Re: [meteorite-list] Geologists Unearth Fully Intact Rock
Morning Sky Watchers Check the date of this - a bit close to 1st April for my liking Peter Davidson Senior Curator of Mineralogy Natural Sciences Department National Museums Collection Centre 242 West Granton Road Edinburgh EH5 1JA TEL: 0131 247 4283 E-mail: p.david...@nms.ac.uk -Original Message- From: Meteorite-list [mailto:meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Raremeteorites via Meteorite-list Sent: 13 August 2015 02:28 To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Geologists Unearth Fully Intact Rock Wow, maybe they can negotiate a million dollar grant to study it! The California, Mantis Shrimp Running on a Treadmill, project brought in some serious research coinage. - Original Message - From: Paul H. via Meteorite-list meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 3:57 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Geologists Unearth Fully Intact Rock Geologists Unearth Fully Intact Rock The Onion, News in Brief, April 3, 2015 Environment · Science Technology Science http://www.theonion.com/article/geologists-unearth-fully-intact-rock-38364 Sounds too much like an actual university PR person, who has written one too many press release, without taking a vaction. :-) :-) Yours, Paul H. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Meet the pioneers of photography at the National Museum of Scotland this summer. Photography: A Victorian Sensation, 19 June-22 November 2015. www.nms.ac.uk/photography National Museums Scotland, Scottish Charity, No. SC 011130 This communication is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not the addressee please inform the sender and delete the email from your system. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of National Museums Scotland. This message is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998 and Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. No liability is accepted for any harm that may be caused to your systems or data by this message. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Meteorite Picture of the Day
Today's Meteorite Picture of the Day: Henbury Contributed by: Anne Black http://www.tucsonmeteorites.com/mpodmain.asp?DD=08/13/2015 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Hit by a meteorite lately?
Generally speaking, I am *extremely* suspicious about the claims of people being hit by meteorites. That story about a man in Sweden losing an arm over it is suspiciously similar to a Chinese woman suffering a similar fate in 1915. A man supposedly died from one in Barbotan in 1790. Another claim from the Middle Ages is that two prior were killed by meteorites a century apart. Gerat Blank, a German teen, pretended to be hit by one in 2007. The list, as you say, goes on. Not to say it didn't happen but I would prefer to see some documentation first. Andre From: Sterling K. Webb [sterling_k_w...@sbcglobal.net] Sent: August 13, 2015 12:23 AM To: Deborah Anne K. Martin Subject: RE: [meteorite-list] Hit by a meteorite lately? Hi, Andre, List, There are a number of cases documented of individuals being struck by meteorites, going back centuries. A fellow in Sweden lost an arm to one! John S. Lewis' Rain of Iron and Ice (1996) has a long section listing hundreds of such cases. In the Uganda case, the meteorite bounced off, not leaves, but the trunks of several trees before it struck the boy. Lucky boy. Mrs. Hodges was inside her house in an padded armchair when the meteorite battered its way through chimney, roof, attic, ceiling, and several walls before lodging in the side of her chair. She was NOT directly struck, which is very fortunate for her A meteorite that stagnates and free-falls is usually going 200-300 mph when it reaches the ground. If it doesn't stagnate, it's going even faster. This is according to Norton's book. If you see one coming, put on your hard hat. Sterling Webb --- -Original Message- From: Meteorite-list [mailto:meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Deborah Anne K. Martin via Meteorite-list Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 9:50 PM To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Hit by a meteorite lately? I seem to recall a teenager in Uganda got hit by a 3gr. piece of the Mbale meteorite circa 1993 without any ill effect since the piece had been slowed by several leaves of a banana tree. Andre Bordeleau From: Meteorite-list [meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com] on behalf of Sterling K. Webb via Meteorite-list [meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com] Sent: August 12, 2015 10:43 PM To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: [meteorite-list] Hit by a mneteorite lately? List: Moody Jacobs shows a giant bruise on the side his patient, Ann Hodges, after she became the only person in history to have been struck by a meteorite: http://dailylifestyle.com/rare-never-seen-historical-photos/45/ Sterling Webb __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] How Many Scientists Does It Take to Write a Paper?
Research Biologist Coins Term 'Kilo-Author' For Scientific Journal Articles. all Things Considered, August 12, 2015 http://www.npr.org/2015/08/12/431959428/research-biologist-coins-term-kilo-author-for-scientific-journal-articles How Many Scientists Does It Take to Write a Paper? Apparently, Thousands Scientific journals see a spike in number of contributors; 24 pages of alphabetized co-authors, Wall Street Journal http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-many-scientists-does-it-take-to-write-a-paper-apparently-thousands-1439169200 His colleagues only discovered that his co-author was a siamese cat several years later when Dr. Hetherington started handing out copies of the paper signed with a paw print. An example of such a paper: G. Aad et al. (ATLAS Collaboration), 2015, Evidence of Wγγ Production in pp Collisions at s√=8 TeV and Limits on Anomalous Quartic Gauge Couplings with the ATLAS Detector Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 031802 – Published 16 July 2015' http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.115.031802 -- http://journals.aps.org/prd/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevD.92.032001 Yours, Paul __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Bright bolide near the Swedish/Norwegian border
At 23:50:39UTC 2015-08-12 a bright bolide appeared in Scandinavia. Not a Perseid, but observed by many Perseid observers. It lasted 9 seconds, bright as the full moon for about 6 seconds and peaked around -14 at 100 km distance. It fragmented into two groups and faded in a spray. Green and yellow colour. A preliminary analysis gives: Incidence about 22 degrees. Terminal height about 30 km. Average speed about 17 km/s. Pictures and videos at: http://norskmeteornettverk.no/wordpress/?p=2112 -- Steinar Midtskogen __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Re: [meteorite-list] Geologists Unearth Fully Intact Rock
Every day is April 1, at The Onion! ;^) Linton -Original Message- From: Peter Davidson via Meteorite-list Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2015 2:35 AM To: Meteorite List (meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com) Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Geologists Unearth Fully Intact Rock Morning Sky Watchers Check the date of this - a bit close to 1st April for my liking Peter Davidson Senior Curator of Mineralogy Natural Sciences Department National Museums Collection Centre 242 West Granton Road Edinburgh EH5 1JA TEL: 0131 247 4283 E-mail: p.david...@nms.ac.uk -Original Message- From: Meteorite-list [mailto:meteorite-list-boun...@meteoritecentral.com] On Behalf Of Raremeteorites via Meteorite-list Sent: 13 August 2015 02:28 To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Geologists Unearth Fully Intact Rock Wow, maybe they can negotiate a million dollar grant to study it! The California, Mantis Shrimp Running on a Treadmill, project brought in some serious research coinage. - Original Message - From: Paul H. via Meteorite-list meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com To: meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com Sent: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 3:57 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Geologists Unearth Fully Intact Rock Geologists Unearth Fully Intact Rock The Onion, News in Brief, April 3, 2015 Environment · Science Technology Science http://www.theonion.com/article/geologists-unearth-fully-intact-rock-38364 Sounds too much like an actual university PR person, who has written one too many press release, without taking a vaction. :-) :-) Yours, Paul H. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Meet the pioneers of photography at the National Museum of Scotland this summer. Photography: A Victorian Sensation, 19 June-22 November 2015. www.nms.ac.uk/photography National Museums Scotland, Scottish Charity, No. SC 011130 This communication is intended for the addressee(s) only. If you are not the addressee please inform the sender and delete the email from your system. The statements and opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of National Museums Scotland. This message is subject to the Data Protection Act 1998 and Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. No liability is accepted for any harm that may be caused to your systems or data by this message. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Any have these meteorites?
NWA 780 LL6. I have 6 g; the TKW is 182 g. I need 14 grams. NWA 781 LL6. I have 7 g; the TKW is 447 g. I need 13 grams. NWA 782 R4. I have 4 g; the TKW is 1000 g. I need 16 grams. NWA 784 LL5. I have 14 g; the TKW is 370 g. I need 6 grams. NWA 786 L3.8. I have 13 g; the TKW is 374 g. I need 7 grams. NWA 789 H5. I have 10 g; the TKW is 93 g. I need 8.6 grams. NWA 790 H3.8 I have 5 g; the TKW is 51 g. I need 5.2 grams. Michael Farmer Michael Farmer __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] MRO HiRISE Images: August 12, 2015
MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER HIRISE IMAGES August 12, 2015 o Light-Toned Layers in Tithonium Chasma http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_041886_1755' Approximately 800 kilometers long, Tithonium Chasma is part of the massive Valles Marineris canyon system. o Ridge and Talus in Lycus Sulci http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_041901_2065 This image nicely captures several influential geologic processes that have shaped the landscape of Lycus Sulci. o Yardang-Sculpted Deposits from Apollonaris Patera http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ESP_041929_1675 We see here a terrain with an incredible morphologic dichotomy: a relatively smooth region that transitions into sharp ridges. All of the HiRISE images are archived here: http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/ Information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is online at http://www.nasa.gov/mro. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, of Denver, is the prime contractor and built the spacecraft. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona. Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp., of Boulder, Colo., built the HiRISE instrument. __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Space Station Cargo Ship Departure to Air on NASA TV (Earth Reentry)
August 11, 2015 MEDIA ADVISORY M15-121 Space Station Cargo Ship Departure to Air on NASA TV NASA Television will broadcast live the departure of an unpiloted Russian cargo spacecraft from the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, Aug. 14. ISS Progress 58 arrived at the orbiting laboratory in February and will undock from the rear port of the Zvezda Service Module at 6:19 a.m. EDT. NASA TV coverage of the undocking will begin at 6 a.m. Several hours after it undocks, the Progress will be deorbited by Russian flight controllers to burn up in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Progress 58 launched to the station on Feb. 17, and arrived six hours later carrying more than three tons of food, fuel and supplies for the station residents. The undocking will clear the Zvezda docking port for the relocation of the Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft on Aug. 28. Expedition 44 Commander Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Flight Engineers Scott Kelly of NASA and Mikhail Kornienko of Roscosmos will move their Soyuz from the Poisk module to the Zvezda docking port. The relocation will enable delivery of a new Soyuz to the station on Sept. 2, which will bring Kelly and Kornienko home next March to conclude their one-year mission. The next Russian Progress resupply ship will launch to the station on Oct. 1. For NASA TV streaming video, schedule and downlink information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station -end- __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Cassini to Make Last Close Flyby of Saturn Moon Dione
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4689 Cassini to Make Last Close Flyby of Saturn Moon Dione Jet Propulsion Laboratory August 13, 2015 NASA's Cassini spacecraft will zip past Saturn's moon Dione on Monday, Aug. 17 -- the final close flyby of this icy satellite during the spacecraft's long mission. Cassini's closest approach, within 295 miles (474 kilometers) of Dione's surface, will occur at 11:33 a.m. PDT (2:33 p.m. EDT). Mission controllers expect fresh images to begin arriving on Earth within a couple of days following the encounter. Cassini scientists have a bevy of investigations planned for Dione. Gravity-science data from the flyby will improve scientists' knowledge of the moon's internal structure and allow comparisons to Saturn's other moons. Cassini has performed this sort of gravity science investigation with only a handful of Saturn's 62 known moons. During the flyby, Cassini's cameras and spectrometers will get a high-resolution peek at Dione's north pole at a resolution of only a few feet (or meters). In addition, Cassini's Composite Infrared Spectrometer instrument will map areas on the icy moon that have unusual thermal anomalies -- those regions are especially good at trapping heat. Meanwhile, the mission's Cosmic Dust Analyzer continues its search for dust particles emitted from Dione. This flyby will be the fifth targeted encounter with Dione of Cassini's tour at Saturn. Targeted encounters require maneuvers to precisely steer the spacecraft toward a desired path above a moon. The spacecraft executed a 12-second burn using its thrusters on Aug. 9, which fine-tuned the trajectory to enable the upcoming encounter. Cassini's closest-ever flyby of Dione was in Dec. 2011, at a distance of 60 miles (100 kilometers). Those previous close Cassini flybys yielded high-resolution views of the bright, wispy terrain on Dione first seen during the Voyager mission. Cassini's sharp views revealed the bright features to be a system of braided canyons with bright walls. Scientists also have been eager to find out if Dione has geologic activity, like Saturn's geyser-spouting moon Enceladus, but at a much lower level. Dione has been an enigma, giving hints of active geologic processes, including a transient atmosphere and evidence of ice volcanoes. But we've never found the smoking gun. The fifth flyby of Dione will be our last chance, said Bonnie Buratti, a Cassini science team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Cassini has been orbiting Saturn since 2004. After a series of close moon flybys in late 2015, the spacecraft will depart Saturn's equatorial plane -- where moon flybys occur most frequently -- to begin a year-long setup of the mission's daring final year. For its grand finale, Cassini will repeatedly dive through the space between Saturn and its rings. This will be our last chance to see Dione up close for many years to come, said Scott Edgington, Cassini mission deputy project scientist at JPL. Cassini has provided insights into this icy moon's mysteries, along with a rich data set and a host of new questions for scientists to ponder. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about Cassini, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov Media Contact Preston Dyches Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-7013 preston.dyc...@jpl.nasa.gov 2015-269 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
[meteorite-list] Rosetta Comet Outburst Captured
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4687 Rosetta Comet Outburst Captured Jet Propulsion Laboratory August 11, 2015 The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has been witnessing growing activity from comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as the comet approaches perihelion (its closest point to the sun during its orbit). On July 29, while the spacecraft orbited at a distance of 116 miles (186 kilometers) from the comet, it observed the most dramatic outburst to date. Early science results collected during the outburst came from several instruments aboard Rosetta, including the Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer (DFMS), which uses NASA-built electronics. The DFMS is part of the spacecraft's Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA) instrument. When the outburst occurred, the spectrometer recorded dramatic changes in the composition of outpouring gases from the comet when compared to measurements made two days earlier. As a result of the outburst, the amount of carbon dioxide increased by a factor of two, methane by four, and hydrogen sulfide by seven, while the amount of water stayed almost constant. This first quick look at our measurements after the outburst is fascinating, said Kathrin Altwegg, principal investigator for the ROSINA instrument from the University of Bern, Switzerland. We also see hints of heavy organic material after the outburst that might be related to the ejected dust. But while it is tempting to think that we are detecting material that may have been freed from beneath the comet's surface, it is too early to say for certain that this is the case. A sequence of images taken by Rosetta's scientific camera OSIRIS shows the sudden onset of a well-defined, jet-like feature emerging from the side of the comet's neck. The jet, the brightest seen to date, was first recorded in an image taken at 6:24 a.m. PDT (9:24 a.m. EDT, 13:24 GMT) on July 29, but not in an image taken 18 minutes earlier. The jet then faded significantly in an image captured 18 minutes later. The OSIRIS camera team estimates the material in the jet was traveling at 33 feet per second (10 meters per second), at least. A composite of the three images taken by Rosetta's OSIRIS is online at: http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov On Thursday, Aug. 13, the comet and Rosetta will be 116 million miles (186 million kilometers) from the sun -- the closest to the sun they will be in their 6.5-year orbit. In recent months, the increasing solar energy has been warming the comet's frozen ices -- turning them to gas -- which pours out into space, dragging dust along with it. The period around perihelion is scientifically very important, as the intensity of the sunlight increases and parts of the comet previously cast in years of darkness are flooded with sunlight. The comet's general activity is expected to peak in the weeks following perihelion. Comets are time capsules containing primitive material left over from the epoch when the sun and its planets formed. Rosetta's lander, Philae, obtained the first images taken from a comet's surface and will provide analysis of the comet's possible primordial composition. Rosetta is the first spacecraft to witness at close proximity how a comet changes as it is subjected to the increasing intensity of the sun's radiation. Observations are helping scientists learn more about the origin and evolution of our solar system and the role comets may have played in seeding Earth with water, and perhaps even life. Rosetta is a a European Space Agency mission with contributions from its member states and NASA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the U.S. contribution of the Rosetta mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also built the MIRO instrument and hosts its principal investigator, Samuel Gulkis. The Southwest Research Institute (San Antonio and Boulder) developed the Rosetta orbiter's IES and Alice instruments, and hosts their principal investigators, James Burch (IES) and Alan Stern (Alice). For more information on the U.S. instruments aboard Rosetta, visit: http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov More information about Rosetta is available at: http://www.esa.int/rosetta Media Contact DC Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 a...@jpl.nasa.gov Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077 dwayne.c.br...@nasa.gov / laura.l.canti...@nasa.gov Markus Bauer European Space Agency, Noordwijk, Netherlands 011-31-71-565-6799 markus.ba...@esa.int 2015-266 __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com
[meteorite-list] Scientists Plan For New Horizons Probe's Second Act
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/08/11/scientists-plan-for-new-horizons-probes-second-act/ Scientists plan for New Horizons probe's second act by Stephen Clark Spaceflight Now August 11, 2015 Scientists are about to decide where to send NASA's New Horizons spacecraft next, and it is down to two candidates at the frozen frontier of the solar system to become the most distant object ever visited by a human-built space probe. New Horizons' flyby of Pluto was the mission's main act, but the plutonium-powered explorer is on an irreversible high-speed course barreling outward from the planets. Scientists will decide later this month to steer the spacecraft on a trajectory toward one of two newly-discovered mini-worlds in the Kuiper Belt, a ring of icy objects thought to be leftovers from the solar system's creation. Scientists and NASA managers will pick between the two objects lurking in the Kuiper Belt, then prepare commands to guide New Horizons toward it for a one-shot flyby much like its encounter with Pluto last month. Alan Stern, New Horizons' principal investigator, told Spaceflight Now on Tuesday the decision would be announced by NASA in late August. The team will have to turn its attention to going back and thinking about the next possible thing that New Horizons will do in an extended mission, and there are quite a few things it can do, Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, told reporters just before the July 14 encounter with Pluto. Scientists have two candidates to choose from - 2014 MU69 and 2014 PN70 - discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014. Little is known about the two targets other than their locations 4 billion miles from Earth, according to Simon Porter, a scientist on the New Horizons mission from the Southwest Research Institute. A ten-year survey for Kuiper Belt Objects past Pluto by ground-based observatories turned up 55 candidate targets, but they were all out of reach of New Horizons, which carries a finite fuel supply and is limited to steering in a narrow cone. Pluto is currently in the constellation Sagittarius, with the brightest part of the Milky Way in the background, complicating searches for Kuiper Belt Objects, Porter said. It's the stupidest possible place in the entire sky to look for a Kuiper Belt Object, but that's where we had to go, Porter said. Scientists say the candidates for New Horizons' next target appear 100,000 times dimmer than Pluto to Hubble's imaging instruments. [Image] These two Kuiper Belt Objects, seen in these annotated images, were discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope in a survey to find a second target for New Horizons. The objects were too faint to detect with ground-based telescopes. Credit: NASA, ESA, SwRI, JHU/APL, and the New Horizons KBO Search Team New Horizons was expected to have about 35 kilograms, or about 77 pounds, of propellant left in its tank after the Pluto flyby, said Chris Hersman, a mission systems engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. That is enough for New Horizons to adjust its speed by up to 130 meters per second, or about 290 mph, according to mission managers. Green said scientists will propose to NASA which of the two secondary targets to aim for some time in August, and Hersman said a series of rocket burns in late October or early November will steer New Horizons toward the object. We will set up the mission to be able to do that, but they still have to justify why it would be important to go by another Kuiper Belt Object, Green says. New Horizons scientists will submit a thorough proposal outlining the goals and costs of an extended mission. NASA has only committed to pay for the mission through late 2016, when the spacecraft will finish sending down the reams of data it collected during the July 14 flyby of Pluto. NASA will put the proposal through peer review, where a board of independent scientists will determine how the New Horizons extended mission measures up against submissions from other NASA projects, such as the Curiosity Mars rover. If the proposal wins favorable marks from the review panel, NASA will likely decide to fund it. The senior review board convenes every two years to prioritize NASA spending on long-lived robotic missions exploring other planets and observing the universe. Scientists could also use New Horizons' plasma instruments to monitor the solar wind at the edge of the solar system, extending measurements currently being made by NASA's Voyager probes exploring the border between the heliosphere and interstellar space. The high-resolution telescopic camera aboard New Horizons could also help astronomers track the motions of nearby stars by comparing their positions in the sky with views from Earth. But most attention is on 2014 MU69 and 2014 PN70, which New Horizons would fly past in early 2019, if the mission's second act is approved by NASA. Each
[meteorite-list] June Nevada Trip Images
Dear List Members, I promised an update on the Giant Meteorite hunt in Northern Nevada last June. I took thousands of images so it was hard to pick out just a few. Most new Team LunarRock members did not want their images posted to the internet so many great shots had to be left out. This was a 1,700 plus mile endeavor with much of it off road. Although the only meteorite we saw was in Gold Field, Nevada in an antique shop, we did find some treasure. We also picked up many leads on Curious Steel Rocks that were setting off metal detectors at the end of commercial mining sluice boxes. We will follow up on these leads hopefully in September and make another attempt at reaching the Giant Meteorite. We made it to within 1.3 miles of the suspected Giant Meteorite and were chased off by a funnel cloud, lightning and hail. Funnel cloud that chased us away from giant meteorite: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/FunnelCloud.jpg 1860s field house where sough shelter from an intense storm: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/FieldHouse.jpg My wife, Zann and I acquired two more ranches at a Pershing County Cash Land Auction and got to meet one of our neighbors for the first time while attempting to get to our gold-bearing Humboldt River property. He was concerned about how the property was going to be used. He was happy to hear that we were repurposing the ranch for recreational and gold hunting purposes and there would be no problem with our cattle mixing with his since we have none. It is best to get along with ranchers since they have a wealth of knowledge. He provided invaluable information on how to get onto the defunct California Trail which leads through our property. It was also noted that a large pond on our ranch was used as a stop-over oasis by immigrants using the California Wagon Trail. Image of argument with rancher: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/RancherArguement.jpg Image of California Trail. It was difficult following the old wagon train tracks which did not match the width of my Jeep tires so we bobbled in and out of them. http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/CaliforniaTrail.jpg Trail obstacle, boiling mud: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/BoilingMuda.jpg http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/BoilingMudb.jpg Predator that gave up the ghost from toxic fumes near boiling mud pit: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/BoilingMudJaw.jpg One list member mentioned it was good to knock down PVC pipes since they kill birds. It looks like some environmentalist took it upon themselves to knock down every claim marker for several square miles near the famous, Poker Brown gold mine in Rye Patch, Nevada. I would not advise doing this as you are likely to get shot since prospectors carry a $10,000.00 MineLab metal detector on one side of their horse and a high-powered carbine rifle on the other. It would be better to shove a rock in the end of the pipes to block birds from flying into them. We are excited to return to Rye Patch since we acquired some private acreage in the middle of one of the world's best gold placer hunting spots. We are only a few thousand feet from the famous Poker Brown mine so we can hardly wait to have this pristine property assessed this September. Knocked down claim markers: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/KnockedDownMarkers.jpg Abandoned mine shaft: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/MineShaft.jpg Explosives shack: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/ExplosiveShack.jpg Rye Patch Gold: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/GoldSmall.jpg http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/GoldMedium.jpg http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/GoldLarge.jpg Oasis: http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/Oasis.jpg http://themeteoritesite.com/RyePatch/OasisTrout.jpg Enjoy, Adam __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com Meteorite-list mailing list Meteorite-list@meteoritecentral.com https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
