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 GRAIL-A and GRAIL-B spacecraft reached Lunar Orbit on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day
Illustration shows NASA's twin GRAIL spacecraft flying in tandem orbit around the Moon. They will map the Moon's gravity field with unprecedented precision to unlock hidden secrets about the Moon's interior composition and determine if it possesses an inner core to enable a reconstruction of the Moon's early evolution. Credit: Lockheed Martin Take a good close look at the Moon today and consider this; Two new Moon's just reached orbit. NASA is ringing in the New Year with a double dose of campaign toasts celebrating the back to back triumphal insertions of a pair of tiny probes into tandem lunar orbits this weekend that seek to unravel the hidden mysteries lurking deep inside the Moon and figure out how the inner solar system formed eons ago. Following closely on the heels of her twin sister, NASA's GRAIL-B spacecraft ignited her main braking rockets precisely as planned on New Year's Day (Jan.1) to go into a formation flying orbit around the Moon, chasing behind GRAIL-A which arrived on New Year's Eve (Dec. 31). "Now we have them both in orbit. What a great feeling!!!!" NASA manager Jim Green told Universe Today just minutes after the thruster firing was done. (...)
Read the rest of Two new Moons join the Moon – GRAIL Twins Achieve New Year’s Orbits (1,088 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: GRAIL, GRAIL Lunar mission, gravity mappers, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Moon, NASA
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 Hanke-Henry Permanent Calendar - Credit: Richard Conn Henry/Johns Hopkins University It’s another new year and time to remember to write new dates again. While it might take a few weeks to remember to do it right first time, Johns Hopkins Scholars say our traditional calendar needs a major overhaul. By utilizing computer programs and mathematical formulas, Richard Conn Henry, an astrophysicist in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Steve H. Hanke, an applied economist in the Whiting School of Engineering, have devised a new calendar where each year is identical to the year before it… and the year after. (...)
Read the rest of New Year – New Calendar… But Johns Hopkins Scholars Say We Need A Permanent Edition (782 words)
© tammy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Standard Calendar
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 The Cosmic Energy Inventory chart by Markus Pössel, Haus der Astronomie. Click for larger version. Editor’s Note: Markus Pössel is a theoretical physicist turned astronomical outreach scientist. He is the managing scientist at the Centre for Astronomy Education and Outreach “Haus der Astronomie” in Heidelberg, Germany.
Now that the old year has drawn to a close, it’s traditional to take stock. And why not think big and take stock of everything there is? Let’s base our inventory on energy. And as Einstein taught us that energy and mass are equivalent, that means automatically taking stock of all the mass that’s in the universe, as well – including all the different forms of matter we might be interested in. Of course, since the universe might well be infinite in size, we can’t simply add up all the energy. What we’ll do instead is look at fractions: How much of the energy in the universe is in the form of planets? How much is in the form of stars? How much is plasma, or dark matter, or dark energy? (...)
Read the rest of Guest Post: The Cosmic Energy Inventory (1,798 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cosmology, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Ordinary Matter, Physics
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 An artist's conception of AVIATR, an airplane mission to the second largest moon in our solar system: Titan. Credit: Mike Malaska 2011 It has been said that the atmosphere on Titan is so dense that a person could strap a pair of wings on their back and soar through its skies. It's a pretty fascinating thought. And Titan – Saturn's largest moon – is a pretty fascinating place. After all, it's the only other body in our solar system (besides Earth, of course) that has that type of atmosphere and evidence of liquid on its surface. "As far as its scientific interest, Titan is the most interesting target in the Solar System," Dr. Jason W. Barnes of the University of Idaho told Universe Today. That's why Barnes and a team of 30 scientists and engineers created an unmanned mission concept to explore Titan called AVIATR (Aerial Vehicle for In-situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance). The plan, which primarily consists of a 120 kg plane soaring through the natural satellite's atmosphere, was published online late last month. (...)
Read the rest of AVIATR: An Airplane Mission for Titan (698 words)
© Lillian Ortiz for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: airplane mission, AVIATR, Titan
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 Meteor Credit: Shooting Star Wallpapers The first of the 2012 meteor showers – The Quadrantids – peaks on the night of the 3rd and 4th of January. The Quadrantid meteor shower is one of the major annual meteor showers and often performs well under ideal observing conditions. The Quadrantids can be quite impressive with a Zenithal Hourly Rate (ZHR) of up to 120 meteors per hour at their peak (under perfect conditions) and can sometimes produce rates of 60 to 200 meteors per hour. The peak is quite narrow lasting only a few hours, with activity either side of the peak sometimes being weak, but well worth observing. Due to a waxing gibbous Moon, the best time to look is after midnight and through the early hours, plenty of time for us to see the peak build up to 07:20 UT on the 4th, but the Quadrantids are active from December 28th through January 12th so we should have plenty of chances to spot some shooting stars. The radiant of the Quadrantids (where the meteors radiate from) is in the constellation of Boötes, however many people are misled in thinking they need to look at the radiant to see the meteors – this is not true. Meteors will come from the radiant, but will appear anywhere in the whole sky at random. You can trace the meteors (shooting stars) path back to the radiant to confirm if it is a meteor from the meteor shower. You don’t need a telescope or binoculars to watch meteor showers, just your eyes. To enjoy a meteor shower and spot as many meteors as possible, you need to try and place yourself away from bright lights and make yourself comfortable. Meteor showers are best observed if you use a reclining garden chair or something similar so you can keep your gaze on the sky as long as possible. This will give you the best results. For more information on how to observe and enjoy the Quadrantid meteor shower, visit meteorwatch.org
 Quadrantid Meteor Credit: nasa.gov
© Adrian West for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Quadrantid Meteor Shower
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 GRAIL-A spacecraft achieved Lunar Orbit Insertion on New Year's Eve.
Artists concept shows twin GRAIL spacecraft orbiting the Moon. The twin GRAIL spacecraft will fly in tandem to map the moon's gravity field with unprecedented precision to unlock hidden secrets about the moons interior composition, determine if it possesses an inner core, and yield a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed. Credit: NASA
See exclusive JPL Mission Control photos below Cheers erupted after the first of NASA's twin $496 Million Moon Mapping probes entered orbit on New Year's Eve (Dec. 31) upon completion of the 40 minute main engine burn essential for insertion into lunar orbit. The small GRAIL spacecraft will map the lunar interior with unprecedented precision to deduce the Moon's hidden interior composition. "Engines stopped. It’s in a great initial orbit!!!! ” - NASA's Jim Green told Universe Today, just moments after verification of a successful engine burn and injection of the GRAIL-A spacecraft into an initial eliptical orbit. Green is the Director of Planetary Science at NASA HQ and was stationed inside Mission Control at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Ca (see photos below). "Pop the bubbly & toast the moon! NASA’s GRAIL-A spacecraft is in lunar orbit," NASA tweeted (...)
Read the rest of First GRAIL Twin Enters Lunar Orbit – NASA’s New Year’s Gift to Science (971 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: GRAIL, GRAIL Lunar mission, gravity mapping, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Moon, Moon core, NASA
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 2011 - NASA's Year of the Solar System - The Story of How We Came to Be!
Asteroid Vesta from Dawn - Unveiling a Former Fuzzy Blob with Exquisite Clarity
NASA's Dawn spacecraft achieved orbit at the giant asteroid Vesta in July 2011. The depiction of Vesta is based on images obtained by Dawn's framing cameras. Dawn is an international collaboration of the US, Germany and Italy. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech A year ago, 2011 was proclaimed as the "Year of the Solar System" by NASA's Planetary Science division. And what a year of excitement it was indeed for the planetary science community, amateur astronomers and the general public alike ! NASA successfully delivered astounding results on all fronts – On the Story of How We Came to Be. "2011 was definitely the best year ever for NASA Planetary Science!" said Jim Green in an exclusive interview with Universe Today. Green is the Director of Planetary Science for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA HQ. “The Search for Life is a significant priority for NASA.”(...)
Read the rest of 2011: Top Stories from the Best Year Ever for NASA Planetary Science! (2,408 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 1 Ceres, 4 vesta, Cassini Saturn, Comet Tempel 1, Comet Wild 2, Curiosity Rover, Dawn Asteroid Orbiter, deep impact mission, Earth, GRAIL Lunar mission, Juno mission, Jupiter, Main Asteroid Belt, Mars, Mars Rovers, Mars Science Laboratory, Mercury, Mercury MESSENGER, Moon, NASA, Opportunity Rover, Search for Life, stardust mission, STARDUST-NExT
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 Today's Journal Club is about a new addition to the Standard Model of fundamental particles. According to Wikipedia, a Journal Club is a group of individuals who meet regularly to critically evaluate recent articles in the scientific literature. Since this is Universe Today if we occasionally stray into critically evaluating each other’s critical evaluations, that’s OK too. And of course, the first rule of Journal Club is… don’t talk about Journal Club. So, without further ado – today’s journal article is about a new addition to the Standard Model of fundamental particles.(...)
Read the rest of Journal Club – This new Chi b (3P) thingy (374 words)
© Steve Nerlich for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: large hadron collider
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 Artist's conception of a terraformed Mars. Credit: Wikimedia Commons As we continue to explore farther out into our solar system and beyond, the question of habitation or colonization inevitably comes up. Manned bases on the Moon or Mars for example, have long been a dream of many. There is a natural desire to explore as far as we can go, and also to extend humanity’s presence on a permanent or at least semi-permanent basis. In order to do this, however, it is necessary to adapt to different extreme environments. On the Moon for example, a colony must be self-sustaining and protect its inhabitants from the airless, harsh environment outside. Mars, though, is different. While future bases could adapt to the Martian environment as well, there is also the possibility of modifying the surrounding environment instead of just co-existing with it. This is the process of terraforming – essentially trying to tinker with Mars’ atmosphere and environment to make it more Earth-like. Although still a long ways off technologically, terraforming the Red Planet is seen as a future possibility. Perhaps the bigger question is, should we? (...)
Read the rest of Should We Terraform Mars? (645 words)
© Paul Scott Anderson for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | 165 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Mars, Terraforming
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