Monthly Archives: May 2017

Gas giants Saturn, Jupiter, et al, Multiple media

Juno: Completes 5th low pass over Jupiter + More citizen scientist images

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Citizen scientist Bjorn Jonsson made this beautiful picture of a spot on Jupiter by applying image processing techniques on an photo taken by the Juno spacecraft, which is currently in orbit around the gas giant.

This enhanced color view of Jupiter’s cloud tops was processed by citizen scientist Bjorn Jonsson using data from the JunoCam instrument on NASA’s Juno spacecraft. The image highlights a massive counterclockwise rotating storm that appears as a white oval in the gas giant’s southern hemisphere. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech /SwRI /MSSS/Bjorn Jonsson Juno acquired this image on Feb. 2, 2017, at 6:13 a.m. PDT (9:13 a.m. EDT), as the spacecraft performed a close flyby of Jupiter. When the image was taken, the spacecraft was about 9,000 miles (14,500 kilometers) from the planet. [Large version]
And another Juno image from someone with the tag: Ossietzky-68:

JUPITER’S EYES  –  Ossietzky-68.  Three storms in row on Jupiters atmosphere resembles eyes on the planet.  Mission Phase : PERIJOVE 6. 2017-05-23 03:11 UT Credit : NASA, Juno © PUBLIC DOMAIN

Raw images from JunoCam that the public can examine and process are available at www.missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam

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Juno is in long elliptical orbit that brings in periodically in close to the surface of Jupiter. Last week the spacecraft completed the fifth such pass above the clouds:

NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Completes Fifth Science Pass of Jupiter

Updated May 19, 2017, at 1:30 p.m. PDT: NASA’s Juno mission accomplished a close flyby of Jupiter on May 19, successfully completing its fifth science orbit.

All of Juno’s science instruments and the spacecraft’s JunoCam were operating during the flyby, collecting data that is now being returned to Earth. Juno’s next close flyby of Jupiter will occur on July 11, 2017, taking it over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

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NASA’s Juno spacecraft will make its fifth science flyby over Jupiter’s mysterious cloud tops on Thursday, May 18, at 11 p.m. PDT (Friday, May 19, 2 a.m. EDT and 6:00 UTC). At the time of perijove (defined as the point in Juno’s orbit when it is closest to the planet’s center), the spacecraft will have logged 63.5 million miles (102 million kilometers) in Jupiter’s orbit and will be about 2,200 miles (3,500 kilometers) above the planet’s cloud tops.

Juno launched on Aug. 5, 2011, from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and arrived in orbit around Jupiter on July 4, 2016. During its mission of exploration, Juno soars low over the planet’s cloud tops — as close as about 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) During these flybys, Juno is probing beneath the obscuring cloud cover of Jupiter and studying its auroras to learn more about the planet’s origins, structure, atmosphere and magnetosphere.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, manages the Juno mission for the principal investigator, Scott Bolton, of Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. The Juno mission is part of the New Frontiers Program managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the spacecraft. JPL is a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California.

More information on the Juno mission is available at:

The public can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at:

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Activism, Space Policy, SpaceCasts

The Space Show this week – May.22.2017

The guests and topics of discussion on The Space Show this week:

1. Monday, May 22, 2017: 2-3:30 pm PDT (5-6:30 pm EDT, 4-5:30 pm CDT): We welcome Josh Guild of The Space Frontier Foundation to tell us about the upcoming June NewSpace Conference to be held in San Francisco, CA.

2. Tuesday, May 23 , 2017: 7-8:30 pm PDT, 10-11:30 pm EDT, 9-10:30 pm CDT: No show today as I am finally undergoing my long delayed dental surgery.

3. Wednesday, May 24, 2016: John Batchelor is on a fact finding working travel project. There will be no Hotel Mars program this week.

4. Friday, May 26, 2016: 9:30-11 am  PDT, 12:30-2 pm EDT, 11:30 am-1 pm CDT: We welcome back Dr. Scott Pace for space policy updates and more.

5. Sunday, May 28, 2017: 12-1:30 pm PDT (3-4:30 pm EDT, 2-3:30 pm CDT): No show today due to the Memorial Day Holiday weekend.

See also:
* The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
* The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
* The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

The Space Show - David Livingston
David Livingston
Activism, Space participation, SpaceCasts

Video: TRMO Orbit 10.19 – A look at ISS Above

The latest TMRO.tv program is now available:

Liam Kennedy, the creator of ISSAbove joins us on-station to talk about how simply knowing when to look up can have a huge impact on our ability to inspire.

Space news topics:

* Hubble spots moon around third largest dwarf planet
* Engine Updates from Blue Origin & Aerojet Rocketdyne
* Could the closest extrasolar planet be habitable?
* Some Masten Space Updates
* Puzzle of mysterious flashes coming from Earth solved
* Government Accountability Office Looks at Commercial Crew

TMRO is viewer supported:

TMRO:Space is a crowd funded show. If you like this episode consider contributing to help us to continue to improve. Head over to http://www.patreon.com/tmro for information, goals and reward levels.

Astronomy

Tabby’s Star begins to dim again and astronomers around the globe are watching

Tabby’s Star is currently one of the oddest objects observed in our galaxy. Citizen scientists working in the Planet Hunters program were the first to notice that the light output of the star, which is 1300 light years from earth, was fluctuating downward in an irregular manner never seen before with similar type stars. (See posts here and here.) Subsequent research looking back at telescopic images of the star indicated that the brightness may have been falling over the past 100 years.

The star (also known as Boyajian’s Star) is named after LSU assistant professor Tabetha Boyajian and on Friday she posted on Twitter: “#TabbysStar IS DIPPING! OBSERVE!!” This led observatories around the world to aim their telescopes and radio dishes at the star to observe it in as many wavelengths as possible. She also posted a graph showing the drop in brightness:

Boyajian is posting updates on Twitter and on the website Where’s the Flux? E.g. WTF Has Gone Into a Dip! | Where’s the Flux?

Currently, we are organizing and cataloging dozens of observations from multiple observers worldwide. Planned responses include photometric observations in multiple bands, spectrometry, and more exotic observations such as polarimetry. We are also continuing the monitoring with the Las Cumbres telescopes at an increased cadence (probably three or four sequences every hour),

Stay tuned for more news about this exciting event!

More about Tabby’s Star:

Living in Space, Space Systems, SpaceCasts

Video: “Space to Ground” ISS report – May.19.2017

Here is the latest “Space to Ground” report from NASA on recent activities related to the International Space Station:

A nice view of two CubeSats shooting into orbit from the ISS: CubeSats Deployed Outside Station’s Kibo Lab Module | NASA –

A pair of CubeSats, with the Earth’s limb in the background, moments after being ejected from a small satellite deployer [built by NanoRacks] outside of the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module on Wednesday, May 16, 2017. The tiny shoebox-sized satellites will orbit Earth observing the Earth’s upper atmosphere and interstellar radiation left over from the Big Bang. Over a dozen CubeSats were ejected into Earth orbit this week outside the Kibo module to study Earth and space phenomena for the next one to two years.

 

Update: Another view of one of the deployments:

Update 2: This video shows the preparation of the deployer in the Japanese Kibo module:

 

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