[meteorite-list] Meteorite Picture of the Day

[Paul Swartz via Meteorite-list]

Today's Meteorite Picture of the Day: Sikhote Alin

Contributed by: Gregor Hoeher

http://www.tucsonmeteorites.com/mpodmain.asp?DD=02/17/2017
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[meteorite-list] Just listed a bunch of cool meteorites on ebay!

[Ruben Garcia via Meteorite-list]

http://www.ebay.com/sch/mr-meteorite/m.html?item=222412332437=item33c8cedd95%3Ag%3AzMQAAOSw4CFYpjVV=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562

-- 



Rock On!

Ruben Garcia

www.RubenMrMeteoriteGarcia.com
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[meteorite-list] Lasers Could Give Space Research its 'Broadband' Moment

[Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6746

Lasers Could Give Space Research its 'Broadband' Moment
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 14, 2017

Thought your Internet speeds were slow? Try being a space scientist for 
a day.

The vast distances involved will throttle data rates to a trickle. You're 
lucky if a spacecraft can send more than a few megabits per second (Mbps).

But we might be on the cusp of a change. Just as going from dial-up to 
broadband revolutionized the Internet and made high-resolution photos 
and streaming video a given, NASA may be ready to undergo a similar "broadband" 
moment in coming years.

The key to that data revolution will be lasers. For almost 60 years, the 
standard way to "talk" to spacecraft has been with radio waves, which 
are ideal for long distances. But optical communications, in which data 
is beamed over laser light, can increase that rate by as much as 10 to 
100 times.

High data rates will allow researchers to gather science faster, study 
sudden events like dust storms or spacecraft landings, and even send video 
from the surface of other planets. The pinpoint precision of laser 
communications 
is also well suited to the goals of NASA mission planners, who are looking 
to send spacecraft farther out into the solar system.

"Laser technology is ideal for boosting downlink communications from deep 
space," said Abi Biswas, the supervisor of the Optical Communications 
Systems group at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. 
"It will eventually allow for applications like giving each astronaut 
his or her own video feed, or sending back higher-resolution, data-rich 
images faster."

Science at the speed of light

Both radio and lasers travel at the speed of light, but lasers travel 
in a higher-frequency bandwidth. That allows them to carry more information 
than radio waves, which is crucial when you're collecting massive amounts 
of data and have narrow windows of time to send it back to Earth.

A good example is NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which sends science 
data at a blazing maximum of 6 Mbps. Biswas estimated that if the orbiter 
used laser comms technology with a mass and power usage comparable to 
its current radio system, it could probably increase the maximum data 
rate to 250 Mbps.

On Earth, data is sent over far shorter distances and through infrastructure 
that doesn't exist yet in space, so it travels even faster.

Increasing data rates would allow scientists to spend more of their time 
on analysis than on spacecraft operations.

"It's perfect when things are happening fast and you want a dense data 
set," said Dave Pieri, a JPL research scientist and volcanologist. Pieri 
has led past research on how laser comms could be used to study volcanic 
eruptions and wildfires in near real-time. "If you have a volcano exploding 
in front of you, you want to assess its activity level and propensity 
to keep erupting. The sooner you get and process that data, the better."

That same technology could apply to erupting cryovolcanoes on icy moons 
around other planets. Pieri noted that compared to radio transmission 
of events like these, "laser comms would up the ante by an order of magnitude."

Clouding the future of lasers

That's not to say the technology is perfect for every scenario. Lasers 
are subject to more interference from clouds and other atmospheric conditions 
than radio waves; pointing and timing are also challenges.

Lasers also require ground infrastructure that doesn't yet exist. NASA's 
Deep Space Network, a system of antenna arrays located across the globe, 
is based entirely on radio technology. Ground stations would have to be 
developed that could receive lasers in locations where skies are reliably 
clear.

Radio technology won't be going away. It works in rain or shine, and will 
continue to be effective for low-data uses like providing commands to 
spacecraft.

Next steps

Two upcoming NASA missions will help engineers understand the technical 
challenges involved in conducting laser communications in space. What 
they'll learn will advance lasers toward becoming a common form of space 
communication in the future.

The Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), led by NASA's Goddard 
Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, is due to launch in 2019. 
LCRD will demonstrate the relay of data using laser and radio frequency 
technology. It will beam laser signals almost 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers) 
from a ground station in California to a satellite in geostationary orbit, 
then relay that signal to another ground station. JPL is developing one 
of the ground stations at Table Mountain in southern California. Testing 
laser communications in geostationary orbit, as LCRD will do, has practical 
applications for data transfer on Earth.

Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC), led by JPL, is scheduled to 
launch in 2023 as part of an upcoming NASA Discovery mission. That mission, 

Re: [meteorite-list] Asteroid 2017 BQ6 Resembles Dungeons and Dragons Dice

[Galactic Stone & Ironworks via Meteorite-list]

Hi Ron and List,

The scientists working on this must now roll a D6. On a roll of 1,
they must recalibrate all of their instruments and start over from the
beginning.

Now the team must roll D100% :

99-00% means the team wins a Nobel for their work.

06-98% means no change in funding and work continues.

01-05%, the entire project staff will be mocked by their peers and
must forfeit the next 1D8 funding turns.

Finally, a new supernova has just appeared in the sky, everyone must
now roll D6 initiative to see who puts their scope on it first.

Best regards,

MikeG


On 2/16/17, Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list
 wrote:
>
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6742
>
> Asteroid Resembles Dungeons and Dragons Dice
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory
> February 10, 2017
>
> [Images]
> This composite of 25 images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 was generated with radar
> data collected using NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's
> Mojave Desert. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR
>
> Radar images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 were obtained on Feb. 6 and 7 with NASA's
>
> 70-meter (230-foot) antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications
> Complex in California. They reveal an irregular, angular-appearing asteroid
>
> about 660 feet (200 meters) in size that rotates about once every three
> hours. The images have resolutions as fine as 12 feet (3.75 meters) per
> pixel.
>
> "The radar images show relatively sharp corners, flat regions, concavities,
>
> and small bright spots that may be boulders," said Lance Benner of NASA's
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who leads the agency's
> asteroid radar research program. "Asteroid 2017 BQ6 reminds me of the
> dice used when playing Dungeons and Dragons. It is certainly more angular
> than most near-Earth asteroids imaged by radar."
>
> Asteroid 2017 BQ6 safely passed Earth on Feb. 6 at 10:36 p.m. PST (1:36
> a.m. EST, Feb. 7) at about 6.6 times the distance between Earth and the
> moon (about 1.6 million miles, or 2.5 million kilometers). It was discovered
>
> on Jan. 26 by the NASA-funded Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR)
>
> Project, operated by MIT Lincoln Laboratory on the Air Force Space Command's
>
> Space Surveillance Telescope at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
>
> Radar has been used to observe hundreds of asteroids. When these small,
> natural remnants of the formation of the solar system pass relatively
> close to Earth, deep space radar is a powerful technique for studying
> their sizes, shapes, rotation, surface features, and roughness, and for
> more precise determination of their orbital path.
>
> NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages and operates
>
> NASA's Deep Space Network, including the Goldstone Solar System Radar,
> and hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth
> Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission
> Directorate.
>
> JPL hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth
> Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission
> Directorate.
>
> More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects can be found at:
>
> http://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov
>
> http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch
>
> For more information about NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office,
> visit:
>
> http://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense
>
> For asteroid and comet news and updates, follow AsteroidWatch on Twitter:
>
> twitter.com/AsteroidWatch
>
> News Media Contact
> DC Agle
> Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
> 818-393-9011
> a...@jpl.nasa.gov
>
> 2017-032
>
> __
>
> 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
>


-- 
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Instagram : www.instagram.com/galacticstone
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Pinterest : www.pinterest.com/galacticstone
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[meteorite-list] Scientists Shortlist Three Landing Sites for Mars 2020

[Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6744

Scientists Shortlist Three Landing Sites for Mars 2020
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 11, 2017

Participants in a landing site workshop for NASA's upcoming Mars 2020 
mission have recommended three locations on the Red Planet for further 
evaluation. The three potential landing sites for NASA's next Mars rover 
include Northeast Syrtis (a very ancient portion of Mars' surface), Jezero 
crater, (once home to an ancient Martian lake), and Columbia Hills (potentially 
home to an ancient hot spring, explored by NASA's Spirit rover).

More information on the landing sites can be found at:

http://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/timeline/prelaunch/landing-site-selection/

Mars 2020 is targeted for launch in July 2020 aboard an Atlas V 541 rocket 
from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. 
The rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, 
determine the habitability of the environment, search for signs of ancient 
Martian life, and assess natural resources and hazards for future human 
explorers. It will also prepare a collection of samples for possible return 
to Earth by a future mission.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory will build and manage operations of the 
Mars 2020 rover for the NASA Science Mission Directorate at the agency's 
headquarters in Washington.

For more information about NASA's Mars programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/mars

News Media Contact
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-393-9011
a...@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-034

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[meteorite-list] Asteroid 2017 BQ6 Resembles Dungeons and Dragons Dice

[Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6742

Asteroid Resembles Dungeons and Dragons Dice
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 10, 2017

[Images]
This composite of 25 images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 was generated with radar 
data collected using NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar in California's 
Mojave Desert. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR

Radar images of asteroid 2017 BQ6 were obtained on Feb. 6 and 7 with NASA's 
70-meter (230-foot) antenna at the Goldstone Deep Space Communications 
Complex in California. They reveal an irregular, angular-appearing asteroid 
about 660 feet (200 meters) in size that rotates about once every three 
hours. The images have resolutions as fine as 12 feet (3.75 meters) per 
pixel.

"The radar images show relatively sharp corners, flat regions, concavities, 
and small bright spots that may be boulders," said Lance Benner of NASA's 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, who leads the agency's 
asteroid radar research program. "Asteroid 2017 BQ6 reminds me of the 
dice used when playing Dungeons and Dragons. It is certainly more angular 
than most near-Earth asteroids imaged by radar."

Asteroid 2017 BQ6 safely passed Earth on Feb. 6 at 10:36 p.m. PST (1:36 
a.m. EST, Feb. 7) at about 6.6 times the distance between Earth and the 
moon (about 1.6 million miles, or 2.5 million kilometers). It was discovered 
on Jan. 26 by the NASA-funded Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) 
Project, operated by MIT Lincoln Laboratory on the Air Force Space Command's 
Space Surveillance Telescope at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.

Radar has been used to observe hundreds of asteroids. When these small, 
natural remnants of the formation of the solar system pass relatively 
close to Earth, deep space radar is a powerful technique for studying 
their sizes, shapes, rotation, surface features, and roughness, and for 
more precise determination of their orbital path.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages and operates 
NASA's Deep Space Network, including the Goldstone Solar System Radar, 
and hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth 
Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

JPL hosts the Center for Near-Earth Object Studies for NASA's Near-Earth 
Object Observations Program within the agency's Science Mission Directorate.

More information about asteroids and near-Earth objects can be found at:

http://cneos.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/asteroidwatch

For more information about NASA's Planetary Defense Coordination Office, 
visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/planetarydefense

For asteroid and comet news and updates, follow AsteroidWatch on Twitter:

twitter.com/AsteroidWatch

News Media Contact
DC Agle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-393-9011
a...@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-032

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[meteorite-list] NASA's Curiosity Rover Sharpens Paradox of Ancient Mars

[Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6734

NASA's Curiosity Rover Sharpens Paradox of Ancient Mars
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
February 6, 2017

Fast Facts:

* Curiosity rover findings add to a puzzle about ancient Mars because 
the same rocks that indicate a lake was present also indicate there was 
very little carbon dioxide in the air to help keep a lake unfrozen.

* No carbonate has been found definitively in rock samples analyzed 
by Curiosity.

* A new study calculates how much carbon dioxide could have been 
in the ancient atmosphere without resulting in carbonate detectable by 
the rover: not much.

Mars scientists are wrestling with a problem. Ample evidence says ancient 
Mars was sometimes wet, with water flowing and pooling on the planet's 
surface. Yet, the ancient sun was about one-third less warm and climate 
modelers struggle to produce scenarios that get the surface of Mars warm 
enough for keeping water unfrozen.

A leading theory is to have a thicker carbon-dioxide atmosphere forming 
a greenhouse-gas blanket, helping to warm the surface of ancient Mars. 
However, according to a new analysis of data from NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, 
Mars had far too little carbon dioxide about 3.5 billion years ago to 
provide enough greenhouse-effect warming to thaw water ice.

The same Martian bedrock in which Curiosity found sediments from an ancient 
lake where microbes could have thrived is the source of the evidence adding 
to the quandary about how such a lake could have existed. Curiosity detected 
no carbonate minerals in the samples of the bedrock it analyzed. The new 
analysis concludes that the dearth of carbonates in that bedrock means 
Mars' atmosphere when the lake existed -- about 3.5 billion years ago 
-- could not have held much carbon dioxide.

"We've been particularly struck with the absence of carbonate minerals 
in sedimentary rock the rover has examined," said Thomas Bristow of NASA's 
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California. "It would be really hard 
to get liquid water even if there were a hundred times more carbon dioxide 
in the atmosphere than what the mineral evidence in the rock tells us." 
Bristow is the principal investigator for the Chemistry and Mineralogy 
(CheMin) instrument on Curiosity and lead author of the study being published 
this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Curiosity has made no definitive detection of carbonates in any lakebed 
rocks sampled since it landed in Gale Crater in 2012. CheMin can identify 
carbonate if it makes up just a few percent of the rock. The new analysis 
by Bristow and 13 co-authors calculates the maximum amount of carbon dioxide 
that could have been present, consistent with that dearth of carbonate.

In water, carbon dioxide combines with positively charged ions such as 
magnesium and ferrous iron to form carbonate minerals. Other minerals 
in the same rocks indicate those ions were readily available. The other 
minerals, such as magnetite and clay minerals, also provide evidence that 
subsequent conditions never became so acidic that carbonates would have 
dissolved away, as they can in acidic groundwater.

The dilemma has been building for years: Evidence about factors that affect 
surface temperatures -- mainly the energy received from the young sun 
and the blanketing provided by the planet's atmosphere -- adds up to a 
mismatch with widespread evidence for river networks and lakes on ancient 
Mars. Clues such as isotope ratios in today's Martian atmosphere indicate 
the planet once held a much denser atmosphere than it does now. Yet theoretical 
models of the ancient Martian climate struggle to produce conditions that 
would allow liquid water on the Martian surface for many millions of years. 
One successful model proposes a thick carbon-dioxide atmosphere that also 
contains molecular hydrogen. How such an atmosphere would be generated 
and sustained, however, is controversial.

The new study pins the puzzle to a particular place and time, with an 
on-the-ground check for carbonates in exactly the same sediments that 
hold the record of a lake about a billion years after the planet formed.

For the past two decades, researchers have used spectrometers on Mars 
orbiters to search for carbonate that could have resulted from an early 
era of more abundant carbon dioxide. They have found far less than anticipated.

"It's been a mystery why there hasn't been much carbonate seen from orbit," 
Bristow said. "You could get out of the quandary by saying the carbonates 
may still be there, but we just can't see them from orbit because they're 
covered by dust, or buried, or we're not looking in the right place. The 
Curiosity results bring the paradox to a focus. This is the first time 
we've checked for carbonates on the ground in a rock we know formed from 
sediments deposited under water."

The new analysis concludes that no more than a few tens of millibars of 
carbon dioxide could have 

[meteorite-list] Dawn Journal - January 31, 2017

[Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list]

http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/journal_01_31_17.html

Dawn Journal
Dr. Marc Rayman
January 31, 2017

Dear Prodawns, Neudawns and Elecdawns,

A deep-space robotic emissary from Earth is continuing to carry out its 
extraordinary mission at a distant dwarf planet. Orbiting high above Ceres, 
the sophisticated Dawn spacecraft is hard at work unveiling the secrets 
of the exotic alien world that has been its home for almost two years.

Dawn's primary objective in this sixth orbital phase at Ceres (known 
as extended mission orbit 3, XMO3 or "this sixth orbital phase at Ceres") 
is to record cosmic rays. Doing so will allow scientists to remove that 
"noise" from the nuclear radiation measurements performed during the eight 
months Dawn operated in a low, tight orbit around Ceres. The result will 
be a cleaner signal, revealing even more about the atomic constituents 
down to about a yard (meter) underground. As we will see below, in addition 
to this ongoing investigation, soon the adventurer will begin pursuing 
a new objective in its exploration of Ceres.

[Ikapati Crater Image]
Dawn took this picture of Ikapati Crater on Jan. 24, 2016, from an altitude 
of 240 miles (385 kilometers), which is orbit 4 in the figure below. (Ikapati 
is an ancient Tagalog goddess whose name means "giver of food.") The 31-mile 
(50-kilometer) crater is geologically young, as evidenced by its clear, 
strong features. Note the difference in topography between the crater 
floor in the top half of the picture, with its many ridges, and in the 
bottom, which is smoother. The fractures run in different directions as 
well. Ikapati is at 34°N, 46°E on the map below. Full image and caption. 
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

With its uniquely capable ion propulsion system, Dawn has flown to orbits 
with widely varying characteristics. In contrast to the previous five 
observation orbits (and all the observation orbits at Vesta), XMO3 is 
elliptical. Over the course of almost eight days, the spacecraft sails 
from a height of about 4,670 miles (7,520 kilometers) up to almost 5,810 
miles (9,350 kilometers) and back down. Dutifully following principles 
discovered by Johannes Kepler at the beginning of the 17th century and 
explained by Isaac Newton at the end of that century, Dawn's speed 
over this range of altitudes varies from 210 mph (330 kilometers per hour) 
when it is closest to Ceres to 170 mph (270 kilometers per hour) when 
it is farthest. Yesterday afternoon, the craft was at its highest for 
the current orbit. During the day today, the ship will descend from 5,790 
miles (9,310 kilometers) to 5,550 miles (8,930 kilometers). As it does 
so, Ceres' gravity will gradually accelerate it from 170 mph (273 
kilometers per hour) to 177 mph (285 kilometers per hour). (Usually we 
round the orbital velocity to the nearest multiple of 10. In this case, 
however, to show the change during one day, the values presented are more 
precise.)

As we saw last month, the angle of XMO3 to the sun presents an opportunity 
to gain a new perspective on Ceres, with sunlight coming from a different 
angle. (We include the same figure here, because we will refer to it more 
below.) Last week, Dawn took advantage of that opportunity, seeing the 
alien landscapes in a new light as it took pictures for the first time 
since October.

[Dawn XMO2 Image 10]
This illustrates (and simplifies) the relative size and alignment of Dawn's 
six science orbits at Ceres. We are looking down on Ceres' north 
pole. The spacecraft follows polar orbits, and seen edge-on here, each 
orbit looks like a line. (Orbits 1, 2 and 6 extend off the figure to the 
lower right, on the night side. Like 3, 4 and 5, they are centered on 
Ceres.) The orbits are numbered chronologically. The first five orbits 
were circular. Orbit 6, which is XMO3, is elliptical, and the dotted section 
represents the range from the minimum to the maximum altitude. With the 
sun far to the left, the left side of Ceres is in daylight. Each time 
the spacecraft travels over the illuminated hemisphere in the different 
orbital planes, the landscape beneath it is lit from a different angle. 
Ceres rotates counterclockwise from this perspective (just as Earth does 
when viewed from the north). So higher numbers correspond to orbits that 
pass over ground closer to sunrise, earlier in the Cerean day. (Compare 
this diagram with this figure, which shows only the relative sizes of 
the first four orbits, with each one viewed face-on rather than edge-on.) 
Click on this image for a larger view. Image credit: NASA/JPL

Dawn takes more than a week to revolve around Ceres, but Ceres turns on 
its axis in just nine hours. Because Dawn moves through only a small segment 
of its orbit in one Cerean day, it is almost as if the spacecraft hovers 
in place as the dwarf planet pirouettes beneath it. During one such period 
on Jan. 27, Dawn's high perch moved only from 11°N to 12°S latitude 
as Ceres 

[meteorite-list] Mars Rover Curiosity Examines Possible Mud Cracks

[Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6721

Mars Rover Curiosity Examines Possible Mud Cracks
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 17, 2017

Scientists used NASA's Curiosity Mars rover in recent weeks to examine 
slabs of rock cross-hatched with shallow ridges that likely originated 
as cracks in drying mud.

"Mud cracks are the most likely scenario here," said Curiosity science 
team member Nathan Stein. He is a graduate student at Caltech in Pasadena, 
California, who led the investigation of a site called "Old Soaker," on 
lower Mount Sharp, Mars.

If this interpretation holds up, these would be the first mud cracks -- 
technically called desiccation cracks -- confirmed by the Curiosity mission. 
They would be evidence that the ancient era when these sediments were 
deposited included some drying after wetter conditions. Curiosity has 
found evidence of ancient lakes in older, lower-lying rock layers and 
also in younger mudstone that is above Old Soaker.

"Even from a distance, we could see a pattern of four- and five-sided 
polygons that don't look like fractures we've seen previously with Curiosity," 
Stein said. "It looks like what you'd see beside the road where muddy 
ground has dried and cracked."

The cracked layer formed more than 3 billion years ago and was subsequently 
buried by other layers of sediment, all becoming stratified rock. Later, 
wind erosion stripped away the layers above Old Soaker. Material that 
had filled the cracks resisted erosion better than the mudstone around 
it, so the pattern from the cracking now appears as raised ridges.

The team used Curiosity to examine the crack-filling material. Cracks 
that form at the surface, such as in drying mud, generally fill with windblown 
dust or sand. A different type of cracking with plentiful examples found 
by Curiosity occurs after sediments have hardened into rock. Pressure 
from accumulation of overlying sediments can cause underground fractures 
in the rock. These fractures generally have been filled by minerals delivered 
by groundwater circulating through the cracks, such as bright veins of 
calcium sulfate.

Both types of crack-filling material were found at Old Soaker. This may 
indicate multiple generations of fracturing: mud cracks first, with sediment 
accumulating in them, then a later episode of underground fracturing and 
vein forming.

"If these are indeed mud cracks, they fit well with the context of what 
we're seeing in the section of Mount Sharp Curiosity has been climbing 
for many months," said Curiosity Project Scientist Ashwin Vasavada of 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "The ancient lakes varied 
in depth and extent over time, and sometimes disappeared. We're seeing 
more evidence of dry intervals between what had been mostly a record of 
long-lived lakes."

Besides the cracks that are likely due to drying, other types of evidence 
observed in the area include sandstone layers interspersed with the mudstone 
layers, and the presence of a layering pattern called cross-bedding. This 
pattern can form where water was flowing more vigorously near the shore 
of a lake, or from windblown sediment during a dry episode.

Scientists are continuing to analyze data acquired at the possible mud 
cracks and also watching for similar-looking sites. They want to check 
for clues not evident at Old Soaker, such as the cross-sectional shape 
of the cracks.

The rover has departed that site, heading uphill toward a future rock-drilling 
location. Rover engineers at JPL are determining the best way to resume 
use of the rover's drill, which began experiencing intermittent problems 
last month with the mechanism that moves the drill up and down during 
drilling.

Curiosity landed near Mount Sharp in 2012. It reached the base of the 
mountain in 2014 after successfully finding evidence on the surrounding 
plains that ancient Martian lakes offered conditions that would have been 
favorable for microbes if Mars has ever hosted life. Rock layers forming 
the base of Mount Sharp accumulated as sediment within ancient lakes billions 
of years ago.

On Mount Sharp, Curiosity is investigating how and when the habitable 
ancient conditions known from the mission's earlier findings evolved into 
conditions drier and less favorable for life. For more information about 
Curiosity, visit:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl

News Media Contact
Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278 / 818-393-9011
guy.webs...@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

2017-009

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[meteorite-list] Similar-Looking Ridges on Mars Have Diverse Origins

[Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6725

Similar-Looking Ridges on Mars Have Diverse Origins
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 25, 2017

Fast Facts:

* Many places on Mars have networks of ridges that intersect at angles 
to form polygons.

* Martian polygonal-ridge features vary in size and origin.

* A new project seeks volunteers to examine Mars images and identify 
sites with polygonal ridges

Thin, blade-like walls, some as tall as a 16-story building, dominate 
a previously undocumented network of intersecting ridges on Mars, found 
in images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The simplest explanation for these impressive ridges is that lava flowed 
into pre-existing fractures in the ground and later resisted erosion better 
than material around them.

A new survey of polygon-forming ridges on Mars examines this network in 
the Medusae Fossae region straddling the planet's equator and similar-looking 
networks in other regions of the Red Planet.

"Finding these ridges in the Medusae Fossae region set me on a quest to 
find all the types of polygonal ridges on Mars," said Laura Kerber of 
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, lead author of 
the survey report published this month in the journal Icarus.

The pattern is sometimes called boxwork ridges. Raised lines intersect 
as the outlines of multiple adjoining rectangles, pentagons, triangles 
or other polygons. Despite the similarity in shape, these networks differ 
in origin and vary in scale from inches to miles.

Small and Large Examples

Mars rover missions have found small versions they have been able to inspect 
up close. Some of these polygonal ridges, such as at "Garden City" seen 
by Curiosity, are veins deposited by mineral-laden groundwater moving 
through underground fissures, long before erosion exposed the veins. Curiosity 
recently also imaged small boxwork ridges that likely originated as mud 
cracks.

At the other end of the size scale, ridges outline several rectangles 
each more than a mile (more than 2 kilometers) wide at a location called 
"Inca City" near Mars' south pole. These may have resulted from impact-related 
faults underground, with fractures filled by rising lava that hardened 
and was later exposed by erosion.

"Polygonal ridges can be formed in several different ways, and some of 
them are really key to understanding the history of early Mars," Kerber 
said. "Many of these ridges are mineral veins, and mineral veins tell 
us that water was circulating underground."

Polygonal ridges in the Nilosyrtis Mensae region of northern Mars may 
hold clues about ancient wet, possibly warm environments. Examples of 
them found so far tend to be in the same areas as water-related clues 
such as minerals that form in hot springs, clay-mineral layers and channels 
carved by ancient streams. A larger sample is needed to test this hypothesis.

Volunteers Sought

Kerber is seeking help from the public through a citizen-science project 
using images of Mars from the Context Camera (CTX) on Mars Reconnaissance 
Orbiter.

"We're asking for volunteers to search for more polygonal ridges," she 
said. Finding as-yet-unidentified polygonal ridges in CTX images could 
improve understanding about their relationship to other features and also 
will help guide future observations with the High Resolution Imaging Science 
Experiment (HiRISE) camera to reveal details of the ridge networks.

This citizen-science program, called Planet Four: Ridges, began Jan. 17 
on a platform released by the Zooniverse, which hosts dozens of projects 
that enlist people worldwide to contribute to discoveries in fields ranging 
from astronomy to zoology. More information is at:

http://ridges.planetfour.org

Other Zooniverse Mars projects using data from CTX and HiRISE have drawn 
participation from more than 150,000 volunteers.

On Earth, too, polygonal ridges have diverse origins. Examples include 
grand walls of lava that hardened underground then were exposed by erosion, 
and small ridge networks inside limestone caves, where erosion can be 
chemical as well as physical.

With CTX, HiRISE and four other instruments, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter 
has been investigating Mars since 2006.

Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, built and operates CTX. The University 
of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by Ball Aerospace 
& Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the Mars Reconnaissance 
Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed 
Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter and collaborates with 
JPL to operate it. For additional information about the project, visit:

http://mars.nasa.gov/mro

News Media Contact
Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6278
guy.webs...@jpl.nasa.gov

Laurie Cantillo / Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1077 / 

[meteorite-list] A New Test for Life on Other Planets

[Ron Baalke via Meteorite-list]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6727

A New Test for Life on Other Planets
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 26, 2017

A simple chemistry method could vastly enhance how scientists search for 
signs of life on other planets.

The test uses a liquid-based technique known as capillary electrophoresis 
to separate a mixture of organic molecules into its components. It was 
designed specifically to analyze for amino acids, the structural building 
blocks of all life on Earth. The method is 10,000 times more sensitive 
than current methods employed by spacecraft like NASA's Mars Curiosity 
rover, according to a new study published in Analytical Chemistry. The 
study was carried out by researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
Pasadena, California.

One of the key advantages of the authors' new way of using capillary 
electrophoresis 
is that the process is relatively simple and easy to automate for liquid 
samples expected on ocean world missions: it involves combining a liquid 
sample with a liquid reagent, followed by chemical analysis under conditions 
determined by the team. By shining a laser across the mixture -- a process 
known as laser-induced fluorescence detection -- specific molecules can 
be observed moving at different speeds. They get separated based on how 
quickly they respond to electric fields.

While capillary electrophoresis has been around since the early 1980s, 
this is the first time it has been tailored specifically to detect 
extraterrestrial 
life on an ocean world, said lead author Jessica Creamer, a postdoctoral 
scholar at JPL.

"Our method improves on previous attempts by increasing the number of 
amino acids that can be detected in a single run," Creamer said. "Additionally, 
it allows us to detect these amino acids at very low concentrations, even 
in highly salty samples, with a very simple 'mix and analyze' process."

The researchers used the technique to analyze amino acids present in the 
salt-rich waters of Mono Lake in California. The lake's exceptionally 
high alkaline content makes it a challenging habitat for life, and an 
excellent stand-in for salty waters believed to be on Mars, or the ocean 
worlds of Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa.

The researchers were able to simultaneously analyze 17 different amino 
acids, which they are calling "the Signature 17 standard." These amino 
acids were chosen for study because they are the most commonly found on 
Earth or elsewhere.

"Using our method, we are able to tell the difference between amino acids 
that come from non-living sources like meteorites versus amino acids that 
come from living organisms," said the project's principal investigator, 
Peter Willis of JPL.

Key to detecting amino acids related to life is an aspect known as "chirality." 
Chiral molecules such as amino acids come in two forms that are mirror 
images of one another. Although amino acids from non-living sources contain 
approximately equal amounts of the "left" and "right"-handed forms, amino 
acids from living organisms on Earth are almost exclusively the "left-handed" 
form.

It is expected that amino acid life elsewhere would also need to "choose" 
one of the two forms in order to create the structures of life. For this 
reason, chirality of amino acids is considered one of the most powerful 
signatures of life.

"One of NASA's highest-level objectives is the search for life in the 
universe," Willis said. "Our best chance of finding life is by using powerful 
liquid-based analyses like this one on ocean worlds."

Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages JPL for NASA.

News Media Contact
Andrew Good
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.g...@jpl.nasa.gov

2017-017

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