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Earth of Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) from 1999
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Radar images of newly discov
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8/26/99
| Date |
8/26/99 |
| Description |
Radar images of newly discovered 1999 JM8, an unusually large asteroid with a slow rotation rate, reveal the object's bizarre shape as it streaked past Earth in late July and early August at a close approach of 8.5 million kilometers (5.3 million miles), about 22 times the distance between the Earth and the Moon. The object, thought to be several miles wide, was captured by a radar team led by Dr. Lance Benner of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, after its discovery on May 13, 1999, using NASA's Goldstone radar facility in California and the Arecibo Observatory's radar in Puerto Rico. The images, clockwise from the top left, were taken on August 5, July 28, August 2 and August 1. Radar illumination is from the top and the asteroid's rotation is clockwise. The Goldstone images taken on July 28 have a vertical resolution of 38 meters per pixel and those taken on August 1 have a vertical resolution of 19 meters per pixel. The images taken by the Arecibo Observatory on August 2 and 5 have a vertical resolution of 15 meters per pixel. 1999 JM8 resembles Toutatis, a similarly sized, slowly rotating asteroid that also crosses Earth's orbit and that last flew past the planet on November 29, 1996, at a close approach of 5.3 million kilometers (3.3 million miles). Discovery of a second large Earth-crosser with a similarly slow spin rate suggests that slowly tumbling asteroids are fairly common among near-Earth objects. However, although collisions are thought to be the primary process determining asteroid spin states, astronomers do not know how these slow, complex rotation states come about. 1999 JM8 was discovered with a U. S. Air Force telescope in New Mexico that is part of MIT's Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research project. Radar observations by Ostro, Benner and their team were supported by NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The Goldstone Solar System Radar is part of NASA's Deep Space Network. The Arecibo Observatory, in Puerto Rico, is part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, which is operated by the Cornell University under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation and with support from NASA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ##### |
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The Saturn-bound Cassini spa
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8/16/99
| Date |
8/16/99 |
| Description |
The Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft will fly past the Earth Tuesday, August 17, at 8:28 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time (August 18 at 03:28 Universal Time). Launched in October 1997, Cassini will gain a boost in speed during its Earth flyby, which occurs at an altitude of 1,166 kilometers (725 miles) over the eastern South Pacific at -23.5 degrees latitude and 231.5 degrees longitude. Two successful flybys of Venus, next week's flyby of Earth, and a flyby of Jupiter in December 2000 all give Cassini the additional speed it needs to reach Saturn in 2004. Cassini is a joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency, and is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. [Image for NASA-JPL was created by John Aiello of JPL.] |
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Airborne images of the Willo
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9/3/99
| Date |
9/3/99 |
| Description |
Airborne images of the Willow fire in Southern California's San Bernardino County, taken September 1 from a NASA ER-2 airplane, show the blaze in wavelengths that are not visible to the naked eye and would vastly improve firefighters' ability to contain them. Whereas the human eye can only see in the visible portion of the light spectrum, from 400 nanometers to 700 nanometers, NASA's Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, known as AVIRIS, measures the full spectrum of light from 400 nanometers to 2,500 nanometers. (A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.) The color portion of the first set of images, beginning at the left, shows the Willow fire as it was seen from an aircraft on September 1. Vegetation is dark green and smoke can be seen rising from the fire. To the left of the color image is the first infrared image taken at a wavelength of 500 nanometers. The light is diffused by smoke particles and vegetation appears dark due to the absorption of chlorophyll molecules. In the next spectral image, taken at 1,000 nanometers, less of the light is scattered by the smoke and the surface near the fire is seen more clearly. At this wavelength of light, healthy vegetation appears bright because of the light scattering of leaves, while scorched vegetation appears dark. At the still longer wavelength of 1,500 nanometers, the smoke is nearly transparent. At this wavelength, AVIRIS began to clearly measure the actual light coming from the burning fire. At 2,000 nanometers, only light from the burning fires can be seen. In this image the major fires and many small hotspots can be seen. In the future, AVIRIS will continue to be used to gather valuable information on forest fire risk in both wilderness and urban areas. Currently, important research is being pursued by Drs. Dar Roberts of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Susan Ustin of the University of California, Davis and John Gamon of California State University, Los Angeles, as well as many others. AVIRIS was designed, built and is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. With full spectral coverage, AVIRIS data are used to carry out a range of research activities and applications covering ecology, geology, coastal and inland water studies, snow and ice studies, wild fires, environmental contamination and urban studies. Data collection is made possible by NASA's ER-2 aircraft, which is housed at the Dryden Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, CA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ##### |
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Airborne images of the Willo
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9/3/99
| Date |
9/3/99 |
| Description |
Airborne images of the Willow fire in Southern California's San Bernardino County, taken September 1 from a NASA ER-2 airplane, show the blaze in wavelengths that are not visible to the naked eye. This set of infrared snapshots, taken by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer, represents all of the infrared camera's 224 spectral channels, stacked in the image-cube format to depict the full AVIRIS measurement. The top and right panels show the full spectrum measured for each spatial element along the along the edge of the image. Spectroscopic or color analysis enables scientists to determine temperature variations, adjacent vegetation type and biomass, as well as the water content of leaves in the vegetation. These are important factors for understanding, controlling and extinguishing fires. AVIRIS was designed, built and is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. Data collection are made possible by NASA's ER-2 aircraft, which is housed at the Dryden Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, CA. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ##### |
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TOPEX/La Nina
The cold pool of water in th
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3/10/99
| Date |
3/10/99 |
| Description |
The cold pool of water in the Pacific known as "La Nina" still persists, although it is slowly weakening, according to scientists studying new data from the U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon satellite. A new image, produced using sea-surface height measurements taken by the satellite, is available on the Internet at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/elnino/ . It shows sea-surface height on February 27, 1999 relative to normal ocean conditions, reflecting the heat content of the ocean. The low sea level or cold pool of water along the equator (shown in purple and blue), commonly referred to as La Nina, still dominates the equatorial Pacific Ocean. This La Nina, which first appeared in May through June 1998, still persists, although it is slowly weakening, scientists say. Given its persistence and present strength, the ocean cooling trend is expected to continue to exert a strong influence on global climate systems throughout the spring and into the early summer. This situation is similar to the 1997-1998 El Nino, which extended into late summer 1998. The world's oceans are the great reservoirs of heat that influence global climate because they can cool or heat the atmosphere above. This transfer of heat drives weather patterns across both land and sea. La Nina provides a physical link connecting the large, slow changes in the ocean with predictable changes in day-to-day weather. "La Nina shifts the high-altitude weather highway known as the 'jet stream,'" said Dr. William Patzert, an oceanographer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "It funnels storm tracks to the Pacific Northwest, which has resulted in heavy rainfall and lots of snow in that region so far, as well as the upper Midwest. Much of the Southwest, by contrast, has been shielded from stormy weather and, as a result, has received significantly less precipitation than normal to date. "This year's La Nina was average in its intensity, but at its peak, it was associated with a 15- to- 20-centimeter deep trough (6 to 8 inches) in the central tropical Pacific," Patzert said. "The depression was correlated with a 2- to- 3-degree Centigrade (about 3.5 to 5.5 degrees Fahrenheit) dip in normal ocean surface temperatures." The image also shows that the very large, unusual area of higher or warmer water (shown here in red and white) in the western Pacific Ocean, from the tropics to the Gulf of Alaska, continues to expand. Although the appearance of this feature is not fully understood, it is recognized as influential to overall weather and climate. The white areas in the image indicate that the sea-surface height is between 14 and 32 centimeters (6 to 13 inches) above normal, in the red areas, sea-surface height is about 10 centimeters (4 inches) above normal. The green areas indicate normal conditions. The purple areas are between 14 to 18 centimeters (6 to 7 inches) below normal, and the blue areas are between 5 to 13 centimeters (2 to 5 inches) below normal. The TOPEX/Poseidon mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Earth Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ##### |
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| Description |
Here on the Gallery page you can find the very latest images, videos and products from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, including the spectacular launch, spacecraft assembly and the exciting trip to Saturn. |
| Full Description |
The flyby of Earth in Cassini's primary trajectory occured on August 18, 1999, just 55 days after the second Venus flyby. This image shows the spacecraft over the South Pacific. By David Seal (only available electronically). |
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| Description |
Here on the Gallery page you can find the very latest images, videos and products from the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, including the spectacular launch, spacecraft assembly and the exciting trip to Saturn. |
| Full Description |
Earth's Moon is captured in this image taken by Cassini's narrow angle camera as the spacecraft passed by on its way to its close approach to Earth of August 17, 1999. The spatial resolution scale of the image is approximately 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) per pixel. For higher resolution, click here. |
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Charon Discovery Image
| title |
Charon Discovery Image |
| date |
06.22.1978 |
| description |
On 22 June 1978, an astronomer at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. was making routine measurements of photographic plates taken with the 1.55-meter (61-inch) Kaj Strand Astrometric Reflector at the USNO Flagstaff Station in Arizona. The purpose of these images was to refine the orbit of the far-flung planet Pluto to help compute a better ephemeris for this distant object. Astronomer James W. Christy had noticed that a number of the images of Pluto appeared elongated, but images of background stars on the same plate did not. Other plates showed the planet as a tiny, round dot. Christy examined a number of Pluto images from the USNO archives, and he noticed the elongations again. Furthermore, the elongations appeared to change position with respect to the stars over time. After eliminating the possibility that the elongations were produced by plate defects and background stars, the only plausible explanation was that they were caused by a previously unknown moon orbiting Pluto at a distance of about 19,600 kilometers (12,100 miles) with a period of just over six days. On 7 July 1978, the discovery was formally announced to the astronomical community and the world by the IAU Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams via IAU Circular 3241. The discovery received the provisional designation "1978 P 1", Christy proposed the name "Charon", after the mythological ferryman who carried souls across the river Acheron, one of the five mythical rivers that surrounded Pluto's underworld. Over the course of the next several years, another USNO astronomer, the late Robert S. Harrington, calculated that Pluto and its newly-found moon would undergo a series of mutual eclipses and occultations, beginning in early 1985. On 17 February 1985 the first successful observation of one of these transits was made at with the 0.9-meter (36-inch) reflector at the University of Texas McDonald Observatory, within 40 minutes of Harrington's predicted time. The IAU Circular announcing these confirming observations was issued on 22 February 1985. With this confirmation, the new moon was officially named Charon. Pluto was discovered at Lowell Observatory in 1930 by the late Clyde W. Tombaugh, an amateur astronomer from Kansas who was hired by the Observatory specifically to photograph the sky with a special camera and search for the planet predicted by the Observatory's founder, Percival Lowell. Lowell had deduced the existence of a "Planet X" by studying small anomalies in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. As it turned out, Pluto's discovery was almost entirely serendipitous, Pluto's tiny mass was far too small to account for the anomalies, which were resolved when Voyager 2 determined more precise masses for Uranus and Neptune. The discovery of Charon has led to a much better understanding of just how tiny Pluto is. Its diameter is about 2274 km (1413 miles), and its mass is 0.25% of the mass of the Earth. Charon has a diameter of about 1172 kilometers (728, miles) and a mass of about 22% that of Pluto. The two worlds circle their common center of mass with a period of 6.387 days and are locked in a "super-synchronous" rotation: observers on Pluto's surface would always see Charon in the same part of the sky relative to their local horizon. Normally Pluto is considered the most distant world in the solar system, but during the period from January 1979 until February 1999 it was actually closer to the Sun than Neptune. It has the most eccentric and inclinced orbit of any of the major planets. This orbit won't bring Pluto back to its discovery position until the year 2178! *Image Credit*: U.S. Naval Observatory |
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Olympus Mons, 1998
| title |
Olympus Mons, 1998 |
| date |
04.25.1998 |
| description |
Olympus Mons is a mountain of mystery. Taller than three Mount Everests and about as wide as the entire Hawaiian Island chain, this giant volcano is nearly as flat as a pancake. That is, its flanks typically only slope 20 to 50. The Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) obtained this spectacular wide-angle view of Olympus Mons on Mars Global Surveyor's 263rd orbit, around 10:40 p.m. PDT on April 25, 1998. In the view presented here, north is to the left and east is up. The spacecraft was traveling from north to south (left to right). Although the camera looks straight down (towards the nadir) and cannot be pointed to the side, the wide angle camera has such a large field of view (it sees from horizon to horizon) that, in effect, it provides side looking views. Unlike some other MOC images, that have had to be warped to provide a view as if seen from a certain direction and altitude, this image shows what the camera saw without additional processing. It is easy to imagine that you are looking out a window at the surface of Mars from about 900 km (560 miles) up. The image was taken on a cool, crisp winter morning. The west side of the volcano (lower portion of view, above) was clear and details on the surface appear very sharp. The skies above the plains to the east of Olympus Mons (upper portion of view) were cloudy. Clouds were lapping against the lower east flanks of this 26 kilometers (16 miles) high volcano, but the summit skies were clear. When Mars Global Surveyor attains its Mapping Orbit in March 1999, the MOC wide angle camera system will be used to make daily, global maps of martian clouds and weather systems. The wide angle images will resemble weather satellite pictures of Earth, and will help the Mars science teams plan their observations and test computer-driven Mars weather prediction models. Malin Space Science Systems and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. Image Note: This color picture was made using MOC red wide angle image 26301 and blue wide angle image 26302. The green channel was synthesized by averaging the red and blue bands. Color is not the true color of Mars as it would appear to the human eye (the actual colors would be more pale and contrast more subdued) *Image Credit*: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems |
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Eclipsed Earth
| title |
Eclipsed Earth |
| date |
08.11.1999 |
| description |
Here is what the Earth looks like during a solar eclipse. The shadow of the Moon can be seen darkening part of Earth. This shadow moves across the Earth at nearly 2,000 kilometers per hour. Only observers near the center of the dark circle see a total solar eclipse - others see a partial eclipse where only part of the Sun appears blocked by the Moon. This spectacular picture of the Aug. 11, 1999 solar eclipse was one of the last ever taken from the Mir space station. Mir was decommissioned after more than ten years of use. *Image Credit*: Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales |
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An Eruption on Io
| title |
An Eruption on Io |
| date |
02.26.2007 |
| description |
The first images returned to Earth by New Horizons during its close encounter with Jupiter feature the Galilean moon Io, snapped with the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) at 0840 UTC on February 26, while the moon was 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) from the spacecraft. Io is intensely heated by its tidal interaction with Jupiter and is thus extremely volcanically active. That activity is evident in these images, which reveal an enormous dust plume, more than 150 miles high, erupting from the volcano Tvashtar. The plume appears as an umbrella-shaped feature of the edge of Io's disk in the 11 o'clock position in the right image, which is a long-exposure (20-millisecond) frame designed specifically to look for plumes like this. The bright spots at 2 o'clock are high mountains catching the setting sun, beyond them the night side of Io can be seen, faintly illuminated by light reflected from Jupiter itself. The left image is a shorter exposure -- 3 milliseconds -- designed to look at surface features. In this frame, the Tvashtar volcano shows as a dark spot, also at 11 o'clock, surrounded by a large dark ring, where an area larger than Texas has been covered by fallout from the giant eruption. This is the clearest view yet of a plume from Tvashtar, one of Io's most active volcanoes. Ground-based telescopes and the Galileo Jupiter orbiter first spotted volcanic heat radiation from Tvashtar in November 1999, and the Cassini spacecraft saw a large plume when it flew past Jupiter in December 2000. The Keck telescope in Hawaii picked up renewed heat radiation from Tvashtar in spring 2006, and just two weeks ago the Hubble Space Telescope saw the Tvashtar plume in ultraviolet images designed to support the New Horizons flyby. Most of those images will be stored onboard the spacecraft for downlink to Earth in March and April. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute |
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Mars Climate Orbiter
| Title |
Mars Climate Orbiter |
| Full Description |
The Mars Surveyor '98 Climate Orbiter is shown here during acoustic tests that simulate launch conditions. The orbiter was to conduct a two year primary mission to profile the Martian atmosphere and map the surface. To carry out these scientific objectives, the spacecraft carried a rebuilt version of the pressure modulated infrared radiometer, lost with the Mars Observer spacecraft, and a miniaturized dual camera system the size of a pair of binoculars, provided by Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., San Diego, California. During its primary mission, the orbiter was to monitor Mars atmosphere and surface globally on a daily basis for one Martian year (two Earth years), observing the appearance and movement of atmospheric dust and water vapor, as well as characterizing seasonal changes of the planet's surface. Imaging of the surface morphology would also provide important clues about the planet's climate in its early history. The mission was part of NASA's Mars Surveyor program, a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics was NASA's industrial partner in the mission. Unfortunately, Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere on September 23, 1999, due to a metric conversion error that caused the spacecraft to be off course. |
| Date |
05/27/1998 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Solar System Montage
| Title |
Solar System Montage |
| Full Description |
This is a montage of planetary images taken by spacecraft managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Included are (from top to bottom) images of Mercury, Venus, Earth (and Moon), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The spacecraft responsible for these images are as follows: the Mercury image was taken by Mariner 10, the Venus image by Magellan, the Earth image by Galileo, the Mars image by Viking, and the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune images by Voyager. Pluto is not shown as no spacecraft has yet visited it. The inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, and Mars) are roughly to scale to each other, the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are roughly to scale to each other. Actual diameters are given below: Sun 1,390,000 km Mercury 4,879 km Venus 12,104 km Earth 12,756 km Moon 3,475 km Mars 6,794 km Jupiter 142.984 km Saturn 120,536 km Uranus 51,118 km Neptune 49,528 km Pluto 2,390 km |
| Date |
04/09/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
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| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
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| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
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| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures. |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
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| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
…
| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
…
| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
…
| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
…
| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
…
| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
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| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
…
| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
…
| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
|
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage
…
| Title |
Vast Stellar Disks Set Stage for Planet Birth in New Hubble Images |
| General Information |
What is a Space Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a Space Science Update (SSU), broadcast on NASA television. The SSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. Dramatic pictures of eerie disks of dust encircling young stars are giving astronomers a new look at what may be the early formative stages of planetary systems. Although these pictures from the Hubble telescope don't show planets, the edge-on disks seen by the telescope provide some of the clearest views to date of potential planetary construction zones, say researchers. The images also offer a peek at what happened 4.5 billion years ago when the Earth and other planets in our solar system began to condense out of a pancake-shaped disk of dust and gas centered on the young Sun. These images were taken by Hubble's infrared camera. All of the objects in these pictures are extremely young stars, buried in the centers of these pictures. The wisps of material surrounding the young stars are glowing from reflected starlight. Read more: * Release Text [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/1999/05/text/ ] |
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Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
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| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures. |
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Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures. |
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Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures. |
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Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures. |
|
Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures. |
|
Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures. |
|
Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures. |
|
Hubble Views Ancient Storm i
…
| Title |
Hubble Views Ancient Storm in the Atmosphere of Jupiter |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. When 17th-century astronomers first turned their telescopes to Jupiter, they noted a conspicuous reddish spot on the giant planet. This Great Red Spot is still present in Jupiter's atmosphere, more than 300 years later. It is now known that it is a vast storm, spinning like a cyclone. Unlike a low-pressure hurricane in the Caribbean Sea, however, the Red Spot rotates in a counterclockwise direction in the Southern Hemisphere, showing that it is a high-pressure system. Winds inside this Jovian storm reach speeds of about 270 mph. The Red Spot is the largest known storm in the solar system. With a diameter of 15,400 miles, it is almost twice the size of the entire Earth and one-sixth the diameter of Jupiter itself. However, the Red Spot does change its shape, size, and color, sometimes dramatically. Such changes are demonstrated in these Hubble telescope pictures. |
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IC 418: The "Spirograph" Neb
…
| Title |
IC 418: The "Spirograph" Nebula |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Celestial Fireworks
| Title |
Celestial Fireworks |
| General Information |
What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. Back to top [ #top ] |
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Cyclones in the Pacific
| Title |
Cyclones in the Pacific |
| Description |
The SeaWinds scatterometer aboard NASA?s QuikSCAT satellite collected the data used to create this colorful image of Cyclone Olaf churing in the South Pacific on February 16, 2005. The colored background shows the near-surface wind speeds at 2.5-kilometer resolution. The strongest winds, shown in purple, are at the center of the storm, with gradually weakening winds forming rings around the center. The black barbs indicate wind speed and direction at QuikSCAT?s nominal, 25-kilometer resolution, white barbs indicate areas of heavy rain. NASA?s Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on June 19, 1999. QuikScat carries the SeaWinds scatterometer, a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over the Earth?s oceans. NASA image courtesy of the QuikSCAT Science Team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |
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Cyclones in the Pacific
| Title |
Cyclones in the Pacific |
| Description |
The SeaWinds scatterometer aboard NASA?s QuikSCAT satellite collected the data used to create this colorful image of Cyclone Olaf churing in the South Pacific on February 16, 2005. The colored background shows the near-surface wind speeds at 2.5-kilometer resolution. The strongest winds, shown in purple, are at the center of the storm, with gradually weakening winds forming rings around the center. The black barbs indicate wind speed and direction at QuikSCAT?s nominal, 25-kilometer resolution, white barbs indicate areas of heavy rain. NASA?s Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) spacecraft was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on June 19, 1999. QuikScat carries the SeaWinds scatterometer, a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over the Earth?s oceans. NASA image courtesy of the QuikSCAT Science Team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. |
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MISR Instrument Animations
| Title |
MISR Instrument Animations |
| Description |
Animation of MISR orbit coverage (460k) Animation of MISR data collection (773k) No instrument like the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) has flown in space before. Viewing the sunlit Earth simultaneously at nine widely spaced angles, MISR collects global images with high spatial detail in four colors at every angle. These images are carefully calibrated to provide accurate measures of the brightness, contrast, and color of reflected sunlight. The change in reflection at different view angles affords the means to distinguish different types of atmospheric particles (aerosols), cloud forms, and land surface covers. Combined with stereoscopic techniques, this enables construction of 3-dimensional models and more accurate estimates of the total amount of sunlight reflected by Earth's diverse environments. MISR provides new types of information for scientists studying Earth's climate, such as the partitioning of energy and carbon between the land surface and the atmosphere, and the regional and global impacts of different types of atmospheric particles and clouds on climate. MISR was built for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is part of NASA's Terra spacecraft, launched into a polar orbit around Earth on 18 December, 1999. For more inforamtion see the MISR web site. Animations courtesy JPL/Caltech |
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MISR Instrument Animations
| Title |
MISR Instrument Animations |
| Description |
Animation of MISR orbit coverage (460k) Animation of MISR data collection (773k) No instrument like the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) has flown in space before. Viewing the sunlit Earth simultaneously at nine widely spaced angles, MISR collects global images with high spatial detail in four colors at every angle. These images are carefully calibrated to provide accurate measures of the brightness, contrast, and color of reflected sunlight. The change in reflection at different view angles affords the means to distinguish different types of atmospheric particles (aerosols), cloud forms, and land surface covers. Combined with stereoscopic techniques, this enables construction of 3-dimensional models and more accurate estimates of the total amount of sunlight reflected by Earth's diverse environments. MISR provides new types of information for scientists studying Earth's climate, such as the partitioning of energy and carbon between the land surface and the atmosphere, and the regional and global impacts of different types of atmospheric particles and clouds on climate. MISR was built for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is part of NASA's Terra spacecraft, launched into a polar orbit around Earth on 18 December, 1999. For more inforamtion see the MISR web site. Animations courtesy JPL/Caltech |
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MISR Instrument Animations
| Title |
MISR Instrument Animations |
| Description |
Animation of MISR orbit coverage (460k) Animation of MISR data collection (773k) No instrument like the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) has flown in space before. Viewing the sunlit Earth simultaneously at nine widely spaced angles, MISR collects global images with high spatial detail in four colors at every angle. These images are carefully calibrated to provide accurate measures of the brightness, contrast, and color of reflected sunlight. The change in reflection at different view angles affords the means to distinguish different types of atmospheric particles (aerosols), cloud forms, and land surface covers. Combined with stereoscopic techniques, this enables construction of 3-dimensional models and more accurate estimates of the total amount of sunlight reflected by Earth's diverse environments. MISR provides new types of information for scientists studying Earth's climate, such as the partitioning of energy and carbon between the land surface and the atmosphere, and the regional and global impacts of different types of atmospheric particles and clouds on climate. MISR was built for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is part of NASA's Terra spacecraft, launched into a polar orbit around Earth on 18 December, 1999. For more inforamtion see the MISR web site. Animations courtesy JPL/Caltech |
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New Measurements of Arctic O
…
| Title |
New Measurements of Arctic Ozone |
| Description |
The winter of 2004-2005 saw the second highest chemical ozone destruction ever observed over the Arctic. Polar ozone is destoyed when chlorine, cold temperatures, and sunlight mix in the atmosphere 8-50 kilometers above the Earth's surface. Since ozone shields the Earth from ultraviolet light, the high-energy light that causes sunburns and is associated with skin cancers, low ozone levels could threaten human health. Ultraviolet levels remained near normal through the winter, however, because unusual weather conditions brought ozone from the Earth's ozone-rich mid-latitudes to the pole to fill in the gaps left by the extreme ozone depletion. These images show the fluctuations in ozone during the Arctic winter of 2005. The top two images show the average total column ozone over the Arctic during the months of January and March, 2005, and the lower image shows total column ozone on a single day, March 11, 2005. The images are based on data collected by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument [ http://www.knmi.nl/omi/publ-en/news/index.html ] (OMI) aboard NASA's Aura [ http://aura.gsfc.nasa.gov/ ] satellite. During this time period, the Microwave Limb Sounder, another instrument on the Aura satellite, measured 50 percent ozone loss, the second-highest level ever observed behind the 60 percent loss measured in 1999-2000. Despite this, the lowest total column ozone values in polar regions are slightly higher in March than in January, on average, as evidenced by the broad splashes of red that represent high ozone levels. Stratospheric winds carried the ozone north into the Arctic, compensating for the significant chemical loss, so that no blue or purple holes representing low ozone levels appear in the March image. Black circles over the North pole show where OMI did not collect data. On a single day, March 11, 2005, ozone was distributed far more unevenly, with dark red, almost black areas of high ozone over the Aleutian Islands, Asia, and Europe, and a pale blue thin spot over Iceland and Greenland. This reveals that even though ozone values appeared to be near normal on average throughout March, some regions experienced much lower ozone levels—and therefore, a greater exposure to UV light—on an individual day. For more information and images, see "NASA Spacecraft Measures Unusual 2005 Arctic Ozone Conditions" [ http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/aura-060205.html ] on the NASA portal. Image courtesy NASA/JPL/Agency for Aerospace Programs (Netherlands)/Finnish Meteorological Institute |
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Sharm El Sheik, Egypt
| Title |
Sharm El Sheik, Egypt |
| Description |
The Red Sea golf resort in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, where President Clinton met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, stands out against the desert landscape in this image acquired on August 25, 2000. This image of the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula shows an area about 30 by 30 kilometers (19 by 19 miles) in the visible and near infrared wavelength region. Vegetation appears in red. The blue areas in the water at the top and bottom of the image are coral reefs. The airport is visible just to the north of the golf resort. Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. ASTER is the only high resolution imaging sensor on Terra. The primary goal of the ASTER mission is to obtain high- resolution image data in 14 channels over the entire land surface, as well as black and white stereo images. With revisit time of between 4 and 16 days, ASTER will provide the capability for repeat coverage of changing areas on Earth's surface. The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER will provide scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping, and monitoring dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats, monitoring potentially active volcanoes, identifying crop stress, determining cloud morphology and physical properties, wetlands Evaluation, thermal pollution monitoring, coral reef degradation, surface temperature mapping of soils and geology, and measuring surface heat balance. Image courtesy NASA GSFC, MITI, ERSDAC, JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team |
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Shrimp Farming in Ecuador
| Title |
Shrimp Farming in Ecuador |
| Description |
Like fields of blue, rectangular shrimp farms line the coast of Ecuador south of the city of Guayaquil in these images. Worldwide, wetlands and coastal mangrove forests have been converted to shrimp ponds in order to farm these crustaceans for food and sale. In Ecuador, the industry started in the late 1960s and rapidly grew. By 1999, 175,255 hectares of land had been converted to shrimp farms. That year, Ecuador was the fourth largest shrimp producer in the world, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In Ecuador, as elsewhere, shrimp farms are typically built along the shore where salt water is easily accessible. Though Ecuador's mangrove forests declined as shrimp farming and other coastal development occurred, salt flats or salt marshes on slightly higher ground have also been converted, as illustrated in these images. The lower image was taken by the Landsat satellite on April 29, 1991. Shrimp farms cover much of the land shown in the image, but a broad swath of tan-gray salt flat still lines the inlet. By March 6, 2006, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]) satellite took the top image, the salt flat had almost entirely been converted to shrimp farms. A small canal connects the network of shrimp tanks to the inlet, providing a fresh source of water. The large images provide a broader perspective on the extent of the development. In the 1991 Landsat image, 143 square kilometers of land had been converted to shrimp ponds. In the 2006 ASTER image, shrimp farms cover 243 square kilometers. Roughly 83 percent of the region's wetlands and salt flats were eliminated by shrimp farms. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory. ASTER data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] Landsat data obtained from the University of Maryland's Global Land Cover Facility. [ http://www.landcover.org/ ] |
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Shrimp Farming in Ecuador
| Title |
Shrimp Farming in Ecuador |
| Description |
Like fields of blue, rectangular shrimp farms line the coast of Ecuador south of the city of Guayaquil in these images. Worldwide, wetlands and coastal mangrove forests have been converted to shrimp ponds in order to farm these crustaceans for food and sale. In Ecuador, the industry started in the late 1960s and rapidly grew. By 1999, 175,255 hectares of land had been converted to shrimp farms. That year, Ecuador was the fourth largest shrimp producer in the world, and the largest in the Western Hemisphere, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. In Ecuador, as elsewhere, shrimp farms are typically built along the shore where salt water is easily accessible. Though Ecuador's mangrove forests declined as shrimp farming and other coastal development occurred, salt flats or salt marshes on slightly higher ground have also been converted, as illustrated in these images. The lower image was taken by the Landsat satellite on April 29, 1991. Shrimp farms cover much of the land shown in the image, but a broad swath of tan-gray salt flat still lines the inlet. By March 6, 2006, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ]) satellite took the top image, the salt flat had almost entirely been converted to shrimp farms. A small canal connects the network of shrimp tanks to the inlet, providing a fresh source of water. The large images provide a broader perspective on the extent of the development. In the 1991 Landsat image, 143 square kilometers of land had been converted to shrimp ponds. In the 2006 ASTER image, shrimp farms cover 243 square kilometers. Roughly 83 percent of the region's wetlands and salt flats were eliminated by shrimp farms. NASA images created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory. ASTER data provided courtesy of the NASA/GSFC/MITI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. [ http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] Landsat data obtained from the University of Maryland's Global Land Cover Facility. [ http://www.landcover.org/ ] |
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Aeolian Mars
| Title |
Aeolian Mars |
| Explanation |
Mars' [ http://mars.ivv.nasa.gov/resources/mars_data-information/ mars_earth_comp_NSSDC_and.html ]atmosphere is relatively thin, still when martian winds [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990520.html ] blow they weather [ http://learn.jpl.nasa.gov/projectspacef/weather.html ] and shape its surface [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/1_31_00_dunes/index.html ]. Like familiar aeolian [ http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~millerm/DVdune1.html ] features on Earth [ http://ruidoso.net/chamber/outdoors/whitesan.html ], this field of dunes within Mars' Rabe crater exhibits graceful undulating ridges [ http://photo.net/photo/pcd0738/great-sand-dune-ridge-7.tcl ] which can shift as windblown material is deposited on the dunes' windward face and falls away down the steeper leeward slopes. Indicated by the arrow, the dark trails are signs that the martian [ http://amor.rz.hu-berlin.de/~h0444ihv/private/marslit/marsbib.html ] sand has avalanched down the steep slopes in the recent past. Rippling patterns of smaller dunes are also visible in this sharp high-resolution view [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/1_31_00_dunes/ rabe_dunes/index.html ] along with criss-crossing dark trails which may be evidence of local dust-devil [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/8_10_99_releases/ moc2_171/index.html ] windstorms. The image is about 3 kilometers across and was recorded in March of 1999 by the orbiting Mars [ http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/1_2000_jan1movie/index.html ] Global Surveyor spacecraft. |
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A Continuous Eruption on Jup
…
| Title |
A Continuous Eruption on Jupiter's Moon Io |
| Explanation |
A volcano on Jupiter's moon Io [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/io.html ] has been photographed recently during an ongoing eruption. Hot glowing lava is visible on the left on this representative-color image [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA02550 ]. A glowing landscape of plateaus and valleys covered in sulfur [ http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/16.html ] and silicate rock [ http://windows.ivv.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/tour_def/glossary/silicate_rock.html ] surrounds the active volcano [ http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/planet_volcano/Io/Overview.html ]. Many features including several of the dark spots [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap971110.html ] have evolved between February 2000, when the robot spacecraft Galileo [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/spacecraft.html ] currently orbiting Jupiter [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/jupiter.html ] took this picture, and November 1999. Io [ http://cass.jsc.nasa.gov/pub/research/outerp/io.html ] is slightly larger than Earth's Moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991108.html ] and is the closest large moon to Jupiter [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter.html ]. The above image [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/PIAGenCatalogPage.pl?PIA02550 ] shows a region about 250 kilometers across. How the internal structure of Io [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1990Icar...85..309R ] creates these active volcanoes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap961027.html ] remains under investigation. |
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Full Throttle For Deep Space
…
| Title |
Full Throttle For Deep Space 1 |
| Explanation |
At full throttle the Deep Space 1 [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/index.html ] spacecraft's innovative ion drive [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981026.html ] produces about 1/50th of a pound of thrust ... a force so great that it would just about [ http://www.howstuffworks.com/question329.htm ] hold up a piece of paper on planet Earth! Still, powered by solar arrays ion propulsion systems [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/tech/sep.html ] can run continuously. For long duration space missions they ultimately win out [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/99/discoverawards.html ] over the powerful but brief blasts of less efficient chemical rockets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990717.html ]. Deep Space 1 is seen here [ http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/files/images/captions/98pc1191.txt ] suspended in an assembly room, a folded solar array [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/tech/scarlet.html ] resting above the circular ion propulsion module. Already a successful technology [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/tech/index.html ] demonstrator with experimental autonomous software [ http://rax.arc.nasa.gov/ ], the spacecraft flew by asteroid 9969 Braille [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990805.html ] in July of 1999 but later that year, in November, the robot probe was nearly lost [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/status/ds1/ds120000121.html ] due to the failure of its wide-field star tracker camera. Now, the adventures of Deep Space 1 can continue. Engineers were able to reprogram the navigation system to utilize another on-board camera and on 28 June 2000 the ion drive was throttled up. Once again steering [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/mrlog.html ] by the stars, Deep Space 1 is presently bound [ http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast11jul_1.htm ] for a September 2001 rendezvous with periodic Comet Borrelly [ http://comets.amsmeteors.org/comets/pcomets/019p.html ]. |
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Sail On, Stardust
| Title |
Sail On, Stardust |
| Explanation |
Spacecraft on long interplanetary voyages [ http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Sintro.htm ] often use the planets themselves as gravitational "sling shots" to boost them along their way. Launched [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ commemorative.html ] in February of 1999 on a historic voyage to a comet, the Stardust spacecraft [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ega/ ] is no different. On 15 January 2001 Stardust made its closest approach to planet Earth [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/status/010115.html ] since launch, coming within about 6,000 kilometers of the surface. It used this gravity assist maneuver [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/basics/bsf4-1.htm#gravity ] to increase its speed and alter its trajectory toward an encounter with comet Wild 2 [ http://www.ssep.org/stardust/wild-2.html ], which it should reach in 2004. Shortly before its time of closest approach, astronomer Gordon Garradd recorded this exposure [ http://www.ozemail.com.au/~loomberah/stardust.htm ] of Stardust sailing through the skies above Loomberah, Australia. Nearby and moving fast [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ega/images.html ], the spacecraft appears as a streak against a background of faint stars in the constellation Cetus [ http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/cet.html ]. Stardust cruised within just 98,000 kilometers of the Moon [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/ega/lunar.html ] about 15 hours later. After collecting [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/tech/ aerogel.html ] dust from the tail of comet Wild 2, Stardust's voyage [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/details.html ] will continue -- as it returns the samples to Earth in 2006. |
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A Piece of Interplanetary Du
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| Title |
A Piece of Interplanetary Dust |
| Explanation |
The dust that pervades our Solar System is not the dust that pervades our homes. Solar System [ http://www.nineplanets.org/overview.html ] dust comes from comets [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/comets.html ] and asteroids [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/asteroids.html ], whereas house dust [ http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/cd-fact/0191.html ] is most likely lint or dead cells. Pictured above [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/science/sd-particle.html ] is a piece of interplanetary dust [ http://www.astro.washington.edu/brownlee/ ] caught by a high-flying U2 [ http://142.26.194.131/aerodynamics1/Appendix/Aircraft/U2.html ]-type aircraft. It likely originates in the early days of our Solar System [ http://www.fourmilab.ch/solar/solar.html ], being stored and later ejected by a passing comet [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010527.html ]. The particle is composed of glass [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000322.html ], carbon [ http://pearl1.lanl.gov/periodic/elements/6.html ], and a conglomeration of silicate mineral grains [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010523.html ]. It measures only 10 microns [ http://www.physlink.com/reference_conversion.cfm ] across, a tenth the width of a typical human hair [ http://library.thinkquest.org/26829/text-only_3-hairy_e.htm ]. NASA's STARDUST [ http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/cool.html ] mission, launched [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990405.html ] in 1999, is scheduled to pass through the tail of Comet Wild 2 in 2004 and return [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990218.html ] many more interstellar dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981121.html ] samples to Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010204.html ] in 2006. |
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