[meteorite-list] New Pluto Images from NASA's New Horizons: It's Complicated
http://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-pluto-images-from-nasa-s-new-horizons-it-s-complicated New Pluto Images from NASA's New Horizons: It's Complicated September 10, 2015 [Image] This synthetic perspective view of Pluto, based on the latest high-resolution images to be downlinked from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, shows what you would see if you were approximately 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) above Pluto's equatorial area, looking northeast over the dark, cratered, informally named Cthulhu Regio toward the bright, smooth, expanse of icy plains informally called Sputnik Planum. The entire expanse of terrain seen in this image is 1,100 miles (1,800 kilometers) across. The images were taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers). Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute New close-up images of Pluto from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reveal a bewildering variety of surface features that have scientists reeling because of their range and complexity. "Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of processes that rival anything we've seen in the solar system," said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado. "If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top - but that's what is actually there." New Horizons began its yearlong download of new images and other data over the Labor Day weekend. Images downlinked in the past few days have more than doubled the amount of Pluto's surface seen at resolutions as good as 400 meters (440 yards) per pixel. They reveal new features as diverse as possible dunes, nitrogen ice flows that apparently oozed out of mountainous regions onto plains, and even networks of valleys that may have been carved by material flowing over Pluto's surface. They also show large regions that display chaotically jumbled mountains reminiscent of disrupted terrains on Jupiter's icy moon Europa. "The surface of Pluto is every bit as complex as that of Mars," said Jeff Moore, leader of the New Horizons Geology, Geophysics and Imaging (GGI) team at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. "The randomly jumbled mountains might be huge blocks of hard water ice floating within a vast, denser, softer deposit of frozen nitrogen within the region informally named Sputnik Planum." New images also show the most heavily cratered -- and thus oldest -- terrain yet seen by New Horizons on Pluto next to the youngest, most crater-free icy plains. There might even be a field of dark wind-blown dunes, among other possibilities. "Seeing dunes on Pluto -- if that is what they are -- would be completely wild, because Pluto's atmosphere today is so thin," said William B. McKinnon, a GGI deputy lead from Washington University, St. Louis. "Either Pluto had a thicker atmosphere in the past, or some process we haven't figured out is at work. It's a head-scratcher." Discoveries being made from the new imagery are not limited to Pluto's surface. Better images of Pluto's moons Charon, Nix, and Hydra will be released Friday at the raw images site for New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), revealing that each moon is unique and that big moon Charon's geological past was a tortured one. Images returned in the past days have also revealed that Pluto's global atmospheric haze has many more layers than scientists realized, and that the haze actually creates a twilight effect that softly illuminates nightside terrain near sunset, making them visible to the cameras aboard New Horizons. "This bonus twilight view is a wonderful gift that Pluto has handed to us," said John Spencer, a GGI deputy lead from SwRI. "Now we can study geology in terrain that we never expected to see." [Image] Mosaic of high-resolution images of Pluto, sent back from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft from Sept. 5 to 7, 2015. The image is dominated by the informally-named icy plain Sputnik Planum, the smooth, bright region across the center. This image also features a tremendous variety of other landscapes surrounding Sputnik. The smallest visible features are 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) in size, and the mosaic covers a region roughly 1,000 miles (1600 kilometers) wide. The image was taken as New Horizons flew past Pluto on July 14, 2015, from a distance of 50,000 miles (80,000 kilometers). Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute [Image] In the center of this 300-mile (470-kilometer) wide image of Pluto from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft is a large region of jumbled, broken terrain on the northwestern edge of the vast, icy plain informally called Sputnik Planum, to the right. The smallest visible features are 0.5 miles (0.8 kilometers) in size. This image was
[meteorite-list] Ceres' Bright Spots Seen in Striking New Detail
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4714 Ceres' Bright Spots Seen in Striking New Detail Jet Propulsion Laboratory September 9, 2015 The brightest spots on the dwarf planet Ceres gleam with mystery in new views delivered by NASA's Dawn spacecraft. These closest-yet views of Occator crater, with a resolution of 450 feet (140 meters) per pixel, give scientists a deeper perspective on these very unusual features. The new up-close view of Occator crater from Dawn's current vantage point reveals better-defined shapes of the brightest, central spot and features on the crater floor. Because these spots are so much brighter than the rest of Ceres' surface, the Dawn team combined two different images into a single composite view -- one properly exposed for the bright spots, and one for the surrounding surface. Scientists also have produced animations that provide a virtual fly-around of the crater, including a colorful topographic map. http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia19890 http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=pia19891 Dawn scientists note the rim of Occator crater is almost vertical in some places, where it rises steeply for 1 mile (nearly 2 kilometers). Views from Dawn's current orbit, taken at an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers), have about three times better resolution than the images the spacecraft delivered from its previous orbit in June, and nearly 10 times better than in the spacecraft's first orbit at Ceres in April and May. "Dawn has transformed what was so recently a few bright dots into a complex and beautiful, gleaming landscape," said Marc Rayman, Dawn's chief engineer and mission director based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Soon, the scientific analysis will reveal the geological and chemical nature of this mysterious and mesmerizing extraterrestrial scenery." The spacecraft has already completed two 11-day cycles of mapping the surface of Ceres from its current altitude, and began the third on Sept. 9. Dawn will map all of Ceres six times over the next two months. Each cycle consists of 14 orbits. By imaging Ceres at a slightly different angle in each mapping cycle, Dawn scientists will be able to assemble stereo views and construct 3-D maps. Dawn is the first mission to visit a dwarf planet, and the first to orbit two distinct solar system targets. It orbited protoplanet Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012, and arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015. 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 mission participants, visit: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission More information about Dawn is available at the following sites: http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.nasa.gov/dawn Media Contact Elizabeth Landau / Preston Dyches NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-354-6425 / 818-354-7013 elizabeth.lan...@jpl.nasa.gov / preston.dyc...@jpl.nasa.gov 2015-294 __ 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] Mars Rover Opportunity Update: August 26 - September 1, 2015
http://mars.nasa.gov/mer/mission/status.html#opportunity OPPORTUNITY UPDATE: Driving West To Reach New Rock Target - sols 4120-4125, August 26, 2015-September 01, 2015: Opportunity is within 'Marathon Valley' on the west rim of Endeavour Crater exploring for phyllosilicate clay minerals. The rover is operating in persistent RAM mode (not using Flash for data storage). On Sol 4120 (Aug. 26, 2015), Opportunity used the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) to brush the freshly ground surface target, 'Pvt. Robert Frazer' to prepare it for in-situ (contact) measurements. After the surface was cleaned, the Microscopic Imager collected an image mosaic. This was followed by the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS). The APXS integration was performed on the evening of the next sol. Both Panoramic Camera (Pancam) and Navigation Camera (Navcam) panoramas were sequenced over several sols along with additional readouts of Flash Bank 7 memory. On Sol 4125 (Sept. 1, 2015), the rover drove to the west about 46 feet (14 meters) in order to approach a new geological contact that may exhibit characteristics of alternation. As of Sol 4125 (Sept. 1, 2015), the solar array energy production was 384 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.668 and a solar array dust factor of 0.582. Total odometry is 26.42 (42.52 kilometers), more than a marathon. __ 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] 'Hedgehog' Robots Hop, Tumble in Microgravity
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4712 'Hedgehog' Robots Hop, Tumble in Microgravity Jet Propulsion Laboratory September 3, 2015 Hopping, tumbling and flipping over are not typical maneuvers you would expect from a spacecraft exploring other worlds. Traditional Mars rovers, for example, roll around on wheels, and they can't operate upside-down. But on a small body, such as an asteroid or a comet, the low-gravity conditions and rough surfaces make traditional driving all the more hazardous. Enter Hedgehog: a new concept for a robot that is specifically designed to overcome the challenges of traversing small bodies. The project is being jointly developed by researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California; Stanford University in Stanford, California; and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "Hedgehog is a different kind of robot that would hop and tumble on the surface instead of rolling on wheels. It is shaped like a cube and can operate no matter which side it lands on," said Issa Nesnas, leader of the JPL team. The basic concept is a cube with spikes that moves by spinning and braking internal flywheels. The spikes protect the robot's body from the terrain and act as feet while hopping and tumbling. "The spikes could also house instruments such as thermal probes to take the temperature of the surface as the robot tumbles," Nesnas said. Two Hedgehog prototypes -- one from Stanford and one from JPL -- were tested aboard NASA's C-9 aircraft for microgravity research in June 2015. During 180 parabolas, over the course of four flights, these robots demonstrated several types of maneuvers that would be useful for getting around on small bodies with reduced gravity. Researchers tested these maneuvers on different materials that mimic a wide range of surfaces: sandy, rough and rocky, slippery and icy, and soft and crumbly. "We demonstrated for the first time our Hedgehog prototypes performing controlled hopping and tumbling in comet-like environments," said Robert Reid, lead engineer on the project at JPL. Hedgehog's simplest maneuver is a "yaw," or a turn in place. After pointing itself in the right direction, Hedgehog can either hop long distances using one or two spikes or tumble short distances by rotating from one face to another. Hedgehog typically takes large hops toward a target of interest, followed by smaller tumbles as it gets closer. During one of the experiments on the parabolic flights, the researchers confirmed that Hedgehog can also perform a "tornado" maneuver, in which the robot aggressively spins to launch itself from the surface. This maneuver could be used to escape from a sandy sinkhole or other situations in which the robot would otherwise be stuck. The JPL Hedgehog prototype has eight spikes and three flywheels. It weighs about 11 pounds (5 kilograms) by itself, but the researchers envision that it could weigh more than 20 pounds (9 kilograms) with instruments such as cameras and spectrometers. The Stanford prototype is slightly smaller and lighter, and it has shorter spikes. Both prototypes maneuver by spinning and stopping three internal flywheels using motors and brakes. The braking mechanisms differ between the two prototypes. JPL's version uses disc brakes, and Stanford's prototype uses friction belts to stop the flywheels abruptly. "By controlling how you brake the flywheels, you can adjust Hedgehog's hopping angle. The idea was to test the two braking systems and understand their advantages and disadvantages," said Marco Pavone, leader of the Stanford team, who originally proposed Hedgehog with Nesnas in 2011. "The geometry of the Hedgehog spikes has a great influence on its hopping trajectory. We have experimented with several spike configurations and found that a cube shape provides the best hopping performance. The cube structure is also easier to manufacture and package within a spacecraft," said Benjamin Hockman, lead engineer on the project at Stanford. The researchers are currently working on Hedgehog's autonomy, trying to increase how much the robots can do by themselves without instructions from Earth. Their idea is that an orbiting mothership would relay signals to and from the robot, similar to how NASA's Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity communicate via satellites orbiting Mars. The mothership would also help the robots navigate and determine their positions. The construction of a Hedgehog robot is relatively low-cost compared to a traditional rover, and several could be packaged together for flight, the researchers say. The mothership could release many robots at once or in stages, letting them spread out to make discoveries on a world never traversed before. Hedgehog is currently in Phase II development through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program, and is led by Pavone. The flight development and testing were supported by
[meteorite-list] Fireball Sighted Over Oman
http://timesofoman.com/article/67344/Oman/Science-/Meteor-like-unidentified-object-enter-Oman-atmosphere Meteor like unidentified object entered Oman atmosphere by Tariq Al Haremi Times of Oman September 10, 2015 Muscat: Meteor like unidentified object did enter the Sultanate's atmosphere on Wednesday night, however it is not clear whether it landed in Oman or not, according to Saleh Al Shidhani from the Oman Astronomical Society, Locals in Wilayat of Yanqul in Al Dhahira Governorate reported that they witnessed Meteor like object and also heard the crash. Speaking to Times of Oman, Saleh Al Shidhani from the Oman Astronomical Society, said, "Based on the information we have gathered currently, we can't confirm whether it was a meteorite or not." "We are also not sure whether it landed in Sultanate, but it definitely passed through the atmosphere. But we don't know where it landed exactly," he further added, saying that the object passed through Al Dhahira Governorate and probably continued to the United Arab Emirates. "The villagers had conflicting stories where some of them said they had heard the explosion when others denied it. We will send a team to that region and question the witnesses and investigate the matter,' said Al Shidhani. Oman is a favorable destination for meteorite expeditions and collectors where the gravel plains in the Dhofar and Al Wusta regions of the Sultanate had yielded over 5,000 meteorites as of the middle of 2009 of both Lunar (Moon) and Martian (Mars) meteorites. The Sultanate has proven to be extremely important for scientists as the land became a source for rare meteorites. Some meteorites worth mentioning are Sayh Al Uhaymir 051 (SaU 51), Sayh Al Uhaymir 094 (SaU 94) and Dhofar 019, which are all Martian meteorites. Over 22,000 meteorites have been discovered in the world where over 180 of them are Omani consisting of both Lunar and Martian meteorites. However, a law has passed deeming the collection of meteorite from the Sultanate a crime as it is considered a national treasure to the country. __ 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] The Holocene Start Impact Event
Hi Paul, all - (and Hi Sterling) Hi Paul- thanks for your note. Now, let me draw you a picture: http://archaeologica.boardbot.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3656 In the future, for this impact event, please refer to the Holocene Start Impact Event, and refer to the Grondine Minima, the one that does not exist in the last glacial cycle. As to the breaching of the ice dams on the western glacial lakes at what is now called the YD, and the outflows thererof, and exactly where those out flows went, that will be along shortly. I have to attend a judging of West Virginia domestic arts, and meet with some @$$#0!3$. good hunting all, (and a few bars of Oh Canada to the hunters up north) E.P. Grondine Man and Impact in the Americas __ 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: Unclassified NWA Contributed by: Marco Frigerio http://www.tucsonmeteorites.com/mpodmain.asp?DD=09/10/2015 __ 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
