[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Opportunity Begins Study of Valley's Origin
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6844 Mars Rover Opportunity Begins Study of Valley's Origin Jet Propulsion Laboratory May 15, 2017 NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has reached the main destination of its current two-year extended mission -- an ancient fluid-carved valley incised on the inner slope of a vast crater's rim. As the rover approached the upper end of "Perseverance Valley" in early May, images from its cameras began showing parts of the area in greater resolution than what can be seen in images taken from orbit above Mars. "The science team is really jazzed at starting to see this area up close and looking for clues to help us distinguish among multiple hypotheses about how the valley formed," said Opportunity Project Scientist Matt Golombek of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. The process that carved Perseverance Valley into the rim of Endeavour Crater billions of years ago has not yet been identified. Among the possibilities: It might have been flowing water, or might have been a debris flow in which a small amount of water lubricated a turbulent mix of mud and boulders, or might have been an even drier process, such as wind erosion. The mission's main objective with Opportunity at this site is to assess which possibility is best supported by the evidence still in place. The upper end of the valley is at a broad notch in the crest of the crater rim. The rover team's plan for investigating the area begins with taking sets of images of the valley from two widely separated points at that dip in the rim. This long-baseline stereo imaging will provide information for extraordinarily detailed three-dimensional analysis of the terrain. The valley extends down from the rim's crest line into the crater, at a slope of about 15 to 17 degrees for a distance of about two football fields. "The long-baseline stereo imaging will be used to generate a digital elevation map that will help the team carefully evaluate possible driving routes down the valley before starting the descent," said Opportunity Project Manager John Callas of JPL. Reversing course back uphill when partway down could be difficult, so finding a path with minimum obstacles will be important for driving Opportunity through the whole valley. Researchers intend to use the rover to examine textures and compositions at the top, throughout the length and at the bottom, as part of investigating the valley's history. While the stereo imaging is being analyzed for drive-planning, the team plans to use the rover to examine the area immediately west of the crater rim at the top of the valley. "We expect to do a little walkabout just outside the crater before driving down Perseverance Valley," Golombek said. The mission has begun its 150th month since the early 2004 landing of Opportunity in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars. In the first three months, which were originally planned as the full length of the mission, it found evidence in rocks that acidic water flowed across parts of Mars and soaked the subsurface early in the planet's history. For nearly half of the mission -- 69 months -- Opportunity has been exploring sites on and near the western rim of Endeavour Crater, where even older rocks are exposed. The crater spans about 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter. Opportunity arrived from the northwest at a point corresponding to about the 10 o'clock position on the circle if north is noon; Perseverance Valley slices west to east at approximately the 8 o'clock position. Opportunity hustled southward to reach the crown of the valley in recent weeks. In mid-April it finished about two-and-a-half years on a rim segment called "Cape Tribulation." In seven drives between then and arriving at the destination on May 4, it covered 377 yards (345 meters), bringing the mission's total odometry to about 27.8 miles (44.7 kilometers). Opportunity and the next-generation Mars rover, Curiosity, as well as three active NASA Mars orbiters and surface missions to launch in 2018 and 2020 are all part of ambitious robotic exploration to understand Mars, which helps lead the way for sending humans to Mars in the 2030s. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, built Opportunity and manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. For more information about Opportunity, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/rovers https://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov News Media Contact Guy Webster / Andrew Good Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6278 / 818-393-2433 guy.webs...@jpl.nasa.gov / andrew.c.g...@jpl.nasa.gov Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1077 / 202-358-1726 laura.l.canti...@nasa.gov / dwayne.c.br...@nasa.gov __ Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com
[meteorite-list] Movie Shows Ceres at Opposition from Sun
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6845 Movie Shows Ceres at Opposition from Sun Jet Propulsion Laboratory May 16, 2017 NASA's Dawn spacecraft successfully observed Ceres at opposition on April 29, taking images from a position exactly between the sun and Ceres' surface. Mission specialists had carefully maneuvered Dawn into a special orbit so that the spacecraft could view Occator Crater, which contains the brightest area of Ceres, from this new perspective. A new movie shows these opposition images, with contrast enhanced to highlight brightness differences. The bright spots of Occator stand out particularly well on an otherwise relatively bland surface. Dawn took these images from an altitude of about 12,000 miles (20,000 kilometers). Based on data from ground-based telescopes and spacecraft that previously viewed planetary bodies at opposition, scientists correctly predicted that Ceres would appear brighter from this opposition configuration. This increase in brightness, or "surge," relates the size of the grains of material on the surface, as well as the porosity of those materials. The science motivation for performing these observations is further explained in the March issue of the Dawn Journal blog. Dawn's observations of Ceres during its more than two years there cover a broader range of illumination angles than almost any body in the solar system. This provides scientists with an opportunity to gain new insights into the surface properties. They are currently analyzing the new data. The new observations and images were largely unaffected by the loss of function of Dawn's third reaction wheel. The spacecraft is healthy and orients itself using its hydrazine thrusters. Dawn's mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital ATK Inc., in Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Italian Space Agency and Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team. For a complete list of Dawn mission participants, visit: https://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission News Media Contact Elizabeth Landau Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6425 elizabeth.lan...@jpl.nasa.gov 2017-140 __ 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] NASA Moves Up Launch of Psyche Mission to a Metal Asteroid
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6854 NASA Moves Up Launch of Psyche Mission to a Metal Asteroid Jet Propulsion Laboratory May 24, 2017 Psyche, NASA's Discovery Mission to a unique metal asteroid, has been moved up one year with launch in the summer of 2022, and with a planned arrival at the main belt asteroid in 2026 -- four years earlier than the original timeline. "We challenged the mission design team to explore if an earlier launch date could provide a more efficient trajectory to the asteroid Psyche, and they came through in a big way," said Jim Green, director of the Planetary Science Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "This will enable us to fulfill our science objectives sooner and at a reduced cost." The Discovery program announcement of opportunity had directed teams to propose missions for launch in either 2021 or 2023. The Lucy mission was selected for the first launch opportunity in 2021, and Psyche was to follow in 2023. Shortly after selection in January, NASA gave the direction to the Psyche team to research earlier opportunities. "The biggest advantage is the excellent trajectory, which gets us there about twice as fast and is more cost effective," said Principal Investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe. "We are all extremely excited that NASA was able to accommodate this earlier launch date. The world will see this amazing metal world so much sooner." The revised trajectory is more efficient, as it eliminates the need for an Earth gravity assist, which ultimately shortens the cruise time. In addition, the new trajectory stays farther from the sun, reducing the amount of heat protection needed for the spacecraft. The trajectory will still include a Mars gravity assist in 2023. "The change in plans is a great boost for the team and the mission," said Psyche Project Manager Henry Stone at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Our mission design team did a fantastic job coming up with this ideal launch opportunity." The Psyche spacecraft is being built by Space Systems Loral (SSL), Palo Alto, California. In order to support the new mission trajectory, SSL redesigned the solar array system from a four-panel array in a straight row on either side of the spacecraft to a more powerful five-panel x-shaped design, commonly used for missions requiring more capability. Much like a sports car, by combining a relatively small spacecraft body with a very high-power solar array design, the Psyche spacecraft will speed to its destination at a faster pace than is typical for a larger spacecraft. "By increasing the size of the solar arrays, the spacecraft will have the power it needs to support the higher velocity requirements of the updated mission," said SSL Psyche Program Manager Steve Scott. The Psyche Mission Psyche, an asteroid orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter, is made almost entirely of nickel-iron metal. As such, it offers a unique look into the violent collisions that created Earth and the terrestrial planets. The Psyche Mission was selected for flight earlier this year under NASA's Discovery Program, a series of lower-cost, highly focused robotic space missions that are exploring the solar system. The scientific goals of the Psyche mission are to understand the building blocks of planet formation and explore firsthand a wholly new and unexplored type of world. The mission team seeks to determine whether Psyche is the core of an early planet, how old it is, whether it formed in similar ways to Earth's core, and what its surface is like. The spacecraft's instrument payload will include magnetometers, multispectral imagers, and a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer. For more information about NASA's Psyche mission go to: http://www.nasa.gov/psyche News Media Contact D.C. Agle Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-9011 a...@jpl.nasa.gov Karin Valentine Arizona State University School of Earth and Space Exploration, Tempe 480-965-9345 karin.valent...@asu.edu Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown NASA Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1077 / 202-358-1726 laura.l.canti...@nasa.gov / dwayne.c.br...@nasa.gov 2017-149 __ 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] AD-ebay auctions ending Sat, July 1
Aloha, Big Kahuna is offering some interplanetary interlopers on eBay in auctions that begin ending TOMORROW, Saturday, July 1 at 8:00am Pacific / 11:00pm Eastern / 4:00pm London / 6:00pm Helsinki / 11:00pm Singapore. FREE Worldwide shipping on select meteorites. Aiquile H5 0.95g Fusion crusted fragment - http://tinyurl.com/y8zez36s Allende CV3 23.86g Endcut w/ dark inclusion - http://tinyurl.com/y93tosao Bediasite 9.06g Texas impactite - http://tinyurl.com/y8bov4nq Camel Donga Euc 3.80g The Perfect Pea - http://tinyurl.com/y76z3ora Canyon Diablo IAB 259g Iron, $1 starting bid - http://tinyurl.com/y6wndb73 Gebel Kamil 213g + Commemortive coin - http://tinyurl.com/ybvze5b5 Jbilet Winselwan CM2 8.53g Frag, $1 starting bid - http://tinyurl.com/y98mj5bl NWA Lunar breccia 1.90g Frag, $1 starting bid - http://tinyurl.com/ybu3f83p NWA 11241 CV3 6.16g Freshest carbonaceous - http://tinyurl.com/y7bv8fh6 And much more, right here: http://www.ebay.com/sch/fujmon/m.html Gary Fujihara Big Kahuna Meteorites Inc. PO Box 4175, Hilo, HI 96720 (808) 640-9161 http://www.ebay.com/sch/fujmon/m.html __ 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] Happy Birthday Tunguska
Happy Birthday Tunguska! - June 30, 1908 : (00:14 UT, 7:14pm EST), Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russia - it was just after dinnertime when the sky suddenly exploded in a cataclysmic detonation that obliterated nearly 2000 square kilometers of unpopulated wilderness in remote Siberia. The entire region around the Tunguska River was a blackened wasteland and millions of trees were knocked over like matchsticks. The airburst explosion and resulting plasma shockwave both flattened and scorched the target area, which was populated mostly by animals and few humans. This explosion would have easily destroyed a large city. Scientists later determined that the event was caused by the explosion of an incoming comet or asteroid which was completely vaporized by the extreme forces produced by the airburst. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunguska_event -- --- Galactic Stone & Ironworks : www.galactic-stone.com Facebook : www.facebook.com/galacticstones Instagram : www.instagram.com/galacticstone LinkedIn : www.linkedin.com/in/galacticstone Pinterest : www.pinterest.com/galacticstone Twitter : www.twitter.com/galacticstone Ello : www.ello.com/galacticstone --- __ 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] Looking for books about Hessle fall and catalog of Copenhagen collection (Buchwald)
Hello Meteorite collectors, do anyone have this books? - Catalogue of meteorites in the Mineralogical Museum of the University, Copenhagen - Buchwald V. 1965 - Om meteorstenfallet vid Hessle den 1 Januari 1869 - Karl August Fredholm Please contact with me at illae...@gmail.com And again, of anyone have Pultusk with old labels, please contact. All the best Tomasz Jakubowski www.collectingmeteorites.com PTM, IMCA, MetSoc Managing Editor meteorites.pwr.wroc.pl __ 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: NWA 11303 Contributed by: Gourgues Denis http://www.tucsonmeteorites.com/mpodmain.asp?DD=06/30/2017 __ 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
