Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Aerospace

Lunar Transit of the Sun

Although there will be an eclipse of the Moon later today, there was a solar eclipse, of sorts, last week — from the vantage point of one of the recently-launched STEREO spacecraft, that is. Astronomy Picture of the Day featured this video of a lunar transit of the Sun taken by the cameras on board STEREO B, one of two STEREO spacecraft en route to their observation stations. The angular subtense of the Moon in this video is about a quarter of the size as would be seen from Earth.

Video courtesy NASA & APOD.

03 Mar 2007 by Aerospace Rocket Science

Assymetrical Solar Polar Mystery

solar magnetic fieldTo see is to know — that’s an old science and engineering principle that has been around for most of the history of human technological progress. If you hypothesize you can develop a theory about a topic. If you have a theory, it isn’t much good unless you test it. Testing, it seems, isn’t always easy nor is it infallible. And once in a while, when testing your theories, you come up with a real head-scratcher. Like why is the Sun’s south pole cooler than it’s north pole? Why does that hold true regardless of the solar magnetic field’s north-south orientation?

Image: Ulysses and the Solar Magnetic Field (click image for full-size view) ESA Solar Image Gallery

I know, I know! It must be industrial pollution on planet Earth and greenhouse gasses . . . well, maybe Al Gore can explain it better.

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20 Feb 2007 by Aerospace Rocket Science

SOHO Captures First Complete Solar Cycle


2007 SOHO EIT IMAGE

1997 SOHO EIT IMAGE

SOHO moves around the Sun in step with the Earth, by slowly orbiting around the First Lagrangian Point (L1), where the combined gravity of the Earth and Sun keep SOHO in an orbit locked to the Earth-Sun line. The L1 point is approximately 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth (about four times the distance of the Moon), in the direction of the Sun. From that vantage point, SOHO’s Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) has enjoyed an uninterrupted view of our daylight star for the last eleven-plus years. All previous solar observatories have orbited the Earth, from where their observations were periodically interrupted as our planet `eclipsed’ the Sun.

SOHO’s Pick of the Week featured this remarkable milestone:

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16 Feb 2007 by Aerospace Astronomy

Comet McNaught Transits SOHO

This is simply extraordinary . . . We’re in awe.

Brightest Comet in Over Forty Years

Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) has not only become the brightest comet SOHO has ever seen, but even the brightest comet observed in over forty years! The comet swung by the sun on Jan 12th – 15th, and is now emerging into the skies of the southern hemisphere. During its close encounter with our mother star, comet McNaught became a naked-eye object in broad daylight. It was discovered on August 7th, 2006 by the hugely successful comet discoverer Rob McNaught (Siding Spring Survey). At time of discovery, the comet was a very faint object, but the predicted perihelion distance (closest distance to the sun) of just 0.17 AU indicated already that the object had the potential to become very bright.

As you are probably aware, the LASCO instrument on-board SOHO has the ability to watch comets as they get extremely close to the Sun. Fortunately for us, comet McNaught has passed right through the LASCO C3 field of view! We do not know exactly the peak brightness of the comet yet, but it is definitely brighter than -3 mag! It is thus much brighter than comet NEAT or comet 96P/Machholz. In other words, comet McNaught is by far the brightest and most spectacular comet SOHO has ever seen!

18 Jan 2007 by Aerospace Astronomy Science

Google Meets NASA

I worry when a large, politically left-leaning enterprise like Google teams up with a government bureaucracy like NASA. True, I support most of the Space Programs, but wonder if this will pan out.

Google and NASA Ames will focus on making the most useful of NASA’s information available on the Internet. Real-time weather visualization and forecasting, high-resolution 3-D maps of the moon and Mars, real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle will be explored in the future.

Well, it sounds like fun, but . . .

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21 Dec 2006 by Aerospace Rocket Science

Does Mars Leak Water?

NASA Scientists announced today that there is compelling evidence that liquid water flows on Mars: From NASA:

NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows in Brief Spurts on Mars

NASA photographs have revealed bright new deposits seen in two gullies on Mars that suggest water carried sediment through them sometime during the past seven years.

“These observations give the strongest evidence to date that water still flows occasionally on the surface of Mars,” said Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, Washington.

Image right: A new gully deposit in a crater in the Centauri Montes Region. Image credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems

Liquid water, as opposed to the water ice and water vapor known to exist at Mars, is considered necessary for life. The new findings heighten intrigue about the potential for microbial life on Mars. The Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor provided the new evidence of the deposits in images taken in 2004 and 2005.

“The shapes of these deposits are what you would expect to see if the material were carried by flowing water,” said Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. “They have finger-like branches at the downhill end and easily diverted around small obstacles.” Malin is principal investigator for the camera and lead author of a report about the findings published in the journal Science.

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06 Dec 2006 by Aerospace Rocket Science Technobabble

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