Astro Blog

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/

Source:   MAVEN EPO, NASA MAVEN resources for elementary, middle, and high school. Elementary:   http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/education-outreach/for-educators/red-planet/ Middle and High School:   http://lasp.colorado.edu/home/maven/education-outreach/for-educators/mea/

Source:   Ken Kremer, Universe Today Excerpt: KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FL – MAVEN [Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution], NASA’s next spacecraft launching to the Red Planet in barely three days time on Nov. 18 seeks to unlock one of the greatest Martian mysteries; Where did all the water go? Mars lost its atmosphere starting somewhere around 3.5 to 3.7 Billion years ago. As the atmosphere thinned and the pressure decreased, the water evaporated and Mars evolved into the cold arid world we know today. ...“Where did the water go and where did the carbon dioxide go from the early atmosphere? What were the mechanisms?” asks Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN’s Principal Investigator from the University of Colorado at Boulder. ...“The major questions about the history of Mars center on the history of its climate and atmosphere and how that’s influenced the surface, geology and the possibility for life,” says Jakosky. ...MAVEN is equipped with ...nine science instruments ...[6] built by the UC B...