Category Archives: Space Science

Mars, Multiple media, Space Science

Explore Mars in 360-degree panorama sent from the Curiosity rover

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Here is an interactive 360 degree panorama of the scenery that recently surrounded NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover:

Explore this Mars panorama by moving the view with your mouse or mobile device. This 360-degree panorama was acquired on Aug. 5, 2016, by the Mastcam on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover as the rover neared features called “Murray Buttes” on lower Mount Sharp. The dark, flat-topped mesa seen to the left of the rover’s arm is about 50 feet (about 15 meters) high and, near the top, about 200 feet (about 60 meters) wide.

If you can’t move the view:

Important note: Not all browsers support viewing 360 videos/images. YouTube supports uploading and playback of 360 degree videos/images on computers using Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Opera browsers.

If your browser does not support 360, a static view of this same panorama image is available at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/d…

Download raw images used to make this 360-degree mosaic from:
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimed…

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From the press release that accompanied this image:

Full-Circle Vista from NASA Mars Rover Curiosity Shows ‘Murray Buttes’

Eroded mesas and buttes reminiscent of the U.S. Southwest shape part of the horizon in the latest 360-degree color panorama from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover.

The sweeping view that marks Curiosity’s arrival at “Murray Buttes” on lower Mount Sharp is online at:
http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7994

The rover used its Mast Camera (Mastcam) to capture dozens of component images of this scene on Aug. 5, 2016, four years after Curiosity’s landing inside Gale Crater.

The visual drama of Murray Buttes along Curiosity’s planned route up lower Mount Sharp was anticipated when the site was informally named nearly three years ago to honor Caltech planetary scientist Bruce Murray (1931-2013), a former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. JPL manages the Curiosity mission for NASA.

The buttes and mesas are capped with rock that is relatively resistant to wind erosion.  This helps preserve these monumental remnants of a layer that formerly more fully covered the underlying layer that the rover is now driving on.

Early in its mission on Mars, Curiosity accomplished its main goal when it found and examined an ancient habitable environment. In an extended mission, the rover is examining successively younger layers as it climbs the lower part of Mount Sharp. A key goal is to learn how freshwater lake conditions, which would have been favorable for microbes billions of years ago if Mars has ever had life, evolved into harsher, arid conditions much less suited to supporting life. The mission is also monitoring the modern environment of Mars.

These findings have been addressing high-priority goals for planetary science and further aid NASA’s preparations for a human mission to the Red Planet.

For more information about Curiosity, visit:

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Check out also this stereo image of Boulders at ‘Bimbe’ on Lower Mount Sharp, Mars (Stereo) – Mars Science Laboratory

mars-rover-mount-sharp-boulders-PIA20836-br2[1]
Breccia-Conglomerate Rocks on Lower Mount Sharp, Mars (Stereo) This July 22, 2016, stereo scene from the Mastcam on NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover shows boulders at a site called “Bimbe” on lower Mount Sharp. They contain pebble-size and larger rock fragments. The image appears three dimensional when viewed through red-blue glasses with the red lens on the left. Larger image.

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Asteroids & Comets, Space Science, Space Systems

Videos: OSIRS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu

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On September 8th a ULA Atlas V rocket will launch the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer)  from Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft’s mission is to visit the asteroid Bennu and bring back a small sample of it to earth. Analysis of the sample will provide hints about the conditions of the early solar system and provide clues on such as to how water and organic molecules came to the Earth. The mission will also add to the general knowledge about asteroids including possible resources of use in space and on earth.

On Wednesday, NASA held a panel briefing to  discuss the meeting with the press:

This video describes the Bennu asteroid:

This video shows the trajectory of OSIRIS-REx reaches Bennu and returns to earth, taking advantage of the fact that the asteroid’s orbit is near earth and crosses earth’s:

Eyes in the Sky, Solar Science, Space Science

Video: The dance of the Earth and Moon as seen by DSCOVR

NOAA’s DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) spacecraft  has a clear view of the hemisphere of the Earth facing the Sun. This can give it a great view of the Moon and Earth together. In the video below, I concantenated three videos produced by the EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Camera)  on DSCOVR, two of which show the Moon crossing the face of the Earth and one showing the Earth eclipsing the Moon.

The reason that the DSCOVR spacecraft can obtain such views is because it sits a million miles away from Earth on the L1 Lagrange point (see diagram below). L1 is one of five Lagrange spots where an object can remain fixed relative to the earth due to the counterbalancing pulls of the Sun and Earth’s gravitational forces and the inertia of the object.

l1_DSCOVR_diagram[1]Diagram of DSCOVR  at the L1 point. (Credits NOAA).

Here is a new video that shows a time lapse of one year of DSCOVR images of Earth:

Pluto and beyond, Space Science, Space Systems

New Horizons: Looking back on the flyby + Video simulates a landing on Pluto

It’s been a year since the New Horizons probe flew past Pluto and its moons. Here is a review of the flyby and the major findings by the mission: Looking Back, a Year after Pluto – New Horizons.

Fly down to near the surface in a new video from New Horizons:

Video: Imagine a Landing on Pluto

Imagine a future spacecraft following New Horizons’ trailblazing path to Pluto, but instead of flying past its target – as New Horizons needed to do to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt beyond – the next visitor touches down near the tall mountains on the frozen icy, plains of Pluto’s heart.

No need to wait for that far off trip, though, thanks to new video produced by New Horizons scientists that offers that very perspective. Made from more than 100 New Horizons images taken over six weeks of approach and close flyby, the video offers a trip in to Pluto – starting with a distant spacecraft’s-eye view of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, to an eventual ride in for a “landing” on the shoreline of Pluto’s informally named Sputnik Planum.

“Just over a year ago, Pluto was a dot in the distance,” said New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado. “This video shows what it would be like to ride aboard an approaching spacecraft and see Pluto grow to become a world, and then to swoop down over its spectacular terrains as if we were approaching some future landing on them!”

[Constantine Tsang, a New Horizons scientist at SwRI who worked with Stern to create the movie, said]:

“The challenge in creating this movie is to make it feel like you’re diving into Pluto,” … “We had to interpolate some of the frames based on we know Pluto looks like to make it as smooth and seamless as possible. It’s certainly fun to see this and think what it would feel like to approach a landing on Pluto!”

After a 9.5-year voyage covering more than three billion miles, New Horizons flew through the Pluto system on July 14, 2015, coming within 7,800 miles (12,500 kilometers) of Pluto itself. Carrying powerful telescopic cameras that could spot features smaller than a football field, New Horizons has sent back hundreds of images of Pluto and its moons that show how dynamic and fascinating their surfaces are – and what great targets they’d make for follow-up mission one day.

Astronomy, Space Science

Video: Evolution and explosion of massive stars

Carl Sagan said, “We are made of starstuff.” And most of that starstuff came from the explosions of really big stars. Here is a recent SETI Institute seminar about the latest developments in understanding the life and death processes of massive stars: The Evolution and Explosion of Massive Stars -SETI Institute

Massive stars (at least ~8 solar masses) play an essential role to the evolution of the universe. They lose energy in radiation and neutrinos as they evolve, to create elements necessary to life and to stir the interstellar medium. Upon their death, they experience a dynamical instability that often creates spectacular explosions, which are the birth cries of exotic compact remnants – neutron stars and black holes.

The field of evolution and explosion of massive stars has progressed tremendously in the past half-century, yet there are still many issues remain at large. In this talk, soon to be Dr. Sukhbold will provide a generic overview of the problem and will discuss recent developments on surveying the explosion outcomes of massive stars (nucleosynthesis, remnants, light curves) through 1-dimensional calculations