Lunokhod 2 Found!

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The Lunokhot 2 has been found. Click for a larger image. Image: University of Western Ontario / LRO

Finally!  Way back in 1973 the Soviet Union launched a lunar rover.  Truth is they launched a couple rovers, this particular one was called Lunokhod 2.

The rover was very successful, operating for over four months sending back: 86 panoramas, over 80,000 TV images, conducting many lunar surface and other tests, and traveling over 22 miles (35 km) in the process.  Then sadly the rover met its demise.  Apparently the open lid containing solar cells touched a crater wall at some point and got moon dirt in it.  When the lid closed for the night, the dirt went down into the radiators and the next day when the lid was opened the radiators could no longer cool the rover because of the insulating value of the dirt and basically cooked it.

I’ve been off-and-on looking at the LRO data for signs of these rovers for a while now without any luck.  Seems every place I wanted to look at didn’t have data.   As it turns out a fellow named Phil Stooke, a professor from the University of Western Ontario has found the Lunokhod 2.  YAY!  How did he do it?  He used images released just days ago from the LRO and maps from his own.  As I found out the “maps of his own” bit was a really important part.  The maps are needed to be able to pinpoint surface features were needed to be able to zoom in on the surface image someplace close to the target – I found out it was nearly impossible to find very small features any other way.

Here’s the time line of Lunokhod 2 (and Luna 21) from Zarya.

Read the press release from the University of Western Ontario.

After successfully solving a 37 year old mystery of Lunokhod, it sounds like Professor Stooke is turning his attention to Mars.  I hope he goes looking for the Beagle 2!!

NCBI ROFL: The presence of an attractive woman elevates testosterone and physical risk taking in young men. | Discoblog

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boarder“The authors report a field experiment with skateboarders that demonstrates that physical risk taking by young men increases in the presence of an attractive female. This increased risk taking leads to more successes but also more crash landings in front of a female observer. Mediational analyses suggest that this increase in risk taking is caused in part by elevated testosterone levels of men who performed in front of the attractive female. In addition, skateboarders’ risk taking was predicted by their performance on a reversal-learning task, reversal-learning performance was disrupted by the presence of the attractive female, and the female’s presence moderated the observed relationship between risk taking and reversal learning. These results suggest that men use physical risk taking as a sexual display strategy, and they provide suggestive evidence regarding possible hormonal and neural mechanisms.”

risktaking

Thanks to Anne for today’s ROFL!

Image: flickr/fotologic

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The sexual straightjacketGene Expression

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Earlier I pointed to the possibility of biophysical constraints and parameters in terms of inheritance shaping the local trajectory of evolution. Today Olivia Judson has a nice post [link fixed] on how the existence of two sexes in many species results in a strange metastable tug-of-war in terms of phenotypic evolution:

In sum, the traits that make a “good” male are often different from those that make a “good” female. (Note: I’m only talking about “good” in evolutionary terms. That means a trait that improves your chance of having surviving offspring.) Since many of these traits have a genetic underpinning, male and female genes are thus being sculpted by different forces.

But — and this is the source of the tension I mentioned — males and females are formed from the same underlying set of genes. After all, in humans, whether you’re a boy or a girl comes down to whether you have a Y chromosome or not: boys do, girls don’t. The rest of the genes occur in both sexes.


The X choromosome in mammals spends about 2/3 of its time in females and 1/3 in males.* And obviously the Y is found only in males. But the rest of the genome is found in both males and females. Judson notes that traits which may be attractive in males may not in females, and which may be attractive in females may not in males. There’s a fair amount of evolutionary psychological work in humans in this vein in regards to the heritability of testosterone and estrogen levels in females and males and how it effects the same and opposite sex (in short, there is suggestive data that “sexy” individuals of one sex, those who exhibit strong secondary sexual characteristics, may be prone to having less sexy offspring of the opposite sex).

Of course you can overcome the balancing tug of war; that’s why you have sexual dimorphism in things like size or facial proportion. But these sorts of traits emerge very slowly because of the equilibrium described above, modifier genes and sex-specific gene expression have to slowly engineer around the overwhelming problem that males and females are genetically no different on a sequence level aside from the Y chromosome. Some estimates put the rate of evolutionary change of sexual dimorphism, that is, trait differences between sexes, between 1 and 2 orders of magnitude slower than conventional population level evolution. Ergo, one would expect that sexual dimorphism differences varying across populations have great time depth, and are probably more interspecific than intraspecific (for example, gorillas vs. humans).

There is naturally a whole field devoted to the study of the origin of sex. But whatever its ultimate rationale and utility an evolutionary context, its existence as a background condition in many taxa may result in a constraint of the exploration of phenotype space, as species divided into two sexes characterized by strong phenotypic differences dance between two sex-specific phenotypic optima.

* Sex determination varies by taxon.

The ways of the forefathers & foremothersGene Expression

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Fascinating post by Bayes, Phylogenetics, cultural evolution and horizontal transmission:

For some time now, evolutionary biologists have used phylogenetics. It is a well-established, powerful set of tools that allow us to test evolutionary hypotheses. More recently, however, these methods are being imported to analyse linguistic and cultural phenomena. For instance, the use of phylogenetics has led to observations that languages evolve in punctuational bursts, explored the role of population movements, and investigated the descent of Acheulean handaxes. I’ve followed the developments in linguistics with particular interest; after all, tracing the ephemeral nature of language is a daunting task. The first obvious road block is that prior to the invention of writing, the uptake of which is limited in geography and history, language leaves no archaeological record for linguists to examine. One particular note I’d like to make is that when Charles Darwin first formulated his theory of natural selection, he took inspiration from linguistic family trees as the basis for his sketch on the evolutionary tree of life. So it seems rather appropriate that phylogenetic approaches are now being used to inform our knowledge regarding linguistic evolution.

Like many other attempts applying evolutionary thinking in culture, phylogenetic approaches are, at times, met with contempt. This stems from assertions that cultural evolution and biological evolution differ greatly in regards to the relative importance of horizontal transmission….

…

I guess the general points to take away from this post are: 1) Do not necessarily assume horizontal transmission is dominant in shaping culture; and, 2) Even with certain levels of reticulation, it does not necessarily invalidate a phylogenetic approach in investigating cultural and linguistic evolution.

I think the point that horizontal transmission may be less important relative to vertical transmission than we’d previously thought in regards to the spread and diffusion of cultures may explain some of the recent findings from DNA extractions which suggest that hunter-gatherers were replaced in Europe by farmers. The standard model before the recent wave of extractions was that farming spread through cultural diffusion, with a minority view championed by L. L. Cavalli-Sforza of “demic diffusion” whereby demographic growth from the point of origination spread a culture, though the initial distinctive genetic signal became progressively weaker through dilution via admixture. But if cultural practices such as agriculture were much more vertically transmitted, from parent to child, rather than horizontally across societies, the genetic pattern of replacement becomes more comprehensible.

Of course, the main caveat is that intermarriage has been very common between neighboring groups. The rape of the Sabine women may reflect a common practice on the part of migratory males; the Greek colonization of the western Mediterranean was almost all male, so the subsequent generations were biologically the products of Greek men and native women (though culturally they were fully Greek, as evidenced by the term “Magna Graecia” to refer to Sicily and southern Italy). It is not atypical for vertical transmission of culture to occur from one parent, and in particular one sex. More recently the descendants of the pairings of Iberian men and indigenous women in Latin America tend to speak Spanish and avow the Christian faith. Though aspects of local identity, such as cuisine and clothing, may retain an indigenous stamp it is no coincidence that these populations are labelled “Latin American” despite their mixed genetic provenance.

Note: In the United States children have traditionally been more often raised in the denomination of their mother than father, so there isn’t always a male-bias in vertical transmission when the parents are not concordant for a cultural trait.

Caterpillars use bacteria to produce green islands in yellowing leaves | Not Exactly Rocket Science

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Green_islandIn autumn, as green hues give way to yellows and oranges, some leaves develop mysterious green islands, where life apparently holds fast against the usual seasonal decay. These defiant patches still continue the business of photosynthesis long after the rest of the leaf has withered. They aren’t the tree’s doing. They are the work of tiny larval insects that live inside it – leaf-miners.

The larvae were laid within the leaf’s delicate layers by their mother. They depend on it for shelter and sustenance, and they can’t move away. If their home dies, they die, so they have a vested interest in keeping at least part of the leaf alive. These are the miniature landscape architects that create the green islands, and they don’t do it alone – to manipulate the plant, they wield bacteria.

Wilfried Kaiser and scientists from Rabelais University discovered this partnership after realising that some bacteria and fungi can also cause green islands. He reasoned that microbes might be helping insects to achieve the same ends. So he searched for them in one particular species, a tiny moth called the spotted tentiform leaf-miner, Phyllonorycter blancardella. Its larva makes its home in the leaves of apple trees.

Kaiser found that the leaf-miners are host to just one detectable type of bacteria – Wolbachia. That’s hardly surprising. Wolbachia infects around 60% of the world’s insect species, making it a strong candidate for the title of world’s most successful parasite. Without exception, every leaf-miner that Kaiser tested, from all over the Loire Valley, carried Wolbachia in their tissues.

The bacteria were the true agents behind the green islands. When Kaiser cured the leaf-miners of their infections using antibiotics, they seemed perfectly healthy. But they completely lost the ability to stem the yellowing of leaves. As a result, 85% perished before adulthood; for comparion, the typical mortality rate of Wolbachia-carrying larvae is just 10%. Worst of all, since Wolbachia is passed down from mother to offspring, later generations also suffered the same lack of beneficial bacteria, the same inability to produce green islands and the same high odds of an early death.

Leaf-minersThe bacteria manipulate the leaves using their own signalling chemicals – a group of plant hormones called cytokinins. These substances perform many tasks in a leaf: they maintain the supply of chlorophyll; they prevent the leaf from dying; and they control the flow and storage of nutrients. They’re the barrier that stands between a living leaf and a rotting one. Stick cut plants in cytokinin solution and they’ll stay green for longer. What better tool for a bacterium or an insect looking to prolong the life of its leafy home?

Inside a typical mine, levels of cytokinins are much higher than usual. But when Kaiser cured the leaf-miners of Wolbachia, he found that the levels of cytokinins in the mine plummeted to levels typically seen in yellow leaves. Without these hormones, the insects failed to protect their homes. And if Kaiser injected cytokinins into leaves directly, he could create green islands on his own, without the need for either Wolbachia or a leaf-miner.

We know that the bacteria are necessary for the cytokinin flood that maintains the mine, but the exact source of these chemicals is unclear. It’s possible that the bacteria secrete them directly, or allow the leaf-miner to do so. Indeed, Wolbachia has a gene that’s important for the creation of cytokinins, and a paper published four decades ago found large amounts of these hormones in the salivary glands of a leaf-miner. The other alternative is that the bacteria encourage the plant to over-produce its own hormones. Of course, all of these possibilities could be working together.

Of course, many insects have their own beneficial resident bacteria, or symbionts. These tenants provide them with valuable nutrients that they can’t make themselves, and they can even offer protection against enemies and environmental challenges. But this is the only known example of an insect using a bacterial symbiont to directly manipulate a plant, and it seems to be a successful strategy.

By all accounts, leaf-mining is an evolutionary success story, and hundreds of species have adopted this lifestyle. Their partnership with bacteria might be the secret of their success but Kaiser will only know that for sure once he works out how widespread the use of bacteria is, and what these microbes actually do to the plant.

Reference: Proc Roy Soc B http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2010.0214

Images: by Kaiser

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NASA To Participate in Toyota Accelerator Probe

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NASA to investigate cause of Toyota problems

"The federal probe into runaway Toyotas has resulted in enough scientific mystery that investigators have asked NASA scientists for help. The nation's auto-safety regulators have tapped nine experts from the space agency to answer questions involving software, hardware and other electronics issues..."

Keith's note: No mention of this (yet) at NASA.gov. I wonder who the "NASA engineers" are? Where will the NASA funds come from?

Keith's update: According to Keith Henry at NASA LaRC PAO: "NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC), located at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., has been asked to support the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) in its investigation of unintended acceleration related to Toyota vehicles and, potentially, of other vehicle makes. NASA's NESC has a cadre of engineers with specialized knowledge of electronic systems, and the effects of external interferences to electrical systems who can conduct an unbiased and independent review of the information. A formal (Space Act) agreement was signed Friday between NASA and DOT. The agreement is broad -- details are still being worked out. The agreement calls for DOT to fully reimburse NASA for its work. The testing program that will be suggested by NESC analysis has not been defined, to include location of tests. It is anticipated that the majority of tests will take place at DOT or DOT-related facilities."

Toyota Accelerator Probe Turns to NASA, Science Panel, Bloomberg

"The National Research Council's study will cost $2 million and NASA's will add $1 million, LaHood said."

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Announces Major Investigations to Resolve Issue of Sudden Acceleration

"The prestigious National Academy of Sciences - an independent body using top scientific experts - will examine the broad subject of unintended acceleration and electronic vehicle controls across the entire automotive industry. Separately, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is the Department of Transportation's auto safety agency, has enlisted NASA engineers with expertise in areas such as computer controlled electronic systems, electromagnetic interference and software integrity to help tackle the issue of unintended vehicle acceleration in Toyotas."

TRB to Review Unintended Acceleration Issues, NAS/NRC

"Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today that the U.S. Department of Transportation will fund a new study by the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board and Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences to review the broad subject of unintended acceleration and electronic vehicle controls across the industry, and specifically, industry and government efforts to identify possible causes of unintended acceleration."

Extreme Weather Impacts Migratory Birds

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More than 20 years after the red cockaded woodpecker suffered population losses due in part to major destruction of a critical habitat, the longleaf pine ecosystem, during category 5 storm Hugo in 1989, the U.SEvery year, hurricanes and droughts wreak havoc on human lives and property around the world. And according to a pair of new NASA-funded studies, migratory birds also experience severe impacts to their habitats and populations from these events.

While this may not seem like a revelation, the researchers were surprised to find that migratory bird species located as far as 60 miles (100 kilometers) from a hurricane’s path had experienced a long-term loss in population. Those populations took up to five years to rebound from the damage to their forest environments.

At the same time, researchers found that some migratory bird species could experience population losses as high as 13 percent when rainfall levels fall dramatically and cause drought in plains regions. The studies appear in the March edition of Global Change Biology.

"These studies suggest that whether a hurricane or a drought batters an area, migratory habits -- whether birds migrate south or stay put after breeding season -- are a strong predictor of how birds will fare," said Anna Pidgeon, an avian ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a NASA-funded co-author of both studies.

"We believe changes in weather and climate are fundamental drivers of migration but, until now, we’ve known little of how changes in climate compel changes in migratory patterns," said Woody Turner, manager of the biodiversity program at NASA’s Headquarters in Washington. "The correlations don’t necessarily mean the environment alone is forcing migratory changes, but they offer a good place to start looking."

Wings of Change

Turner and other researchers see birds as excellent indicators of overall environmental health. Birds can give advance notice of ecosystem changes that will affect humans in time, while also telling us about the broader impacts of our actions.

Pidgeon, along with colleagues from NASA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service, the University of Maryland-College Park, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, grouped 77 bird species into "migratory guilds." The guilds were based on similar migratory habits: birds that migrate long distances (to the tropics or subtropics), short distances, or reside solely in one location; breeding habitats: urban, semi-arid, or water-based habitats; the type of nests they construct; and whether they nest on or close to the ground or in tree canopies.

At the outset, researchers believed intuitively that hurricanes would cause losses among tree nesters due to a wipe-out of habitat from downed trees. That would bring gains for ground- and shrub nesters because of the increase in ground vegetation and nesting resources.

Pidgeon’s research team examined five Gulf and Atlantic Coast areas affected by hurricanes between 1984 and 2005. They used population and diversity data from the North American Breeding Bird Survey, tracks of hurricanes, and a time-series of digital images from the NASA-built Landsat remote sensing satellite. When matched to data on breeding seasons, the scientists found that destruction of habitat correlated with varying degrees of distress on the bird species. Habitat destruction caused losses in abundance and diversity across all species in the season following hurricanes, which persisted as long as five years.

Hurricanes pose no immediate danger to bird conservation, Pidgeon believes, provided there remains ample and suitable forest habitat to which birds can shift in the aftermath of a major storm.

Grass Not Always Greener for Birds

In a separate study, Pidgeon and colleagues identified periods of drought and their subsequent impact on bird species. They started with a measure of the amount and quality of refuge for birds -- the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which assesses the seasonal "greenness" of the landscape. The method involves using data from a satellite-based radiometer that measures the color of the landscape in different wavelengths according to a plant’s ability to absorb radiation. The stronger the reflectance of wavelengths off Earth’s surface, the greater density of green leaves on the ground.

When they compared this "greenness" against 15 years of precipitation data from 1,600 weather stations across the plains of North America, the team found that precipitation is a better means of forecasting bird survival during drought. "Rows of corn may be a sign of vegetation when viewed in a satellite image, but they don’t help protect birds during a drought because they’re not essential habitat," Pidgeon explained.

Whether researchers considered bird species together or in groups, according to whether they stay in an area all year versus spending the winter to the south, they always found that precipitation, rather than "greenness," was more strongly associated with species diversity and abundance.

"Satellite remote sensing is helping us see and analyze the ecological impact of these events on bird populations, as well as marine species and mammals," says climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Ultimately, however, hurricanes, drought, and other influences act as part of natural selection."

Related Links:

> About Anna Pidgeon
> About Woody Turner
> Measuring Vegetation with NDVI
> Butterflies Reeling From Impacts of Climate and Development
> Scientists Find Climate Change to Have Paradoxical Effects on Coastal Wetlands

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High Schools Battle It Out at Robotic Match

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The JPL-mentored winning team "Beach Bots" from Hermosa Beach, Calif., is shown here in blue next to the "The Pink Team" from the area around Cocoa Beach, Florida. The teams are operating their robots remotely. › Larger view
Fifty-eight teams from Southern California, Florida, Massachusetts and Chile competed in the Los Angeles regional FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics competition this past weekend, March 27 and 28. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., mentored 10 of the schools in this annual engineering and technology contest, which was held at the Long Beach Convention Center.

The teams from Hope Chapel Academy High School, Hermosa Beach, Calif.; Windward School Robotics and A & S Youth Organization, Los Angeles; and Dos Pueblos High School Engineering Academy, Goleta, Calif., won the overall regional competition. Beverly Hills High School in Beverly Hills, Calif., won the competition's highest award, the Regional Chairman's Award.

This year's "Breakaway" challenge closely resembled a robotic soccer match. In each two-minute-15-second match, two alliances of three teams competed on a 27-by-54-foot field with bumps. The object of the game was to attain the highest score by shooting balls into a goal, climbing on the alliance tower or platform, or by lifting an alliance robot off the playing surface.

The students designed and built their robots with the help of engineers from JPL, aerospace and other companies and institutions of higher education.

These students are among the more than 38,000 students in 1,500 teams from around the world vying to compete in the FIRST championships. FIRST is part of NASA's Robotics Alliance Project, which aims to expand the number of robotics systems experts available to NASA.

2010 Los Angeles Regional FIRST Robotics Awards
* Denotes JPL-mentored team

Regional Chairman's Award
"MorTorq," Beverly Hills High School, Beverly Hills

Engineering Inspiration Award
"D'Penguineers," Dos Pueblos High School Engineering Academy, Goleta

Regional Winners
*"Beach Bots," Hope Chapel Academy High School, Hermosa Beach "D'Penguineers," Dos Pueblos High School Engineering Academy, Goleta "Wildcats," Windward School Robotics and A & S, Los Angeles

Regional Finalists
"Beach Cities Robotics," Redondo Union and Mira Costa High School, Redondo Beach "RAWC," West Covina High School, West Covina *"ThunderBots," John Burroughs High School, Burbank

Cooperation Award
"Gompei and the H.E.R.D.," Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science, Hawthorne, Mass.

Xerox Creativity Award
"TorBots," South High School, North High School, West High School and Torrance High School, Torrance

Delphi Engineering Excellence Award
"Gompei and the H.E.R.D.," Massachusetts Academy of Match and Science, Worcester, Mass.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers Entrepreneurship Award
"The Nerd Herd," California Academy of Mathematics and Science, Carson

AutoDesk Excellence in Design Award
"DOC," Buchanan High School, Clovis

Johnson & Johnson Gracious Professionalism Award
"DOC," Buchanan High School, Clovis

Highest Rookie Seed Award
"Dragonbots," Foothill Technology High School, Ventura

Imagery Award in honor of Jack Kamen
"The Pink Team," Rockledge High School, Cocoa Beach High School and Viera High School, Florida

General Motors Industrial Design Award
*"Beach Bots," Hope Chapel Academy High School, Hermosa Beach

Underwriters Laboratory Industrial Safety Award
*"Wolverines," Foshay Learning Center, Los Angeles

Rockwell Automation Innovation in Control Award
"Beach Cities Robotics," Redondo Union and Mira Costa High School, Redondo Beach

Judges Award
"Metalcrafters," Centinela Valley Union High School District, Hawthorne

Motorola Quality Award
"RAWC," West Covina High School, West Covina

Rookie All-Star Award
"Dragonbots," Foothill Technology High School, Ventura

Rookie Inspiration Award
"NohoRobo," North Hollywood High School, North Hollywood

Chrysler Team Spirit Award
"Iron Eagles," Verbum Dei High School, Watts

Website Award
*"Wolverines," Foshay Learning Center, Los Angeles

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1980s Video Icon Glows on Saturn Moon

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Pattern of daytime temperatures on Mimas
This figure illustrates the unexpected and bizarre pattern of daytime temperatures found on Saturn's small inner moon Mimas (396 kilometers, or 246 miles, in diameter).
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The highest-resolution-yet temperature map and images of Saturn's icy moon Mimas obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal surprising patterns on the surface of the small moon, including unexpected hot regions that resemble "Pac-Man" eating a dot, and striking bands of light and dark in crater walls.

"Other moons usually grab the spotlight, but it turns out Mimas is more bizarre than we thought it was," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It has certainly given us some new puzzles."

Cassini collected the data on Feb. 13, during its closest flyby of the moon, which is marked by an enormous scar called Herschel Crater and resembles the Death Star from "Star Wars."

Scientists working with the composite infrared spectrometer, which mapped Mimas' temperatures, expected smoothly varying temperatures peaking in the early afternoon near the equator. Instead, the warmest region was in the morning, along one edge of the moon's disk, making a sharply defined Pac-Man shape, with temperatures around 92 Kelvin (minus 294 degrees Fahrenheit). The rest of the moon was much colder, around 77 Kelvin (minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit). A smaller warm spot - the dot in Pac-Man's mouth - showed up around Herschel, with a temperature around 84 Kelvin (minus 310 degrees Fahrenheit).

The warm spot around Herschel makes sense because tall crater walls (about 5 kilometers, or 3 miles, high) can trap heat inside the crater. But scientists were completely baffled by the sharp, V-shaped pattern.

"We suspect the temperatures are revealing differences in texture on the surface," said John Spencer, a Cassini composite infrared spectrometer team member based at Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo. "It's maybe something like the difference between old, dense snow and freshly fallen powder."

Denser ice quickly conducts the heat of the sun away from the surface, keeping it cold during the day. Powdery ice is more insulating and traps the sun's heat at the surface, so the surface warms up.

Even if surface texture variations are to blame, scientists are still trying to figure out why there are such sharp boundaries between the regions, Spencer said. It is possible that the impact that created Herschel Crater melted surface ice and spread water across the moon. That liquid may have flash-frozen into a hard surface. But it is hard to understand why this dense top layer would remain intact when meteorites and other space debris should have pulverized it by now, Spencer said.

Icy spray from the E ring, one of Saturn's outer rings, should also keep Mimas relatively light-colored, but the new visible-light images from the flyby paint a picture of surprising contrasts. Cassini imaging team scientists didn't expect to see dark streaks trailing down the bright crater walls or a continuous, narrow pile of concentrated dark debris tracing the foot of each wall.

The pattern may appear because of the way the surface of Mimas ages, said Paul Helfenstein, a Cassini imaging team associate based at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Over time, the moon's surface appears to accumulate a thin veil of silicate minerals or carbon-rich particles, possibly because of meteor dust falling onto the moon, or impurities already embedded in surface ice.

As the sun's warming rays and the vacuum of space evaporate the brighter ice, the darker material is concentrated and left behind. Gravity pulls the dark material down the crater walls, exposing fresh ice underneath. Although similar effects are seen on other moons of Saturn, the visibility of these contrasts on a moon continually re-paved with small particles from the E ring helps scientists estimate rates of change on other satellites.

"These processes are not unique to Mimas, but the new high-definition images are like Rosetta stones for interpreting them," Helfenstein said.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colo. The composite infrared spectrometer team is based at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., where the instrument was built.

More information and images are available at http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov.


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Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust: Chandra/Spitzer Image

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A composite image from NASA's Chandra (blue) and Spitzer (green and red-yellow) space telescopes shows the dusty remains of a collapsed star
A composite image from NASA's Chandra (blue) and Spitzer (green and red-yellow) space telescopes shows the dusty remains of a collapsed star, a supernova remnant called G54.1+0.3.
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A new image from NASA's Chandra and Spitzer space telescopes shows the dusty remains of a collapsed star. The dust is flying past and engulfing a nearby family of stars.

"Scientists think the stars in the image are part of a stellar cluster in which a supernova exploded," said Tea Temin of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass., who led the study. "The material ejected in the explosion is now blowing past these stars at high velocities."

The composite image of G54.1+0.3 is online at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/?IDNumber=pia12982 . It shows the Chandra X-ray Observatory data in blue, and data from the Spitzer Space Telescope in green (shorter wavelength) and red-yellow (longer). The white source near the center of the image is a dense, rapidly rotating neutron star, or pulsar, left behind after a core-collapse supernova explosion. The pulsar generates a wind of high-energy particles -- seen in the Chandra data -- that expands into the surrounding environment, illuminating the material ejected in the supernova explosion.

The infrared shell that surrounds the pulsar wind is made up of gas and dust that condensed out of debris from the supernova. As the cold dust expands into the surroundings, it is heated and lit up by the stars in the cluster so that it is observable in infrared. The dust closest to the stars is the hottest and is seen glowing in yellow in the image. Some of the dust is also being heated by the expanding pulsar wind as it overtakes the material in the shell.

The unique environment into which this supernova exploded makes it possible for astronomers to observe the condensed dust from the supernova that is usually too cold to emit in infrared. Without the presence of the stellar cluster, it would not be possible to observe this dust until it becomes energized and heated by a shock wave from the supernova. However, the very action of such shock heating would destroy many of the smaller dust particles. In G54.1+0.3, astronomers are observing pristine dust before any such destruction.

G54.1+0.3 provides an exciting opportunity for astronomers to study the freshly formed supernova dust before it becomes altered and destroyed by shocks. The nature and quantity of dust produced in supernova explosions is a long-standing mystery, and G54.1+0.3 supplies an important piece to the puzzle.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

The Spitzer observations were made before the telescope ran out of its coolant in May 2009 and began its "warm" mission. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages Spitzer for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

More information on the Spitzer Space Telescope is online at: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer . More information on the Chandra X-ray Observatory is at: http://chandra.harvard.edu and http://chandra.nasa.gov .

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The Spirit of Pete Conrad Lives on at Innovation Summit

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The student team from Monta Vista High School in CupertinoA lunar habitat module, paper that captures sound as energy and a drug delivery system for use in space. What do these inventions have in common? They’re all concepts being developed for commercialization by high school students competing in the Conrad Foundation’s Innovation Summit.

The summit is being held April 8-10, 2010 at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. The "Spirit of Innovation" award is in honor of the late Charles 'Pete' Conrad, a highly decorated naval aviator and astronaut who flew Gemini V, Gemini XI, commanded Apollo XII and was the third person to walk on the moon. Conrad went on to fly Skylab, our first space station. He received a Congressional Space Medal of Honor for his work on Skylab.

Nancy Conrad, wife of the late Pete Conrad, serves as chairman of the Conrad Foundation. She formed the program to provide high school students with an understanding of science and technology and give them an opportunity to solve real world problems through innovation and entrepreneurship.

During the three-day event, 25 teams from all over the U.S. present their ideas to a panel of experts similar to the way start-up entrepreneurs "pitch" to potential investors. The teams create an online portfolio (videos, blog and "company" logo) to present to venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and scientists.

Winning teams receive an opportunity to commercialize the technology and $5,000 in seed money to further develop the product.

"Our goal is to excite students about science, technology and innovation by connecting them with top entrepreneurs, scientists and industry leaders," said Joshua Neubert, executive director for the Conrad Foundation.

Niveditha Jayasekar, a student from Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, Calif., said she became fascinated with nanotechnology as early as the sixth grade. Jayasekar and her four teammates are using a patented nanotechnology developed by NASA scientist Dr. David Loftus to deliver pharmaceuticals in microgravity. The team hopes the product could lead to future breakthroughs in the field of space medicine.

Monta Vista High School teacher Carl Schmidt is the team’s advisor and representative for Future Business Leaders of America. Schmidt said contrary to most science competitions, students in the Conrad Innovation Summit approach projects with an entrepreneurial mindset. "They need to think about who has a problem and will pay to get it solved," Schmidt said. "The goal is to take a technological idea to the commercial market."

Schmidt said the students gain experience working with scientists as well as an understanding of the market. He adds that the competition, which has 30 percent female participation, is a unique way to recruit more females into science and technology fields.

The 25 finalist teams will compete in four categories: aerospace exploration, renewable energy, green schools and space nutrition. Beginning March 29, 2010, the public can visit the Conrad Foundation Web site and vote for their favorite team. Winners for the People’s Choice Awards will be announced on April 10, 2010.

For more information about the Conrad Innovation Summit, visit:


http://www.conradawards.org

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Houston, We Have an Astronaut

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NASA astronaut Shannon Walker, Expedition 24/25 flight engineer, participates in a training session in an International Space Station mock-up/trainer in the Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility at NASA's Johnson Space CenterHouston. It was the first word from the moon, and the city has served as the home of Mission Control and the nation’s human spaceflight program for more than 40 years. But even though Houston has been the home of NASA's astronaut corps for decades, the city has never had a hometown astronaut -- until now.

Shannon Walker, born and raised in Houston, will become the city’s first native to fly in space when she launches to the International Space Station in June. Walker, along with astronaut Doug Wheelock and cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, will launch on June 16 aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazahkstan and will spend six months aboard the orbiting outpost.

Walker’s background is filled with unique events – some by chance and some planned – that led her to become an astronaut. After she graduated from Westbury High School in Houston, Walker attended Rice University. She majored in physics, but wasn’t sure what direction that would take her.

“I was having a hard time getting interest from future employers because of my physics background,” she said. “It seemed all anyone wanted was engineers.”

Walker then happened to meet and interview with a man at NASA, and the subsequent conversation would change Walker’s career path for good. That man was former space shuttle flight director and now senior NASA executive Wayne Hale.

“It was a stroke of luck how it happened,” Walker said. She joined NASA in 1987 as a space shuttle flight controller. She took some time to pursue her doctoral degree in space physics and then returned to NASA in 1993. She worked in both Russia and the United States as the International Space Station came into being, all the while thinking about taking yet another leap. In 2004, Walker applied and was accepted into the astronaut corps.

“When I became an astronaut, I knew I wanted to pursue long-duration flight aboard the station,” She said. “I knew it would be a just a tremendous personal challenge, and I looked forward to it.”

Now that she is approaching her flight, Walker is in the process of completing her final training sessions in both Houston and Star City, Russia. Even though she will leave her hometown behind for six months, she’s going to take a little piece of Houston with her up to the station.

“They’ve given me the key to the city to take with me,” Walker said. She’s also planning on taking up some other personal items as well as some Rice University artifacts. Walker also said she plans on taking up some less tangible things with her – some advice she has received from previous station residents.

“They have all told me to take some time – as busy as it gets – to really enjoy the experience and to take it all in,” she said. “I think that’s probably the best advice I’ve gotten.”

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NASA’s First Class of Female Astronauts

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From left to right are Shannon W. Lucid, Margaret Rhea Seddon, Kathryn D. Sullivan, Judith A. Resnik, Anna L. Fisher, and Sally K. Ride. NASA selected all six women as their first female astronaut candidates in January 1978, allowing them to enroll in a training program that they completed in August 1979.

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EPA Will Regulate Greenhouse Gas Permitting

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EPA Formally Announces Phase-in of Clean Air Act Permitting for Greenhouse Gases

(Unfortunately) the EPA also announced there will be no stationary source requirements until 2011. Still,  it’s a welcome announcement. We need more of the EPA exercizing their authority.

WASHINGTON – Under a final decision issued today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) no stationary sources will be required to get Clean Air Act permits that cover greenhouse gases (GHGs) before January 2011. EPA has pledged to take sensible steps to address the billions of tons of greenhouse gas pollution that threaten Americans’ health and welfare, and is providing time for large industrial facilities and state governments to put in place cost-effective, innovative technologies to control and reduce carbon pollution. [Yesterday's] announcement is the first step in EPA’s phased in approach to addressing GHG emissions laid out by Administrator Lisa P. Jackson earlier this month.

“This is a common sense plan for phasing in the protections of the Clean Air Act. It gives large facilities the time they need to innovate, governments the time to prepare to cut greenhouse gases and it ensures that we don’t push this problem off to our children and grandchildren,” said EPA Administrator Jackson.  “With a clear process in place, it’s now time for American innovators and entrepreneurs to go to work and lead us into the clean energy economy of the future.”

[This]  action determines that Clean Air Act construction and operating permit requirements for the largest emitting facilities will begin when the first national rule controlling GHGs takes effect. If finalized as proposed, the rule limiting GHG emissions for cars and light trucks would trigger these requirements in January 2011 – the earliest model year 2012 vehicles meeting the standards can be sold in the United States. The agency expects to issue final vehicle GHG standards shortly.

EPA has committed to focusing its GHG permitting requirements on the largest sources. The agency will make a decision later this spring on the amount of GHGs facilities can emit before having to include limits for these emissions in their permits.

Today’s action is the final step in EPA’s reconsideration of the December 18, 2008 memorandum entitled “EPA’s Interpretation of Regulations that Determine Pollutants Covered by Federal Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) Permit Program.”  The final action clarifies when GHGs and other pollutants are covered under Clean Air Act permitting programs.

For more information and the letter Administrator Jackson sent last month outlining this approach and timeline: http://www.epa.gov/nsr/guidance.html
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This is good news. The EPA is going to go forward with regulations and Kerry and Lieberman can write whatever bad bills they want, the EPA needs to do this because it’s their job.

I hope President Obama does not push the Congress to supercede the EPA’s authority to do this.

(Come on Republicans, tell the American people you don’t care about climate change either. We already know you don’t [...]