Spectacular new images from a NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn have captured the most detailed views ever of an enormous hurricane churning around the ringed planet's north pole.

The stunning new images and video of the Saturn hurricane, whichwere taken by NASA's Cassini probe, show that the storm's eye is 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) wide about 20 times bigger than typical hurricane eyes on Earth. And the Saturn maelstrom is more powerful than its Earth counterparts, with winds at its outer edge whipping around at 330 mph (530 km/h).

"We did a double take when we saw this vortex because it looks so much like a hurricane on Earth," Cassini imaging team member Andrew Ingersoll, of Caltech in Pasadena, said in a statement. "But there it is at Saturn, on a much larger scale, and it is somehow getting by on the small amounts of water vapor in Saturn's hydrogen atmosphere." [Amazing Views of Saturn's Mysterious Hurricane (Photos)]

Saturn's hurricane swirls inside a mysterious, six-sided vortex. Unlike hurricanes on Earth, which tend to drift northward as our planet rotates, the Saturn storm and its hexagonal vortex have been camped out at the north pole for a while.

"The polar hurricane has nowhere else to go, and that's likely why it's stuck at the pole," Kunio Sayanagi, a Cassini imaging team associate at Hampton University in Hampton, Va., said in a statement.

While the Saturn hurricane is larger and more powerful than Earth hurricanes, storms on the two planets are alike in some ways. For example, both have central eyes containing very low clouds or no clouds at all, researchers said. Other shared traits are high clouds forming the eye wall, and a counterclockwise spin in the northern hemisphere.

So scientists plan to study how the Saturn storm feeds off atmospheric water vapor, in the hopes of gaining insight into hurricanes here on Earth (which gain their strength from warm ocean water).

Cassini's instruments detected the Saturn storm shortly after the probe arrived in orbit around the ringed planet in 2004. The hurricane was in darkness at the time, however, because it was the middle of the northern Saturn winter.

So Cassini had to wait for the onset of the northern spring in August 2009 to get a good look at the hurricane in visible light. The detailed new views required a shift in the spacecraft's orbit as well, achieved using flybys of Saturn's huge moon Titan, researchers said.

"Such a stunning and mesmerizing view of the hurricane-like storm at the north pole is only possible because Cassini is on a sportier course, with orbits tilted to loop the spacecraft above and below Saturn's equatorial plane," said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

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Wow! Monster Hurricane on Saturn Spied by NASA Spacecraft

NASA's long-lived Opportunity Mars rover has gone into a self-imposed standby mode on the Red Planet, the robot's handlers say.

Mission controllers for Opportunity, which landed on Mars in January 2004, first learned of the issue on Saturday (April 27). On that day, the rover got back in touch after a nearly three-week communication moratorium caused by an unfavorable planetary alignment called a Mars solar conjunction, in which Mars and Earth are on opposite sides of the sun.

The Opportunity rover apparently put itself into standby on April 22 after sensing a problem during a routine camera check, mission managers said.

"Our current suspicion is that Opportunity rebooted its flight software, possibly while the cameras on the mast were imaging the sun," Opportunity project manager John Callas, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., explained in a statement Monday (April 29).

"We found the rover in a standby state called automode, in which it maintains power balance and communication schedules, but waits for instructions from the ground," Callas added. "We crafted our solar conjunction plan to be resilient to this kind of rover reset, if it were to occur."

Opportunity's handlers prepared new commands Monday designed to spur the rover into resuming operations, mission team members said.

The golf-cart-size Opportunity landed on Mars more than nine years ago along with its twin, Spirit, on a three-month mission to search for signs of past water activity on the Red Planet. The two rovers found plenty of such evidence, and then kept trundling across Mars. Spirit was declared dead in 2010, but Opportunity is still going strong.

Mars solar conjunctions occur every 26 months, so Opportunity's team knows how to weather them. This most recent conjunction, in fact, is the fifth that the rover has endured.

Mars solar conjunctions affect NASA's entire fleet of robotic Red Planet explorers. Mission controllers resumed sending commands to the agency's venerable Mars Odyssey orbiter Monday and plan to do the same with the Mars rover Curiosity on Wednesday (May 1), officials said.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwallandGoogle+.Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published onSPACE.com.

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Mars Rover Opportunity Slips Into Standby Mode, NASA Says

Apr 30, 2013 12:26pm

(NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)

Usually, hurricanes on Earth have a small eye and much larger outer bands. But incredibly on Saturn 1,250 miles is the distance of the center eye only. The entire storm could be several thousand miles more.

As for the wind speed in the storm, usually in hurricanes the strongest wind is in the center of the storm around what is called the eye wall of the hurricane, and tends to get weaker as you get to the edge of the hurricane. The wind speed on the outer edge of the cloud band of Saturns hurricane is 330 mph and the winds in the center eye are four times faster than some of the strongest hurricanes on Earth. To compare Saturns storm to hurricanes that affected the U.S., the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. was Camille in 1969 with winds of 190 mph.

One of the interesting facts is that usual hurricanes on Earth feed off the water vapor from the warm ocean water. That gives it the needed energy for the hurricane to develop. But on Saturn there is no body of water nearby for this storm to feed off. Instead it is feeding off of small amounts of water vapor in Saturns hydrogen atmosphere.

Another interesting fact: Hurricanes on Earth form usually in the tropical latitudes and move north due to the forces acting on them. But Saturns storm is located at the planets north pole that has made it stationary with nowhere further north to go. Because of this discovery, NASA scientists believe that it could have been there for years.

Only in 2009 sun began reaching the northern Hemisphere allowing Cassini spacecraft to capture these images. This is because Saturns seasons last nine years each, therefore their north pole is dark nine years at a time. So when the space craft first reached Saturn in 2004, the north pole was in the middle of winter.

NASA scientists will study this terrestrial hurricane-like storm because even though there are differences in size, strength and source of energy, it does carry similar characteristics such a central eye that has no clouds, counter clockwise spin in the northern Hemisphere, and high clouds circling the eye.

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NASA Captures Monster Hurricane

Saturn Hurricane

NASA's spacecraft Cassini took this amazing colorful picture of a Saturn storm that resembles a hurricane on Earth. The center eye of the storm on Saturn is about 1,250 miles wide. That's 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth, that's the distance between Dallas and Washington, DC.

Usually, hurricanes on Earth have a small eye and much larger outer bands. But incredibly on Saturn 1,250 miles is the distance of the center eye only. The entire storm could be several thousand miles more.

As for the wind speed in the storm, usually in hurricanes the strongest wind is in the center of the storm around what is called "the eye wall" of the hurricane, and tends to get weaker as you get to the edge of the hurricane. The wind speed on the outer edge of the cloud band of Saturn's hurricane is 330 mph and the winds in the center eye are four times faster than some of the strongest hurricanes on Earth. To compare Saturn's storm to hurricanes that affected the U.S., the strongest hurricane to hit the U.S. was Camille in 1969 with winds of 190 mph.

One of the interesting facts is that usual hurricanes on Earth feed off the water vapor from the warm ocean water. That gives it the needed energy for the hurricane to develop. But on Saturn there is no body of water nearby for this storm to feed off. Instead it is feeding off of small amounts of water vapor in Saturn's hydrogen atmosphere.

Another interesting fact: Hurricanes on Earth form usually in the tropical latitudes and move north due to the forces acting on them. But Saturn's storm is located at the planet's north pole that has made it stationary with nowhere further north to go. Because of this discovery, NASA scientists believe that it could have been there for years.

Only in 2009 sun began reaching the northern Hemisphere allowing Cassini spacecraft to capture these images. This is because Saturn's seasons last nine years each, therefore their north pole is dark nine years at a time. So when the space craft first reached Saturn in 2004, the north pole was in the middle of winter.

NASA scientists will study this terrestrial hurricane-like storm because even though there are differences in size, strength and source of energy, it does carry similar characteristics such a central eye that has no clouds, counter clockwise spin in the northern Hemisphere, and high clouds circling the eye.

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NASA Captures Monster Hurricane from Space

Breaking News Alien Life Proven By Nasa Photo
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-111/hires/sts111-711-005.jpg http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/shuttle/sts-111/hires/sts111-7...

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UC Davis Rocket to Fly in NASA Competition
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NASA Discovers TWOI NEW Planetary Systems. Most Earth Like Habitable Planets.
NASA Discovers TWO NEW Planetary Systems. Most Earth Like Habitable Planets MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA #39;s Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary s...

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Nasa Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch
If you like PC Games visit: http://www.freemmorpgtoplay.com/ Nasa Space Shuttle Endeavour Launch If you like PC Games visit: http://www.freemmorpgtoplay.com/

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NASA LABAS SI MIKAY GAY| GUEST ON GANDANG GABI VICE

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The Last Three Years of Solar Activity | Solar Dynamics Observatory | NASA SDO Full HD
Visit my website at http://www.junglejoel.com - for the last three years, NASA #39;s SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) has had almost complete coverage of the Sun...

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Nasa labas si mikay !

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Earth Day 2013 on This Week @ NASA
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NASA has launched three smartphones into space in what scientists hope will be the lowest-cost satellites ever tested.

The smartphones, Google-HTC Nexus Ones running the Android operating system, launched aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp.'s Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia on Sunday. The smartphones are encased in 4-inch metal cubes and are hooked up to external lithium-ion battery banks and more powerful radios for sending messages from space.

The goal of this mission is to see just how capable these tiny satellites, dubbed PhoneSats, are and whether they can one day serve as the brains of inexpensive, but powerful, satellites.

"It's always great to see a space technology mission make it to orbit -- the high frontier is the ultimate testing ground for new and innovative space technologies of the future," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology. "Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful satellites for atmospheric or Earth science, communications, or other space-born applications. They also may open space to a whole new generation of commercial, academic and citizen-space users."

The nanosatellites are orbiting Earth about 150 miles up and will fall back toward Earth within the next week and a half, burning up in the atmosphere.

All three PhoneSats are transmitting images taken from space, as well as messages, which generally are about their functions and condition. The transmissions have been received at multiple ground stations on Earth, indicating they are operating normally, reported NASA. The PhoneSat team at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will continue to monitor the satellites until they fall back toward Earth.

Amateur radio operators also are getting in on the project.

The PhoneSats are emitting packets on the amateur radio spectrum. And NASA reported that more than 200 amateur radio operators from around the world have reported receiving the transmissions since the smartphones went into space.

NASA's off-the-shelf nanosatellites already have many of the systems needed for a satellite, including fast processors, versatile operating systems, multiple miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers and several radios, NASA noted.

Because the phones already have so many necessary components, NASA engineers kept the total cost of the parts for the three prototype satellites to between $3,500 and $7,000.

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NASA launches new nanosatellites: Android smartphones

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden appeared before the space subcommittee of the House Science Committee and came under pointed grilling on a number of NASA projects, including the James Webb Space Telescope.

'News to me' that the James Webb Space Telescope is in trouble: Bolden

According to the Houston Chronicle, the hearing covered a variety of subjects, including NASA's plan to snag and then explore an asteroid, the commercial crew program, the Orion and Space Launch System, and NASA's education programs. When asked whether sequestration would impact any NASA programs, Bolden replied that he foresaw no missed deadlines due to the cuts imposed by it. Then subcommittee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, pounced with a recent General Accounting Office report on a number of NASA projects that cast doubt on the schedule and budget estimates for the troubled James Webb Space Telescope. Bolden replied that it was news to him. His information is that things are proceeding nominally.

GAO report on the James Webb Space Telescope

The GAO noted in its chapter on the JWST that two of its instruments are 11 months late. There are concerns that the JWST is above its allotted mass, causing NASA engineers to scramble to bring that mass down. While NASA has expressed 66 percent confidence that the space telescope will still make its allotted $8.7 billion budget and its scheduled launch date of 2018, the GAO does not share that confidence. NASA has not followed best practices in estimating the cost and schedule of the JWST, not identifying key factors of cost that include workforce size.

James Webb Space Telescope has had budget and schedule problems

According to the Washington Post, the JWST has been plagued by budget and schedule problems for years. It has ballooned from a $2.4 billion dollar project that would launch in 2014 to an $8.7 billion project that is scheduled to launch in 2018. The project sparked a fight between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate in 2011 with House Republicans attempting to cancel the JWST and Senate Democrats fighting to maintain funding. A compromise was finally reached that required NASA to cut funding in other areas to maintain the space telescope project.

James Webb Space Telescope the successor to Hubble

The JWST is the most ambitious project of its kind, according to NASA, designed to observe the universe in the visual to infrared range. When launched it will deploy in an orbit about 1 million miles from Earth, using a mirror 21.3 feet in diameter and an sun shade the size of a tennis court. According to Space.com, one of the main selling points for the space telescope will be its ability to not only find alien planets but to examine their atmosphere, breaking down their molecular structure. This is crucial in determining which planets are most like Earth.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo, The Last Moonwalker, and Dreams of Barry's Stepfather. He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.

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NASA's Bolden Tussles with House Panel Over James Webb Space Telescope

(CBS News) The question "Is anybody out there?" grows more tantalizing with the discovery of each new far-off planet. Barry Petersen has been talking to scientists searching for clues . . .

Starry nights inspire wonder, and wondering: Is there life out there?

So how fitting that, in March 2009, NASA launched the planet-hunting telescope Kepler into the night sky.

Look up tonight at the constellation Cygnus -- also known as the Northern Cross -- and up in that one slice of sky is where Kepler has been scanning 150,000 stars every 30 minutes for the last four years.

Natalie Batalha is a Kepler Mission scientist, but she's really a stargazer with a passion. "We were born to be discoverers right? I think that's basically what drives us."

She and other Kepler Mission scientists look at measurements of the brightness of a star. "When the planet passes in front, it's going to block some of the light," Batalha explained.

That momentary dimming of light is how we infer the existence of a plane orbiting that star.

"There's not much more dramatic to discover than another world," said Petersen.

"Another world like ours," because it changes the way we look at the cosmos, right?" said Batalha.

An artist's impression of a world known as Kepler-62f, orbiting its parent sun at a distance that would allow water to exist as a liquid on its surface.

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NASA's Kepler seeks to answer: Is anybody out there?

A mesmerizing new video showcases the sun's life over three years, stitched together from gorgeous snapshots taken by a NASA spacecraft in orbit around our nearest star.

The video is made up of photos captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) two images a day for three years. The eye-catching images offer an unprecedented glimpse of the daily commotion waxing and waning on the surface of the sun.

SDO's Atmospheric Imaging Assembly records an image of the sun every 12 seconds in 10 different wavelengths, according to NASA officials. The images seen in the video are in the extreme ultraviolet range.

"In this wavelength it is easy to see the sun's 25-day rotation as well as how solar activity has increased over three years," agency officials said in a statement.

In the video, the size of the sun appears to subtly fluctuate. These changes are caused by the variation over time in the distance between SDO and the sun. Despite these tiny variations, the shots are fairly stable and consistent.

With SDO maintaining this steady and unbroken gaze, heliophysicists regularly observe the sun's active regions, and have been able to watch solar storms as they occur. By closely monitoring changes in the sun's activity, researchers can catch solar flares and other major spaceweather events in the act.

"SDO's glimpses into the violent dance on the sun help scientists understand what causes these giant explosions with the hopes of some day improving our ability to predict this space weather," NASA officials said.

NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory was launched in February 2010 and is equipped with a suite of instruments to stare at the sun for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This type of uninterrupted coverage allowed scientists to monitor the star as it ramps up toward a period of solar maximum this year in its regular 11-year cycle of activity.

Follow Denise Chow on Twitter@denisechow. Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookorGoogle+. Originally published on SPACE.com.

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Stunning NASA Video Shows 3 Years of the Sun in 3 Minutes

[Federal Register Volume 78, Number 82 (Monday, April 29, 2013)] [Notices] [Pages 25100-25101] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2013-10001]

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[Notice: (13-051)]

NASA Advisory Council; Aeronautics Committee; Unmanned Aircraft Systems Subcommittee; Meeting

AGENCY: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, as amended, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration announces a meeting of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Subcommittee of the Aeronautics Committee of the NASA Advisory Council. The meeting will be held for the purpose of soliciting, from the aeronautics community and other persons, research and technical information relevant to program planning.

DATES: Tuesday, May 21, 2013, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Local Time.

ADDRESSES: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Headquarters,

Room 6E40, 300 E Street, SW., Washington, DC 20546.

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NASA Advisory Council Aeronautics Committee Unmanned Aircraft Systems Subcommittee Meeting 21 May 2013

Antares Launch from Wallops Island 2013-04-21 NASA; Antares First Flight
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FPV QUADCOPTER August flying 700 Goblin helicopter - Chuck video with Quadcopter nasa gps fpv
1st try using a fat shark on a quadcopter to video a 700 goblin thanks to Chuck for the video.

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Comet ISON WTF NASA? Part 4 - Double Dusted. New Footage. New Questions.
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