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NASA Explains Martian Flash, and It's Not What You Think

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A leader of NASA's Mars Curiosity rover team has offered a couple of explanations for an anomalous bright spot that showed up on pictures from the Red Planet but they're not the conventional explanations.

Let's get this straight first: It's not an alien spotlight, according to Justin Maki, an imaging scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who is the lead for Curiosity's engineering cameras. Maki isn't giving any weight to the not-completely-serious claims that are being bandied about by UFO websites.

At the same time, Maki isn't immediately dismissing the phenomenon as a double-shot of cosmic rays or data dropouts. In his view, that spot of light could have entered Curiosity's right-hand navigation camera, even though there's no sign of the spot in the stereo imagery from the left-hand camera.

Maki and his colleagues think it could be a well-placed flash of reflected sunlight, or light shining through a chink in Curiosity's camera housing. Here's his explanation, passed along via email:

"Bright spots appear in single images taken by the Navigation Camera on NASA's Curiosity Mars rover on April 2 and April 3. Each is in an image taken by this stereo camera's right-eye camera [with links to the April 3 and April 2 pictures] but not in images taken within a second of each of those by the left-eye camera [again, with links to April 3 and April 2]. In the two right-eye images, the spot is in different locations of the image frame and, in both cases, at the ground surface level in front of a crater rim on the horizon.

"One possibility is that the light is the glint from a rock surface reflecting the sun. When these images were taken each day, the sun was in the same direction as the bright spot, west-northwest from the rover, and relatively low in the sky. The rover science team is also looking at the possibility that the bright spots could be sunlight reaching the camera's CCD directly through a vent hole in the camera housing, which has happened previously on other cameras on Curiosity and other Mars rovers when the geometry of the incoming sunlight relative to the camera is precisely aligned.

"We think it's either a vent-hole light leak or a glinty rock."

NASA spokesman Guy Webster told NBC News that both pictures were taken during the Martian afternoon. He said a member of the rover team is checking for other examples of light leaks and Martian sunglint.

Even if the flash is the glint from a shiny rock, the crater's rim looks far enough away that Curiosity's course is unlikely to be changed to investigate. Unless, of course, it turns out to be a Martian flashing a mirror.

A bright spot shows up in Curiosity's right-hand navigation camera image from April 2.

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NASA Explains Martian Flash, and It's Not What You Think

NASA Curiosity rover captures image of 'white light' in distance

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Life on Mars? How about light on Mars? Actually, how about neither?

NASA's Curiosity rover snapped an image of what appears to be a bright white light shining on the planet's horizon. The speculation surrounding the photo was covered by many outlets, including NBC News and the Houston Chronicle.

So what is it? Is it a UFO? It's a UFO, right? Come on, say it's a UFO.

Well, no. Yahoo News asked NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory what was up. In an email, Justin Maki, an imaging scientist there and the lead for the Curiosity's engineering cameras, explained that the "bright spots" appear in images taken by the stereo camera's right-eye camera, but not the left.

"In the two right-eye images, the spot is in different locations of the image frame and, in both cases, at the ground surface level in front of a crater rim on the horizon."

"One possibility is that the light is the glint from a rock surface reflecting the sun. When these images were taken each day, the sun was in the same direction as the bright spot, west-northwest from the rover, and relatively low in the sky. The rover science team is also looking at the possibility that the bright spots could be sunlight reaching the camera's CCD directly through a vent hole in the camera housing, which has happened previously on other cameras on Curiosity and other Mars rovers when the geometry of the incoming sunlight relative to the camera is precisely aligned. We think it's either a vent-hole light leak or a glinty rock."

Doug Ellison, who also works at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, offered his opinion on Twitter. His theory: a "cosmic ray hit."

Phil Plait of Slate's Bad Astronomer blog agrees with Ellison. He explains that cosmic rays "are charged subatomic particles (like protons, electrons and so on) zipping around in space." They don't show up on Earth as our atmosphere absorbs them, but "if you put a telescope in space, they are bombarded by these little beasties."

Bottom line experts aren't sure what the "light" is yet. But we can be confident it isn't E.T.

The photo taken by NASA's Mars Curiosity rover (NASA)

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NASA Curiosity rover captures image of 'white light' in distance

NASA chief faces questions about travel

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - The chairman of a House Appropriations subcommittee probed NASA Administrator Charles Bolden on Tuesday morning citing apparent massive overuse of premium first- and business-class air travel upgrades for agency employees, including trips first publicized by Scripps News nearly a month ago.

I dont travel first class, Bolden told the committee.

Among the trips cited by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., was a $14,773 flight NASA reported booking for Ames Research Center Director Simon Pete Worden to travel first class from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco in 2011.

When Scripps News first raised questions about the trip, NASA officials said its records were incorrect and the trip never happened. Worden told Scripps News it did.

Wolf also asked why Bolden charged taxpayers $1,641 for a one-way first-class flight from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles in June 2010. NASA records say the average coach fare for the flight is less than $200.

Bolden said he often uses frequent flier miles to upgrade at no cost. He was unable to explain why the costlier fares were reported in NASA records, and said he would get answers.

I cant help how its accounted for, said Bolden, who was testifying about NASAs 2015 budget request before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies. We are looking into it. The IG (inspector general) is looking into it.

Wolf, who chairs the subcommittee, cited serious problems with some of the space agencys fiscal decisions, including travel spending reported in annual disclosures to the General Services Administration. He urged more stringent belt-tightening and oversight.

If NASA is going to continue to receive the support of Congress, it absolutely must do a better job, Wolf said. The criticism came as Bolden answered questions about the agencys $17.46 billion budget request.

NASA approved one-way premium upgrades that it reported cost from $3,000 to more than $10,000 apiece on 515 occasions over four years, Scripps reported after reviewing agency records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

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NASA chief faces questions about travel

NASA Image Shows Volcanic Island Has Annexed Its Neighbor

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hide captionAn image taken by the Landsat 8 satellite last month shows the new, larger Nishino-shima.

An image taken by the Landsat 8 satellite last month shows the new, larger Nishino-shima.

There's some new, pristine real estate on the remote Japanese island of Nishino-shima

Volcanic activity has merged the tiny island with a new neighbor that started to form late last year, creating a single landmass, NASA satellite imagery shows. The island is now a bit more than a half-mile across.

According to NASA:

"In November 2013, a seafloor volcano in the western Pacific Ocean spewed enough material to rise above the water line. The new island, or "niijima" in Japanese, sprouted just 500 meters from Nishino-shima, another volcanic island that had last erupted and expanded in 197374. Four months later, the new and the old are now one island, and the volcanic eruption shows no sign of abating.

On March 30, 2014, the Operational Land Imager on the Landsat 8 satellite snapped the image above of Nishino-shima, which sits about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) south of Tokyo in the Ogasawara (Bonin) Island chain. NASA says its position is approximately 2714' North, 14052' East.

The white outline in the photo shows the extent of the new island on December 30, 2013.

Volcanologist and blogger Erik Klemetti noted earlier in 2014: "This is a great example of how volcanic islands like this in the Bonin Islands grow over hundreds to thousands of eruptions."

As we reported last year, the emergence of new islands is not all that uncommon.

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NASA Image Shows Volcanic Island Has Annexed Its Neighbor

NASA Software Brought Down To Earth With New Catalog

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April 7, 2014

Image Credit: NASA

NASA

From the rudimentary but effective Apollo Guidance and Navigation System that landed the first humans on the lunar landscape to the code used to manage robotic missions to explore other planets, software has always been at the core of NASAs mission successes.

When NASA develops this software, we know the code may have uses beyond the original mission. One of our missions is to ensure that the technologies we create for aeronautics and space missions, including software, have the opportunity to be turned into new products and processes that can benefit the lives of people on Earth. Technology transfer allows us to offer added value to taxpayer investment in cutting edge research and development.

Much of this NASA-developed code will be available for public use through a new software catalog starting April 10.

With over 1,000 codes organized into fifteen broad subject matter categories, the new software catalog offers a large portfolio of software products for a wide variety of applications. These codes represent NASAs best solutions to a wide array of complex mission requirements.

Software is an increasingly important element of the agencys intellectual asset portfolio, making up about a third of our reported inventions every year, said Jim Adams, NASAs deputy chief technologist. We are excited to be able to make that software widely available to the public with the release of our software catalog.

The technologies featured in the software catalog cover project management systems, design tools, data handling, and image processing, as well as solutions for life support functions, aeronautics, structural analysis, and robotic and autonomous systems.

Each NASA code is available at no cost and has been evaluated for access restrictions and designated for a specific type of release, ranging from codes that are open to all US citizens to codes that are restricted to access by other federal agencies.

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NASA Software Brought Down To Earth With New Catalog

New Catalog Brings NASA Software Down to Earth

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NASA is making available to the public, at no cost, more than 1,000 codes with its release on April 10 of a new online software catalog.

Organized into 15 broad categories, the new catalog offers a wide variety of applications for use by industry, academia, other government agencies and the general public.

"Software is an increasingly important element of the agency's intellectual asset portfolio, making up about a third of our reported inventions every year," said Jim Adams, NASA's deputy chief technologist. "We are excited to be able to make that software widely available to the public with the release of our new software catalog."

The technologies featured in the software catalog cover project management systems, design tools, data handling and image processing, as well as solutions for life support functions, aeronautics, structural analysis and robotic and autonomous systems. The codes represent NASA's best solutions to a wide array of complex mission requirements.

Each NASA code has been evaluated for access restrictions and designated for a specific type of release, ranging from codes that are open to all U.S. citizens to codes that are restricted to use by other federal agencies.

"This is the first time the list of all the agency's software is accessible in one place and sorted into categories," said Danny Garcia, chair, NASA Software Release Authority Working Group. "Our group led the compilation of the software catalog for the agency, editing 1000 code descriptions from 10 centers written by many separate authors, so that the catalog will look uniform and be as user-friendly as possible. Future versions of the catalog will be auto-generated by the NASA Technology Transfer System database when someone clicks on the link at the website and will always include the latest codes available."

"NASA is committed to the principles of open government," Adams said. "By making NASA resources more accessible and usable by the public, we are encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. Our Technology Transfer Program is an important part of bringing the benefit of space exploration back to Earth for the benefit of all people."

NASAs Technology Transfer Program, managed by the Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA Headquarters in Washington, ensures technologies developed for exploration and discovery missions are broadly available to the public.

To access the software catalog, and for more information on NASA's Tech Transfer program, visit:

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New Catalog Brings NASA Software Down to Earth

Jumbo JUMBO jet : Nasa’s super sized plane can carry 26 tonnes SPACESHIP parts & still travel 290mph – Video

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Jumbo JUMBO jet : Nasa #39;s super sized plane can carry 26 tonnes SPACESHIP parts still travel 290mph
It might look like a giant whale in the sky, but this super-size plane is in fact Nasa #39;s answer to shipping spacecraft components around the world. Dubbed th...

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Jumbo JUMBO jet : Nasa's super sized plane can carry 26 tonnes SPACESHIP parts & still travel 290mph - Video

Brazil Health & Air Quality – NASA DEVELOP Spring 2014 @ Jet Propulsion Laboratory – Video

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Brazil Health Air Quality - NASA DEVELOP Spring 2014 @ Jet Propulsion Laboratory
In the last fifty years, dengue has infected up to 100 million people annually and is now considered the most important mosquito-borne viral disease. Utilizi...

By: NASA DEVELOP National Program

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Brazil Health & Air Quality - NASA DEVELOP Spring 2014 @ Jet Propulsion Laboratory - Video


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