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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

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

STEREO Sends First Solar Images

For the first time since its October Launch, the twin-spacecraft STEREO project is producing and sending back images of the Sun. Projects like these are important to understanding the effects of the Sun on our climate and environment. The more that we know about this, the better we are able to further disarm global climate alarmist fantasies about anthropogenic effects.

Image right: A close up of loops in a magnetic active region. These loops, observed by STEREO’s SECCHI/EUVI telescope, are at a million degrees C. This powerful active region, AR903, observed here on Dec. 4, produced a series of intense flares over the next few days. Credit: NASA

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20 Dec 2006 by Environment Global Warming Rocket Science

Auroras from Space

Some especially intense auroras resulting from solar flares associated with sunspot 930 were visible from outer space via an Air Force satellite. Here’s the story from SpaceWeather.com:

AURORAS FROM SPACE: How bright were the auroras of Dec. 14th? As bright as city lights and easily seen from space. A US Air Force DMSP satellite took this picture from orbit 830 km above the United States:

The bright arc stretching from Montana to Maine is the aurora Borealis. In many places it completely overwhelms the city lights below.

“The DMSP satellite has the ability to detect auroral light at night,” says Paul McCrone of the Air Force Weather Agency at Offutt AFB in Nebraska. “These images are mosaics of various DMSP overflights on Dec. 12-13, Dec. 13-14, and Dec 14-15. The Dec. 14th image is quite striking.”

19 Dec 2006 by Rocket Science Technobabble

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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