NASA has announced today that its Messenger spacecraft has confirmed that there is ice on the surface of Mercury.
Go here to read the rest:
Category Archives: NASA
How Should NASA Use Former Spy Satellite Telescopes?
NASA is asking scientists for ideas about how best to use two huge space telescopes it received from the United States' spy satellite agency earlier this year.
On Monday (Nov. 26), NASA officially invited researchers to propose uses for the telescopes, which are comparable to the agency's famous Hubble Space Telescope in size and appearance. The best ideas will be presented at a workshop this coming February in Huntsville, Ala., officials said.
"Because there are two telescopes, there is room for projects that span the gamut of the imagination," Michael Moore, a senior program executive at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. "They range from simple balloon flights to complex missions in science using new technologies under development and the capabilities available with the International Space Station and our commercial spaceflight partners."
The former spy satellite telescopes were originallybuilt to carry out surveillance missions for the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), under a multibillion-dollar program called Future Imagery Architecture. But cost overruns and delays killed the program in 2005, and NASA announced this past June that the NRO had bequeathed the instruments to the space agency.
While the telescopes' apertures are equivalent to that of Hubble, they are designed to have a much wider field of view, NASA officials said.
NASA is already considering using the telescopes as a base for the proposed Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), which would hunt for the mysterious dark energy that appears to be driving the universe's accelerating expansion. WFIRST was identified as a top priority in the National Research Council's 2010 Astrophysics Decadal Survey, which delineated the main science goals the country should pursue for the next 10 years.
However, NASA is not locked into this application for the former NRO telescopes, as its call for new ideas shows.
"We will give all ideas equal consideration and choose the most promising for further study," said Marc Allen, acting deputy associate administrator for research in NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "We want to tap into innovative ideas wherever we can find them in order to optimize use of these telescope assets."
Follow SPACE.com on Twitter@Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebook&Google+.
See the original post here:
NASA Confirms: No Major Discovery in Curiosity's Mars Soil Sample
Today NASA released an official statement confirming that the first soil samples gathered with Curiosity's new instrument do not contain a rumored "earth-shaking" discovery.
[More from Mashable: 10 Brilliant Photos of the Moon and Jupiter]
The world was abuzz last week after Curiosity chief scientist John Grotzinger's interview with NPR led to reports that the rover's latest soil samples contained a groundbreaking discovery. But as Mashable first reported earlier this week, those reports were just rumors.
"Rumors and speculation that there are major new findings from the mission at this early stage are incorrect," NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory stated via press release. The agency said it will go into more detail in a press conference on Dec. 3 at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
[More from Mashable: Space Weather Forecast System Could Cost $2 Billion]
The news conference will be an update about first use of the rover's full array of analytical instruments to investigate a drift of sandy soil. One class of substances Curiosity is checking for is organic compounds -- carbon-containing chemicals that can be ingredients for life. At this point in the mission, the instruments on the rover have not detected any definitive evidence of Martian organics.
Grotzinger's original quote during the NPR interview about Curiosity's data being "one for the history books" was taken out of context. What he was actually referring to was the rover's mission as a whole will further our knowledge of Mars, making it a historical endeavor.
While today's data release doesn't contain a major discovery, that doesn't mean there isn't one in the rover's future. Curiosity is only a few months into her two-year mission on Mars.
"Curiositys mission is producing a unprecedented volume of valuable science data," Grotzinger told Mashable on Tuesday via email. "Much of this will help us better glimpse the very ancient environments of Mars, that are regarded to have been the most habitable in the planets history. We have only just started on this journey back in time."
The rover takes it first cruise on the Martial surface.
Read this article:
NASA Confirms: No Major Discovery in Curiosity's Mars Soil Sample
2012 Mayan Apocalypse Rumors Have Dark Side, NASA Warns
NASA scientists took time on Wednesday (Nov. 28) to soothe 2012 doomsday fears, warning against the dark side of Mayan apocalypse rumors frightened children and suicidal teens who truly fear the world may come to an end Dec. 21.
These fears are based on misinterpretations of the Mayan calendar. On the 21st, the date of the winter solstice, a calendar cycle called the 13th b'ak'tun comes to an end. Although Maya scholars agree that the ancient Maya would not have seen this day as apocalyptic, rumors have spread that a cosmic event may end life on Earth on that day.
Thus NASA's involvement. The space agency maintains a 2012 information page debunking popular Mayan apocalypse rumors, such as the idea that a rogue planet will hit Earth on Dec. 21, killing everyone. (In fact, astronomers are quite good at detecting near-Earth objects, and any wandering planet scheduled to collide with Earth in three weeks would be the brightest object in the sky behind the sun and moon by now.)
"There is no true issue here," David Morrison, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, said during a NASA Google+ Hangout event today (Nov. 28). "This is just a manufactured fantasy." [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]
Real-world consequences
Unfortunately, Morrison said, the fantasy has real-life consequences. As one of NASA's prominent speakers on 2012 doomsday myths, Morrison said, he receives many emails and letters from worried citizens, particularly young people. Some say they can't eat, or are too worried to sleep, Morrison said. Others say they're suicidal.
"While this is a joke to some people and a mystery to others, there is a core of people who are truly concerned," he said.
Not every 2012 apocalypse believer thinks the world will end on Dec. 21. Some, inspired by New Age philosophies, expect a day of universal peace and spiritual transformation. But it's impressionable kids who have NASA officials worried.
"I think it's evil for people to propagate rumors on the Internet to frighten children," Morrison said.
Myths and misconceptions
Go here to see the original:
Mile-Wide Asteroid's Many Faces Revealed in NASA Photos
NASA has unveiled astonishingly detailed radar views of a mile-wide asteroid that zipped safely by Earth this month its closest approach to our planet until the year 2488.
Astronomers with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., used the agency's Deep Space Network antenna in Goldstone, Calif., to record nine new images of asteroid 2007 PA8 between Oct. 31 and Nov. 13 as it made its nearest pass by our planet in more than a century.
The images reveal that 2007 PA8 as an elongated, asymmetrically-shaped space rock, with possible ridges, craters and even boulders on its surface, according to JPL officials. The pictures also show that the asteroid rotates very slowly, about once every three to four days.
The moment of the space rock's closest approach occurred on Nov. 5 at 11:42 a.m. EST (1642 GMT), when it zipped by at a range of 4 million miles (6.5 million kilometers), or 17 times the distance between our planet and the moon. On that day and on Nov. 6, astronomers captured images of the asteroid with resolutions as detailed as 12 feet (3.75 meters) per pixel.
They achieved a resolution of 25 feet (7.5 m) per pixel on Nov. 2, 3 and 8, and 62 feet (18.75 m) per pixel on Oct. 31 and Nov. 11 to 13, JPL officials wrote in a statement. The new radar photos follow earlier images of asteroid 2007 PA8 from a NASA observation campaign between Oct. 28 and 30.
The recent flyby marked asteroid 2007 PA8's closest since 1880 and astronomers say it won't make a closer pass for another 476 years. In the year 2488, the asteroid is expected to approach Earth at about 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers) away.
This asteroid is classed as a near-Earth object. Scientists with NASA and other agencies regularly track and study such space rocks to determine whether anypose an impact threatto our planet.
Follow SPACE.com on Twitter@Spacedotcom. We're also onFacebookandGoogle+.
Originally posted here:
NASA surprised to spot ice on Mercury
NASA's Messenger probe enabled researchers to find unexpected materials frozen in Mercury's north pole. Scientists think the materials arrived via comets or asteroids that hit millions of years ago.
Despite searing daytime temperatures, Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, has ice and frozen organic materials inside permanently shadowed craters in its north pole,NASA scientists said on Thursday.
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Earth-based telescopes have been compiling evidence for ice on Mercury for 20 years, but the finding of organics was a surprise, say researchers withNASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, the first probe to orbit Mercury.
Both ice and organic materials, which are similar to tar or coal, were believed to have been delivered millions of years ago by comets and asteroids crashing into the planet.
"It's not something we expected to see, but then of course you realize it kind of makes sense because we see this in other places," such as icy bodies in the outer solar system and in the nuclei of comets, planetary scientist David Paige, with theUniversity of California, Los Angeles, told Reuters.
UnlikeNASA's Mars rover Curiosity, which will be sampling rocks and soils to look for organic materials directly, the MESSENGER probe bounceslaserbeams, counts particles, measures gamma rays and collects other data remotely from orbit.
The discoveries of ice and organics, painstakingly pieced together for more than a year, are based on computer models, laboratory experiments and deduction, not direct analysis.
"The explanation that seems to fit all the data is that it's organic material," said lead MESSENGER scientistSean Solomon, withColumbia University in New York.
Go here to read the rest:
News for J-2X Enging hot-fire testing – Video
News for J-2X Enging hot-fire testing
A J-2X power pack assembly burns brightly during a hot fire test Nov. 27 at NASA #39;s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. Engineers pulled the assembly from the test stand in September to install additional instrumentation in the fuel turbopump. The test, which ran for 278 seconds, verified the newly installed strain gauges designed to measure the turbine structural strain when the turbopump is spinning at high speeds that vary between 25000 and 30000 rotations-per-minute. The J-2X engine - built by Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. -- will power the upper stage of NASA #39;s Space Launch System, managed at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. The new heavy-lift rocket system will launch the Orion spacecraft and enable humans to explore new destinations beyond low Earth orbit. Credit: NASA/SSCFrom:VideoLifeWorldViews:0 0ratingsTime:02:51More inScience Technology
Read the original post:
NASA Super Guppy (2012) – Video
NASA Super Guppy (2012)
Video by Staff Sgt. Vanessa Reed 4th Combat Camera Squadron Air Force members from March ARB, CA, support the arrival of the NASA Super Guppy. The Super Guppy is a large, wide-bodied cargo aircraft used for ferrying oversized cargo components and equipment. Video by Staff Sgt. Vanessa Reed. Super Guppy Makes Brief Appearence NASA http://www.nasa.govFrom:airboydViews:302 23ratingsTime:06:34More inAutos Vehicles
See the original post:
Nasa: Planet Nibiru Trailer Official – Video
Nasa: Planet Nibiru Trailer Official
Nasa #39;s Official trailer for Nibiru #39;s arrival ! Shocking news we all hoped will not come true. Anunnaki, elenin, Planet x, Planet Nibiru, today, this, week, monthFrom:TubeMasterToolsViews:17 3ratingsTime:00:47More inEntertainment
Excerpt from:
"December 21st, 2012" Nibiru Planet X doomsday – Video
"December 21st, 2012" Nibiru Planet X doomsday
Nasa Reveals Nibiru Trailer. Planet X, Planet Nibiru, Dwarf Star/SunFrom:TubeMasterToolsViews:16 1ratingsTime:00:16More inScience Technology
Go here to read the rest:
Zamora – Apollo – Instrumental Oasis 7 (A Tribute to NASA) – Video
Zamora - Apollo - Instrumental Oasis 7 (A Tribute to NASA)
Zamora - Apollo Instrumental Oasis, Vol. 7 (A Tribute to NASA)From:MrLee2021Views:0 0ratingsTime:02:49More inMusic
Read the original post:
Zamora - Apollo - Instrumental Oasis 7 (A Tribute to NASA) - Video
Cool Things to Find (Parody of "Dumb Ways to Die") – Video
Cool Things to Find (Parody of "Dumb Ways to Die")
Get Curiosity T-shirts and Posters!: (laughpong.bandcamp.com Download the Song: (soundcloud.com Tumblr: coolthingstofind.tumblr.com Produced by http Vocals by: Cara Peacock (www.facebook.com http://www.youtube.com Lyrics: Forest Gibson, Steven Hudson, David Hudson, Rob Whitehead Character Designs: Sarah Hiraki (sarahhiraki.com Animation: David Hudson Steven Hudson Music Mixing: David Zimmermann Executive Producer: Forest Gibson Original "Dumb Ways to Die" Video: youtu.be Instrumental track by Tangerine Kitty: (soundcloud.com PRESS INQUIRIES: info@cinesaurus.com Why did we make this video? Well, first off, we here at Cinesaurus really love Dumb Ways to Die. Second, we are huge fans of NASA and everything they are doing here on Earth, in Space and on Mars. We like to do anything we can to help support NASA and think you should too! Write to your Senator, call them, make sure they don #39;t cut any more of their budget. Who is Cinesaurus? We are a Seattle-based creative team who loves to tell stories and make an impact on the world. We believe in supporting education, science and exploration. Our other videos include "We #39;re NASA and We Know it" and "iPhone 5 A taller change than expected", as well as the rest of the videos on this channel. Like us on Facebook! (www.facebook.com "Cool Things to Find" Lyrics Find Amelia Earhart #39;s fate A golden cake without a sell-by date See missing socks, of every size and shape. Open a box with a lost Nixon tape. Cool things to find, so many cool ...From:LaughPongViews:11 1ratingsTime:02:00More inComedy
More:
RTB Ft NaSa
RTB Ft NaSa Lil ill - The IE
Twitter: @RomeoThaBoss Facebook:www.Facebook.com/Romeothaboss http://www.WHOISRTB.comFrom:WhoisRTBViews:6 0ratingsTime:03:32More inMusic
See original here:
Hubblecast 52: The Death of Stars [HD] – Video
Hubblecast 52: The Death of Stars [HD]
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is famous for looking deep into the past of the Universe. But it can also predict the future. This episode of the Hubblecast takes us on a journey five billion years from now, to see the ultimate fate of the Solar System. Using stunning Hubble imagery of the death throes of Sun-like stars, narrator Joe Liske (aka Dr J) shows us what will happen when the Sun runs out of nuclear fuel mdash; and how its wreckage will form the building blocks of new generations of stars. Release date: 17 January 2012 Credit: ESA/Hubble Visual design and editing: Martin Kornmesser Web and technical support: Lars Holm Nielsen and Raquel Yumi Shida Written by: Oli Usher Narration: Joe Liske (Dr J) Images: NASA, ESA Animations: Martin Kornmesser Music: Zero Project Directed by: Oli Usher Executive Producer: Lars Lindberg ChristensenFrom:TheMarsUndergroundViews:6 1ratingsTime:06:50More inScience Technology
Excerpt from:
29 NOVEMBER – NASA Press Conference About Mercury Polar Regions – LIVE – Video
29 NOVEMBER - NASA Press Conference About Mercury Polar Regions - LIVE
livedirecttv.com 29 NOVEMBER - NASA Press Conference About Mercury Polar Regions - LIVE httpFrom:akdlxlxlxccViews:0 0ratingsTime:05:45More inNews Politics
Read the original post:
29 NOVEMBER - NASA Press Conference About Mercury Polar Regions - LIVE - Video
THE SUN • There is LIFE on the SUN! Crazy…Idiocy? Take a look. My 26. Video – Video
THE SUN bull; There is LIFE on the SUN! Crazy...Idiocy? Take a look. My 26. Video
Take a look on this very interesting Video with a lot of Questions and make your own decision. Not all, what we dont understand, can #39;t be impossible. Copyright by Traveler in Space 2012 Pictures are Property of NASA, ESA or taken by Google Earth.From:TravelerinSpaceViews:0 0ratingsTime:07:50More inScience Technology
See more here:
THE SUN • There is LIFE on the SUN! Crazy...Idiocy? Take a look. My 26. Video - Video
NASA monitors massive dust storm on Mars
An image taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a massive dust storm in the southern hemisphere of Mars. Photo: NASA/AP
NASA says it is monitoring a massive dust storm on Mars that has produced atmospheric changes.
One thing we want to learn is why do some Martian dust storms get to this size and stop growing, while others this size keep growing and go global.
It's the first time since the 1970s that NASA is studying such a phenomenon both from orbit and with a weather station on the surface, the US space agency said on its website.
Monitoring the dust storm ... an artist's impression of NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Photo: NASA/AP
"This is now a regional dust storm," said Rich Zurek, chief Mars scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "It has covered a fairly extensive region with its dust haze, and it is in a part of the planet where some regional storms in the past have grown into global dust hazes."
Advertisement
Regional dust storms expanded and affected vast areas of the Red Planet in 2001 and 2007.
"One thing we want to learn is why do some Martian dust storms get to this size and stop growing, while others this size keep growing and go global," said Zurek.
Following decades of observations, experts know there is a seasonal pattern to the largest Martian dust storms, according to NASA. The most recent dust storm season began just a few weeks ago with the beginning of spring in the southern hemisphere.
Go here to see the original:
NASA's Curiosity Rover Didn't Find 'One for the History Books' After All
Well, this is pretty disappointing. Exactly one week ago, NASA got us really excited about a potential discovery on Mars that was going to be "one for the history books." Turns out, that NASA employee from the Curiosityrover teamwas just really excited about the mission and not one specific, universe-altering discovery.
RELATED: Five Things We Learned From the Curiosity Rover Team's Reddit AMA
Mashable's Amanda Wills got NASA Social Media Manager Veronica McGregor to explain that the whole thing was really just a really big misunderstanding."What Grotzinger was actually trying to convey is that Curiositys data over her entire two-year mission will further our knowledge of Mars more than ever before, making it a historical mission," Wills writes. "Its always difficult to quell rumors like this one," McGregor told Mashable.Apparently McGregor tried to clear things up using Curiosity's Twitter account the following day:
What did I discover on Mars? That rumors spread fast online. My team considers this whole mission "one for the history books"
The Rover's fake-but-real account is normally pretty silly, so it's not exactly surprising no one took it seriously, and that they had to clarify it further.
RELATED: Better Curiosity Rover BFF: Nancy Sinatra or Britney Spears?
To refresh your memory,John Grotzinger, the principal investigator for the Curiosity mission, spoke with NPR and caused a serious commotion because of this quote:
Grotzinger says they recently put a soil sample in SAM, and the analysis shows something remarkable. "This data is gonna be one for the history books. It's looking really good," he says.
He also cautioned that it would take a few weeks for them to examine everything and be sure the big discovery was real.Grotzinger even told a cautionary tale about an old discovery that got the team excited but ended up being a disappointment.
RELATED: NASA's 'Curiosity' Rover Lands on Mars Intact
See the rest here:
NASA's Curiosity Rover Didn't Find 'One for the History Books' After All
NASA's Space Shuttle-Carrying Jet Lands in Houston for Good
Houston, you have a space shuttle ... carrier aircraft.
NASA's original jumbo jet, which was used to ferry the space shuttles around the country, has landed at Ellington Field in Houston, where it is to stay.
The Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA), often referred to using its tail number, NASA 905, was most recently used to fly space shuttle Endeavour to Los Angeles in September. The 747 jetliner was seen by millions of people as it made its way from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to California, where it performed a scenic flyover of the state with Endeavour riding piggyback.
After Endeavour was offloaded, the SCA took off from Los Angeles International Airport, without fanfare, on what was reported to be its final flight: a 20 minute trip to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in southern California. There, it was to join its sister SCA, NASA 911, as a parts donor for another of NASA's 747 jetliner-based programs, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). [Gallery: Ferry Flight in Photos]
Then a flight plan was filed for Ellington Field. NASA 905 was flown to Houston on Oct. 24, just in time for it be on hand for the Wings Over Houston Air Show. The rumor on the flight line was that the public display was a preview of things to come.
Static display
The rumors were right.
"SCA pilots Jeff Moultrie and Bill Rieke and long-time SCA flight engineer Henry Taylor from NASA's Johnson Space Center flew the modified Boeing 747 jetliner from Dryden to Ellington Airport in southeast Houston Oct. 24, where the big Boeing jet will be retired and eventually placed on public display," a statement on NASA's website confirmed this month.
How, when and where NASA 905 will be exhibited is still to be announced if not also still to be decided. Houston was not awarded one of the retired flown shuttle orbiters that the SCA carried, but Space Center Houston, the official visitor center for Johnson Space Center, exhibits a full size, high-fidelity orbiter mockup.
Regardless of the details, the decision to display the aircraft ensures its history will be preserved.
Original post:
NASA ponders missions for old spy telescopes
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA is looking for new ideas on what to do with two space telescopes left over from a once-secret U.S. spy satellite program.
The U.S. space agency asked the scientific community on Tuesday for its input into possible missions for a pair of space telescopes donated last year to NASA by the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates the nation's spy satellites.
"NRO offered us their leftover hardware if we want it. They've been totally open in allowing us to study whether this hardware would be of advantage to NASA," said Paul Hertz, who oversees NASA's astrophysics programs.
Topping the list of existing proposals is to use one telescope for a mission to learn more about an anti-gravity force known as "dark energy," which is believed to be responsible for speeding up the universe's rate of expansion.
The phenomenon was discovered in the 1990s by two teams of researchers who shared the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics for their work.
The National Academy of Sciences has made that mission, known as the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, its top choice for an astrophysics space mission for the next decade.
NASA estimates the WFIRST mission would cost $1.5 billion to $2 billion, but it cannot begin a major new astrophysics project until spending winds down on the over-budget and delayed James Webb Space Telescope, which is a successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and is scheduled for launch in 2018.
The NRO telescopes, which were built to peer down at Earth, each have a primary mirror that is 7.9 feet in diameter, much larger than the 4.3-foot (1.3-meter) observatory originally proposed for the WFIRST mission.
While a larger telescope may allow for more detailed observations, it could be more expensive to outfit with instruments and launch into space.
"There's a whole lot of ways that a larger telescope might benefit you, even if it doesn't save you money," Hertz said.
Read more here: