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Hubble Finds 'Dorian Gray' G …
Title Hubble Finds 'Dorian Gray' Galaxy
Hubble Finds 'Dorian Gray' G …
Title Hubble Finds 'Dorian Gray' Galaxy
Floods in Malawi and Mozambi …
Title Floods in Malawi and Mozambique
Description Heavy rain is a part of life in Malawi and Mozambique in December and January. In these southern African countries, the two months fall in the middle of the rainy season, which runs from November to March. Though not quite as predictable as the rain, flash flooding is also common in the river valleys of southern Malawi during the rainy season. In late December 2005 and early January 2006, the rains were far more intense than normal, and true to form, the Shire River ran over its banks, displacing thousands of people, according to news reports. This pair of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) images show what two weeks of heavy rain have done to the region. In the false-color images, both taken by MODIS on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, water is black or dark blue. Clouds are pale blue, and plant-covered land is bright green. Bare earth is pinkish tan. In the two weeks that elapsed between December 20, 2005, lower image, and January 2, 2006, top, the land turned a deep green as plants sprang up. The Shire River, not even visible in December, expanded, soaking the land with a smudge of blue. Disruptive though the floods may be, the rains were a mixed blessing. In 2005, the rains failed during February, and crops suffered [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13273 ]. The ensuing food shortages and hunger caused the government to declare a national disaster in early December. The rich agricultural land surrounding the Shire River was among the regions most severely affected by the drought. The December and early January rains fell just as farmers were planting the primary crop of the year, but continued rainfall will still be needed to guarantee that the harvest will be better in 2006. The large images provided above are at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?FAS_NMozambique ] of the region in a variety of resolutions. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC.
Floods in Malawi and Mozambi …
Title Floods in Malawi and Mozambique
Description Heavy rain is a part of life in Malawi and Mozambique in December and January. In these southern African countries, the two months fall in the middle of the rainy season, which runs from November to March. Though not quite as predictable as the rain, flash flooding is also common in the river valleys of southern Malawi during the rainy season. In late December 2005 and early January 2006, the rains were far more intense than normal, and true to form, the Shire River ran over its banks, displacing thousands of people, according to news reports. This pair of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) images show what two weeks of heavy rain have done to the region. In the false-color images, both taken by MODIS on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite, water is black or dark blue. Clouds are pale blue, and plant-covered land is bright green. Bare earth is pinkish tan. In the two weeks that elapsed between December 20, 2005, lower image, and January 2, 2006, top, the land turned a deep green as plants sprang up. The Shire River, not even visible in December, expanded, soaking the land with a smudge of blue. Disruptive though the floods may be, the rains were a mixed blessing. In 2005, the rains failed during February, and crops suffered [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13273 ]. The ensuing food shortages and hunger caused the government to declare a national disaster in early December. The rich agricultural land surrounding the Shire River was among the regions most severely affected by the drought. The December and early January rains fell just as farmers were planting the primary crop of the year, but continued rainfall will still be needed to guarantee that the harvest will be better in 2006. The large images provided above are at MODIS' maximum resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?FAS_NMozambique ] of the region in a variety of resolutions. NASA images courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC.
Grampians National Park, Vic …
Title Grampians National Park, Victoria
Description In Victoria, Australia, near the southeastern tip of the continent, sandstone mountains rise above the surrounding farmland. A 19th-century surveyor named the mountains after those in his native Scotland: Grampians. In 1984, the mountains were declared a national park. Covering 1,700 square kilometers (656 square miles), the park is home to a variety of plants and animals, many of which live nowhere else. On December 15, 2000, the Landsat 7 satellite captured this image of Grampians National Park and its surroundings in Victoria, Australia. Marked by sharp ridges, the park's sandstone mountains range in color from charcoal gray to reddish tan. Around the park is farmland—tiny rectangles of buff, beige, and brick red. Several bodies of water dot the region. The meandering water body west of the park is bordered by beige, indicative of low water levels. Along the eastern edge of the park is Halls Gap, generally used as a park entrance. East of the park is the town of Ararat. December and January fall within the Australian summer, when extremely hot, dry conditions can spark fires. A little more than five years after Landsat took this picture, a fire [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13316 ] burned nearly half the park. As its native plant species are well-adapted to fire, the vegetation appeared well on its way to recovery 12 months later, as reported on the park Web site. [ http://www.parkweb.vic.gov.au/resources/mresources/gramps/gramps-fire-pics.htm ] In early January 2007, a much smaller fire broke out near the park's northern end, but was quickly contained. According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, residents near the park hoped for a complete ban on campfires throughout the summer to avoid another massive blaze like the January 2006 fire. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by the University of Maryland's Global Land Cover Facility. [ http://www.landcover.org/ ]
Drought in East Africa
Title Drought in East Africa
Description The failure of the short-season rains left large sections of East Africa in severe drought in late 2005 and early 2006. In eastern Africa, most areas experience one of two rainfall patterns. Some places have a single "long rains" season that runs from March until November or December. Other areas have two rainy seasons: long rains between March/April and July/August, and "short rains" from October to December or January. The rains recharge lakes and reservoirs and nurture plants from crops and pasture lands to natural vegetation. For East Africa, 2005 was anything but a normal year. The long rainy season produced little rain, and the short rainy season failed altogether. As a result, rainfall totals for the year were only 20-60 percent of normal, depending on the region, reported the Famine Early Warning Network (FEWS NET). The drought's impact on vegetation can be seen in this vegetation index image, collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) at the end of the short rainy season. The image shows how well plants were growing between December 19 and January 3 compared to average conditions between 2000 and 2004. The prevalence of deep reddish-brown across the image indicates that plants were growing poorly, if at all, in the dry conditions. The drought area shown in this image circles Lake Victoria in a north-south-oriented oval that stretches from southern Sudan and Ethiopia in the north to Tanzania in the south. Grey areas show where clouds covered the area throughout the composite period. The impact of the drought has been severe. "This drought has resulted in crop failures, pasture degradation, water shortages, and has raised serious food security concerns for the region," FEWS NET warned. By the end of January 2006, millions were in need of food aid, particularly pastoralists who depend on rain-fed pasture lands to maintain their livestock. Not all of East Africa has been affected. Kenya (center right) had a bumper harvest in 2005, but little of the crop made its way to the drought-hit pastoral districts of the country. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided by Inbal Reshef as part of the Global Agricultural Monitoring Project between NASA, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), and the University of Maryland. More data and information about this joint project is available at Satellite Information for Agricultural Monitoring. [ http://tripwire.geog.umd.edu/usda/ ]
Heavy Snows in Central Asia
Title Heavy Snows in Central Asia
Description The bitter cold of winter settled ferociously over the interior of Asia during the first week of 2006. A large mass of Siberian air swept as far south as India and as far east as Japan, enveloping much of Asia with uncommonly low temperatures. In many places, the cold weather was accompanied by crippling snow. Among the most severely affected were the 200,000-plus people stranded in northwestern China when heavy snow fell over the region, reported United Press International. The cold snap also levied a heavy toll on northern India, where an estimated 200 had died of the cold as of January 9, said the BBC. The effect of the cold air on the land can be seen in these land surface temperature images, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) between January 1 and January 8. Unlike the air temperatures given in weather reports, which tell how cold the air near the Earth is, land surface temperature measurements record how cold the ground is. In these images, land temperatures are represented with color, deep blue being the coldest temperatures and yellow being the warmest. In January 2006 (top), large sections of China were significantly colder than they had been in 2005 (bottom). The Taklimakan Desert formed a warm pink and purple oval surrounded by the cold blue of the Kunlun Shan and Tian Shan mountain ranges in the 2005 image. One year later, the desert is the dark blue of intense cold. To the north of the desert, where most of the people affected by snow in China live, the warmer purple tones that marbled the region in 2005 are gone, replaced with colder blue tones. In both images, areas that were cloudy throughout the eight-day period are gray. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of Z. Wan, MODIS Land Science Team.
Heavy Snows in Central Asia
Title Heavy Snows in Central Asia
Description The bitter cold of winter settled ferociously over the interior of Asia during the first week of 2006. A large mass of Siberian air swept as far south as India and as far east as Japan, enveloping much of Asia with uncommonly low temperatures. In many places, the cold weather was accompanied by crippling snow. Among the most severely affected were the 200,000-plus people stranded in northwestern China when heavy snow fell over the region, reported United Press International. The cold snap also levied a heavy toll on northern India, where an estimated 200 had died of the cold as of January 9, said the BBC. The effect of the cold air on the land can be seen in these land surface temperature images, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) between January 1 and January 8. Unlike the air temperatures given in weather reports, which tell how cold the air near the Earth is, land surface temperature measurements record how cold the ground is. In these images, land temperatures are represented with color, deep blue being the coldest temperatures and yellow being the warmest. In January 2006 (top), large sections of China were significantly colder than they had been in 2005 (bottom). The Taklimakan Desert formed a warm pink and purple oval surrounded by the cold blue of the Kunlun Shan and Tian Shan mountain ranges in the 2005 image. One year later, the desert is the dark blue of intense cold. To the north of the desert, where most of the people affected by snow in China live, the warmer purple tones that marbled the region in 2005 are gone, replaced with colder blue tones. In both images, areas that were cloudy throughout the eight-day period are gray. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of Z. Wan, MODIS Land Science Team.
Heavy Snows in Central Asia
Title Heavy Snows in Central Asia
Description The bitter cold of winter settled ferociously over the interior of Asia during the first week of 2006. A large mass of Siberian air swept as far south as India and as far east as Japan, enveloping much of Asia with uncommonly low temperatures. In many places, the cold weather was accompanied by crippling snow. Among the most severely affected were the 200,000-plus people stranded in northwestern China when heavy snow fell over the region, reported United Press International. The cold snap also levied a heavy toll on northern India, where an estimated 200 had died of the cold as of January 9, said the BBC. The effect of the cold air on the land can be seen in these land surface temperature images, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) between January 1 and January 8. Unlike the air temperatures given in weather reports, which tell how cold the air near the Earth is, land surface temperature measurements record how cold the ground is. In these images, land temperatures are represented with color, deep blue being the coldest temperatures and yellow being the warmest. In January 2006 (top), large sections of China were significantly colder than they had been in 2005 (bottom). The Taklimakan Desert formed a warm pink and purple oval surrounded by the cold blue of the Kunlun Shan and Tian Shan mountain ranges in the 2005 image. One year later, the desert is the dark blue of intense cold. To the north of the desert, where most of the people affected by snow in China live, the warmer purple tones that marbled the region in 2005 are gone, replaced with colder blue tones. In both images, areas that were cloudy throughout the eight-day period are gray. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of Z. Wan, MODIS Land Science Team.
Heavy Snows in Central Asia
Title Heavy Snows in Central Asia
Description On October 8, 2005, a large earthquake [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13192 ] shook the mountainous Kashmir region near the border of Pakistan and India. Tens of thousands of people died, and many more were isolated in the mountains by damage to roads and bridges as well as by landslides. Heavy winter snowfall poses an additional threat to millions of survivors made homeless by the quake. In the first week of January 2006, a new snow storm blanketed the mountains of Pakistan, including the region around the epicenter of the quake. This image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite shows snow highlighting the ridges and ravines in the mountains northeast of the city of Islamabad on January 6. According to news reports on the BBC Website, the snow is hampering aid efforts to some areas, and avalanches triggered by earthquake aftershocks continue to threaten people in some mountainous areas. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
Extreme Cold in Eurasia
Title Extreme Cold in Eurasia
Description Extreme cold gripped Russia and much of Eastern Europe throughout January 2006. The cold is apparent in these images, which show the heat being emitted to space from the Earth's surface and atmosphere. Areas that were colder are blue and dark purple, while patches of warmth are yellow. The Clouds and the Earth?s Radiant Energy System (CERES) [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/about/instrument_ceres.php ] sensor flying onboard the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took these images on January 19, 2006 (top), and January 19, 2005 (bottom). Although both images show wintertime cold, the range of intense cold is substantially larger in the image taken in 2006. January 19 was a day of bitter cold for Russia. According to the BBC News, more than 20 people in Russia died from extreme cold in January 2006. Between January 18 and 19, overnight temperatures dropped to minus 30°C (minus 22°F). Energy consumption in Russia soared to 146,000 megawatts, the highest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, gas supplies from Russia to other European countries dropped. Images such as these usually show stark differences between the heat being emitted from clouds in the atmosphere and heat being emitted from the land. Clouds are much colder and tend to stand out against the warmer land as they do in the lower half of both images. The clouds are bright blue against the underlying red and yellow of the land. In 2006, the land is so cold that it is difficult to differentiate between land and clouds over Russia. It is likely that the bright blue areas are cloud, while the darker blue and purple areas are land. Image courtesy Erika Geier, FLASHflux/CERES team, NASA Langley Research Center.
Extreme Cold in Eurasia
Title Extreme Cold in Eurasia
Description Extreme cold gripped Russia and much of Eastern Europe throughout January 2006. The cold is apparent in these images, which show the heat being emitted to space from the Earth's surface and atmosphere. Areas that were colder are blue and dark purple, while patches of warmth are yellow. The Clouds and the Earth?s Radiant Energy System (CERES) [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/about/instrument_ceres.php ] sensor flying onboard the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite took these images on January 19, 2006 (top), and January 19, 2005 (bottom). Although both images show wintertime cold, the range of intense cold is substantially larger in the image taken in 2006. January 19 was a day of bitter cold for Russia. According to the BBC News, more than 20 people in Russia died from extreme cold in January 2006. Between January 18 and 19, overnight temperatures dropped to minus 30°C (minus 22°F). Energy consumption in Russia soared to 146,000 megawatts, the highest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, gas supplies from Russia to other European countries dropped. Images such as these usually show stark differences between the heat being emitted from clouds in the atmosphere and heat being emitted from the land. Clouds are much colder and tend to stand out against the warmer land as they do in the lower half of both images. The clouds are bright blue against the underlying red and yellow of the land. In 2006, the land is so cold that it is difficult to differentiate between land and clouds over Russia. It is likely that the bright blue areas are cloud, while the darker blue and purple areas are land. Image courtesy Erika Geier, FLASHflux/CERES team, NASA Langley Research Center.
Snow in Afghanistan
Title Snow in Afghanistan
Description Snow is not unusual in Afghanistan, in fact, a deep snow pack is necessary if the country is to have water during the dry summer months. But January 2006 hit the Central Asian country harder than normal. Heavy snow and extreme cold destroyed or damaged at least 86 homes and killed 17 people with twice as many more injured, reported the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Much of the damage occurred after a blizzard hit the northernmost provinces particularly hard on January 31. On February 3, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this clear view of Afghanistan covered in snow. In addition to covering the rugged mountains that run down the spine of the country, the snow stretches across the populated northern plains where the damage was reported. Despite the problems the January 2006 storms caused, Afghanistan needs its winter snow. Like the U.S. West, water during the summer comes from the melting snow pack in the mountains. Without the snow, farmers would have no way to irrigate summer crops. The snow is such an essential ingredient to the success of crops in Afghanistan that the Famine Early Warning Network (FEWS NET) monitors snow cover to gauge the potential need for food aid after the next growing season and harvest. MODIS images such as this one help analysts at FEWS NET determine the extent of snow cover in Afghanistan. Knowing how much snow is in the mountains can reveal how much water will be available for crops during the next summer. If insufficient snow falls during the winter, FEWS NET can issue a warning to aid agencies and the government to alert them to the potential crop failure and a possible future need for food aid. The advanced warning gives agencies and the government time to gather the resources needed to respond before the disaster becomes critical. To read more, see Aiding Afghanistan [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Afghanistan/ ] on the Earth Observatory.Daily MODIS images [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?Afghanistan/2006034 ] of Afghanistan are available from the MODIS Rapid Response Team. NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team [ http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov ] at NASA GSFC.
Snow Storm across the Upper …
Title Snow Storm across the Upper Midwest
Description The first snow storm of 2006 dumped several inches of snow across a wide swath of the Midwest, with snowfall totals from four to five inches recorded in Chicago to as much as a foot just north of the city. Beyond the traffic accidents caused by icy roads, the storm was not a remarkable one. It did, however, leave a clear track across the Midwest and the Great Lakes region. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on NASA's Terra [ http://terra.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image of the storm on January 21, 2006, a day after the snow fell. The deep blue waters of Lakes Michigan, left, and Huron, right, stand out starkly against the background of white. Remarkably, the lakes show no sign of freezing. At this time in 2005 [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=12691 ], the shores of both lakes were fringed with ice. January 2006 has been warmer than average across the United States. Average weekly temperatures in the area shown in this image have ranged from 5 degrees Celsius above average to more than 8.3 degrees Celsius above average, according to the National Climate Data Center [ http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/us-weekly.php?year=2006&month=01&sat=21&submit_form=Submit&_submit_check=1 ]. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC.
Fires in Victoria, Australia
Title Fires in Victoria, Australia
Description Bushfires were burning out of control in several locations in southern Australia in mid-January 2006. Firefighters faced blazes across southern Western Australia, South Australia, and Victoria, which is pictured in this image from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ] on NASA's Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov ] satellite. The image was captured on January 22. Actively burning fires detected by MODIS are outlined in red, and most of the fires are accompanied by long plumes of smoke blowing southeast. The city of Melbourne sit roughly in the center of the scene, wrapped around the northern coast of keyhole-shaped Port Phillip Bay. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
Tropical Cyclone Boloetse
Title Tropical Cyclone Boloetse
Description Tropical Cyclone Boloetse was winding down on February 5, 2006, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS [ http://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov ]) on the Aqua [ http://aqua.nasa.gov/ ] satellite captured this image at 10:45 UTC (1:45 p.m. local time). At this time, Boloetse was heading into the southern Indian Ocean after brushing against the southern end of Madagascar. The cyclone had sustained winds of around 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles per hour), classifying it as a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale. This was less intense than the previous day [ http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13350 ], and forecasters were predicting the storm would continue to diminish in strength as it traveled southeast away from the African coast. Tropical Cyclone Boloetse initially formed in the western Indian Ocean and traveled west, crossing the island of Madagascar as a tropical storm in late January 2006, with moderately strong rains. The storm intensity declined to tropical-depression strength as it crossed the mountainous ridgeline that runs along the eastern shore of Madagascar. However, once the storm system reached the warm waters of the Mozambique Channel, the tropical depression re-organized and built up enough strength to become a tropical cyclone. Once there, the storm reversed direction and headed southeast, taking it across Madagascar once again. It struck a glancing blow over the island's southern tip on February 4, 2006. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
Tropical Cyclone Clare
Title Tropical Cyclone Clare
Description Residents of Western Australia's Pilbara Coast are accustomed to tropical storms, the Pilbara Coast sees more cyclones than any other part of the Australian coastline. Still, Tropical Cyclone Clare strained some nerves in early January 2006. Although the storm was downgraded from a Category 3 to a Category 2, it prompted hundreds of residents to evacuate the area, and downed some power and telephone lines. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite took this image of Clare at 10:30 a.m. local time on January 10, 2006. Hurricanes in the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific Ocean are termed cyclones, and their wind direction depends on whether they are north or south of the equator. In the Southern Hemisphere, cyclone winds blow in a clockwise direction. In this image, Clare stretches hundreds of kilometers across as it moves along the Pilbara Coast. At the time this image was taken, Clare was a well-developed storm system with peak sustained winds of around 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour. The cyclone's center was about 300 kilometers from Port Hedland, the nearest major city. According to a report from ABC.net.au, the storm had winds as high as 200 kilometers per hour when it struck Dampier, a coastal town approximately 200 kilometers southwest of Port Hedland. The storm also dropped 20 centimeters (almost 8 inches) of rain on Dampier, and forecasters expected more rain for the area. Clare was expected to remain a Category 2 storm as it moved inland. As of the morning of January 10, 2006, however, only minor damage was reported. NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
STARDUST Flyby of Comet Wild …
Title STARDUST Flyby of Comet Wild 2
Explanation Flying past a comet [ http://www.nineplanets.org/comets.html ] nucleus is dangerous. On January 2, the robot spacecraft STARDUST [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft.html ] became one of [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000805.html ] the first [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010926.html ] to plow through the surrounding cloud [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/comets/coma.html ] of dust and grit to photograph [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040103.html ] the very heart [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/comets/coma.html ] of a comet. Pictured above [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/status/040106.html ] is a short movie of the encounter showing unprecedented surface details of the icy center of Comet Wild 2 [ http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast04feb99_1.htm ]. The STARDUST camera pivoted to remain pointed at the nucleus as the spacecraft passed. Heavily shielded [ http://hitf.jsc.nasa.gov/hitfpub/analysis/stardust2.html ] from the onslaught of cometary debris [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011117.html ], STARDUST survived the beating in excellent condition. Surprisingly, although the nucleus appeared to be solid, the the surrounding coma [ http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/faculty/jewitt/coma.html ] appeared to be highly fragmented into several distinct streams of particles. Souvenirs captured by the spacecraft will be ejected [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/details.html ] as the spacecraft passes the Earth in January 2006.
Going Wild
Title Going Wild
Explanation Dynamic jets of gas and dust surround one of the most active [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021019.html ] planetary surfaces in the solar system in this wild-looking picture [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news97.html ] of a comet nucleus [ http://www.solarviews.com/eng/edu/comets.htm ]. The comet's designation [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/ cometfact.html ] is 81P/Wild 2 of course (sounds like "vilt 2"), and the picture is a composite of two images recorded by the Stardust spacecraft's [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/cool.html ] navigation camera during its January 2nd flyby [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040119.html ]. The composited images consist of a short exposure recording startling surface details of Wild 2's nucleus and a longer exposure, taken 10 seconds later, revealing material streaming from the surface. The left edge of the nucleus appears extremely jagged due to a strong shadow. Pitted and eroded after billions of years of outgassing [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/comets/ comet_nucleus.html&edu=high ] and meteorite impacts, the nucleus pictured is only about 5 kilometers in diameter, while the jets of dust and gas ultimately leave trails [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000413.html ] millions of kilometers long. Stardust is scheduled to return samples of Wild 2's cometary dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010813.html ], picked up during the flyby, to Earth in January 2006.
GALEX Distributes Local Gala …
PIA03295
GALEX Telescope
Title GALEX Distributes Local Galactic Treasures at AAS
Original Caption Released with Image GALEX Poster From sparkling blue rings to dazzling golden disks, Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) scientists are handing out a collection of their finest galactic treasures at the January 2006 American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. Mined from the mission's Survey of Nearby Galaxies data, these cosmic gems were collected with the telescope's sensitive ultraviolet instruments. The gallery of galaxies has been made into a poster for meeting attendees visiting the mission's booth. Organized from far-ultraviolet to near-ultraviolet bright galaxies, this poster encapsulates the heart of the mission to study how galaxies and star formation rates have changed over the past 10 billion years. Events in space take millions or billions of years to unfold, which means that astronomers can't watch individual galaxies and stars age over time. Luckily, because the physics of light travel dictates that the farther away an object is from Earth, the longer it takes for its light to travel to us, the universe can be thought of as a time machine. By building telescopes sensitive enough to capture objects that are 10 billion light-years away, astronomers can essentially see an object the way it looked 10 billion years ago. Galex astronomers are using this phenomenon to their advantage by taking snapshots of different galaxies at various distances in space. By comparing portraits of numerous objects at various times in the universe's history, the team can begin to piece together the life cycle of stars and galaxies. For the poster, Galex scientists organized 196 different nearby galaxies in bins of increasing ultraviolet color. By placing the various snapshots side by side, astronomers can see how galaxies age differently. When viewed in ultraviolet, active star-forming regions in galaxies can be seen as glittering blue structures, while a soft, golden glow indicates the presence of older stars. The 196 galaxies represented in the poster were selected from more than 1,000 galaxies in the "Ultraviolet Atlas of Nearby Galaxies." So far, the Galex mission has surveyed more than 100 million galaxies.
GALEX Distributes Local Gala …
PIA03295
GALEX Telescope
Title GALEX Distributes Local Galactic Treasures at AAS
Original Caption Released with Image GALEX Poster From sparkling blue rings to dazzling golden disks, Galaxy Evolution Explorer (Galex) scientists are handing out a collection of their finest galactic treasures at the January 2006 American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington, D.C. Mined from the mission's Survey of Nearby Galaxies data, these cosmic gems were collected with the telescope's sensitive ultraviolet instruments. The gallery of galaxies has been made into a poster for meeting attendees visiting the mission's booth. Organized from far-ultraviolet to near-ultraviolet bright galaxies, this poster encapsulates the heart of the mission to study how galaxies and star formation rates have changed over the past 10 billion years. Events in space take millions or billions of years to unfold, which means that astronomers can't watch individual galaxies and stars age over time. Luckily, because the physics of light travel dictates that the farther away an object is from Earth, the longer it takes for its light to travel to us, the universe can be thought of as a time machine. By building telescopes sensitive enough to capture objects that are 10 billion light-years away, astronomers can essentially see an object the way it looked 10 billion years ago. Galex astronomers are using this phenomenon to their advantage by taking snapshots of different galaxies at various distances in space. By comparing portraits of numerous objects at various times in the universe's history, the team can begin to piece together the life cycle of stars and galaxies. For the poster, Galex scientists organized 196 different nearby galaxies in bins of increasing ultraviolet color. By placing the various snapshots side by side, astronomers can see how galaxies age differently. When viewed in ultraviolet, active star-forming regions in galaxies can be seen as glittering blue structures, while a soft, golden glow indicates the presence of older stars. The 196 galaxies represented in the poster were selected from more than 1,000 galaxies in the "Ultraviolet Atlas of Nearby Galaxies." So far, the Galex mission has surveyed more than 100 million galaxies.
Procedure for Finding New Im …
PIA09021
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Procedure for Finding New Impact Sites on Mars Using the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
Original Caption Released with Image ), the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) science operations team considered it possible to find more such impact sites using the MOC red wide angle camera. The most recent, freshest craters would be expected to be quite small, ranging from a few meters across to maybe a few hundred meters or so, at most, in diameter (100 meters is about 109 yards, compare that with a 100 yard U.S.-style football field). Something less than 100 meters across would not show up easily in a 240 meters per pixel red wide angle image. But the 6 January 2006 image showed that it could, because these small impacts, if they occur in an area thickly mantled with dust, will create a much larger "blast zone" around them. Thus, the MOC science operations team set out to image a few of the dustiest regions on Mars -- Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia -- with the red wide angle camera. The same camera had, in May and early June 1999, already imaged most of the planet at about 240 meters per pixel scale. By repeating areas already imaged in May/June 1999 during the January/March 2006 timeframe, we would be able to identify more dark spots. And, so, that is what we did. The Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia regions were re-imaged using the MOC red wide angle camera during January through March 2006. The data covered about 21,506,000 square kilometers (~8.3 million square miles, ~1/3 the surface area of Mars and more than twice the area of the United States). As each picture was received on Earth, we compared it with the images acquired during May/June 1999. Over the entire area surveyed, we found 39 dark spots that were present in early 2006 but not visible in May/June 1999. The 39 dark spots, then, were the candidate impact sites. Each one of these became a target for the MOC narrow angle camera, which would be used to take an image of about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) per pixel of each site. The targets were entered into the MOC database. Then, as the predicted MGS ground track came near each site, the MOC team targeted an image by working with the spacecraft engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver, Colorado) and the Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, Pasadena, California) to point the spacecraft and camera at each site using the Roll Only Targeted Observation (ROTO) maneuver. Of the 39 dark spots, 20 turned out to be fresh impact sites, and 19 of them were not. The other 19 included mistaken identifications (one was a transient, large dust devil shadow, several were craters that had been present in earlier images but had changed in brightness owing to dust removal), new dark wind streaks, and new dark slope streaks created by avalanching dust on steep slopes. Some of the 20 new impact sites received further attention, as the spacecraft and MOC were used to obtain cPROTO (compensated Pitch and Roll Targeted Observations) views that have a spatial resolution of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in the downtrack dimension and 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in the cross, Having realized that a new dark spot on Mars, seen in a red wide angle camera image acquired on 6 January 2006, might be an indication of a recent meteor impact site (see PIA09020 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09020 ] or MOC2-1611 [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/12/06/craters/site1/index.html ], track direction. The cPROTO views, where obtained, have a higher resolution and better signal-to-noise ratio than the original ROTO images. Finally, while our approach of comparing MOC red wide angle camera images obtained in May/June 1999 with those obtained in January/March 2006 constrains the 20 craters all to having formed during the May 1999 to March 2006 time interval, we found in all cases that there were already other images that had been received on Earth that helped constrain the time of the impact more tightly. In some cases, the date of the impact could be pinned down to within a month or two, in other cases the interval covered several years. Data from the MGS MOC, Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) [ http://themis.asu.edu/ ], and Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) [ http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/Missions/express/indexeng.shtml ], were all employed in the search. Shown on this page (above) are pictures that illustrate our work to find new impact craters: Figure A: This picture shows one of the new impact sites identified by the MOC team. Located in northern Arabia Terra near 29.3°N, 333.2°W, the actual crater is quite small, only 11.2 ± 3.0 meters in diameter. This is a sub-frame of MOC image S16-01105, acquired using a ROTO maneuver on 12 March 2006. Figures B and C: These pictures are MOC red wide angle camera images, obtained at a scale of about 240 meters per pixel, of portions of Arabia Terra. Figure B is M01-01610 and was acquired during the MOC Geodesy Campaign (see PIA02022 and PIA02023, or MOC2-127) on 14 May 1999. Figure C, MOC S14-02741, was obtained on 26 January 2006 as part of the campaign to find new impact craters. By comparing the two images, one from 1999 and one from 2006, we were able to identify all new dark spots that formed during that interval. In this case, the new dark spot seen in the 2006 image, S14-02741, is inside the white circle. The same location is also indicated by a circle in the May 1999 image, but no dark spot is present there. In both cases, the white circle is about 12 km (7.5 mi) across. Figure D: This map of Mars, showing the location of all the MOC red wide angle camera images acquired for the search for new craters during January through March 2006. These images cover most of Amazonis, Tharsis, and Arabia Terra. The base map is a product that combines the May/June 1999 MOC red wide angle data (plus later data for the south polar region) and laser altimeter data from MGS. Figure E: This picture shows portions of two red wide angle camera context images that more tightly constrain when the new crater shown here (above, top, left) formed. The first picture, R05-00427, was acquired on 5 May 2003 and shows no dark spot at the site of the impact. The second picture, S05-01885, shows that the dark spot was present on 29 April 2005. Thus, these two images tell us that the impact occurred sometime between those dates: 5 May 2003 and 29 April 2005. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ].
Procedure for Finding New Im …
PIA09021
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Procedure for Finding New Impact Sites on Mars Using the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
Original Caption Released with Image ), the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) science operations team considered it possible to find more such impact sites using the MOC red wide angle camera. The most recent, freshest craters would be expected to be quite small, ranging from a few meters across to maybe a few hundred meters or so, at most, in diameter (100 meters is about 109 yards, compare that with a 100 yard U.S.-style football field). Something less than 100 meters across would not show up easily in a 240 meters per pixel red wide angle image. But the 6 January 2006 image showed that it could, because these small impacts, if they occur in an area thickly mantled with dust, will create a much larger "blast zone" around them. Thus, the MOC science operations team set out to image a few of the dustiest regions on Mars -- Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia -- with the red wide angle camera. The same camera had, in May and early June 1999, already imaged most of the planet at about 240 meters per pixel scale. By repeating areas already imaged in May/June 1999 during the January/March 2006 timeframe, we would be able to identify more dark spots. And, so, that is what we did. The Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia regions were re-imaged using the MOC red wide angle camera during January through March 2006. The data covered about 21,506,000 square kilometers (~8.3 million square miles, ~1/3 the surface area of Mars and more than twice the area of the United States). As each picture was received on Earth, we compared it with the images acquired during May/June 1999. Over the entire area surveyed, we found 39 dark spots that were present in early 2006 but not visible in May/June 1999. The 39 dark spots, then, were the candidate impact sites. Each one of these became a target for the MOC narrow angle camera, which would be used to take an image of about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) per pixel of each site. The targets were entered into the MOC database. Then, as the predicted MGS ground track came near each site, the MOC team targeted an image by working with the spacecraft engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver, Colorado) and the Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, Pasadena, California) to point the spacecraft and camera at each site using the Roll Only Targeted Observation (ROTO) maneuver. Of the 39 dark spots, 20 turned out to be fresh impact sites, and 19 of them were not. The other 19 included mistaken identifications (one was a transient, large dust devil shadow, several were craters that had been present in earlier images but had changed in brightness owing to dust removal), new dark wind streaks, and new dark slope streaks created by avalanching dust on steep slopes. Some of the 20 new impact sites received further attention, as the spacecraft and MOC were used to obtain cPROTO (compensated Pitch and Roll Targeted Observations) views that have a spatial resolution of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in the downtrack dimension and 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in the cross, Having realized that a new dark spot on Mars, seen in a red wide angle camera image acquired on 6 January 2006, might be an indication of a recent meteor impact site (see PIA09020 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09020 ] or MOC2-1611 [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/12/06/craters/site1/index.html ], track direction. The cPROTO views, where obtained, have a higher resolution and better signal-to-noise ratio than the original ROTO images. Finally, while our approach of comparing MOC red wide angle camera images obtained in May/June 1999 with those obtained in January/March 2006 constrains the 20 craters all to having formed during the May 1999 to March 2006 time interval, we found in all cases that there were already other images that had been received on Earth that helped constrain the time of the impact more tightly. In some cases, the date of the impact could be pinned down to within a month or two, in other cases the interval covered several years. Data from the MGS MOC, Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) [ http://themis.asu.edu/ ], and Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) [ http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/Missions/express/indexeng.shtml ], were all employed in the search. Shown on this page (above) are pictures that illustrate our work to find new impact craters: Figure A: This picture shows one of the new impact sites identified by the MOC team. Located in northern Arabia Terra near 29.3°N, 333.2°W, the actual crater is quite small, only 11.2 ± 3.0 meters in diameter. This is a sub-frame of MOC image S16-01105, acquired using a ROTO maneuver on 12 March 2006. Figures B and C: These pictures are MOC red wide angle camera images, obtained at a scale of about 240 meters per pixel, of portions of Arabia Terra. Figure B is M01-01610 and was acquired during the MOC Geodesy Campaign (see PIA02022 and PIA02023, or MOC2-127) on 14 May 1999. Figure C, MOC S14-02741, was obtained on 26 January 2006 as part of the campaign to find new impact craters. By comparing the two images, one from 1999 and one from 2006, we were able to identify all new dark spots that formed during that interval. In this case, the new dark spot seen in the 2006 image, S14-02741, is inside the white circle. The same location is also indicated by a circle in the May 1999 image, but no dark spot is present there. In both cases, the white circle is about 12 km (7.5 mi) across. Figure D: This map of Mars, showing the location of all the MOC red wide angle camera images acquired for the search for new craters during January through March 2006. These images cover most of Amazonis, Tharsis, and Arabia Terra. The base map is a product that combines the May/June 1999 MOC red wide angle data (plus later data for the south polar region) and laser altimeter data from MGS. Figure E: This picture shows portions of two red wide angle camera context images that more tightly constrain when the new crater shown here (above, top, left) formed. The first picture, R05-00427, was acquired on 5 May 2003 and shows no dark spot at the site of the impact. The second picture, S05-01885, shows that the dark spot was present on 29 April 2005. Thus, these two images tell us that the impact occurred sometime between those dates: 5 May 2003 and 29 April 2005. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ].
Procedure for Finding New Im …
PIA09021
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Procedure for Finding New Impact Sites on Mars Using the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
Original Caption Released with Image ), the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) science operations team considered it possible to find more such impact sites using the MOC red wide angle camera. The most recent, freshest craters would be expected to be quite small, ranging from a few meters across to maybe a few hundred meters or so, at most, in diameter (100 meters is about 109 yards, compare that with a 100 yard U.S.-style football field). Something less than 100 meters across would not show up easily in a 240 meters per pixel red wide angle image. But the 6 January 2006 image showed that it could, because these small impacts, if they occur in an area thickly mantled with dust, will create a much larger "blast zone" around them. Thus, the MOC science operations team set out to image a few of the dustiest regions on Mars -- Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia -- with the red wide angle camera. The same camera had, in May and early June 1999, already imaged most of the planet at about 240 meters per pixel scale. By repeating areas already imaged in May/June 1999 during the January/March 2006 timeframe, we would be able to identify more dark spots. And, so, that is what we did. The Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia regions were re-imaged using the MOC red wide angle camera during January through March 2006. The data covered about 21,506,000 square kilometers (~8.3 million square miles, ~1/3 the surface area of Mars and more than twice the area of the United States). As each picture was received on Earth, we compared it with the images acquired during May/June 1999. Over the entire area surveyed, we found 39 dark spots that were present in early 2006 but not visible in May/June 1999. The 39 dark spots, then, were the candidate impact sites. Each one of these became a target for the MOC narrow angle camera, which would be used to take an image of about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) per pixel of each site. The targets were entered into the MOC database. Then, as the predicted MGS ground track came near each site, the MOC team targeted an image by working with the spacecraft engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver, Colorado) and the Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, Pasadena, California) to point the spacecraft and camera at each site using the Roll Only Targeted Observation (ROTO) maneuver. Of the 39 dark spots, 20 turned out to be fresh impact sites, and 19 of them were not. The other 19 included mistaken identifications (one was a transient, large dust devil shadow, several were craters that had been present in earlier images but had changed in brightness owing to dust removal), new dark wind streaks, and new dark slope streaks created by avalanching dust on steep slopes. Some of the 20 new impact sites received further attention, as the spacecraft and MOC were used to obtain cPROTO (compensated Pitch and Roll Targeted Observations) views that have a spatial resolution of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in the downtrack dimension and 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in the cross, Having realized that a new dark spot on Mars, seen in a red wide angle camera image acquired on 6 January 2006, might be an indication of a recent meteor impact site (see PIA09020 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09020 ] or MOC2-1611 [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/12/06/craters/site1/index.html ], track direction. The cPROTO views, where obtained, have a higher resolution and better signal-to-noise ratio than the original ROTO images. Finally, while our approach of comparing MOC red wide angle camera images obtained in May/June 1999 with those obtained in January/March 2006 constrains the 20 craters all to having formed during the May 1999 to March 2006 time interval, we found in all cases that there were already other images that had been received on Earth that helped constrain the time of the impact more tightly. In some cases, the date of the impact could be pinned down to within a month or two, in other cases the interval covered several years. Data from the MGS MOC, Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) [ http://themis.asu.edu/ ], and Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) [ http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/Missions/express/indexeng.shtml ], were all employed in the search. Shown on this page (above) are pictures that illustrate our work to find new impact craters: Figure A: This picture shows one of the new impact sites identified by the MOC team. Located in northern Arabia Terra near 29.3°N, 333.2°W, the actual crater is quite small, only 11.2 ± 3.0 meters in diameter. This is a sub-frame of MOC image S16-01105, acquired using a ROTO maneuver on 12 March 2006. Figures B and C: These pictures are MOC red wide angle camera images, obtained at a scale of about 240 meters per pixel, of portions of Arabia Terra. Figure B is M01-01610 and was acquired during the MOC Geodesy Campaign (see PIA02022 and PIA02023, or MOC2-127) on 14 May 1999. Figure C, MOC S14-02741, was obtained on 26 January 2006 as part of the campaign to find new impact craters. By comparing the two images, one from 1999 and one from 2006, we were able to identify all new dark spots that formed during that interval. In this case, the new dark spot seen in the 2006 image, S14-02741, is inside the white circle. The same location is also indicated by a circle in the May 1999 image, but no dark spot is present there. In both cases, the white circle is about 12 km (7.5 mi) across. Figure D: This map of Mars, showing the location of all the MOC red wide angle camera images acquired for the search for new craters during January through March 2006. These images cover most of Amazonis, Tharsis, and Arabia Terra. The base map is a product that combines the May/June 1999 MOC red wide angle data (plus later data for the south polar region) and laser altimeter data from MGS. Figure E: This picture shows portions of two red wide angle camera context images that more tightly constrain when the new crater shown here (above, top, left) formed. The first picture, R05-00427, was acquired on 5 May 2003 and shows no dark spot at the site of the impact. The second picture, S05-01885, shows that the dark spot was present on 29 April 2005. Thus, these two images tell us that the impact occurred sometime between those dates: 5 May 2003 and 29 April 2005. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ].
Procedure for Finding New Im …
PIA09021
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Procedure for Finding New Impact Sites on Mars Using the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
Original Caption Released with Image ), the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) science operations team considered it possible to find more such impact sites using the MOC red wide angle camera. The most recent, freshest craters would be expected to be quite small, ranging from a few meters across to maybe a few hundred meters or so, at most, in diameter (100 meters is about 109 yards, compare that with a 100 yard U.S.-style football field). Something less than 100 meters across would not show up easily in a 240 meters per pixel red wide angle image. But the 6 January 2006 image showed that it could, because these small impacts, if they occur in an area thickly mantled with dust, will create a much larger "blast zone" around them. Thus, the MOC science operations team set out to image a few of the dustiest regions on Mars -- Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia -- with the red wide angle camera. The same camera had, in May and early June 1999, already imaged most of the planet at about 240 meters per pixel scale. By repeating areas already imaged in May/June 1999 during the January/March 2006 timeframe, we would be able to identify more dark spots. And, so, that is what we did. The Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia regions were re-imaged using the MOC red wide angle camera during January through March 2006. The data covered about 21,506,000 square kilometers (~8.3 million square miles, ~1/3 the surface area of Mars and more than twice the area of the United States). As each picture was received on Earth, we compared it with the images acquired during May/June 1999. Over the entire area surveyed, we found 39 dark spots that were present in early 2006 but not visible in May/June 1999. The 39 dark spots, then, were the candidate impact sites. Each one of these became a target for the MOC narrow angle camera, which would be used to take an image of about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) per pixel of each site. The targets were entered into the MOC database. Then, as the predicted MGS ground track came near each site, the MOC team targeted an image by working with the spacecraft engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver, Colorado) and the Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, Pasadena, California) to point the spacecraft and camera at each site using the Roll Only Targeted Observation (ROTO) maneuver. Of the 39 dark spots, 20 turned out to be fresh impact sites, and 19 of them were not. The other 19 included mistaken identifications (one was a transient, large dust devil shadow, several were craters that had been present in earlier images but had changed in brightness owing to dust removal), new dark wind streaks, and new dark slope streaks created by avalanching dust on steep slopes. Some of the 20 new impact sites received further attention, as the spacecraft and MOC were used to obtain cPROTO (compensated Pitch and Roll Targeted Observations) views that have a spatial resolution of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in the downtrack dimension and 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in the cross, Having realized that a new dark spot on Mars, seen in a red wide angle camera image acquired on 6 January 2006, might be an indication of a recent meteor impact site (see PIA09020 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09020 ] or MOC2-1611 [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/12/06/craters/site1/index.html ], track direction. The cPROTO views, where obtained, have a higher resolution and better signal-to-noise ratio than the original ROTO images. Finally, while our approach of comparing MOC red wide angle camera images obtained in May/June 1999 with those obtained in January/March 2006 constrains the 20 craters all to having formed during the May 1999 to March 2006 time interval, we found in all cases that there were already other images that had been received on Earth that helped constrain the time of the impact more tightly. In some cases, the date of the impact could be pinned down to within a month or two, in other cases the interval covered several years. Data from the MGS MOC, Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) [ http://themis.asu.edu/ ], and Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) [ http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/Missions/express/indexeng.shtml ], were all employed in the search. Shown on this page (above) are pictures that illustrate our work to find new impact craters: Figure A: This picture shows one of the new impact sites identified by the MOC team. Located in northern Arabia Terra near 29.3°N, 333.2°W, the actual crater is quite small, only 11.2 ± 3.0 meters in diameter. This is a sub-frame of MOC image S16-01105, acquired using a ROTO maneuver on 12 March 2006. Figures B and C: These pictures are MOC red wide angle camera images, obtained at a scale of about 240 meters per pixel, of portions of Arabia Terra. Figure B is M01-01610 and was acquired during the MOC Geodesy Campaign (see PIA02022 and PIA02023, or MOC2-127) on 14 May 1999. Figure C, MOC S14-02741, was obtained on 26 January 2006 as part of the campaign to find new impact craters. By comparing the two images, one from 1999 and one from 2006, we were able to identify all new dark spots that formed during that interval. In this case, the new dark spot seen in the 2006 image, S14-02741, is inside the white circle. The same location is also indicated by a circle in the May 1999 image, but no dark spot is present there. In both cases, the white circle is about 12 km (7.5 mi) across. Figure D: This map of Mars, showing the location of all the MOC red wide angle camera images acquired for the search for new craters during January through March 2006. These images cover most of Amazonis, Tharsis, and Arabia Terra. The base map is a product that combines the May/June 1999 MOC red wide angle data (plus later data for the south polar region) and laser altimeter data from MGS. Figure E: This picture shows portions of two red wide angle camera context images that more tightly constrain when the new crater shown here (above, top, left) formed. The first picture, R05-00427, was acquired on 5 May 2003 and shows no dark spot at the site of the impact. The second picture, S05-01885, shows that the dark spot was present on 29 April 2005. Thus, these two images tell us that the impact occurred sometime between those dates: 5 May 2003 and 29 April 2005. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ].
Procedure for Finding New Im …
PIA09021
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Procedure for Finding New Impact Sites on Mars Using the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
Original Caption Released with Image ), the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) science operations team considered it possible to find more such impact sites using the MOC red wide angle camera. The most recent, freshest craters would be expected to be quite small, ranging from a few meters across to maybe a few hundred meters or so, at most, in diameter (100 meters is about 109 yards, compare that with a 100 yard U.S.-style football field). Something less than 100 meters across would not show up easily in a 240 meters per pixel red wide angle image. But the 6 January 2006 image showed that it could, because these small impacts, if they occur in an area thickly mantled with dust, will create a much larger "blast zone" around them. Thus, the MOC science operations team set out to image a few of the dustiest regions on Mars -- Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia -- with the red wide angle camera. The same camera had, in May and early June 1999, already imaged most of the planet at about 240 meters per pixel scale. By repeating areas already imaged in May/June 1999 during the January/March 2006 timeframe, we would be able to identify more dark spots. And, so, that is what we did. The Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia regions were re-imaged using the MOC red wide angle camera during January through March 2006. The data covered about 21,506,000 square kilometers (~8.3 million square miles, ~1/3 the surface area of Mars and more than twice the area of the United States). As each picture was received on Earth, we compared it with the images acquired during May/June 1999. Over the entire area surveyed, we found 39 dark spots that were present in early 2006 but not visible in May/June 1999. The 39 dark spots, then, were the candidate impact sites. Each one of these became a target for the MOC narrow angle camera, which would be used to take an image of about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) per pixel of each site. The targets were entered into the MOC database. Then, as the predicted MGS ground track came near each site, the MOC team targeted an image by working with the spacecraft engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver, Colorado) and the Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, Pasadena, California) to point the spacecraft and camera at each site using the Roll Only Targeted Observation (ROTO) maneuver. Of the 39 dark spots, 20 turned out to be fresh impact sites, and 19 of them were not. The other 19 included mistaken identifications (one was a transient, large dust devil shadow, several were craters that had been present in earlier images but had changed in brightness owing to dust removal), new dark wind streaks, and new dark slope streaks created by avalanching dust on steep slopes. Some of the 20 new impact sites received further attention, as the spacecraft and MOC were used to obtain cPROTO (compensated Pitch and Roll Targeted Observations) views that have a spatial resolution of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in the downtrack dimension and 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in the cross, Having realized that a new dark spot on Mars, seen in a red wide angle camera image acquired on 6 January 2006, might be an indication of a recent meteor impact site (see PIA09020 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09020 ] or MOC2-1611 [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/12/06/craters/site1/index.html ], track direction. The cPROTO views, where obtained, have a higher resolution and better signal-to-noise ratio than the original ROTO images. Finally, while our approach of comparing MOC red wide angle camera images obtained in May/June 1999 with those obtained in January/March 2006 constrains the 20 craters all to having formed during the May 1999 to March 2006 time interval, we found in all cases that there were already other images that had been received on Earth that helped constrain the time of the impact more tightly. In some cases, the date of the impact could be pinned down to within a month or two, in other cases the interval covered several years. Data from the MGS MOC, Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) [ http://themis.asu.edu/ ], and Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) [ http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/Missions/express/indexeng.shtml ], were all employed in the search. Shown on this page (above) are pictures that illustrate our work to find new impact craters: Figure A: This picture shows one of the new impact sites identified by the MOC team. Located in northern Arabia Terra near 29.3°N, 333.2°W, the actual crater is quite small, only 11.2 ± 3.0 meters in diameter. This is a sub-frame of MOC image S16-01105, acquired using a ROTO maneuver on 12 March 2006. Figures B and C: These pictures are MOC red wide angle camera images, obtained at a scale of about 240 meters per pixel, of portions of Arabia Terra. Figure B is M01-01610 and was acquired during the MOC Geodesy Campaign (see PIA02022 and PIA02023, or MOC2-127) on 14 May 1999. Figure C, MOC S14-02741, was obtained on 26 January 2006 as part of the campaign to find new impact craters. By comparing the two images, one from 1999 and one from 2006, we were able to identify all new dark spots that formed during that interval. In this case, the new dark spot seen in the 2006 image, S14-02741, is inside the white circle. The same location is also indicated by a circle in the May 1999 image, but no dark spot is present there. In both cases, the white circle is about 12 km (7.5 mi) across. Figure D: This map of Mars, showing the location of all the MOC red wide angle camera images acquired for the search for new craters during January through March 2006. These images cover most of Amazonis, Tharsis, and Arabia Terra. The base map is a product that combines the May/June 1999 MOC red wide angle data (plus later data for the south polar region) and laser altimeter data from MGS. Figure E: This picture shows portions of two red wide angle camera context images that more tightly constrain when the new crater shown here (above, top, left) formed. The first picture, R05-00427, was acquired on 5 May 2003 and shows no dark spot at the site of the impact. The second picture, S05-01885, shows that the dark spot was present on 29 April 2005. Thus, these two images tell us that the impact occurred sometime between those dates: 5 May 2003 and 29 April 2005. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ].
Procedure for Finding New Im …
PIA09021
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Procedure for Finding New Impact Sites on Mars Using the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
Original Caption Released with Image ), the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) science operations team considered it possible to find more such impact sites using the MOC red wide angle camera. The most recent, freshest craters would be expected to be quite small, ranging from a few meters across to maybe a few hundred meters or so, at most, in diameter (100 meters is about 109 yards, compare that with a 100 yard U.S.-style football field). Something less than 100 meters across would not show up easily in a 240 meters per pixel red wide angle image. But the 6 January 2006 image showed that it could, because these small impacts, if they occur in an area thickly mantled with dust, will create a much larger "blast zone" around them. Thus, the MOC science operations team set out to image a few of the dustiest regions on Mars -- Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia -- with the red wide angle camera. The same camera had, in May and early June 1999, already imaged most of the planet at about 240 meters per pixel scale. By repeating areas already imaged in May/June 1999 during the January/March 2006 timeframe, we would be able to identify more dark spots. And, so, that is what we did. The Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia regions were re-imaged using the MOC red wide angle camera during January through March 2006. The data covered about 21,506,000 square kilometers (~8.3 million square miles, ~1/3 the surface area of Mars and more than twice the area of the United States). As each picture was received on Earth, we compared it with the images acquired during May/June 1999. Over the entire area surveyed, we found 39 dark spots that were present in early 2006 but not visible in May/June 1999. The 39 dark spots, then, were the candidate impact sites. Each one of these became a target for the MOC narrow angle camera, which would be used to take an image of about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) per pixel of each site. The targets were entered into the MOC database. Then, as the predicted MGS ground track came near each site, the MOC team targeted an image by working with the spacecraft engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver, Colorado) and the Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, Pasadena, California) to point the spacecraft and camera at each site using the Roll Only Targeted Observation (ROTO) maneuver. Of the 39 dark spots, 20 turned out to be fresh impact sites, and 19 of them were not. The other 19 included mistaken identifications (one was a transient, large dust devil shadow, several were craters that had been present in earlier images but had changed in brightness owing to dust removal), new dark wind streaks, and new dark slope streaks created by avalanching dust on steep slopes. Some of the 20 new impact sites received further attention, as the spacecraft and MOC were used to obtain cPROTO (compensated Pitch and Roll Targeted Observations) views that have a spatial resolution of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in the downtrack dimension and 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in the cross, Having realized that a new dark spot on Mars, seen in a red wide angle camera image acquired on 6 January 2006, might be an indication of a recent meteor impact site (see PIA09020 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09020 ] or MOC2-1611 [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/12/06/craters/site1/index.html ], track direction. The cPROTO views, where obtained, have a higher resolution and better signal-to-noise ratio than the original ROTO images. Finally, while our approach of comparing MOC red wide angle camera images obtained in May/June 1999 with those obtained in January/March 2006 constrains the 20 craters all to having formed during the May 1999 to March 2006 time interval, we found in all cases that there were already other images that had been received on Earth that helped constrain the time of the impact more tightly. In some cases, the date of the impact could be pinned down to within a month or two, in other cases the interval covered several years. Data from the MGS MOC, Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) [ http://themis.asu.edu/ ], and Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) [ http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/Missions/express/indexeng.shtml ], were all employed in the search. Shown on this page (above) are pictures that illustrate our work to find new impact craters: Figure A: This picture shows one of the new impact sites identified by the MOC team. Located in northern Arabia Terra near 29.3°N, 333.2°W, the actual crater is quite small, only 11.2 ± 3.0 meters in diameter. This is a sub-frame of MOC image S16-01105, acquired using a ROTO maneuver on 12 March 2006. Figures B and C: These pictures are MOC red wide angle camera images, obtained at a scale of about 240 meters per pixel, of portions of Arabia Terra. Figure B is M01-01610 and was acquired during the MOC Geodesy Campaign (see PIA02022 and PIA02023, or MOC2-127) on 14 May 1999. Figure C, MOC S14-02741, was obtained on 26 January 2006 as part of the campaign to find new impact craters. By comparing the two images, one from 1999 and one from 2006, we were able to identify all new dark spots that formed during that interval. In this case, the new dark spot seen in the 2006 image, S14-02741, is inside the white circle. The same location is also indicated by a circle in the May 1999 image, but no dark spot is present there. In both cases, the white circle is about 12 km (7.5 mi) across. Figure D: This map of Mars, showing the location of all the MOC red wide angle camera images acquired for the search for new craters during January through March 2006. These images cover most of Amazonis, Tharsis, and Arabia Terra. The base map is a product that combines the May/June 1999 MOC red wide angle data (plus later data for the south polar region) and laser altimeter data from MGS. Figure E: This picture shows portions of two red wide angle camera context images that more tightly constrain when the new crater shown here (above, top, left) formed. The first picture, R05-00427, was acquired on 5 May 2003 and shows no dark spot at the site of the impact. The second picture, S05-01885, shows that the dark spot was present on 29 April 2005. Thus, these two images tell us that the impact occurred sometime between those dates: 5 May 2003 and 29 April 2005. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ].
Procedure for Finding New Im …
PIA09021
Sol (our sun)
Mars Orbiter Camera
Title Procedure for Finding New Impact Sites on Mars Using the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
Original Caption Released with Image ), the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) science operations team considered it possible to find more such impact sites using the MOC red wide angle camera. The most recent, freshest craters would be expected to be quite small, ranging from a few meters across to maybe a few hundred meters or so, at most, in diameter (100 meters is about 109 yards, compare that with a 100 yard U.S.-style football field). Something less than 100 meters across would not show up easily in a 240 meters per pixel red wide angle image. But the 6 January 2006 image showed that it could, because these small impacts, if they occur in an area thickly mantled with dust, will create a much larger "blast zone" around them. Thus, the MOC science operations team set out to image a few of the dustiest regions on Mars -- Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia -- with the red wide angle camera. The same camera had, in May and early June 1999, already imaged most of the planet at about 240 meters per pixel scale. By repeating areas already imaged in May/June 1999 during the January/March 2006 timeframe, we would be able to identify more dark spots. And, so, that is what we did. The Tharsis, Amazonis, and Arabia regions were re-imaged using the MOC red wide angle camera during January through March 2006. The data covered about 21,506,000 square kilometers (~8.3 million square miles, ~1/3 the surface area of Mars and more than twice the area of the United States). As each picture was received on Earth, we compared it with the images acquired during May/June 1999. Over the entire area surveyed, we found 39 dark spots that were present in early 2006 but not visible in May/June 1999. The 39 dark spots, then, were the candidate impact sites. Each one of these became a target for the MOC narrow angle camera, which would be used to take an image of about 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) per pixel of each site. The targets were entered into the MOC database. Then, as the predicted MGS ground track came near each site, the MOC team targeted an image by working with the spacecraft engineers at Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver, Colorado) and the Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, Pasadena, California) to point the spacecraft and camera at each site using the Roll Only Targeted Observation (ROTO) maneuver. Of the 39 dark spots, 20 turned out to be fresh impact sites, and 19 of them were not. The other 19 included mistaken identifications (one was a transient, large dust devil shadow, several were craters that had been present in earlier images but had changed in brightness owing to dust removal), new dark wind streaks, and new dark slope streaks created by avalanching dust on steep slopes. Some of the 20 new impact sites received further attention, as the spacecraft and MOC were used to obtain cPROTO (compensated Pitch and Roll Targeted Observations) views that have a spatial resolution of 0.5 meters (1.6 feet) in the downtrack dimension and 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in the cross, Having realized that a new dark spot on Mars, seen in a red wide angle camera image acquired on 6 January 2006, might be an indication of a recent meteor impact site (see PIA09020 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA09020 ] or MOC2-1611 [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2006/12/06/craters/site1/index.html ], track direction. The cPROTO views, where obtained, have a higher resolution and better signal-to-noise ratio than the original ROTO images. Finally, while our approach of comparing MOC red wide angle camera images obtained in May/June 1999 with those obtained in January/March 2006 constrains the 20 craters all to having formed during the May 1999 to March 2006 time interval, we found in all cases that there were already other images that had been received on Earth that helped constrain the time of the impact more tightly. In some cases, the date of the impact could be pinned down to within a month or two, in other cases the interval covered several years. Data from the MGS MOC, Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) [ http://themis.asu.edu/ ], and Mars Express High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) [ http://berlinadmin.dlr.de/Missions/express/indexeng.shtml ], were all employed in the search. Shown on this page (above) are pictures that illustrate our work to find new impact craters: Figure A: This picture shows one of the new impact sites identified by the MOC team. Located in northern Arabia Terra near 29.3°N, 333.2°W, the actual crater is quite small, only 11.2 ± 3.0 meters in diameter. This is a sub-frame of MOC image S16-01105, acquired using a ROTO maneuver on 12 March 2006. Figures B and C: These pictures are MOC red wide angle camera images, obtained at a scale of about 240 meters per pixel, of portions of Arabia Terra. Figure B is M01-01610 and was acquired during the MOC Geodesy Campaign (see PIA02022 and PIA02023, or MOC2-127) on 14 May 1999. Figure C, MOC S14-02741, was obtained on 26 January 2006 as part of the campaign to find new impact craters. By comparing the two images, one from 1999 and one from 2006, we were able to identify all new dark spots that formed during that interval. In this case, the new dark spot seen in the 2006 image, S14-02741, is inside the white circle. The same location is also indicated by a circle in the May 1999 image, but no dark spot is present there. In both cases, the white circle is about 12 km (7.5 mi) across. Figure D: This map of Mars, showing the location of all the MOC red wide angle camera images acquired for the search for new craters during January through March 2006. These images cover most of Amazonis, Tharsis, and Arabia Terra. The base map is a product that combines the May/June 1999 MOC red wide angle data (plus later data for the south polar region) and laser altimeter data from MGS. Figure E: This picture shows portions of two red wide angle camera context images that more tightly constrain when the new crater shown here (above, top, left) formed. The first picture, R05-00427, was acquired on 5 May 2003 and shows no dark spot at the site of the impact. The second picture, S05-01885, shows that the dark spot was present on 29 April 2005. Thus, these two images tell us that the impact occurred sometime between those dates: 5 May 2003 and 29 April 2005. The Mars Global Surveyor mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft. Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., built and operates the Mars Orbiter Camera. For more information about images from the Mars Orbiter Camera, see http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html [ http://www.msss.com/mgs/moc/index.html ].
General Description International Space Station Imagery
General Description International Space Station Imagery
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers install a science panel on the spacecraft Stardust. Scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999, Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in a re-entry capsule to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006
Release Date 12/02/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers get ready to install a science panel on the spacecraft Stardust. Scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999, Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in a re-entry capsule to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006
Release Date 12/02/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers adjust a science panel they are installing on the spacecraft Stardust. Scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999, Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in a re-entry capsule to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006
Release Date 12/02/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, the aerogel grid is fully deployed from the Stardust Sample Return Capsule (SRC) for final closeout. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/07/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers oversee closeout operations of the Stardust Sample Return Capsule (SRC) and -X spacecraft panel with the spacecraft bus. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/14/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers get ready to install the Sample Return Capsule (SRC) and -X spacecraft panel on the Stardust spacecraft . Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/04/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers prepare to open the Stardust Sample Return Capsule (SRC) residing in a Class 100 glove box. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/07/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, the Stardust spacecraft is ready for the sample return capsule to be attached. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the re-entry capsule to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/04/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers deploy an aerogel grid from the Stardust Sample Return Capsule (SRC) in the Class 100 Glove Box. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/07/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Randy Scott, with Lockheed Martin Astronautics, checks insulation material on the Stardust [ http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/stardust.htm ] spacecraft. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/21/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, workers inspect the aerogel grid from the Stardust Sample Return Capsule (SRC) to the right of the worker. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/07/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Randy Scott (left) and Pat Wedeman (right) , with Lockheed Martin Astronautics, insulate the Stardust [ http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/stardust.htm ] spacecraft. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/21/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Randy Scott, with Lockheed Martin Astronautics, looks over the Stardust [ http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/stardust.htm ] spacecraft after closeout. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/21/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Randy Scott (left) and Pat Wedeman (right), with Lockheed Martin Astronautics, check the insulation on the Stardust [ http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/stardust.htm ] spacecraft. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/21/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Randy Scott (left) and Pat Wedeman (right), with Lockheed Martin Astronautics, check the insulation material on the Stardust [ http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/stardust.htm ] spacecraft. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/21/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Randy Scott (left) and Linda Townsend (right), with Lockheed Martin Astronautics, make a final check of the Stardust [ http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/stardust.htm ] spacecraft. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/21/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, closeout of the Stardust [ http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/subjects/stardust.htm ] spacecraft is complete. Stardust will use a unique medium called aerogel to capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of comet Wild 2 in January 2004, plus collect interstellar dust for later analysis. The collected samples will return to Earth in the SRC to be jettisoned as it swings by Earth in January 2006. Stardust is scheduled to be launched aboard a Boeing Delta 7426 rocket from Complex 17, Cape Canaveral Air Station, on Feb. 6, 1999
Release Date 12/21/1998
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Casey McClellan (left) and Denise Kato (right), with Lockheed Martin, prepare the spacecraft Stardust for a media presentation. Stardust is targeted for launch on Feb. 6 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Launch Pad 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Station. The spacecraft is destined for a close encounter with the comet Wild 2 in January 2004. Using a silicon-based substance called aerogel, Stardust will capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of the comet. The spacecraft also will bring back samples of interstellar dust. These materials consist of ancient pre-solar interstellar grains and other remnants left over from the formation of the solar system. Scientists expect their analysis to provide important insights into the evolution of the sun and planets and possibly into the origin of life itself. The collected samples will return to Earth in a sample return capsule (the white-topped, blunt-nosed cone seen on the top of the spacecraft) to be jettisoned as Stardust swings by Earth in January 2006
Release Date 01/22/1999
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, the spacecraft Stardust is on display for a media presentation. Stardust is targeted for launch on Feb. 6 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Launch Pad 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Station. The spacecraft is destined for a close encounter with the comet Wild 2 in January 2004. Using a silicon-based substance called aerogel, Stardust will capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of the comet. The spacecraft also will bring back samples of interstellar dust. These materials consist of ancient pre-solar interstellar grains and other remnants left over from the formation of the solar system. Scientists expect their analysis to provide important insights into the evolution of the sun and planets and possibly into the origin of life itself. The collected samples will return to Earth in a sample return capsule (the white-topped, blunt-nosed cone seen on the top of the spacecraft) to be jettisoned as Stardust swings by Earth in January 2006
Release Date 01/22/1999
In the Payload Hazardous Ser …
Description In the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility, Casey McClellan (right), with Lockheed Martin, and an unidentified worker look over the spacecraft Stardust before a media presentation. Stardust is targeted for launch on Feb. 6 aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Launch Pad 17-A, Cape Canaveral Air Station. The spacecraft is destined for a close encounter with the comet Wild 2 in January 2004. Using a silicon-based substance called aerogel, Stardust will capture comet particles flying off the nucleus of the comet. The spacecraft also will bring back samples of interstellar dust. These materials consist of ancient pre-solar interstellar grains and other remnants left over from the formation of the solar system. Scientists expect their analysis to provide important insights into the evolution of the sun and planets and possibly into the origin of life itself. The collected samples will return to Earth in a sample return capsule (the white-topped, blunt-nosed cone seen on the top of the spacecraft) to be jettisoned as Stardust swings by Earth in January 2006
Release Date 01/22/1999
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