Astro Blog

Source:  NASA RELEASE 14-709 Excerpt: ...Scientists, using cameras aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), have created the largest high resolution mosaic of our moon’s north polar region. The six-and-a-half feet (two-meters)-per-pixel images cover an area equal to more than one-quarter of the United States. ...The entire image measures 931,070 pixels square – nearly 867 billion pixels total. ...LRO entered lunar orbit in June 2009 equipped with seven instrument suites to map the surface, probe the radiation environment, investigate water and key mineral resources, and gather geological clues about the moon's evolution.... http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/march/nasa-releases-first-interactive-mosaic-of-lunar-north-pole/#.UzYIUl5GLHQ  

Source:   NASA RELEASE 14-079 Excerpt: ...Scientists, using cameras aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), have created the largest high resolution mosaic of our moon’s north polar region. The six-and-a-half feet (two-meters)-per-pixel images cover an area equal to more than one-quarter of the United States. ...The entire image measures 931,070 pixels square – nearly 867 billion pixels total. ...LRO entered lunar orbit in June 2009 equipped with seven instrument suites to map the surface, probe the radiation environment, investigate water and key mineral resources, and gather geological clues about the moon's evolution.... http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/march/nasa-releases-first-interactive-mosaic-of-lunar-north-pole/#.UzYIUl5GLHQ

Source:  Jose Maria Madiedo and José Luis Ortiz,   University of Huelva and Andalusian Astrophysics Institute (respectively)    2014 Feb. Video on Youtube produced  on the occasion of the publication of a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=perqv4qByaI&feature=youtu.be

Source:  NASA RELEASE 14-056               Excerpt: ...NASA’s Asteroid Initiative includes two separate, but related activities: the Asteroid Redirect Mission and the Asteroid Grand Challenge.  NASA is currently developing concepts for the mission, which will employ a robotic spacecraft to capture a small near-Earth asteroid, or remove a boulder from the surface of a larger asteroid, and redirect it into a stable orbit around the moon. Astronauts will travel aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft, launched on the Space Launch System rocket, to rendezvous in lunar orbit with the captured asteroid material. Once there, they will collect samples to return to Earth for study. The grand challenge is seeking the best ideas to find all asteroid threats to human populations, and to accelerate the work that NASA is already doing for planetary defense. ...NASA's asteroid initiative:  http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative  .... http://www.na...

Source:  NASA RELEASE 14-056                Excerpt: ...NASA’s Asteroid Initiative includes two separate, but related activities: the Asteroid Redirect Mission and the Asteroid Grand Challenge.  NASA is currently developing concepts for the mission, which will employ a robotic spacecraft to capture a small near-Earth asteroid, or remove a boulder from the surface of a larger asteroid, and redirect it into a stable orbit around the moon. Astronauts will travel aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft, launched on the Space Launch System rocket, to rendezvous in lunar orbit with the captured asteroid material. Once there, they will collect samples to return to Earth for study. The grand challenge is seeking the best ideas to find all asteroid threats to human populations, and to accelerate the work that NASA is already doing for planetary defense. ...NASA's asteroid initiative:  http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative  .... http://...

Source:  NASA  Press Release 14-021 Excerpt: Scientists using the Herschel space observatory have made the first definitive detection of water vapor on the largest and roundest object in the asteroid belt, Ceres.... http://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/january/herschel-telescope-detects-water-on-dwarf-planet/#.Uuc84PbTl9I

Source:  NASA  Press Release 13-358 Excerpt:  NASA's Cassini spacecraft has obtained the highest-resolution movie yet of a unique six-sided jet stream, known as the hexagon, around Saturn's north pole. ...Better views of the hexagon are available now because the sun began to illuminate its interior in late 2012. ... these images [are] in false color, a rendering method that made it easier to distinguish differences among the types of particles suspended in the atmosphere -- relatively small particles that make up haze -- inside and outside the hexagon. See images at:  http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-350 http://www.nasa.gov/press/2013/december/nasas-cassini-spacecraft-obtains-best-views-of-saturn-hexagon/