Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

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Space Odyssey

SPACE ODYSSEYAbout two years ago, I posted an article about the launch of the New Horizons interplanetary probe bound for Pluto. As part of the complex trajectory of the spacecraft, it passes close to planets that give it a gravitational ‘boost.’ When it passed by Jupiter last February, it captured images of the giant planet and its moons. This montage of the Jovian planet and its moon Io is reminiscent of scenes in the 1968 sci-fi classic ‘2001: A Space Odyssey.’

Please go to Astronomy Picture of the Day to see this incredible image close up.

Here’s the APOD story about this image:

As the New Horizons spacecraft sweeps through the Solar System, it is taking breathtaking images of the planets. In February of last year, New Horizons passed Jupiter and the ever-active Jovian moon Io. In this montage, Jupiter was captured in three bands of infrared light making the Great Red Spot look white. Complex hurricane-like ovals, swirls, and planet-ringing bands are visible in Jupiter’s complex atmosphere. Io is digitally superposed in natural color. Fortuitously, a plume was emanating from Io’s volcano Tvashtar. Frost and sulfuric lava cover the volcanic moon, while red-glowing lava is visible beneath the blue sunlight-scattering plume. The robotic New Horizons spacecraft is on track to arrive at Pluto in 2015.

08 Jan 2008 by Aerospace Rocket Science

Extreme Solar Images

NASA’s SOHO Extreme ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) scientific instrument has captured a complete solar cycle in the ultraviolet (extremely short wavelength light waves) spectrum. This remarkable collage demonstrates the extent to which the Sun changes over its cycle. Solar cycles have been documented for several hundred years, but never with so much detailed information as over this past cycle.

solar cycle

Every eleven years, our Sun goes through a solar cycle. A complete solar cycle has now been imaged by the sun-orbiting SOHO spacecraft, celebrating the 12th anniversary of its launch yesterday. A solar cycle is caused by the changing magnetic field of the Sun, and varies from solar maximum, when sunspot, coronal mass ejection, and flare phenomena are most frequent, to solar minimum, when such activity is relatively infrequent. Solar minimums occurred in 1996 and 2007, while the last solar maximum occurred in 2001 Pictured above is a SOHO image of the Sun in extreme ultraviolet light for each year of the last solar cycle, with images picked to illustrate the relative activity of the Sun.

Image, story courtesy SOHO – EIT Consortium, ESA, NASA & Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Please read our previous post about what the Sun is and what it does. Also read about how Solar activity can be correlated with global climate fluctuations. Then please refer to our Global Warming Resources page.

Educate yourselves – don’t trust good-intentioned but misinformed sources, and be wary of political opportunists whose goal is not to save mankind, but to cripple free enterprise and democracy.

03 Dec 2007 by Aerospace Global Warming Rocket Science

Solar Sparkler

sparkler.jpgNASA’s SOHO website has a weekly feature that highlights selected solar events. This week’s SOHO Pick of the Week is about a video taken by one of the STEREO Spacecraft pair. STEREO consists of two space-based observatories – one ahead of Earth in its orbit, the other trailing behind. The video reveals a recent “shower of sparks” event on the sun’s surface. The circled region in the inset is where to look when playing the 36-second video embedded below:

Continue reading…

09 Sep 2007 by Astronomy Rocket Science

A Real Shooting Star

mira-tail.jpgCal Tech Astronomers using the GALEX telescope, made a very interesting and unprecedented discovery of a massive tail being left in the trail of a well-known star, Mira. The faint tail, seen in ultraviolet light, spans more than 13 light years in the wake of Mira. The discovery of this phenomenon includes a ‘bow-shock’ ahead of the star, analogous to a vessel underway on the sea.

Mira, a late-sequence red-giant star, is shedding it’s outer layers as it hurtles through the universe at amazingly high speeds (relative to our Sun). As scientists study this interesting discovery, they are likely to learn more about the ultimate destiny of our own star, which, as we know, will be similar to Mira in about five billion years.

From Science@NASA:

August 15, 2007: Astronomers using a NASA space telescope, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, have spotted an amazingly long comet-like tail behind a star streaking through space. The star, named Mira after the Latin word for “wonderful,” has been a favorite of astronomers for about 400 years, yet this is the first time the tail has been seen.

Galaxy Evolution Explorer–“GALEX” for short–scanned the popular star during its ongoing survey of the entire sky in ultraviolet light. Astronomers then noticed what looked like a comet with a gargantuan tail. In fact, material blowing off Mira is forming a wake 13 light-years long, or about 20,000 times the average distance of Pluto from the sun. Nothing like this has ever been seen before around a star.

NASA and JPL/Caltech prepared a half-minute animation which is an artist’s conception of Mira generating her tail. Be sure and watch this neat little video.

Continue reading…

16 Aug 2007 by Astronomy Environment Rocket Science

The Flight of the Phoenix

phoenix-lander.jpgYesterday’s launch of the asteroid-bound Dawn Mission was postponed until September due to bad weather and potential interference with the scheduled launch of the Mars Phoenix Lander on August 8th.NASA has scheduled a news conference for later today to discuss aspects of the postponement and the Phoenix program. Prior to the Phoenix presentations, media will have the opportunity to learn in more detail about the rescheduled Dawn launch.

Image left: Artist’s concept of Phoenix on the surface of Mars. Image credit: NASA/JPL.

The Phoenix Lander is the first in a series of landers in NASA’s Mars Scout Program. The “Phoenix” name is taken as the lander is a reincarnation of previous landers or failed missions. Phoenix will land in the icy Northern Plains of Mars and become a fixed-location probe designed to explore the geological history of that region of the planet.

Read more about the Phoenix Lander Program and watch the really cool NASA animated video of the arrival of Phoenix on Mars: Continue reading…

09 Jul 2007 by Aerospace Rocket Science

SOHO — So Spectacular

This video is from a collection of SOHO images taken over the operational lifetime of the spacecraft (a little more than eleven years). In it you can see some of the more spectacular solar activity that occurred over that period.

“The Sun is anything but a stable, yellow ball in the sky.” That quote is the opening line of commentary in a recently-produced NASA video about the STEREO project — another spaceborne observation system that captures solar images in three dimensions.

I look forward to seeing a three-dimensional equivalent of this video from STEREO in the not-to-distant future.

Video courtesy NASA and SOHO

10 May 2007 by Aerospace Astronomy Rocket Science

First STEREO Images

The STEREO spacecraft has furnished its first 3D images. The images are taken from STEREO’s X-ray cameras; one taken from the “Ahead” spacecraft and one taken from the “Behind” spacecraft and then combined to produce the 3D effect.

To view these anaglyphic images in 3D you will need red-blue glasses, which you can get free from Rainbow Symphony.

stereo 3d

I also repackaged a lower-bandwidth video of the rotation of the solar disk leading up to the view of the Sun seen above. I even put some music to it to add some cinematic pizazz. Eat your heart out, Al Gore:

Continue reading…

24 Apr 2007 by Astronomy Environment Rocket Science

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