras aboard the rover and orbiters flying overhead.
› Read the full story

Justin Simon Shepherds Perseverance Through First Phase of Martian Rock Sampling
The Johnson Space Center scientist was tasked with helping guide the way for mission’s first cored Mars rock sample.
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NASA Confirms Thousands of Massive, Ancient Volcanic Eruptions on Mars
Scientists found evidence that a region of northern Mars called Arabia Terra experienced thousands of “super eruptions,” the biggest volcanic eruptions known, over a 500-million-year period.
› Read the full story

Visionary Tech Concepts Could Pioneer the Future in Space
Dozens of concepts are being presented at this year’s NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Symposium, including eight led by technologists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
› Read the full story

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Collects Puzzle Pieces of Mars’ History
The rocks it has analyzed for sample collection are helping the team better understand a past marked by volcanic activity and water.
› Read the full story

Mars Perseverance Team Members to Be Recognized at Hispanic Heritage Awards
The three award recipients – Diana Trujillo, Christina Hernandez, and Clara O’Farrell – are engineers from the NASA rover team.
› Read the full story

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Collects First Mars Rock Sample
The rock core is now enclosed in an airtight titanium sample tube, and will be available for retrieval in the future.
› Read the full story

Planetary Radar Observes 1,000th Near-Earth Asteroid Since 1968
Seven days after this historic milestone, a massive antenna at NASA’s Deep Space Network Goldstone complex imaged another, far larger object.
› Read the full story

NASA’s Perseverance Rover Successfully Cores Its First Rock
Perseverance will obtain additional imagery of the sample tube before potentially completing the process of collecting its first scientifically-selected Mars sample.
› Read the full story

Improving Food Security Through Capacity Building
Millions of people suffer from food insecurity around the globe. With the help of Earth-observing satellites, the NASA-USAID SERVIR project is hoping to reduce that number.
› Read the full story

NASA’s Deep Space Network Looks to the Future
The DSN is being upgraded to communicate with more spacecraft than ever before and to accommodate evolving mission needs.
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NASA’s Perseverance Rover Cameras Capture Mars Like Never Before

Sep 23, 2021

Using its WATSON camera, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover took this selfie over a rock nicknamed “Rochette,” on Sept.10, 2021, the 198th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Two holes can be seen where the rover used its robotic arm to drill rock core samples.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Full Image Details

Scientists tap into an array of imagers aboard the six-wheeled explorer to get a big picture of the Red Planet.

NASA’s Perseverance rover has been exploring Jezero Crater for more than 217 Earth days (211 Martian days, or sols), and the dusty rocks there are beginning to tell their story – about a volatile young Mars flowing with lava and water.

That story, stretching billions of years into the past, is unfolding thanks in large part to the seven powerful science cameras aboard Perseverance. Able to home in on small features from great distances, take in vast sweeps of Martian landscape, and magnify tiny rock granules, these specialized cameras also help the rover team determine which rock samples offer the best chance to learn whether microscopic life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Altogether, some 800 scientists and engineers around the world make up the larger Perseverance team. That includes smaller teams, from a few dozen to as many as 100, for each of the rover’s cameras and instruments. And the teams behind the cameras must coordinate each decision about what to image.

“The imaging cameras are a huge piece of everything,” said Vivian Sun, the co-lead for Perseverance’s first science campaign at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “We use a lot of them every single day for science. They’re absolutely mission-critical.”

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-perseverance-rover-cameras-capture-mars-like-never-before?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=monthly20211001-19

Mars Report: Update on NASA’s Perseverance Rover SHERLOC Instrument (September 23rd, 2021)

Sep 23, 2021  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover has been hard at work using the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument to help determine the best rocks to sample and look for signs of ancient life. Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC is the only instrument that can directly detect organics, which are building blocks for life. Because it characterizes the chemical composition of rocks, SHERLOC can also help scientists understand whether any of the rocks formed in an ancient habitable environment. SHERLOC features spectrometers, a laser, and cameras, including WATSON (Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering). WATSON is a color camera that takes close-up images of rock grains and surface textures. This video provides an instrument update by Eva Scheller, one of the science team members from Caltech. For more information on Perseverance, visit https://mars.nasa.gov/perseverance. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Watch as Caltech’s Eva Scheller, a member of the Perseverance science team, provides a snapshot of the rover’s SHERLOC science instrument. Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, SHERLOC features spectrometers, a laser, and cameras, including WATSON, which takes close-up images of rock grains and surface textures.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The storytelling began soon after Perseverance landed in February, and the stunning images have been stacking up as the multiple cameras conduct their scientific investigations. Here’s how they work, along with a sampling of what some have found so far:

The Big Picture

Perseverance’s two navigation cameras – among nine engineering cameras – support the rover’s autonomous driving capability. And at each stop, the rover first employs those two cameras to get the lay of the land with a 360-degree view.

Perseverance looks back with one of its navigation cameras toward its tracks on July 1, 2021 (the 130th sol, or Martian day, of its mission), after driving autonomously 358 feet (109 meters) – its longest autonomous drive to date. The image has been processed to enhance the contrast.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Full Image Details

“The navigation camera data is really useful to have those images to do a targeted science follow-up with higher-resolution instruments such as SuperCam and Mastcam-Z,” Sun said.

Perseverance’s six hazard avoidance cameras, or Hazcams, include two pairs in front (with only a single pair in use at any one time) to help avoid trouble spots and to place the rover’s robotic arm on targets; the two rear Hazcams provide images to help place the rover in the context of the broader landscape.

Mastcam-Z, a pair of “eyes” on the rover’s mast, is built for the big picture: panoramic color shots, including 3D images, with zoom capability. It can also capture high-definition video.

Perseverance Mars rover used its Mastcam-Z camera system to create this enhanced-color panorama, which scientists used to look for rock-sampling sites. The panorama is stitched together from 70 individual images taken on July 28, 2021, the 155th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Full Image Details

Jim Bell at Arizona State University leads the Mastcam-Z team, which has been working at high speed to produce images for the larger group. “Part of our job on this mission has been a sort of triage,” he said. “We can swing through vast swaths of real estate and do some quick assessment of geology, of color. That has been helping the team figure out where to target instruments.”

Color is key: Mastcam-Z images allow scientists to make links between features seen from orbit by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and what they see on the ground.

The instrument also functions as a low-resolution spectrometer, dividing the light it captures into 11 colors. Scientists can analyze the colors for clues about the composition of the material giving off the light, helping them decide which features to zoom in on with the mission’s true spectrometers.

For instance, there’s a well-known series of images from March 17. It shows a wide escarpment, aka the “Delta Scarp,” that is part of a fan-shaped river delta that formed in the crater long ago. After Mastcam-Z provided the broad view, the mission turned to SuperCam for a closer look.

The Long View

This image of an escarpment, or scarp – a long, steep slope – along the delta of Mars’ Jezero Crater was generated using data from the Perseverance rover’s Mastcam-Z instrument. The inset image at top is a close-up provided by the Remote Microscopic Imager, which is part of the SuperCam instrument.

Credit: RMI: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/CNRS/ASU/MSSSMastcam-Z: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

Full Image Details

Scientists use SuperCam to study mineralogy and chemistry, and to seek evidence of ancient microbial life. Perched near Mastcam-Z on Perseverance’s mast, it includes the Remote Micro-Imager, or RMI, which can zoom in on features the size of a softball from more than a mile away.

Once Mastcam-Z provided images of the scarp, the SuperCam RMI homed in on a corner of it, providing close-ups that were later stitched together for a more revealing view.

To Roger Wiens, principal investigator for SuperCam at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, these images spoke volumes about Mars’ ancient past, when the atmosphere was thick enough, and warm enough, to allow water to flow on the surface.

“This is showing huge boulders,” he said. “That means there had to have been some huge flash flooding that occurred that washed boulders down the riverbed into this delta formation.”

The chock-a-block layers told him even more.

“These large boulders are partway down the delta formation,” Wiens said. “If the lakebed was full, you would find these at the very top. So the lake wasn’t full at the time the flash flood happened. Overall, it may be indicating an unstable climate. Perhaps we didn’t always have this very placid, calm, habitable place that we might have liked for raising some micro-organisms.”

In addition, scientists have picked up signs of igneous rock that formed from lava or magma on the crater floor during this early period. That could mean not only flowing water, but flowing lava, before, during, or after the time that the lake itself formed.

These clues are crucial to the mission’s search for signs of ancient Martian life and potentially habitable environments. To that end, the rover is taking samples of Martian rock and sediment that future missions could return to Earth for in-depth study.

The (Really) Close-up

Perseverance took this close-up of a rock target nicknamed “Foux” using its WATSON camera on July 11, 2021, the 139th Martian day, r sol, of the mission. The area within the camera is roughly 1.4 by 1 inches (3.5 centimeters by 2.6 centimeters).

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Full Image Details

A variety of Perseverance’s cameras assist in the selection of those samples, including WATSON (the Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and eNgineering).

Located at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, WATSON provides extreme closeups of rock and sediment, zeroing in on the variety, size, shape, and color of tiny grains – as well as the “cement” between them – in those materials. Such information can lend insight into Mars’ history as well as the geological context of potential samples.

WATSON also helps engineers position the rover’s drill for extracting rock core samples and produces images of where the sample came from.

The imager partners with SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals), which includes an Autofocus and Contextual Imager (ACI), the rover’s highest-resolution camera. SHERLOC uses an ultraviolet laser to identify certain minerals in rock and sediment, while PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), also on the robotic arm, uses X-rays to determine the chemical composition. These cameras, working in concert with WATSON, have helped capture geologic data – including signs of that igneous rock on the crater floor – with a precision that has surprised scientists.

“We’re getting really cool spectra of materials formed in aqueous [watery] environments – for example sulfate and carbonate,” said Luther Beegle, SHERLOC’s principal investigator at JPL.

Engineers also use WATSON to check on the rover’s systems and undercarriage – and to take Perseverance selfies (here’s how).

Beegle says not just the strong performance of the imaging instruments, but their ability to endure the harsh environment on the Martian surface, gives him confidence in Perseverance’s chances for major discoveries.

“Once we get over closer to the delta, where there should be really good preservation potential for signs of life, we’ve got a really good chance of seeing something if it’s there,” he said.

More About the Mission

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance:

mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

nasa.gov/perseverance

More About Perseverance

Where Is Perseverance Right Now?

Explore With Perseverance in 3D

‘AR’ Mobile App Features 3D NASA Spacecraft

NASA’s Mars Rover Drivers Need Your Help

News Media Contact

DC Agle / Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011 / 818-393-2433

agle@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

Karen Fox / Alana Johnson

NASA Headquarters, Washington

301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501

karen.c.fox@nasa.gov / alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov

Written by Pat Brennan

2021-199

For more information, please following the link:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasas-perseverance-rover-cameras-capture-mars-like-never-before?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nasajpl&utm_content=monthly20211001-19

Mars Perseverance Team Members to Be Recognized at Hispanic Heritage Awards

Sep 08, 2021

From left to right: Diana Trujillo, Christina Hernandez, and Clara O’Farrell are engineers with NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover team.

Credit: Hispanic Heritage Foundation

The three award recipients – Diana Trujillo, Christina Hernandez, and Clara O’Farrell – are engineers from the NASA rover team.

Three Latina engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California are the 2021 recipients of STEM Awards from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. They will be honored for their significant roles in the agency’s Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission during the 34th Hispanic Heritage Awards broadcast on PBS Oct. 8, joined by Carlos Santana, Ivy Queen, and others.

NASA JPL recipients are:

  • Christina Hernandez began her work at JPL in the Natural Space Environments group and as mission assurance manager on STABLE (Sub arcsecond Telescope and Balloon Experiment). Her Mars-related work began with impact assessment to keep Mars spacecraft safe during the Comet Siding Spring event. As a payload systems engineer for Perseverance, she has worked on three of its seven science instruments. Her work on the rover’s PIXL (short for Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry) will help scientists hunt for signs of ancient microbial life by taking super-close images of rock and soil textures and using its X-ray spectrometer to identify chemical elements within them.
  • Clara O’Farrell, who is originally from Argentina, moved to the U.S. on her 19th birthday to start college. She studied aerospace engineering at Princeton and completed a doctoral degree at Caltech with research on fluid dynamics of jellyfish swimming. After joining JPL in 2013, she began her work on parachutes, aerodynamics, and trajectory simulation for Mars entry, descent, and landing. Her accomplishments as a guidance and control engineer include certifying a supersonic parachute to land Perseverance via supersonic sounding rocket tests.
  • Diana Trujillo, an aerospace engineer, is currently Technical Group Supervisor for Sequence Planning and Execution and a Tactical Mission Lead for Perseverance. Born and raised in Colombia, Trujillo immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 17 to pursue her dream of working for NASA. While enrolled in English-as-a-second-language courses, she also worked full time to support her studies in community college and later the University of Florida and University of Maryland. Diana has held several roles for NASA and JPL, including Mars Curiosity Mission Lead, Deputy Project System Engineer, and Deputy Team Chief of Engineering Operations on Curiosity. Trujillo has also been active in sharing the excitement and opportunities of STEM with the public. She created and hosted #JuntosPerseveramos, NASA’s first-ever Spanish-language live broadcast of a major mission milestone (Perseverance landing on Mars), attracting millions of viewers worldwide.

“Congratulations to Christina, Clara, and Diana on receiving this prestigious STEM award,” said Dr. Jim Green, NASA’s chief scientist. “Each of them was integral to the planning, development, and successful landing of our Mars Perseverance rover. Our Mars Perseverance mission will advance NASA’s quest to explore past habitability of the Red Planet. Because of the hard work and dedication of our team, we can now look for past microbial life through the collection of core rock and soil samples and test technologies that will pave the way for future human exploration of Mars. Thank you to the Hispanic Heritage Foundation for their consideration and for this outstanding recognition of our extremely talented, diverse, and inspirational NASA workforce.”

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In the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s news release, the organization’s president and CEO, Jose Antonio Tijerino, said, “As leaders in the STEM space, these inspirational Latinas demonstrate the great vision and value proposition our community presents America. These engineers also represent role models for aspiring Latinx engineers in expanding human knowledge and scientific discovery.”

The Hispanic Heritage Awards are produced by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and were created by the White House in 1988 to commemorate the establishment of Hispanic Heritage Month in America. The awards are among the highest honors by Latinos for Latinos and are supported by 40 national Hispanic-serving institutions. The Foundation’s programs focus on education, workforce, and social impact through the lens of leadership.

More information at: https://www.hispanicheritage.org.

To learn more about Perseverance, visit:

https://nasa.gov/perseverance

and

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

News Media Contact

DC Agle / Andrew Good

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-393-9011 / 818-393-2433

agle@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov

2021-188

For more information, please following the link:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/mars-perseverance-team-members-to-be-recognized-at-hispanic-heritage-awards

Delta-X Oil Slick Radar Signal in Gulf of Mexico

Sep 20, 2021

An oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico following Hurricane Ida – a high-end Category 4 when it made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on Aug. 29, 2021 – appears as a green trail in the inset false-color graphic provided by NASA’s Delta-X project, while the surrounding seawater appears orange. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regularly monitors U.S. coastal waters for potential spills and noticed slicks that appeared just off the coast after the hurricane. They were able to use this information from Delta-X to corroborate other data they had about oil slicks in the area (satellite image in the second inset picture). The blue-green swath crossing from the Gulf of Mexico over the Louisiana coast denotes the flight path of the Delta-X radar instrument on Sept. 1, just before 11:30 a.m. CDT.

Charged with studying the Mississippi River Delta, Delta-X was gearing up to collect data on Louisiana’s coastal wetlands when Hurricane Ida barreled ashore in late August. The storm damaged buildings and infrastructure alike, resulting in power outages, flooding, and oil slicks in the Gulf of Mexico.

Oil tends to smooth out the bumps on the ocean’s surface, which results in a distinct radar signal that the Delta-X mission was able to pick out of their data. Delta-X added flight paths to their planned schedule – with the support of NASA’s Applied Science Disaster Program – in order to collect information over the gulf in areas of interest to NOAA.

Delta-X is studying two wetlands – the Atchafalaya and Terrebonne Basins – by land, boat, and air to quantify water and sediment flow as well as vegetation growth. While the Atchafalaya Basin has been gaining land through sediment accumulation, Terrebonne Basin, which is right next to the Atchafalaya, has been rapidly losing land. The data collected by the project will be applied to models used to forecast which areas of the delta are likely to gain or lose land under various sea level rise, river flow, and watershed management scenarios.

The mission uses several instruments to collect its data. Affixed to the bottom of a Gulfstream-III airplane, one of those instruments, the all-weather Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR), bounces radar signals off of Earth’s surface, forming a kind of image of a particular area. Repeated images of the same regions, captured at different times, enable researchers to detect changes in those areas, such as fluctuating water levels beneath the vegetation as the tides move in and out of these wetlands. In addition to radar measurements, teams from Caltech, Louisiana State University, Florida International University, and other collaborating institutions gather water and vegetation samples – among other data – by boat, other airborne sensors, and from instruments on the ground.

Funded by NASA’s Earth Venture Suborbital (EVS-3) program, Delta-X is managed by the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA. Fall 2021 was Delta-X’s last scheduled field campaign, although the five-year mission will run through the end of 2023.

To learn more about the Delta-X mission, visit: https://deltax.jpl.nasa.gov

Hurricane Ida, August 27, 2021

Oct 07, 2021

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/hurricane-ida-august-27-2021

On August 27, 2021 Ida crossed over Cuba as a Category 1 Storm. 48 hours later the storm intensified to a Category 4 before making landfall on the coast of Louisiana. The storm was the second most destructive storm to ever make landfall on the Louisiana coast with sustained winds over 150 mph (240 km/h).

The rapid intensification process that the storm system underwent is not well understood. Satellite images such as this are helpful as scientists attempt to understand new weather patterns that are emerging with Global Climate Change.

Tasked with detecting plant water use and stress, ECOSTRESS’s primary mission is to measure the temperature of plants heating up as they run out of water. But it can also measure and track heat-related phenomena like wildfires, heat waves, and volcanoes. ECOSTRESS observations have a spatial resolution of about 77 by 77 yards (70 by 70 meters), which enables researchers to study surface-temperature conditions down to the size of a football field. Due to the space station’s unique orbit, the mission can acquire images of the same regions at different times of the day, as opposed to crossing over each area at the same time of day like satellites in other orbits do. This is advantageous when monitoring plant stress in the same area throughout the day, for example.

The ECOSTRESS mission launched to the space station on June 29, 2018. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages the mission for the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ECOSTRESS is an Earth Venture Instrument mission; the program is managed by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

More information about ECOSTRESS is available here: https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/.

For more information, please following the link:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/delta-x-oil-slick-radar-signal-in-gulf-of-mexico

July 2021 Heat Wave Surface Temperature

Jul 15, 2021

Click here for movie

Collecting temperature readings in the atmosphere and at the surface, NASA’s Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard the agency’s Aqua satellite captured the progression of a slow-moving heat dome across the southwestern U.S. from July 1 to July 12, 2021. The animation of the AIRS data shows surface air temperature anomalies – values above or below long-term averages. The hottest areas, shown in pink, experienced surface air temperatures more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5.6 degrees Celsius) above average. Surface air temperature is something that people directly feel when they are outside.

AIRS, in conjunction with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), senses emitted infrared and microwave radiation from Earth to provide a three-dimensional look at the planet’s weather and climate. Working in tandem, the two instruments make simultaneous observations down to Earth’s surface. With more than 2,000 channels sensing different regions of the atmosphere, the system creates a global, three-dimensional map of atmospheric temperature and humidity, cloud amounts and heights, greenhouse gas concentrations, and many other atmospheric phenomena. Launched into Earth orbit in 2002, the AIRS and AMSU instruments fly aboard NASA’s Aqua spacecraft and are managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, under contract to NASA. JPL is a division of Caltech.

More information about AIRS can be found at https://airs.jpl.nasa.gov.

For more information, please following the link:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/july-2021-heat-wave-surface-temperature

ECOSTRESS Views 2021 Northern California Dixie Fire

Jul 29, 2021

Click here for animation

NASA’s ECOSTRESS captured data over Northern California’s Dixie Fire, which had ballooned to over 220,000 acres as of July 29, 2021. In the data visualization, the red areas show the hottest pixels – and fire movement – from July 15 to July 24. The most heavily affected areas are south of Lake Almanor in Plumas County.

Tasked with detecting plant water use and stress from the vantage point of the International Space Station, ECOSTRESS’s primary mission is to measure the temperature of plants heating up as they run out of water. But it can also measure and track heat-related phenomena like wildfires, heat waves, and volcanoes. ECOSTRESS observations have a spatial resolution of about 77 by 77 yards (70 by 70 meters), which enables researchers to study surface-temperature conditions down to the size of a football field. Due to the space station’s unique orbit, the mission can acquire images of the same regions at different times of the day, as opposed to crossing over each area at the same time of day like satellites in other orbits do. This is advantageous when monitoring plant stress in the same area throughout the day, for example.

The ECOSTRESS mission launched to the space station on June 29, 2018. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages the mission for the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ECOSTRESS is an Earth Venture Instrument mission; the program is managed by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

More information about ECOSTRESS is available here: https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/.

For more information, please following the link:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/ecostress-views-2021-northern-california-dixie-fire

ECOSTRESS Views 2021 Southern Oregon Bootleg Fire

Jul 29, 2021

Click here for animation

NASA’s ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) is aiding in the fight against fires in the Western U.S. As of July 27, 2021, the Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon had ballooned to more than 410,000 acres, damaging hundreds of buildings and vehicles in its path.

ECOSTRESS measures surface temperature from the vantage point of the International Space Station. Researchers of the RADR-Fire team at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been experimenting with ECOSTRESS data as part of a new tool now being implemented for first responders like the U.S. Forest Service.

In the visualization, ECOSTRESS is tracking the movement of the Bootleg Fire between July 7 and July and identifying its proximity to critical infrastructure — areas in red represent the hottest pixels ECOSTRESS detected. The extreme heat in those areas indicates the fire front, or where resources are most needed.

Tasked with detecting plant water use and stress, ECOSTRESS’s primary mission is to measure the temperature of plants heating up as they run out of water. But it can also measure and track heat-related phenomena like wildfires, heat waves, and volcanoes. ECOSTRESS observations have a spatial resolution of about 77 by 77 yards (70 by 70 meters), which enables researchers to study surface-temperature conditions down to the size of a football field. Due to the space station’s unique orbit, the mission can acquire images of the same regions at different times of the day, as opposed to crossing over each area at the same time of day like satellites in other orbits do. This is advantageous when monitoring plant stress in the same area throughout the day, for example.

The ECOSTRESS mission launched to the space station on June 29, 2018. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages the mission for the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ECOSTRESS is an Earth Venture Instrument mission; the program is managed by NASA’s Earth System Science Pathfinder program at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

More information about ECOSTRESS is available here: https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov/.

For more information, please following the link:

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/ecostress-views-2021-southern-oregon-bootleg-fire

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EARTH SCIENCE, Studying Our Home Planet at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of technology, NASA, Richard Branson makes historic spaceflight, ABC News, CNET Highlights, and NBC News

EARTH SCIENCE, Studying Our Home Planet at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of technology, NASA, Richard Branson makes historic spaceflight, ABC News, CNET Highlights, and NBC News

EARTH SCIENCE: Studying Our Home Planet at JPL, California Institute of technology

EARTH: Assembly of Satellite to Track World’s Water Shifts From US to France

TECHNOLOGY: Deep Space Atomic Clock Moves Toward Increased Spacecraft Autonomy

How NASA’s Deep Space Atomic Clock Could Be the Next Space GPS, Jun 10, 2019  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

EARTH: Major Ocean-Observing Satellite Starts Providing Science Data

SOLAR SYSTEM: NASA Balloon Detects California Earthquake – Next Stop, Venus?

EARTH: Machine Learning Model Doubles Accuracy of Global Landslide ‘Nowcasts’

CLIMATE CHANGE: Local Lockdowns Brought Fast Global Ozone Reductions, NASA Finds

NASA Finds Local Lockdowns Brought Global Ozone Reductions, Jun 9, 2021 NASA Goddard

CLIMATE CHANGE: NASA Map Gives Most Accurate Space-Based View of LA’s Carbon Dioxide

Carbon Dioxide Over the L.A. Metropolitan Area, Jun 4, 2021  JPLraw

EARTH: Satellites Show How Earth’s Water Cycle Is Ramping Up as Climate Warms

ROBOTICS: Robotic Navigation Tech Will Explore the Deep Ocean

JPL Robotics: Explore a gallery of cutting-edge robot prototypes being developed for future planetary exploration – VIEW GALLERY

EARTH.  Caldera Collapse Increases the Size and Duration of Volcanic Eruptions

Caldera Collapse Increases Size of Volcanic Eruptions, May 10, 2021  JPLraw

VIDEO. Water-Monitoring Satellite Moves Closer to Launch

Water-Monitoring Satellite Moves Closer to Launch

Jun 30, 2021  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Clean Room Sneak Peek: International SWOT Satellite (Live Q&A), May 20, 2021  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Study Identifies Methane ‘Super-Emitters’ in Largest US Oilfield, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Richard Branson makes historic spaceflight, Jul 11, 2021  ABC News

Watch Richard Branson’s message from space and full post-spaceflight conference, Jul 12, 2021  CNET Highlights

Richard Branson Holds News Conference After Historic Virgin Galactic Space Flight, 7.11.2021 NBC News

 

EARTH SCIENCE

Studying Our Home Planet at JPL

EARTH.

Assembly of Satellite to Track World’s Water Shifts From US to France

TECHNOLOGY.

Deep Space Atomic Clock Moves Toward Increased Spacecraft Autonomy

How NASA’s Deep Space Atomic Clock Could Be the Next Space GPS

Jun 10, 2019  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

NASA has perfected new navigation technology that would make self-driving spacecraft and GPS beyond the Moon a reality. The Deep Space Atomic Clock is the first atomic clock small and stable enough to fly on a spacecraft beyond Earth’s orbit. As NASA works to put humans on Mars and the Moon, the clock’s precise timekeeping will be key to these missions’ success. For more about the Deep Space Atomic Clock: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/td…

EARTH.

Major Ocean-Observing Satellite Starts Providing Science Data

SOLAR SYSTEM.

NASA Balloon Detects California Earthquake – Next Stop, Venus?

EARTH.

Machine Learning Model Doubles Accuracy of Global Landslide ‘Nowcasts’

CLIMATE CHANGE.

Local Lockdowns Brought Fast Global Ozone Reductions, NASA Finds

NASA Finds Local Lockdowns Brought Global Ozone Reductions

Jun 9, 2021 NASA Goddard

As the coronavirus pandemic slowed global commerce to a crawl in early 2020, emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) – which create ozone, a danger to human health and to climate – decreased 15% globally with local reductions as high as 50%, according to a study led by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. As a result of the lower NOx emissions, by June 2020 global ozone levels had dropped to a level that policymakers thought it would take at least 15 years to reach by conventional means, such as regulations. Music credit: Universal Production Music: Waiting For Results – Adam John Salkeld [PRS], Neil Pollard [PRS] Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio Katie Jepson (KBRwyle): Lead Producer Carol Rasmussen (NASA/JPL CalTech): Lead Writer Trent L. Schindler (USRA): Lead Visualizer Kazuyuki Miyazaki (JPL): Scientist Kevin W Bowman (JPL): Scientist Kathryn Mersmann (KBRwyle): Associate Producer Katie Jepson (KBRwyle): Editor This video can be freely shared and downloaded at https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13871. While the video in its entirety can be shared without permission, some individual imagery is provided by pond5.com and is obtained through permission and may not be excised or remixed in other products. Specific details on stock footage may be found here https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13871. For more information on NASA’s media guidelines, visit https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guide… If you liked this video, subscribe to the NASA Goddard YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/NASAGoddard Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center · Instagram http://www.instagram.com/nasagoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddard · Twitter http://twitter.com/NASAGoddardPix · Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NASAGoddard · Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc

CLIMATE CHANGE.

NASA Map Gives Most Accurate Space-Based View of LA’s Carbon Dioxide

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-map-gives-most-accurate-space-based-view-of-las-carbon-dioxide

Carbon Dioxide Over the L.A. Metropolitan Area

Jun 4, 2021  JPLraw

This animation shows the accumulation of five adjoining swaths of data over the Los Angeles metropolitan area that, when combined, create a map of carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations that covers about 50 square miles (80 square kilometers). Researchers have used the data, collected by NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 3 (OCO-3) instrument aboard the space station, to create one of the most accurate maps ever made from space of the human influence on CO2 abundances in the L.A. Basin. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

EARTH.

Satellites Show How Earth’s Water Cycle Is Ramping Up as Climate Warms

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/satellites-show-how-earths-water-cycle-is-ramping-up-as-climate-warms

 

ROBOTICS.

Robotic Navigation Tech Will Explore the Deep Ocean

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/robotic-navigation-tech-will-explore-the-deep-ocean

 

https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/robotics-at-jpl

Robotics

ROBOT.

BRUIE

An under-surface rover designed to explore alien oceans.

Dec 22, 2020

ROBOT.

DuAxel

A versatile rover for accessing high-risk terrain.

Dec 16, 2020

ROBOT.

NeBula-SPOT

Explores complex environments without human guidance.

Dec 8, 2020

ROBOT.

Rollocopter

An innovative robot that can either roll or fly.

Nov 1, 2020

ROBOT.

A-PUFFER

A foldable robot that can access tight spaces.

Sep 30, 2020

ROBOT.

RoMan

A powerful robot designed to work in real-world environments.

Sep 1, 2020

ROBOT.

NeBula-Husky

A platform for testing autonomous exploration capabilities in underground environments.

Feb 27, 2020

ROBOT.

LLAMA

A fast-moving legged robot that can traverse challenging environments.

Aug 23, 2018

ROBOT.

RoboSimian

This is RoboSimian, an ape-like robot that traverses complex terrain and performs dexterous tasks..

Sep 27, 2015

ROBOT.

Freeclimber: LEMUR 3

A robot designed to crawl, walk, or climb in extreme terrains.

Dec 2, 2011

EARTH.

Caldera Collapse Increases the Size and Duration of Volcanic Eruptions

 https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/caldera-collapse-increases-the-size-and-duration-of-volcanic-eruptions

 

Caldera Collapse Increases Size of Volcanic Eruptions

Unlisted

May 10, 2021  JPLraw

In 2018, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano experienced its largest eruption in over 200 years. JPL scientists used data from the rare event to better understand what causes large-scale eruptions like this. The culprit? The collapse of a volcano’s caldera – the large, crater-like depression at the volcano’s summit. Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Because of this and its relative ease of accessibility, it is also among the most heavily outfitted with monitoring equipment – instruments that measure and record everything from earthquakes and ground movement to lava volume and advancement. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

 

EXPLORE MORE

VIDEO.

Water-Monitoring Satellite Moves Closer to Launch

Water-Monitoring Satellite Moves Closer to Launch

Jun 30, 2021  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography mission (SWOT) will help scientists monitor Earth’s ocean, as well as the amount of freshwater in its lakes and rivers when it launches in late 2022. After engineers put together the spacecraft’s payload of scientific instruments at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the satellite now moves to Cannes, France, to complete integration before it will be launched in late 2022. Project manager Parag Vaze explains. SWOT is a collaboration between NASA and the French space agency Centre National d’Etudes Spatial (CNES), with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA). To learn more about the mission, visit: https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/ Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Clean Room Sneak Peek: International SWOT Satellite (Live Q&A)

May 20, 2021  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Check out the new spacecraft we’re building. Targeting a late-2022 launch date, this SUV-size satellite will measure the height of Earth’s water. SWOT will help researchers understand and track the volume and location of water – a finite resource – around the world, making NASA’s first truly global survey of the planet’s surface water. SWOT is being jointly developed by NASA and CNES, with contributions from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA). https://swot.jpl.nasa.gov/ Speakers: Parag Vaze, SWOT project manager, JPL Dr. Karen St. Germain, Earth science division director, NASA Marina Jurica, host Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Study Identifies Methane ‘Super-Emitters’ in Largest US Oilfield

Jun 02, 2021

Gas flaring during oil and gas production is a known source of methane emissions.

Pasadena, CA 91109

Credit: Leslie Von Pless

Fixing just the worst leaks in the Permian Basin oilfield’s infrastructure could cut methane emissions by 55 tons an hour, according to a study by NASA, University of Arizona, and ASU.

About half of the biggest sources of the potent greenhouse gas methane in the Permian Basin oilfield are likely to be malfunctioning oilfield equipment, according to a month-long airborne study by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Arizona, and Arizona State University.

Repeatedly measuring the size and persistence of emission sources using sensor-equipped aircraft, researchers found that repairing only the 123 sources that they found leaking most persistently on their flights would reduce methane emissions by 55 tons (50 metric tons) an hour. That’s equivalent to 5.5% of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s estimates of all methane emissions from oil and gas production in the entire United States.

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The research team measured methane concentrations around “super-emitter” methane sources – those emitting more than 22 pounds (10 kilograms) of methane per hour – in the oilfield, which is located in Texas and New Mexico. They calculated the emission rates by combining observed methane concentrations with reported wind speeds. Using airborne imaging spectrometers that identify methane and other gases by their effects on reflected sunlight, the campaign located a total of 1,756 super-emitters in a 22,000-square-mile (57,000-square-kilometer) section of the immense oilfield. As they resurveyed the area throughout the month, the team recorded emissions each time a plume was visible, whether once or a dozen times.

“Multiple revisits of these sites are the best way to discriminate between unplanned and planned emissions,” said Daniel Cusworth, a JPL scientist and lead author of an analysis published today in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Cusworth explained that while some regular operations in an oilfield, such as venting pressure-relief valves, release methane, plumes from these planned operations would probably be visible on only one or two consecutive flights. If an emission plume persists, by far the most likely cause is malfunctioning or broken oil and gas equipment. There’s no other industry in the region that could produce such large plumes, and there are more than 60,000 oil and gas wells as well as compressors, pipelines, and other types of equipment – all of which can potentially leak.

For their analysis, Cusworth and colleagues focused on 1,100 sources seen emitting methane plumes on at least three flights. Just 123 of these were classified as most persistent, with plumes visible on 50 to 100% of revisits. These few sources emitted about 29% of all the methane detected from the entire group. The 258 plumes in the next most persistent class produced an additional 23% of detected emissions; the researchers think these sources are leaks or a mixture of leaks and planned operations. They classified the remaining two-thirds of the sources as least persistent and most likely to be the result of planned operations. This last and largest class produced 48% of emissions.

Once methane sources have been located and verified on the ground by facility operators, there’s a good chance that leaks can be repaired, said Riley Duren of the University of Arizona, who designed and led the flight campaign. “We’ve done cooperative studies with oil and gas operators in California and the Permian where they independently report that 50% of the sources we’re finding are fixable.”

The campaign also recorded surprisingly large variations in the extent of emissions. In one part of the basin, emissions almost doubled over a five-day period and then dropped back almost to the original value over another 10 days. These large, unpredictable variations prove that a single snapshot of methane emissions from any location is inadequate for decision-makers to monitor and regulate emission sources, Duren said. “You need measurements daily or weekly,” he added. “That’s a big argument for using airborne and satellite remote sensing.”

The imaging spectrometers used in the study, NASA’s Next-Generation Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer and ASU’s Global Airborne Observatory, are able to pinpoint methane sources to within about 15 to 30 feet (5 to 10 meters) while flying at the altitude of a commercial airliner. When methane emission plumes were detected, researchers used a high-resolution camera to relate the plumes to individual pieces of equipment on the ground.

Data from this study can be viewed and downloaded at the team’s data portal.

Monitor the Planet’s Vital Signs With Eyes on Earth

News Media Contact

Jane J. Lee / Ian J. O’Neill

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

818-354-0307 / 818-354-2649

jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov / ian.j.oneill@jpl.nasa.gov

Written by Carol Rasmussen

2021-112

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The billionaire is now the first person to reach the edge of space in his own personal spacecraft.

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Watch live coverage of Sir Richard Branson’s news conference following his successful landing in New Mexico. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews NBC News Digital is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and engaging news stories. NBC News Digital features NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties. We deliver the best in breaking news, live video coverage, original journalism and segments from your favorite NBC News Shows. Connect with NBC News Online! NBC News App: https://apps.nbcnews.com/mobile Breaking News Alerts: https://link.nbcnews.com/join/5cj/bre… Visit NBCNews.Com: http://nbcnews.to/ReadNBC Find NBC News on Facebook: http://nbcnews.to/LikeNBC Follow NBC News on Twitter: http://nbcnews.to/FollowNBC Follow NBC News on Instagram: http://nbcnews.to/InstaNBC Live: Richard Branson Holds News Conference After Historic Virgin Galactic Space Flight | NBC News

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The Last Day Posts of Ing on Google+ Site April 1,2019 Part 1

 The Last Day Posts of Ing on Google+ Site April 1,2019 Part 1

Google + closed their operation on April 2, of this year, 2019.  It is more than one week now.  The more time goes by, the more I miss people who followed my google + site, and people that contributed their time to post their work in different communities.  I decided to present on my website, the contents of last day of posts on my Google+ site, which I had been shared from other members of my community and other Google+ communities.    

It is to remind me of human interaction and relationships around the world.  Even though I did not see them in person, communication and participation with their ideas, and work, can interconnect our feeling of kinship.  I wish all of them the best, and hope we may meet again in the future.  The lesson one learns is that we need more interactions and communications between all humans around the world to be able to find kinship with one another.  This communication can help reduce human conflict and war that occurs around the world, now, and in the future.

 Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, April 12, 2019

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts  Gandhi Peace and Nonviolence for the World

The Solar-Powered Floating Schools in Bangladesh

Little Bare Feet Go To School

Tip toe, tip toe

Our little bare feet are marching to school
Faces smiling with happiness
We are going to school

“Where is your older sister?”
Is she coming to school too?”

“Oh, she has to stay home taking care of our baby sister.
But I will bring some story books for her.
She will come next week and I will stay home taking care of our sister.”

“Did you read Cinderella?
She lost her shoe.”

“I wish I had her Godmother
Then she can give me a pair of nice shoes.”

“Watch out!
Don’t step on that sharp rock; it will hurt your foot.”

“I can jump over it.
Come on, let’s jump over the rocks.
Oh it’s fun, fun, fun!”

“I wish I can come to school every day
I love to learn and read books.”

“I love our teacher.
She is so nice.”

“Let’s go, I don’t want to be late”

Tip toe, tip toe

Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts, Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 12:02 A.M.

 I usually visit BBC news, reading the news.  I enjoy seeing the, In Pictures, section.  I was so glad to see the pictures of the, Solar-Powered Floating Schools.  As I examined one of the pictures showing a group of children walking to the Solar-Powered Floating School, I noticed that none of the children had shoes.  They were all walking bare foot.  I felt so sad.  When I showed the picture to John I said, “Children here (USA) have so many pairs of shoes, some with fancy designs with light and other luxury shoes.  But some of the children here are still not satisfied and are unhappy with their lifestyle.  Kids here should see the children in this picture that have no normal school and even have no shoes.  I hope they have enough food to survive.”  John’s commented that, “But kids in the picture are smiling, they probably are happier than some of the kids here.” 
“A project that provides solar-powered floating schools in Bangladesh has been nominated for an award at the world Innovation Summit in Education in Doha,Qatar.  This year’s shortlisted projects not only “transform education”, but also provide innovative financing of primary education.”
For more information please visit the following link:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-20340184

After Scott Kelly Spent A Year In Space, This Is The Torture His Body Went Through Back On Earth

Let Me Know Published on Mar 27, 2019
After Scott Kelly Spent A Year In Space, This Is The Torture His Body Went Through Back On Earth Astronaut Scott Kelly became the first American astronaut to spend a year in space. But when he returned, he realized that the mission had been the least of his worries. It’s March 2, 2016, and Scott Kelly has just arrived back on Earth. He’s spent the past 340 days aboard the International Space Station –… ?Image credits: Image: KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/Getty Images Image: NASA via Getty Images Image: Bill Ingalls/NASA via Getty Images Image: Brian Ach/Getty Images for LocationWorld 2016 Image: Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images Image: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images Image: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images ? SUBSCRIBE US: https://goo.gl/CAyFbx ? Like us Our Facebook Page: https://goo.gl/SBs38W ? Follow On Twitter: https://goo.gl/nvhzU6 ? Follow Us On Instagram : https://goo.gl/3UXcnx ? Audio by Scott Leffler — scottleffler.com For copyright matters relating to our channel please contact us directly at : letmeknowoff@gmail.com #let_me_know #Space
For more information please visit the following link:
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NASA Live: Official Stream of NASA TV
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Direct from America’s space program to YouTube, watch NASA TV live streaming here to get the latest from our exploration of the universe and learn how we discover our home planet. NASA TV airs a variety of regularly scheduled, pre-recorded educational and public relations programming 24 hours a day on its various channels. The network also provides an array of live programming, such as coverage of missions, events (spacewalks, media interviews, educational broadcasts), press conferences and rocket launches. In the United States, NASA Television’s Public and Media channels are MPEG-2 digital C-band signals carried by QPSK/DVB-S modulation on satellite AMC-3, transponder 15C, at 87 degrees west longitude. Downlink frequency is 4000 MHz, horizontal polarization, with a data rate of 38.86 Mhz, symbol rate of 28.1115 Ms/s, and ¾ FEC. A Digital Video Broadcast (DVB) compliant Integrated Receiver Decoder (IRD) is needed for reception.
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For more information please visit the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21X5lGlDOfg

To Google+ Family: Thank you for sharing all your creative and wonderful posts. Good luck for the future. May peace be with you and your family always.
All the best,
Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts
ingpeaceproject.comIngPeaceProject.com | Let there be peace on Earth
Finished “Peace” artwork 16
 Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
 Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/08/04/finished-second-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

Finished Second Artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School Students’ Peace Comments | IngPeaceProject.com

ingpeaceproject.com

Finished “Peace” artwork 16
 Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
 Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/08/04/finished-second-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

ingpeaceproject.com

Finished “Peace” artwork 16
 Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
 Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/08/04/finished-second-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

ingpeaceproject.com

Finished “Peace” artwork 16

Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/08/04/finished-second-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

Finished Second Artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School Students’ Peace Comments | IngPeaceProject.com

ingpeaceproject.com

 Finished “Peace” artwork 16
Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/08/04/finished-second-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

Finished Second Artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School Students’ Peace Comments | IngPeaceProject.com

 

ingpeaceproject.com

Finished “Peace” artwork 16
Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 1 and 3, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/08/04/finished-second-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

 Finished Second Artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School Students’ Peace Comments | IngPeaceProject.com

Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

In a chase for ultimate freedom of being, we live through neo occult transformations in a world ruled by digital alchemy. Pushed to this limit, in the Kowloon of the heart, where things are no longer things, they’re vices…
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.mk/2016/01/kowloon-of-heart.html
#artist joe iurato #streetart #urban #urbandecay #art #urbanart #urbanphotography #urbandecay #urbanfantasy #wallart #streetphotography #streetstyle #street #graffiti #graffitiart #anonymous #feelings #emotions #emotionalintelligence #edge #freedom #cctv #love #humanity

 

 Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

The full satisfaction of not knowing, and the curiosity of taking another path, just because I can, a path more secret and less known…
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.mk/2015/07/twenty-tens.html
#alcrego #urbanart #streetart #graffiti #perfectloop #gif #blog #blogger #blogpost

 Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

… forms imprinted on the inside easily converted into a nasty outbreak. Some kind of contagion, an experiment turning into an incident.
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.mk/2015/09/forms-imprinted-in-us.html

Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

Liberating, satisfying and loving… Where are the end boundaries of our waters?
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.com/2015/05/wiser-than-dreams.html

Originally shared by Colossal

Check out these quirky new GIFs from photographer Romain Laurent who loops unexpected moments in his photos.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2015/11/new-animated-portraits-by-romain-laurent/

designwrld.com

Originally shared by Designwrld

An Early Valentine’s ‘GIF(T)’ from Lonac

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/01/an-early-valentines-gift-from-lonac/

Mind-Blowing Art Project You Have to See in Motion

Please Follow: +Creative Ideas

Originally shared by Colossal

Watch a few clips of ‘2001:A Space Odyssey’ as if it were… painted by Picasso? No, really. Google’s neural network uses a database of Picasso paintings to ‘paint’ the iconic Kubrick film.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/06/2001-a-space-odyssey-viewed-through-picassos-dreams/

 Originally shared by Colossal

Colourflow: Dizzying Experimental Particle Animations and Renderings by David McLeod

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2016/06/colourflow-particles-david-mccleod/

ingpeaceproject.com

 Finished “Peace” artwork 15
 Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 2, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, and Ms. Bongiovanni (English IV, 2014-2015) Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
 Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Friday, January 30, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 2, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/01/30/finished-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

ingpeaceproject.com

Finished “Peace” artwork 15
 Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 2, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, and Ms. Bongiovanni (English IV, 2014-2015) Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
 Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Friday, January 30, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 2, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/01/30/finished-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

 Finished “Peace” artwork 15
 Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 2, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, and Ms. Bongiovanni (English IV, 2014-2015) Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
 Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Friday, January 30, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 2, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/01/30/finished-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

  ingpeaceproject.com

Finished “Peace” artwork 15
 Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 2, on “What does Peace mean to you?”
Organize by Linda Leonard-Nevels (School Library Media Specialist), Malcolm X Shabazz High School, and Ms. Bongiovanni (English IV, 2014-2015) Newark, New Jersey, December 2014
 Finished artwork, after the written comments by Ing-On Vibulbhan-Watts on Friday, January 30, 2015
Link to Finished artwork of Malcolm X Shabazz High School’s Students’ comments, poster 2, on “What does Peace mean to you?” page:
https://ingpeaceproject.com/2015/01/30/finished-artwork-of-malcolm-x-shabazz-high-school-students-peace-comments/

… my heresy is toward any cage attempting to free us from choice. Not to waste resources on hope, but to create and improve overall alchemy of life.
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.com/2015/07/twenty-tens.html
#bansky #graffiti #urbanart #wallart #gif by #abvh

Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

Perfection is yet another dissipation of reality. A ruin built from an ancient one. Cages made of freedom, a contradiction in terms – us…
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.com/2014/03/cages-made-of-freedom.html
#art by #banksy

Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

“I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me. ”
#banksy #streetart #urbanart #graffiti #graffitistreetart #wallart #quoteoftheday #truthhurts #truth

I feel draft on my neck… it makes me shiver, like a touch I had already forgotten. I can taste it in the air…
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-smile-of-thousand-colors.html
#charliechaplin #chaplin #blackandwhitephotography #blackandwhitephotos #blackandwhite #1920s #autumn

  Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

We love because we feel like it, don’t need a special reason for that…
#love
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.com/2014/05/an-impression.html

Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

He feels that these questions are eroding the soul, pushing him outwards, on the margins, where everything is so blank and silent… the world is never enough!
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.com/2015/04/emotional-intelligence.html
#art by #banksy #hypocrisy #compassion #humanity #human

Banksy is an anonymous England-based street artist, vandal, political activist, and film director.[1] His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.[2] Banksy’s work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians.[3] Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist who later became a founding member of the English musical group Massive Attack.[4]

Banksy displays his art on publicly visible surfaces such as walls and self-built physical prop pieces. Banksy no longer sells photographs or reproductions of his street graffiti, but his public “installations” are regularly resold, often even by removing the wall they were painted on.[5] A small number of Banksy’s works are officially, non-publicly, sold through Pest Control.[6] Banksy’s documentary film Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010) made its debut at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival.[7] In January 2011, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary for the film.[8] In 2014, he was awarded Person of the Year at the 2014 Webby Awards.[9]

For more information please visit the following link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy

Originally shared by Dejan Kordoski

And who we truly are and where we’re headed, has always depended on our ability to dream, or even better, the ability to expedite dreams into reality. Human soul thrives in liberty and freedom, it is not a region of conquest or enslavement!
https://naturaprincipia.blogspot.mk/2013/01/the-man.html
#peace #love #freedom #happiness #liberty #dreams #reality #humanity

Google+ is no longer available for consumer (personal) and brand accounts

From all of us on the Google+ team,
thank you for making Google+ such a special place.

What happened to Google+?

In December 2018, we announced our decision to shut down Google+ for consumers in April 2019.

Other Google products (such as Gmail, Google Photos, Google Drive, YouTube) were not shut down as part of the consumer Google+ shutdown and you can continue using those products. The Google Account you use to sign in to these services will remain. Note that photos and videos already backed up in Google Photos will not be deleted. Learn more

What happened to my Google+ content?

We are in the process of deleting content from consumer Google+ accounts and Google+ pages. This process will take a few months to complete, and content may remain through this time. In the meantime, if you previously created content on Google+, you may be able to download and save your remaining Google+ content and delete your Google+ profile. You may also be able to view and delete your remaining Google+ activity.

If I also use Google+ with my G Suite account, for example at work or school, how will I be impacted?

Google+ for G Suite will continue as a way for people across an organization to have discussions. Learn more about how we’re continuing our investment in Google+ for G Suite.

If you’re not sure if your organization uses G Suite, you can check here. G Suite customers may see some changes to Google+ features related to the consumer Google+ shutdown. You can find more details here or you can talk to your G Suite administrator to learn more.

See the full FAQ for more details about the consumer Google+ shutdown.”

https://plus.google.com/collection/EUWcKB

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Remembering Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon

Remembering Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon

Died on Monday, January 16, 2017

Eugene Cernan in Lunar Module

Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan inside the lunar module on the moon after his second moonwalk of the mission. His spacesuit is covered with lunar dust

“We leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.” — Cernan’s closing words on leaving the moon at the end of Apollo 17

Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, died Monday, Jan. 16, surrounded by his family.

Cernan, a Captain in the U.S. Navy, left his mark on the history of exploration by flying three times in space, twice to the moon. He also holds the distinction of being the second American to walk in space and the last human to leave his footprints on the lunar surface.

He was one of 14 astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963. He piloted the Gemini 9 mission with Commander Thomas P. Stafford on a three-day flight in June 1966. Cernan logged more than two hours outside the orbiting capsule.

In May 1969, he was the lunar module pilot of Apollo 10, the first comprehensive lunar-orbital qualification and verification test of the lunar lander. The mission confirmed the performance, stability, and reliability of the Apollo command, service and lunar modules. The mission included a descent to within eight nautical miles of the moon’s surface.

In a 2007 interview for NASA’s oral histories, Cernan said, “I keep telling Neil Armstrong that we painted that white line in the sky all the way to the Moon down to 47,000 feet so he wouldn’t get lost, and all he had to do was land. Made it sort of easy for him.”

 Apollo 17 Commander Eugene A. Cernan and the U.S. flag on the lunar surface.

Apollo 17 commander Eugene A. Cernan is holding the lower corner of the American flag during the mission’s first EVA, December 12, 1972. Photograph by Harrison J. “Jack” Schmitt.   Image Credit: NASA

 

Cernan and Evans in Apollo 17  Credits: NASA

Cernan concluded his historic space exploration career as commander of the last human mission to the moon in December 1972. En route to the moon, the crew captured an iconic photo of the home planet, with an entire hemisphere fully illumnitated — a “whole Earth” view showing Africa, the Arabian peninsula and the south polar ice cap. The hugely popular photo was referred to by some as the “Blue Marble,” a title in use for an ongoing series of NASA Earth imagery.

Apollo 17 established several new records for human space flight, including the longest lunar landing flight (301 hours, 51 minutes); longest lunar surface extravehicular activities (22 hours, 6 minutes); largest lunar sample return (nearly 249 pounds); and longest time in lunar orbit (147 hours, 48 minutes).

Cernan and crewmate Harrison H. (Jack) Schmitt completed three highly successful excursions to the nearby craters and the Taurus-Littrow mountains, making the moon their home for more than three days. As he left the lunar surface, Cernan said, “America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. As we leave the moon and Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”

 

 Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt sing while walking on the moon during the last Apollo lunar landing mission.  NASA.gov Video “I Was Strolling on the Moon One Day” the link on YouTube is as the following: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl_VdN6rfrQ

“Apollo 17 built upon all of the other missions scientifically,” said Cernan in 2008, recalling the mission as the agency celebrated its 50th Anniversary. “We had a lunar rover, we were able to cover more ground than most of the other missions. We stayed there a little bit longer. We went to a more challenging unique area in the mountains, to learn something about the history and the origin of the moon itself.”

On their way to the moon, the Apollo 17 crew took one of the most iconic photographs in space-program history, the full view of the Earth dubbed “The Blue Marble.” Despite it’s fame, the photograph hasn’t really been appreciated, Cernan said in 2007.

This classic photograph of the Earth was taken on December 7, 1972.

Credits: NASA

“What is the real meaning of seeing this picture? I’ve always said, I’ve said for a long time, I still believe it, it’s going to be — well it’s almost fifty now, but fifty or a hundred years in the history of mankind before we look back and really understand the meaning of Apollo. Really understand what humankind had done when we left, when we truly left this planet, we’re able to call another body in this universe our home. We did it way too early considering what we’re doing now in space. It’s almost as if JFK reached out into the twenty-first century where we are today, grabbed hold of a decade of time, slipped it neatly into the (nineteen) sixties and seventies (and) called it Apollo.”

On July 1, 1976, Cernan retired from the Navy after 20 years and ended his NASA career. He went into private business and served as television commentator for early fights of the space shuttle.

Last Updated: Jan. 16, 2017

Editor: Brian Dunbar

Tags:  NASA History

 Jan. 16, 2017

RELEASE 17-007

NASA Administrator Reflects on Legacy of Last Man to Walk on Moon

The following is a statement from NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on the passing of Gemini and Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan:

“Gene Cernan, Apollo astronaut and the last man to walk on the moon, has passed from our sphere, and we mourn his loss. Leaving the moon in 1972, Cernan said, ‘As I take these last steps from the surface for some time into the future to come, I’d just like to record that America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow.’ Truly, America has lost a patriot and pioneer who helped shape our country’s bold ambitions to do things that humankind had never before achieved.

“Gene first served his country as a Naval Aviator before taking the pilot’s seat on the Gemini 9 mission, where he became the second American to walk in space and helped demonstrate rendezvous techniques that would be important later. As a crew member of both the Apollo 10 and 17 missions, he was one of three men to have flown twice to the moon. He commanded Apollo 17 and set records that still stand for longest manned lunar landing flight, longest lunar surface extravehicular activities, largest lunar sample return, and longest time in lunar orbit.

“Gene’s footprints remain on the moon, and his achievements are imprinted in our hearts and memories. His drive to explore and do great things for his country is summed up in his own words:

We truly are in an age of challenge. With that challenge comes opportunity. The sky is no longer the limit. The word impossible no longer belongs in our vocabulary. We have proved that we can do whatever we have the resolve to do. The limit to our reach is our own complacency.’

“In my last conversation with him, he spoke of his lingering desire to inspire the youth of our nation to undertake the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) studies, and to dare to dream and explore. He was one of a kind and all of us in the NASA Family will miss him greatly.”

For more information about Cernan’s NASA career, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/cernan

-end-

Bob Jacobs
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1600
bob.jacobs@nasa.gov

Last Updated: Jan. 16, 2017

Editor: Allard Beutel

Tags:  NASA History

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Gemini IXA Splashes Down

The Gemini IXA spacecraft, with command pilot Tom Stafford and pilot Eugene Cernan aboard, splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean on June 6, 1966, less than one mile from the prime recovery ship, the aircraft carrier USS Wasp. It was the first time a spacecraft descending on its parachute was shown on live television

 Looking Back at the Gemini IX Spacecraft                         “What a beautiful spacecraft,” said Gemini IX pilot Eugene Cernan during his two hour, eight minute spacewalk on June 5, 1966. He took this wide-angle photograph looking back at the window where command pilot Tom Stafford was watching.

 

 Gemini IXA Pilot Eugene Cernan Spacewalk

During his two hour, eight minute spacewalk on June 5, 1966, Gemini IXA pilot Eugene Cernan is seen outside the spacecraft. His experience during that time showed there was still much to be learned about working in microgravity.

 

 Gemini IXA Astronauts at Launch Pad 19                                                                               

After two postponements, Gemini IXA astronauts Eugene Cernan, left, and Tom Stafford, center, arrive in the white room atop Launch Pad 19 at Cape Kennedy Air Force Station on June 3, 1966. Stafford is presenting a large match to McDonnell Aircraft Corporation’s pad leader Gunter Wendt, far right.

 

 Apollo 10 Launch                                                                                                                         The Apollo 10 (Spacecraft 106/Lunar Module 4/Saturn 505) space vehicle with crew members Eugene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford on board is launched from Pad B, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center at 12:49 p.m., May 18, 1969.

 

Apollo 10 Rollout                                                                                                                     Apollo 10 rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to Launch Complex 39B. This mission launched on May 18, 1969. The crew of Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan and John Young  

flew the “dress rehearsal” for the first human landing on the moon.

 

 Apollo 10 Lunar Module Ascends                                                                                                     After dropping down to 47,400 feet above the moon’s surface, Thomas Stafford and Eugene Cernan aboard the ascent stage of Apollo 10 lunar module, return to John Young in the command module on May 22, 1969.

 

Apollo 10 Crew

The crew of Apollo 10, from the left, Eugene Cernan, John Young and Thomas Stafford are photographed while at the Kennedy Space Center. In the background is the Apollo 10 space vehicle on Launch Pad 39 B, The three crewmen had just completed a Countdown Demonstration Test exercise on May 13, 1969.

41 Years Ago this Week – Apollo 17

During the second spacewalk on December 12, 1972, Apollo 17 Mission Commander Eugene A. Cernan is standing near the lunar rover designed by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Apollo 17 Launch

The huge, 363-feet tall Apollo 17 (Spacecraft 114/Lunar Module 12/Saturn 512) space vehicle is launched from Pad A., Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, at 12:33 a.m. (EST), Dec. 7, 1972.

Apollo 17, the final lunar landing mission in NASA’s Apollo program, was the first nighttime liftoff of the Saturn V launch vehicle.

 

 Apollo 17 Mission Commander Eugene Cernan Drives Lunar Roving Vehicle                     

Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan drives the lunar roving vehicle during the early part of the first moonwalk at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. The Lunar Module is in the background.

 

  Gene Cernan at Armstrong Memorial  

 Apollo 17 mission commander Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, looks skyward during a memorial service celebrating the life of Neil Armstrong at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, died Saturday, Aug. 25. He was 82.

 

 Gene Cernan Speaks at Armstrong Memorial Service                                                                                                    Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, speaks during a memorial service celebrating the life of Neil Armstrong at the Washington National Cathedral, Thursday, Sept. 13, 2012. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, died Saturday, Aug. 25. He was 82.

 

 Apollo 17 Splashdown                                                                                                                          The Apollo 17 spacecraft, containing astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans, and Harrison H. Schmitt, glided to a safe splashdown at 2:25 p.m. EST on Dec. 19, 1972, 648 kilometers (350 nautical miles) southeast of American Samoa.

House Hearing on NASA Human Spaceflight Plan

Apollo 11 Commander Neil Armstrong, left, and retired Navy Captain and commander of Apollo 17 Eugene Cernan, confer prior to testifying at a hearing before the House Science and Technology Committee, Tuesday, May 26, 2010, at the Rayburn House office building on Capitol Hill in Washington. The hearing was to review proposed human spaceflight plans.

 Apollo 40th Anniversary Press Conference                           On July 20, 2009, Apollo astronauts from left, Walt Cunningham (Apollo 7), James Lovell (Apollo 8 Apollo 13), David Scott (Apollo 9 Apollo 15), Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Charles Duke (Apollo 16), Thomas Stafford (Apollo 10) and Eugene Cernan (Apollo 17) are seen during the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission press conference.

 

Apollo 10 40th Anniversary Program                                   NASA Apollo 10 Astronaut Gene Cernan, right, answers questions from the Newseum’s distinguished journalist-in-residence, Nick Clooney during a Newseum TV program celebrating the 40th anniversary of Apollo 10, Monday, May 18, 2009, in Washington.

Suited Up for Apollo 10 Mission – May 1969                            Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 10 lunar module pilot, is suited up at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for a Countdown Demonstration Test during preparations for his scheduled lunar orbit mission. The other two crew members are astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, commander, and John W. Young, command module pilot.

Apollo 17 Launch                                                                                                                     A Saturn V rocket streaks toward space on the night of December 17, 1972, carrying the Apollo 17 crew, the last astronauts to explore the moon. Leaving the lunar surface, Commander Gene Cernan said “we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”              

Apollo 17 Launch                                                                                                    The huge, 363-feet tall Apollo 17 (Spacecraft 114/Lunar Module 12/Saturn 512) space vehicle is launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, at 12:33 a.m. (EST), Dec. 7, 1972. Apollo 17, the final lunar landing mission in NASA’s Apollo program, was the first nighttime liftoff of the Saturn V.

Apollo 17’s Moonship                                                                                    Awkward and angular looking, Apollo 17’s lunar module Challenger was designed for flight in the vacuum of space. This picture, taken from the command module America, shows Challenger’s ascent stage in lunar orbit. Small reaction control thrusters are at the sides of the moonship with the bell of the ascent rocket engine itself underneath.

Apollo 17 Crew                                                                                                                          On Dec. 19, 1972, the Apollo 17 crew returned to Earth. Apollo 17 was the sixth and last Apollo mission in which humans walked on the lunar surface. On Dec. 11, Lunar Module Pilot Harrison H. Schmitt and Commander Eugene A. Cernan, landed on the moon’s Taurus-Littrow region in the Lunar Module. 

 Driving on the Moon                                                                                                          Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene A. Cernan makes a short checkout of the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the early part of the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. This view of the lunar rover prior to loadup was taken by Harrison H. Schmitt, Lunar Module pilot.

Apollo 17 – The Last Moon Shot

In 1865, Jules Verne wrote a science fiction story entitled, “From the Earth to the Moon.” The story outlined the author’s vision of a cannon in Florida so powerful that it could shoot a “Projectile-Vehicle” carrying three adventurers to the moon. More than 100 years later NASA produced the Saturn V rocket and from a spaceport in Florida.

Reflections of the Moon                                                                                                             The surface of the moon is reflected in the command and service module as it prepares to rendezvous with the lunar module in this December 1972 image from the Apollo 17 mission.

  Training for the Apollo 17 Mission                                       Two members of the prime crew of the Apollo 17 lunar landing mission participate in training at the Kennedy Space Center. Scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt (foreground), lunar module pilot, simulates scooping up lunar sample material. Astronaut Eugene A. Cernan (background), commander, holds a sample b

 Blue Marble – Image of the Earth from Apollo 17                                           

View of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew — astronaut Eugene A. Cernan, commander; astronaut Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot; and scientist-astronaut Harrison H. Schmitt, lunar module pilot — traveling toward the moon. This translunar coast photograph extends from the Mediterranean Sea area to the Antarctica South polar ice cap.

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