Browse All : Images of Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Washington from 1999

Saturn's Ring Shadow, Then a …

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 image on the left was taken on Nov. 1, 1980, by NASA's Voyager spacecraft from a distance of 5.3 million kilometers (3.3 million miles). It shows a very strong narrow shadow cast on the equatorial region of Saturn's atmosphere by the rings. During the Voyager encounters, the Sun was close to the plane of the rings so that the ring shadow was very deep and localized to low latitudes. Radio signals detected by Voyager were interpreted as lightning coming from a persistent, extended storm system at low latitudes. It is possible that the ring shadow was partly responsible for generating this storm by promoting strong convection at the boundary of the colder shadowed atmosphere and the adjoining sunlit atmosphere. This image was previously released on June 19, 1999. For original caption see PIA00335. The image on the right was acquired by the Cassini spacecraft on May 10, 2004, from a distance of 27.2 million kilometers (16.9 million miles) and shows the complex set of ring shadows cast over a large region of Saturn's northern hemisphere. This shadow pattern is due to the Sun being well below the ring plane during Cassini's approach to Saturn. This image was previously release on May 25, 2004. For original caption see PIA05394. Unlike the situation when NASA's Voyager spacecraft flew by Saturn, these ring shadows are not as deep and are not localized at a very narrow range of latitudes. Should these shadows drive convection in Saturn's atmosphere, the location would likely be very much different than the near-equatorial shadow observed by the Voyagers in the early 1980s. It is possible that this very different ring shadow geometry is one reason for different morphologies of thunderstorms observed by Cassini and Voyager. Voyager observed lightning apparently from one persistent, low-latitude storm system, whereas Cassini observes lightning from storms which seem to come and go on time scales of a day or so, and perhaps from more than one storm system at a time. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radio and plasma wave science team is based at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the instrument team's home page, http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/plasma-wave/cassini/home.html . Image Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Iowa

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

Borrelly's Rugged Surface

title	Borrelly's Rugged Surface
date	09.22.2001
description	In this highest resolution view of the icy, rocky nucleus of comet Borrelly, (about 45 meters or 150 feet per pixel) a variety of terrains and surface textures, mountains and fault structures, and darkened material are visible over the nucleus's surface. This was the final image of the nucleus of comet Borrelly, taken just 160 seconds before Deep Space 1's closest approach to it. This image shows the 8-km (5-mile) long nucleus about 3417 kilometers (over 2,000 miles) away. Smooth, rolling plains containing brighter regions are present in the middle of the nucleus and seem to be the source of dust jets seen in the coma. The rugged land found at both ends of the nucleus has many high ridges along the jagged line between day and night on the comet. This rough terrain contains very dark patches that appear to be elevated compared to surrounding areas. In some places the dark material accentuates grooves and apparent faults. Stereo analysis shows the smaller end of the nucleus (lower right) is tipped toward the viewer (out of frame). Sunlight is coming from the bottom of the frame. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy but exciting, and ultimately successful, encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/. Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Comet Borrelly Composite

title	Comet Borrelly Composite
date	09.22.2001
description	A composite of images from NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft shows features of comet Borrelly's nucleus, dust jets escaping the nucleus and the cloud-like "coma" of dust and gases surrounding the nucleus. False color is used to reveal details of the jets and coma. The images were taken when Deep Space 1 was about 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) from Borrelly during a Sept. 22, 2001, flyby. Borrelly's nucleus is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from end to end, so the field of view is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) across. The Sun shines from the bottom of the image. The main dust jet, seen extending toward the bottom left, heads away from the comet in a direction that is about 30 degrees off the direction straight toward the Sun from the comet. The colors show about three orders of magnitude in the brightness of the dust jets and coma. Red indicates about one-tenth the brightness as the brightness of the nucleus, blue one-one-hundredth, purple one-one-thousandth. The red bumps near the nucleus indicate where the jet resolves into three distinct, narrow jets, which likely come from discrete source points on the surface. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page. Deep Space 1 was launched Oct. 24, 1998, as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA. Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Erupting Io

title	Erupting Io
description	This means the plume is actually about 385 kilometers (239 miles) high, just like Pele. The uncertainty in estimating the height is about 30 kilometers (19 miles), so the plume could be anywhere from 355 to 415 kilometers (221 to 259 miles) high. If this new plume deposit is just one millimeter (four one- hundredths of an inch) thick, then the eruption produced more ash than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington. These Cassini images were acquired on Jan. 2, 2001, except for the frame at the far right, which was acquired a day earlier. The Galileo images were acquired on Dec. 30 and 31, 2000. Cassini was about 10 million kilometers (6 million miles) from Io, 10 times farther than Galileo. Image Credit: NASA, Two tall volcanic plumes and the rings of red material they have deposited onto surrounding surface areas appear in images taken of Jupiter's moon Io by NASA's Galileo and Cassini spacecraft in late December 2000 and early January 2001. One plume, from the volcano Pele, shoots upward nearly 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the surface near Io's equator. The plume has been active for at least four years and, until now, had been far larger than any other plume seen on Io. The images also show a second plume about the same size, closer to Io's north pole. This plume had never been seen before. It is associated with a fresh eruption from the Tvashtar Catena volcanic area. The observations were made during joint studies of the Jupiter system while Cassini was passing Jupiter on its way to Saturn. Galileo passed closer to Io for higher-resolution images, and Cassini acquired images at ultraviolet wavelengths, better for detecting active volcanic plumes. The Cassini ultraviolet images, upper right, reveal two gigantic, actively erupting plumes of gas and dust. Near the equator, just the top of Pele's plume is visible where it projects into sunlight. None of it would be illuminated if it were less than 240 kilometers (150 miles) high. These images indicate a total height for Pele of 390 kilometers (242 miles). The Cassini image at far right shows a bright spot over Pele's vent. Although the Pele hot spot has a high temperature, silicate lava cannot be hot enough to explain a bright spot in the ultraviolet, so the origin of this bright spot is a mystery, but it may indicate that Pele was unusually active when the picture was taken. Also visible is a plume near Io's north pole. Although 15 active plumes over Io's equatorial regions have been detected in hundreds of images from NASA's Voyager and Galileo spacecraft, this is the first image ever acquired of an active plume over a polar region of Io. The plume projects about 150 kilometers (about 90 miles) over the limb, the edge of the globe. If it were erupting from a point on the limb, it would be only slightly larger than a typical Ionian plume, but the image does not reveal whether the source is actually at the limb or beyond it, out of view. A distinctive feature in Galileo images since 1997 has been a giant red ring of Pele plume deposits about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) in diameter. The Pele ring is seen again in one of the new Galileo images, lower left. When the new Galileo images were returned this month, scientists were astonished to see a second giant red ring on Io, centered around Tvashtar Catena at 63 degrees north latitude. (To see a comparison from before the ring was deposited, see images PIA-01604 or PIA-02309.) Tvashtar was the site of an active curtain of high-temperature silicate lava imaged by Galileo in November 1999 and February 2000 (image PIA- 02584). The new ring shows that Tvashtar must be the vent for the north polar plume imaged by Cassini from the other side of Io.

3-D View of Mars

Title	3-D View of Mars
Full Description	This first three-dimensional picture of Mars' north pole enables scientists to estimate the volume of its water ice cap with unprecedented precision, and to study its surface variations and the heights of clouds in the region for the first time. Approximately 2.6 million of these laser pulse measurements were assembled into a topographic grid of the North pole with a spatial resolution of 0.6 miles (one kilometer) and a vertical accuracy of 15-90 feet (5-30 meters). The principal investigator for MOLA is Dr. David E. Smith of Goddard. The MOLA instrument was designed and built by the Laser Remote Sensing Branch of the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at Goddard. The Mars Global Surveyor Mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.
Date	01/01/1999
NASA Center	Goddard Space Flight Center

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

Global Image of Io

Title	Global Image of Io
Full Description	NASA's Galileo spacecraft acquired its highest resolution images of Jupiter's moon Io on July 3, 1999 during its closest pass to Io since orbit insertion in late 1995. This color mosaic uses the near-infrared, green and violet filters (slightly more than the visible range) of the spacecraft's camera and approximates what the human eye would see. Most of Io's surface has pastel colors, punctuated by black, brown, green, orange, and red units near the active volcanic centers. A false color version of the mosaic has been created to enhance the contrast of the color variations. The improved resolution reveals small-scale color units which had not been recognized previously and which suggest that the lavas and sulfurous deposits are composed of complex mixtures. Some of the bright (whitish), high-latitude (near the top and bottom) deposits have an ethereal quality like a transparent covering of frost. Bright red areas were seen previously only as diffuse deposits. However, they are now seen to exist as both diffuse deposits and sharp linear features like fissures. Some volcanic centers have bright and colorful flows, perhaps due to flows of sulfur rather than silicate lava. In this region bright, white material can also be seen to emanate from linear rifts and cliffs. Comparison of this image to previous Galileo images reveals many changes due to the ongoing volcanic activity. North is towards the top of the picture and the sun illuminates the surface from almost directly behind the spacecraft. This illumination geometry is good for imaging color variations, but poor for imaging topographic shading. However, some topographic shading can be seen here due to the combination of relatively high resolution (1.3 kilometers or 0.8 miles per picture element) and the rugged topography over parts of Io. The image is centered at 0.3 degrees north latitude and 137.5 degrees west longitude. The resolution is 1.3 kilometers (0.8 miles) per picture element. The images were taken on July 3, 1999 at a range of about 130,000 kilometers (81,000 miles) by the Solid State Imaging (SSI) system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft during its twenty-first orbit. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.
Date	08/27/1999
NASA Center	Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Ion Engine Test Firing

Title	Ion Engine Test Firing
Full Description	This image of a xenon ion engine, photographed through a port of the vacuum chamber where it was being tested at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shows the faint blue glow of charged atoms being emitted from the engine. The ion propulsion engine is the first non-chemical propulsion to be used as the primary means of propelling a spacecraft. The first flight in NASA's New Millennium Program, Deep Space 1 is designed to validate 12 new technologies for scientific space missions of the next century. Ion propulsion was first proposed in the 1950s and NASA performed experiments on this highly efficient propulsion system in the 1960s, but it was not used aboard an American spacecraft until the 1990s. Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA. The almost imperceptible thrust from the ion propulsion system is equivalent to the pressure exerted by a sheet of paper held in the palm of your hand. The ion engine is very slow to pick up speed, but over the long haul it can deliver 10 times as much thrust per pound of fuel as more traditional rockets. Unlike the fireworks of most chemical rockets using solid or liquid fuels, the ion drive emits only an eerie blue glow as ionized (electrically charged) atoms of xenon are pushed out of the engine. Xenon is the same gas found in photo flash tubes and many lighthouse bulbs.
Date	01/01/1999
NASA Center	Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Altair

Title	Altair
Description	For the first time ever, a star spinning so fast its mid-section is stretched out has been directly measured by an ultra-high-resolution NASA telescope system on Palomar Mountain near San Diego."Measuring the shape of this star, Altair, was as difficult as standing in Los Angeles, looking at a hen's egg in New York, and trying to prove that it's oval-shaped and not circular," said Dr. Charles Beichman, chief scientist for astronomy and physics at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Altair is a well-known member of the Summer Triangle, clearly visible in the summer night sky across the United States. Scientists using the Palomar Testbed Interferometer, which links multiple telescopes, measured the star's radius at different angles on the sky. They noticed the size of the star varied with changing angles, which was the first tip-off that Altair is not perfectly round."This surprising observation led to a bit of challenging detective work to properly interpret the data," said principal investigator Dr. Gerard van Belle of JPL. "We measured the size of another star, Vega, at the same time, which didn't change with angle, so we knew this wasn't just a fluke of the telescope." Previous studies of Altair raised the prospect that the star might have midriff bulge, but never before had the shape been measured directly. Earlier measurements of the star's spectrum, or light-wave pattern, had hinted that Altair was rotating very fast. When a gaseous orb, like a star, spins fast enough, it tends to expand at the middle, like a beach ball that is squeezed at the top and bottom. Altair is a perfect example -- it rotates at least once every 10.4 hours, and the new Palomar observations reveal the diameter at its equator is at least 14 percent greater than at its poles. For a star that spins slowly, this effect is miniscule. For example, our Sun rotates once every 30 days and has an equator only .001 percent greater in diameter than its poles. By measuring Altair's size at separate positions along its edge, van Belle and his colleagues determined that Altair rotates at a speed of at least 210 kilometers per second (470,000 miles per hour) at the equator. Future studies may pin down the speed more precisely."Determining the shape of another star helps us learn about the forces that control the shape and structure of all stars, including our star, the Sun," Beichman said. "This tells us more about the Sun's behavior and ultimate fate." The Palomar Testbed Interferometer has three 50-centimeter (20-inch) telescopes. To study Altair, the telescopes were used two at a time. The combined light from the telescope pairs provided sharpness comparable to a telescope as large as a football field."Altair is the twelfth brightest star in the sky -- you'd think that everything there is to know about this star would have been discovered already," said co-investigator Dr. David Ciardi of the University of Florida, Gainesville. "It's a good example of, the surprises you're going to encounter when you are able to look at even familiar stars with unprecedented resolution." The Palomar Testbed Interferometer is paving the way for the Keck Interferometer, Space Interferometry Mission and Terrestrial Planet Finder, all part of NASA's Origins program. The program will hunt for Earthlike planets that might harbor life around other stars. "In the long run, we'll use these interferometric capabilities to search for planets around nearby stars. This is an important first step," said Beichman. Van Belle and Ciardi co-authored the Altair paper, scheduled to appear in the October 1 issue of the Astrophysical Journal, with Robert Thompson of JPL and the University of Wyoming, Laramie, Dr. Rachel Akeson of the JPL/Caltech Infrared Processing and Analysis Center, Pasadena, Calif., and Dr. Elizabeth Lada of the University of Florida, Gainesville. Their research was funded by NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C., along with the National Science Foundation. Palomar Observatory is owned and operated by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, which also manages JPL for NASA. The Palomar Testbed Interferometer was designed and built by a team of JPL researchers led by Drs. Mark Colavita and Michael Shao. Funded by NASA and managed by JPL, the interferometer is located at the Palomar Observatory near the historic 200-inch Hale Telescope. Images and animation of Altair are available athttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/stars/index.html [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/stars/index.html ]. Information on the Palomar Testbed Interferometer is available athttp://huey.jpl.nasa.gov/palomar [ http://huey.jpl.nasa.gov/palomar ]. Information on NASA's Origins Program is available athttp://origins.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://origins.jpl.nasa.gov ].
Date	12.01.1999

Ant nebula

Title	Ant nebula
Description	A new Hubble Space Telescope image of a celestial object called the Ant Nebula may shed new light on the future demise of our Sun. The image is available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/wfpc . The nebula, imaged on July 20, 1997, and June 30, 1998, by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, was observed by Drs. Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., Bruce Balick of the University of Washington in Seattle, and Vincent Icke of Leiden University in the Netherlands. JPL designed and built the camera. The Ant Nebula, whose technical name is Mz3, resembles the head and thorax of an ant when observed with ground-based telescopes. The new Hubble image, with 10 times the resolution revealing 100 times more detail, shows the "ant's" body as a pair of fiery lobes protruding from a dying, Sun- like star. The Ant Nebula is located between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth in the southern constellation Norma. The image challenges old ideas about what happens to dying stars. This observation, along with other pictures of various remnants of dying stars called planetary nebulae, shows that our Sun's fate will probably be much more interesting, complex and dramatic than astronomers previously believed. Although the ejection of gas from the dying star in the Ant Nebula is violent, it does not show the chaos one might expect from an ordinary explosion, but instead shows symmetrical patterns. One possibility is that the central star has a closely orbiting companion whose gravitational tidal forces shape the outflowing gas. A second possibility is that as the dying star spins, its strong magnetic fields are wound up into complex shapes like spaghetti in an eggbeater. Electrically charged winds, much like those in our Sun's solar wind but millions of times denser and moving at speeds up to 1,000 kilometers per second (more than 600 miles per second) from the star, follow the twisted field lines on their way out into space. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is available at http://www.stsci.edu . More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is available at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov.
Date	12.10.1999

Artist's Concept of Deep Spa …

Title	Artist's Concept of Deep Space 1 Encounter with Comet Borrelly
Description	Press Release September 18, 2001 Veteran Spacecraft Attempts to Earn Extra Credit at Comet Like a slugger trying to pile up extra home runs after breaking the world record, a venerable NASA spacecraft already famed for bringing science fiction's ion-engine technology to life is preparing to fly daringly close to a comet on Saturday, Sept. 22. Deep Space 1, which has already completed a highly successful mission testing a number of advanced spacecraft technologies, will attempt to pass inside the mostly unknown environment just 2,000 kilometers (about 1,200 miles) from the nucleus of comet Borrelly at 2230 Universal time (3:30 p.m. PDT) on Sept. 22."It has been a tremendously rewarding effort for the small Deep Space 1 team to keep this aged and wounded bird aloft," said Dr. Marc Rayman, project manager of Deep Space 1 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Its mission to test new technologies is already highly successful and any science we get at the comet will be a terrific bonus." By the time of the flyby Deep Space 1 will have completed three times its intended lifetime in space and its primary mission to test ion propulsion and 11 other high-risk, advanced technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to target a chancy but exciting encounter with Borrelly. The spacecraft may tell us more about comets and their place in the solar system. The robotic explorer will attempt to investigate the comet's environment when it tries to fly through the cloud of gas and dust surrounding the comet's nucleus, known as the coma. The risks involved in gathering science data are very high, so results of this latest venture are unpredictable. The spacecraft will be traveling through a cloud of gas, dust and comet pieces to collect its data. Since Deep Space 1 wasn't built to go to a comet, it does not carry a protective shield. "We expect to be hit by debris from the comet, and at 16.5 kilometers per second (about 36,900 mph), even a tiny particle might prove fatal," said Rayman. "But this is an adventure too exciting to pass up." If all goes well, scientists will use the comet chaser's measurements to find out the nature of Borrelly's surface and to measure and identify the gases coming from the comet. The spacecraft will also attempt to measure the interaction of solar wind with the comet, a process that leads to formation of the beautiful tail. Borrelly makes a good target for study now, as it is just 1.34 astronomical units (about 200 million kilometers or 125 million miles) from the Sun -- the closest it will get for another seven years. The Sun's heat will make the gases escaping from the nucleus flow faster and more thickly, so they will be easier to study. The icy nucleus and the spacecraft will flash past each other at 16.5 kilometers per second (more than 36,900 miles per hour). The flight team is also hoping that Deep Space 1 will have enough gas to get, to the comet. The long-lived spacecraft keeps itself pointed correctly by firing small thrusters fueled by hydrazine gas. When the hydrazine runs out, Deep Space 1 will be unable to keep itself pointed correctly, and the spacecraft will die. The flight team has an estimate of how much gas is left, but a few hours' worth of gas could make all the difference in the comet encounter. As it approaches the center of the coma, the spacecraft will face its greatest challenge: to obtain pictures and infrared measurements of the nucleus. Deep Space 1 can't tell exactly where the nucleus is or what it will look like. The craft will have to locate the nucleus on its own and try to point the camera toward it as it streaks by. In late 1999, Deep Space 1 lost its star tracker, which helps determine the spacecraft's orientation. Faced with what could have been a mission-terminating injury, the controllers performed a spectacular ultra-long-distance rescue. They reconfigured the spacecraft to use the photographic camera to orient itself by the stars around it. The camera cannot align the spacecraft and snap photos of Borrelly at the same time. Instead, Deep Space 1 will have to rely on its fiber-optic gyroscopes to help maintain its orientation. But the gyros are not accurate enough by themselves, so engineers designed complex new software to help the camera stay pointed at the comet's nucleus during the critical few minutes that the probe will be close enough to try to get a view of it. More information can be found online athttp://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ ]http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.
Date	05.09.2003

Comet Borrelly Nucleus Found …

Title	Comet Borrelly Nucleus Found to the Side
Description	Deep Space 1 flew by comet Borrelly on September 22, 2001 and took these measurements with its plasma instruments between 90,000 kilometers (56,000 miles) and 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) away. These data show that the flow of ions around the comet's rocky, icy nucleus (the center of the deep V-shaped feature) is not centered on the comet's nucleus as scientists expected before the Borrelly flyby. Ions in the turbulent flow are heated to about 1 million Kelvin (2 million degrees Fahrenheit) causing the bands of ions to appear broad and jagged compared to the solar wind. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy but exciting, and ultimately successful, encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ . Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
Date	09.25.2001

Comet Borrelly Slows Solar W …

Title	Comet Borrelly Slows Solar Wind
Description	Over 1300 energy spectra taken on September 22, 2001 from the ion and electron instruments on NASA's Deep Space 1 span a region of 1,400,000 kilometers (870,000 miles) centered on the closest approach to the nucleus of comet Borrelly. A very strong interaction occurs between the solar wind (horizontal red bands to left and right in figure) and the comet's surrounding cloud of dust and gas, the coma. Near Deep Space 1's closest approach to the nucleus, the solar wind picked up charged water molecules from the coma (upper green band near the center), slowing the wind sharply and creating the V-shaped energy structure at the center. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy but exciting, and ultimately successful, encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ . Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
Date	09.25.2001

Comet Borrelly's Varied Land …

Title	Comet Borrelly's Varied Landscape
Description	In this Deep Space 1 image of comet Borrelly, sunlight illuminates the bowling-pin shaped nucleus from directly below. At this distance, many features are become vivid on the surface of the nucleus, including a jagged line between day and night on the comet, rugged terrain on both ends with dark patches, and smooth, brighter terrain near the center. The smallest discernable features are about 110 meters (120 yards) across. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy but exciting, and ultimately successful, encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ . Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
Date	09.25.2001

Composite of Comet Borrelly' …

Title	Composite of Comet Borrelly's Nucleus, Jets, Coma
Description	A composite of images from NASA's Deep Space 1 spacecraft shows features of comet Borrelly's nucleus, dust jets escaping the nucleus and the cloud-like "coma" of dust and gases surrounding the nucleus. False color is used to reveal details of the jets and coma. The images were taken when Deep Space 1 was about 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles) from Borrelly during a Sept. 22, 2001, flyby. Borrelly's nucleus is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from end to end, so the field of view is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) across. The Sun shines from the bottom of the image. The main dust jet, seen extending toward the bottom left, heads away from the comet in a direction that is about 30 degrees off the direction straight toward the Sun from the comet. The colors show about three orders of magnitude in the brightness of the dust jets and coma. Red indicates about one-tenth the brightness as the brightness of the nucleus, blue one-one-hundredth, purple one-one-thousandth. The red bumps near the nucleus indicate where the jet resolves into three distinct, narrow jets, which likely come from discrete source points on the surface. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this encounter with the comet. More information can be found on theDeep Space 1 home page [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ ]. Deep Space 1 was launched Oct. 24, 1998, as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
Date	10.08.2002

Rotten Egg Nebula

Title	Rotten Egg Nebula
Description	Violent gas collisions that produced supersonic shock fronts in a dying star are seen in a new, detailed image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The picture, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, is online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc . The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Stars like our Sun will eventually die and expel most of their material outward into shells of gas and dust. These shells eventually form some of the most beautiful objects in the universe, called planetary nebulae."This new image gives us a rare view of the early death throes of stars like our Sun. For the first time, we can see phenomena leading to the formation of planetary nebulae. Until now, this had only been predicted by theory, but had never been seen directly," said Dr. Raghvendra Sahai, research scientist and member of the science team at JPL for the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The object is sometimes called the Rotten Egg Nebula, because it contains a lot of sulphur, which would produce an awful odor if one could smell in space. The object is also known as the Calabash Nebula or by the technical name OH231.8+4.2. The densest parts of the nebula are composed of material ejected recently by the central star and accelerated in opposite directions. This material, shown as yellow in the image, is zooming away at speeds up to one and a half million kilometers per hour (one million miles per hour). Most of the star's original mass is now contained in these bipolar gas structures. A team of Spanish and American astronomers used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study how the gas stream rams into the surrounding material, shown in blue. They believe that such interactions dominate the formation process in planetary nebulae. Due to the high speed of the gas, shock-fronts are formed on impact and heat the surrounding gas. Although computer calculations have predicted the existence and structure of such shocks for some time, previous observations have not been able to prove the theory. This new Hubble image used filters that only let through light from ionized hydrogen and nitrogen atoms. Astronomers were able to distinguish the warmest parts of the gas heated by the violent shocks and found that they form a complex double-bubble shape. The bright yellow-orange colors in the picture show how dense, high-speed gas is flowing from the star, like supersonic speeding bullets ripping through a medium in opposite directions. The central star itself is hidden in the dusty band at the center. Much of the gas flow observed today seems to stem from a sudden acceleration that took place only about 800 years ago. The astronomers believe that 1,000 years from now, the Calabash Nebula will become a fully developed planetary nebula, like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon. The Calabash Nebula is 1.4 light years (more than 8 trillion miles) long and located some 5,000 light years (2,900 trillion, miles) from Earth in the constellation Puppis. The image was taken in December 2000 by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The image was originally released by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre, with a website at http://sci.esa.int/hubble. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is online at http://www.stsci.edu . More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov . Other scientists on the team include Valentin Bujarrabal and Javier Alcolea of Observatorio Astronomico Nacional, Spain, and Carmen Sanchez Contreras of JPL. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for Hubble for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Date	12.02.1999

Doradus Nebula

Title	Doradus Nebula
Description	A panoramic view of a vast, sculpted area of gas and dust where thousands of stars are being born has been captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The image, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, is online at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/21 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc . The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The photo offers an unprecedented, detailed view of the entire inner region of the fertile, star-forming 30 Doradus Nebula. The mosaic picture shows that ultraviolet radiation and high-speed material unleashed by the stars in the cluster, called R136 (the large blue blob left of center), are weaving a tapestry of creation and destruction, triggering the collapse of looming gas and dust clouds and forming pillar-like structures that incubate newborn stars. The 30 Doradus Nebula is in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located 170,000 light-years from Earth. Nebulas like 30 Doradus are signposts of recent star birth. High-energy ultraviolet radiation from young, hot, massive stars in R136 causes surrounding gaseous material to glow. Previous Hubble telescope observations showed that R136 contains several dozen of the most massive stars known, each about 100 times the mass of the Sun and about 10 times as hot. These stellar behemoths formed about 2 million years ago. The stars in R136 produce intense "stellar winds," streams of material traveling at several million miles an hour. These winds push the gas away from the cluster and compress the inner regions of the surrounding gas and dust clouds (seen in the image as the pinkish material). The intense pressure triggers the collapse of parts of the clouds, producing a new star formation around the central cluster. Most stars in the nursery are not visible because they are still encased in cocoons of gas and dust. This mosaic image of 30 Doradus consists of five overlapping pictures taken between January 1994 and September 2000 by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Several color filters enhance important details in the stars and the nebula. Blue corresponds to the hot stars. The greenish color denotes hot gas energized by the central cluster of stars. Pink depicts the glowing edges of the gas and dust clouds facing the cluster, which are being bombarded by winds and radiation. Reddish-brown represents the cooler surfaces of the clouds, which are not receiving direct radiation from the central cluster. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is at http://www.stsci.edu . More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov . The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for Hubble for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight, Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Date	12.01.1999

Several Jets and a Crater on …

Title	Several Jets and a Crater on Comet Borrelly
Description	This image, taken by Deep Space 1 on September 22, 2001, has been enhanced to reveal dust being ejected from the nucleus of comet Borrelly. As a result, the nucleus, which is about eight kilometers (about five miles) long, is bright white in the image. The main dust jet is directed towards the bottom left of the frame, around 35 degrees away from the comet-Sun line. The jet emerges as actually comprised of at least three smaller features. This active region as a whole is at least three kilometers (less than two miles) long. Another, smaller, jet feature is seen on the tip of the nucleus on the lower right-hand limb. Dust also seems to be ejected from there into the night-side hemisphere, probably from the dayside hemisphere. The expansion of the gas and dust mixture into the vacuum of space has swept some material around the body of the nucleus so that it appears above the night-side hemisphere. The night-side of the nucleus could not be seen, of course. The line between day and night on the comet is towards the upper right. This representation shows a faint ring of brightness separated from the terminator by a dark, unlit area. It is possible that this is a crater rim, seen in grazing illumination, which is just about to cross into darkness as the comet rotates. The direction to the Sun is directly downwards. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy but exciting, and ultimately successful, encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ . Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
Date	09.25.2001

Early close image of comet B …

Title	Early close image of comet Borrelly
Description	The solid nucleus of comet Borrelly is barely resolved in this image, enhanced to reveal the highly collimated dust extending towards the bottom left corner of the picture. The jet is attributed to dust carried outward by gas expanding outwards into a cone about 20 degrees across. The surface of Borrelly is composed of a mixture of dust and water ice, and as the comet approaches the Sun the water ice sublimes. The gases produced inside the comet by the Sun's heating race away from the surface into the vacuum of space, carrying the dust away with them. The jet was also seen in images acquired around 9 hours earlier. This suggests that the emission is coming from close to the rotation axis at the comet's constantly illuminated pole. The Sun is at the bottom of the image. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy but exciting, and ultimately successful, encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ . Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
Date	09.25.2001

Edge-on Galaxy

Title	Edge-on Galaxy
Description	NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has imaged an unusual edge-on galaxy, revealing remarkable details of its warped dusty disc and showing how colliding galaxies trigger the birth of new stars. The image, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), is online at http://heritage.stsci.edu and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc. The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. During observations of the galaxy, the camera passed a milestone, taking its 100,000th image since shuttle astronauts installed it in Hubble in 1993. The dust and spiral arms of normal spiral galaxies, like our Milky Way, look flat when seen edge- on. The new image of the galaxy ESO 510-G13 shows an unusual twisted disc structure, first seen in ground-based photographs taken at the European Southern Observatory in Chile. ESO 510-G13 lies in the southern constellation Hydra, some 150 million light-years from Earth. Details of the galaxy's structure are visible because interstellar dust clouds that trace its disc are silhouetted from behind by light from the galaxy's bright, smooth central bulge. The strong warping of the disc indicates that ESO 510-G13 has recently collided with a nearby galaxy and is in the process of swallowing it. Gravitational forces distort galaxies as their stars, gas, and dust merge over millions of years. When the disturbances die out, ESO 510-G13 will be a single galaxy. The galaxy's outer regions, especially on the right side of the image, show dark dust and bright clouds of blue stars. This indicates that hot, young stars are forming in the twisted disc. Astronomers believe star formation may be triggered when galaxies collide and their interstellar clouds are compressed. The Hubble Heritage Team used WFPC2 to observe ESO 510-G13 in April 2001. Pictures obtained through blue, green, and red filters were combined to make this color-composite image, which emphasizes the contrast between the dusty spiral arms, the bright bulge, and the blue star-forming regions. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is online at http://www.stsci.edu. More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for Hubble for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Date	12.30.1999

Stephan's Quintet

Title	Stephan's Quintet
Description	A famous group of five compact galaxies featured in the holiday film classic "It's a Wonderful Life" appears in a new image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. In the movie, angelic figures take on the form of the galactic group called Stephan's Quintet. But the new pictures show the group has actually been doing some devilish things. At least two of its galaxies have been involved in high-speed, hit-and-run accidents, ripping stars and gas from neighboring galaxies and tossing them into space. The image, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, is online at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/22 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc . The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The close-up view of Stephan's Quintet reveals a string of bright star clusters sparkling like a diamond necklace. The clusters, each harboring up to millions of stars, were born from the violent interactions between some members of the group. The rude encounters also have distorted the galaxies' shapes, creating elongated spiral arms and long, gaseous streamers. The photo showcases three regions of star birth: the long, sweeping tail and spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 7319 (near center), the gaseous debris of two galaxies, NGC 7318B and NGC 7318A (top right), and the area north of those galaxies, dubbed the northern starburst region (top left). The clusters' bluish color indicates that they're relatively young -- between about 2 million to more than 1 billion years old. The brilliant star clusters in NGC 7318B's spiral arm and the northern starburst region are between 2 million and more than 100 million years old. NGC 7318B instigated the starburst by barreling through the region. The bully galaxy is just below NGC 7318A at top right. Although NGC 7318B appears dangerously close to NGC 7318A, it's traveling too fast to merge with its neighbor. The partial galaxy on the far right is NGC 7320, a foreground galaxy not physically bound to the other galaxies in the picture. About 20 to 50 of the clusters in the northern starburst region reside far from the coziness of galaxies. The clusters were born about 150,000 light-years from the nearest galaxy. Another galaxy, NGC 7320C, which is no longer part of the group and is not seen in the photo, plowed through the quintet several hundred million years ago. It pulled out the long tail of gaseous debris from NGC 7319. The clusters in NGC 7319's streaming tail are 10 million to 500 million years old and may have formed at the time of the violent collision. The faint bluish object at the tip of the tail is a young dwarf galaxy, which formed in the gaseous debris. Stephan's Quintet is in the constellation Pegasus, 270 million light-years from Earth. The pictures in this mosaic were taken by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on Dec. 30, 1998 and June 17, 1999. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is online at http://www.stsci.edu . More, information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov . The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for Hubble for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Date	12.02.1999

Galaxy M82

Title	Galaxy M82
Description	A colorful image showing violent star formation triggered when two galaxies bumped into each other has been captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. In the image, the starburst galaxy M82 has a disturbed appearance caused by violent activity after an ancient encounter with its large galactic neighbor, M81. The image, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/wfpc . The huge lanes of dust that crisscross M82's disk are another telltale sign of the flurry of star formation. Below the center and to the right, a strong galactic wind is spewing knotty filaments of hydrogen and nitrogen gas. More than 100 super star clusters -- very bright, compact groupings of about 100,000 stars -- appear as white dots sprinkled throughout the galaxy's central area. The dark area just above center is a huge dust cloud. A collaboration of European and American scientists used these clusters to date the interaction between M82 and M81 to about 600 million years ago, when a region called M82 B (the bright area just below and to the left of the central dust cloud) exploded with new stars. Scientists have found that this ancient starburst was triggered by the encounter with M81. The results are published in the February 2001 issue of the Astronomical Journal. This discovery provides evidence linking the birth of super star clusters to violent interaction between galaxies. These clusters also provide insight into the rough-and-tumble universe of long ago, when galaxies bumped into each other more frequently. M82 is located 12 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. The picture was taken Sept. 15, 1997. The natural-color composite was constructed from three exposures taken with blue, green and red filters. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., for NASA under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is available at http://www.stsci.edu . More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is available at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov.
Date	12.02.1999

Galaxy NGC 1512

Title	Galaxy NGC 1512
Description	A rainbow of colors is captured in the center of a magnificent barred spiral galaxy, as witnessed by the three cameras of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The color-composite image of the galaxy NGC 1512 was created from seven images taken with the JPL-designed and built Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC-2), along with the Faint Object Camera and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer. Hubble's unique vantage point high above the atmosphere allows astronomers to see objects over a broad range of wavelengths from the ultraviolet to the infrared and to detect differences in the regions around newly born stars. The new image is online at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/16 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc . The image reveals a stunning 2,400 light-year-wide circle of infant star clusters in the center of NGC 1512. Located 30 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Horologium, NGC 1512 is a neighbor of our Milky Way galaxy. With the Hubble data, a team of Israeli and American astronomers performed one of the broadest, most detailed studies ever of such star-forming regions. Results will appear in the June issue of the Astronomical Journal. The team includes Dr. Dan Maoz, Tel-Aviv University, Israel and Columbia University, New York, N.Y., Dr. Aaron J. Barth, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, Mass., Dr. Luis C. Ho, The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, Dr. Amiel Sternberg, Tel-Aviv University, Israel, and Dr. Alexei V. Filippenko, University of California, Berkeley. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., for NASA under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is online at http://www.stsci.edu . More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov.
Date	12.01.1999

Galaxy NGC 1850

Title	Galaxy NGC 1850
Description	By spying on a neighboring galaxy, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of a young, globular-like star cluster -- a type of object unknown in our Milky Way Galaxy. The image, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, is online at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/25 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc. The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The double cluster NGC 1850 lies in a neighboring satellite galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. It has two relatively young components. The main, globular-like cluster is in the center. A smaller cluster is seen below and to the right, composed of extremely hot, blue stars and fainter red T-Tauri stars. The main cluster is about 50 million years old, the smaller one is 4 million years old. A filigree pattern of diffuse gas surrounds NGC 1850. Scientists believe the pattern formed millions of years ago when massive stars in the main cluster exploded as supernovas. Hubble can observe a range of star types in NGC 1850, including the faint, low-mass T-Tauri stars, which are difficult to distinguish with ground-based telescopes. Hubble's fine angular resolution can pick out these stars, even in other galaxies. Massive stars of the OB type emit large amounts of energetic ultraviolet radiation, which is absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere. From Hubble's position above the atmosphere, it can detect this ultraviolet light. NGC 1850, the brightest star cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is in the southern constellation of Dorado, called the Goldfish or the Swordfish. This image was created from five archival exposures taken by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 between April 3, 1994 and February 6, 1996. More information about the Hubble Space Telescope is online at http://www.stsci.edu. More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for Hubble for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Date	12.03.1999

Galaxy NGC 3079

Title	Galaxy NGC 3079
Description	A lumpy bubble of hot gas rises from a cauldron of glowing matter in a distant galaxy, as seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The new images, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, are online at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/28 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc. The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Galaxy NGC 3079, located 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major, has a huge bubble in the center of its disc, as seen in the image on the left. The smaller photo at right shows a close-up of the bubble. The two white dots are stars. Astronomers suspect the bubble is being blown by "winds," or high-speed streams of particles, released during a burst of star formation. The bubble's lumpy surface has four columns of gaseous filaments towering above the galaxy's disc. The filaments whirl around in a vortex and are expelled into space. Eventually, this gas will rain down on the disc and may collide with gas clouds, compress them and form a new generation of stars. Theoretical models indicate the bubble formed when winds from hot stars mixed with small bubbles of hot gas from supernova explosions. Radio telescope observations indicate those processes are still active. Eventually, the hot stars will die, and the bubble's energy source will fade away. The images, taken in 1998, show glowing gas as red and starlight as blue/green. Results appear in the July 1, 2001 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. More information about the Hubble Space Telescope is at http://www.stsci.edu. More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for Hubble for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Date	12.02.1999

Galaxy NGC 3079

Title	Galaxy NGC 3079
Description	A lumpy bubble of hot gas rises from a cauldron of glowing matter in a distant galaxy, as seen by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The new images, taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, are online at http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/2001/28 and http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc. The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Galaxy NGC 3079, located 50 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major, has a huge bubble in the center of its disc, as seen in the image on the left. The smaller photo at right shows a close-up of the bubble. The two white dots are stars. Astronomers suspect the bubble is being blown by "winds," or high-speed streams of particles, released during a burst of star formation. The bubble's lumpy surface has four columns of gaseous filaments towering above the galaxy's disc. The filaments whirl around in a vortex and are expelled into space. Eventually, this gas will rain down on the disc and may collide with gas clouds, compress them and form a new generation of stars. Theoretical models indicate the bubble formed when winds from hot stars mixed with small bubbles of hot gas from supernova explosions. Radio telescope observations indicate those processes are still active. Eventually, the hot stars will die, and the bubble's energy source will fade away. The images, taken in 1998, show glowing gas as red and starlight as blue/green. Results appear in the July 1, 2001 issue of the Astrophysical Journal. More information about the Hubble Space Telescope is at http://www.stsci.edu. More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for Hubble for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Date	12.02.1999

Galaxy NGC 4013

Title	Galaxy NGC 4013
Description	An amazing "edge-on" view of a spiral galaxy 55 million light years from Earth has been captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image, available at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/pictures/wfpc , reveals in great detail huge clouds of dust and gas extending along and above the galaxy's main disk. The image was taken by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, which was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The galaxy, called NGC 4013, lies in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major. If we could see it pole-on, it would look like a nearly circular pinwheel. In this Hubble image, NGC 4013 is seen edge-on, from our vantage point. Because the galaxy is larger than Hubble's field of view, the image shows only a little more than half the object, but with unprecedented detail. Dark clouds of interstellar dust stand out, since they absorb the light of background stars. Most of the clouds lie in the galaxy's plane and form the dark band, about 500 light years thick, that appears to cut the galaxy in two from upper right to lower left. Scientists believe that new stars form in dark interstellar clouds. NGC 4013 shows several examples of these stellar kindergartens near the center of the image, in front of the dark band along the galaxy's equator. One extremely bright star near the upper left corner is merely a nearby foreground star that lies in our Milky Way and happened to be in the line of sight. This new picture was constructed from Hubble images taken in January 2000 by Dr. J. Christopher Howk of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., and Dr. Blair D. Savage of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Images taken through three different filters have been combined into a color composite covering the region of the galaxy nucleus (behind the bright foreground star at the upper left) and extending along one edge of the galaxy to the lower right. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy Inc., for NASA under contract with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is available at http://www.stsci.edu . More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is available at http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov.
Date	12.15.1999

Galileo's Last View of Tvash …

Title	Galileo's Last View of Tvashtar, Io
Description	This mosaic of Tvashtar Catena on Jupiter's moon Io, taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft on Oct. 16, 2001, completes a series of views depicting changes in the region over a period of nearly two years. A catena is a chain of volcanic craters. Streaks of light and dark deposits that radiate from the central volcanic crater, or "patera," are remnants of a tall plume that was seen erupting in earlier images. This image and the others fromNovember 1999, February 2000 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02584 ],December 2000 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02588 ], andAugust 2001 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02592 ]were all taken to study aspects of this ever-changing, extremely active volcanic field. Tvashtar is pictured here just 10 months after both the Galileo and Cassini spacecraft observed the eruption of a giant plume of volcanic gas emanating from it. The plume rose 385 kilometers (239 miles) high and blanketed terrain as far as 700 kilometers (435 miles) from its center. Tvashtar has erupted in a variety of styles over the course of almost two years: (1) alava curtain [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02519 ]50 kilometers (30 miles) long in the center patera, (2) agiant lava flow or lava lake eruption [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02550 ]in the giant patera at far left, and (3) the largeplume eruption [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02588 ]. Therefore Galileo scientists expected that the lava flow margins or patera boundaries within Tvashtar would have changed drastically. However, the series of observations revealed little modification of this sort, suggesting that the intense eruptions at Tvashtar are confined by the local topography. North is to the top of the mosaic, which is approximately 300 kilometers(186 miles) across and has a resolution of 200 meters (656 feet) per picture element. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about Galileo and its discoveries is available on the Galileo mission home page athttp://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov ]. Background information and educationalcontext for the images can be found athttp://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm ].
Date	05.31.2000

Globular Cluster M22

Title	Globular Cluster M22
Description	Scientists are mystified by what may be unexpected, wandering, planet-sized objects. A new image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope implies the presence of these objects. The image is available athttp://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html ]andhttp://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/wfpc ]. If confirmed, the new information collected by Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 could yield new insights about how stars and planets formed. The camera was designed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. In results published this week in the journal Nature, the scientists report six unusual "microlensing" events inside the globular cluster M22. Microlensing occurs when a background star brightens momentarily as a foreground object drifts by. The gravitational field of the object amplifies light from a distant background star in the huge central bulge of our galaxy. The objects believed to cause these events are too dim to be seen directly. The unusually short period (less than 20 hours) over which these microlensing events occurred indicates that the mass of the intervening objects could be as little as 80 times that of Earth. If confirmed, these bodies would be the smallest celestial objects ever seen beyond our solar system that are not orbiting any star. Theoretically, these objects might be planets that were gravitationally torn away from parent stars in the cluster. However, they are estimated to make up as much as 10 percent of the cluster's mass -- too numerous to be wandering, "orphaned" planets. Because these findings are so surprising, the astronomers caution that they must be confirmed by follow-up Hubble observations. The new Hubble image includes an inset photo showing the entire globular cluster of about 10 million stars. Globular cluster M22 is about 60 light-years wide. A light year equals about 9.5 trillion kilometers (5.9 trillion miles). The image was taken in June 1995 by the Burrell Schmidt telescope at the Case Western Reserve University's Warner and Swasey Observatory on Kitt Peak in Arizona. Additional information about the Hubble Space Telescope is online athttp://www.stsci.edu [ http://www.stsci.edu ]. More information about the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 is athttp://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://wfpc2.jpl.nasa.gov ]. The Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md., manages space operations for the Hubble Space Telescope for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Institute is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency.
Date	12.01.1999

Highest Resolution Comet Pic …

Title	Highest Resolution Comet Picture Ever Reveals Rugged Terrain - Deep Space 1
Description	In this highest resolution view of the icy, rocky nucleus of comet Borrelly, (about 45 meters or 150 feet per pixel) a variety of terrains and surface textures, mountains and fault structures, and darkened material are visible over the nucleus's surface. This was the final image of the nucleus of comet Borrelly, taken just 160 seconds before Deep Space1's closest approach to it. This image shows the 8-km (5-mile) long nucleus about 3417 kilometers (over 2,000 miles) away. Smooth, rolling plains containing brighter regions are present in the middle of the nucleus and seem to be the source of dust jets seen in the coma. The rugged land found at both ends of the nucleus has many high ridges along the jagged line between day and night on the comet. This rough terrain contains very dark patches that appear to be elevated compared to surrounding areas. In some places the dark material accentuates grooves and apparent faults. Stereo analysis shows the smaller end of the nucleus (lower right) is tipped toward the viewer (out of frame). Sunlight is coming from the bottom of the frame. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy but exciting, and ultimately successful, encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/. Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
Date	09.25.2001

Jets on comet Borrelly

Title	Jets on comet Borrelly
Description	This very long exposure was taken by NASA's Deep Space 1 to show detailed structures in the faint parts of comet Borrelly's inner coma. As a result, the nucleus has been greatly over-exposed and its shape appears distorted. The main jet extends to the lower right about 30 degrees off the Sun-line. Faint structures in the coma stretch from the nucleus in all directions. The surface of Borrelly is composed of a mixture of dust and water ice, and as the comet approaches the Sun the ice sublimes. Dust carried outward by expanding gas makes the jets visible. Deep Space 1 completed its primary mission testing ion propulsion and 11 other advanced, high-risk technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to undertake this chancy but exciting, and ultimately successful, encounter with the comet. More information can be found on the Deep Space 1 home page at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ . Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for NASA.
Date	09.25.2001

Scarp at Head of Chasma Bore …

title	Scarp at Head of Chasma Boreale
Description	This view shows sharp detail of a scarp at the head of Chasma Boreale, a large trough cut by erosion into the martian north polar cap and the layered material beneath the ice cap. The picture is a mosaic of two images acquired in January 2005 by the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, using a resolution-enhancing technique called "compensated pitch and roll targeted observation." The camera team considers this the best pair of images yet acquired using that technique. During each northern summer on Mars, there occurs a narrow window in time of two to three months when conditions are ideal to image the north polar cap at high resolution. Throughout this period, the atmosphere is generally clear over the cap, and the seasonal carbon-dioxide frost from the previous winter and spring has sublimed away, permitting a good view of the surface geology. The two images in this mosaic were acquired during this brief period during the most recent northern summer. Within a few weeks of when these images were acquired, dust storm activity picked up in the north polar region, making the atmosphere too dusty to obtain any more detailed views until late 2006. Chasma Boreale is cut into the layered material that lies beneath the water ice of the north polar cap. For decades, these layered materials were assumed to consist of a mixture of ice and dust. Mars Orbiter Camera images obtained in 1999 and 2001 began to show that some of the layers are a source for windblown sand. The science objective for the two images shown in this mosaic was to look for boulders in the debris shed from the steep slopes cut into the north polar layers by Chasma Boreale. Finding boulders would imply that the layers that are the most resistant to erosion in the polar region are as competent as solid rock, perhaps giving a new insight into the nature of the polar layered materials. The pictured site is near 84.8 degrees north latitude, 356.4 degrees west longitude. Examination of the high-resolution mosaic shows that there are indeed some large boulders that have eroded out of the layered materials and rolled down the slopes. It is possible, therefore, that the north polar layers are not simply a mixture of ice, dust, and sand. Some layers may actually be rock, cemented by minerals rather than by ice. Alternatively, if the materials are cemented by ice, then a future high-resolution view might show that the boulders have become smaller over time. In addition to the observation of boulders eroding out of the polar layered materials, the mosaic also helps confirm that dark sand is eroding out of the polar layered materials, and that there are three different groups of layers under the polar ice. The upper unit is light-toned, finely layered, and more resistant to erosion (more competent, less easily destroyed by erosion) than the middle unit, which is rich in dark sand but also has several shelf-forming layers in it. Finally, below the dark, sandy layer is a third unit, that is light-toned and has a different appearance relative to the other two units. Some of its layers have surfaces that have been broken by shallow fractures into polygonal and linear forms, also implying that they are hard, resistant rock. The level of detail seen in the mosaic was made possible by the development of a resolution-enhancing technique for using the Mars Orbiter Camera. During 2003 and 2004, the Mars Orbiter Camera operations team at Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif., worked closely with the Mars Global Surveyor operations teams at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., and Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, Colo., to develop a new technique in which the spacecraft does a maneuver that permits the camera to acquire images at a higher spatial resolution than normal. Usually, Mars Orbiter Camera images have a resolution of about 1.5 meters (5 feet) per pixel, and the camera can be commanded to acquire lower resolution data when desired. To obtain a higher resolution, the whole spacecraft must be pitched at such a rate that the camera over-samples its view of the martian surface in the down-track direction. Called compensated pitch and roll targeted observation, or cPROTO, this technique allows Mars Orbiter Camera to obtain images that have a resolution of about 50 centimeters (20 inches) per pixel in the down-track direction, and 150 centimeters (5 feet) per pixel in the cross-track dimension. The Mars Orbiter Camera was built and is operated by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, Calif. Mars Global Surveyor left Earth on Nov. 7, 1996, and began orbiting Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages Mars Global Surveyor for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS

Typhoon Nanmadol

PIA07100

Sol (our sun)

SeaWinds Scatterometer

Title	Typhoon Nanmadol
Original Caption Released with Image	1 Dec. 2004 This image, produced from data collected by the SeaWinds scatterometer instrument onboard NASA's QuikScat mission reveals the details of the surface winds and rain in Typhoon Nanmadol as it moves westward. The data was collected on 1 Dec. 2004 at approximately 8 in the morning. SeaWinds uses radar to peer through clouds and darkness to measure the near-surface wind speed over the ocean on a daily global basis. In this image of Typhoon Nanmadol, ocean wind speed is shown in color with wind barbs showing the wind direction. The Typhoon eye is visible as a brown patch within the purple area of most intense wind speeds (50+ knots) and rain. The red area of high winds (30+ knots) extends over 800 km around the eye. The grey area in the center left is the Island of Yap. The typhoon is moving about 28 mph to the west-northwest and is gathering strength before it hits the Phillipines a few days later, leading to 1000 casulties according to Reuters. In recent years, the ability to detect and track severe storms has been dramatically enhanced by the advent of weather satellites. Data from the SeaWinds scatterometer is augmenting traditional satellite images of clouds by providing direct measurements of surface winds to compare with the observed cloud patterns in an effort to better determine a hurricane's location, direction, structure, and strength. Specifically, these wind data are helping meteorologists to more accurately identify the extent of gale-force winds associated with a storm, while supplying inputs to numerical models that provide advanced warning of high waves and flooding. "QuikScat Background" 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. More information about the QuikScat mission and observations is available at http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA07100 http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov ]. QuikScat is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC, by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA. JPL also built the SeaWinds radar instrument and is providing ground science processing systems. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, managed development of the satellite, designed and built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, CO. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has contributed support to ground systems processing and related activities.

ASTER Washington, D.C.

PIA02655

Sol (our sun)

ASTER

Title	ASTER Washington, D.C.
Original Caption Released with Image	The White House, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Washington Monument with its shadow are all visible in this image of Washington, D.C. With its 15-meter spatial resolution, ASTER can see individual buildings. Taken on June 1, 2000, this image covers an area 14 kilometers (8.5 miles) wide and 13.7 kilometers (8.2 miles) long in three bands of the reflected visible and infrared wavelength region. The combination of visible and near infrared bands displays vegetation in red and water in dark grays. The Potomac River flows from the middle left to the bottom center. The large red area west of the river is Arlington National Cemetery. Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. Dr. Anne Kahle at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, is the U.S. science team leader, Moshe Pniel of JPL is the project manager. 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. Examples of applications include monitoring glacial advances and retreats, potentially active volcanoes, thermal pollution, and coral reef degradation, identifying crop stress, determining cloud morphology and physical properties, evaluating wetlands, mapping surface temperature of soils and geology, and measuring surface heat balance.

Tsunami Inundation, North of Phuket, Thailand ASTER Images and SRTM Elevation Model

Tsunami Inundation, North of …

PIA06671

Sol (our sun)

ASTER, SIR-C/X-SAR

Title	Tsunami Inundation, North of Phuket, Thailand ASTER Images and SRTM Elevation Model
Original Caption Released with Image	Figure 1 The Indian Ocean coastline north of Phuket, Thailand is a major tourist destination that was in the path of the tsunami produced by a giant offshore earthquake on December 26, 2004. This disaster resulted in a heavy loss of life. These simulated natural color ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) images show a 27 kilometer (17-mile) long stretch of coast 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the Phuket airport in the Khao Lak area on December 31 (middle) and also two years earlier (left). The changes along the coast are obvious (changing from green to grey) where the vegetation was stripped away by the tsunami. The image on the right is a copy of the later ASTER scene but it includes highlighting in red for areas that have elevations within 10 meters (33 feet) of sea level. This elevation information was supplied by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The red areas appear to include most of the tsunami inundated areas. The geographic correspondence of the imaged damage and the highlighted elevation range is quite good in the middle and upper parts of the scene and is consistent with an early field report of about 10 meters of inundation. In the south, the elevation range corresponds to a much wider area than the actual damage, but this is to be expected for areas increasingly far from the coast. Offshore bathymetry (depth variations), coastal landforms, distance from the coast, and additional factors other than elevation range control the damage extent. But elevation measurements along the coast, as provided by SRTM, give a general indication of areas at risk, as now confirmed by ASTER. ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet with its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet). These data provide scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping, and monitoring of 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. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour,, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Size: 9.75 x 27.6 kilometers (6.0 x 17.1 miles), Location: 8.6 degrees North latitude, 98.3 degrees East longitude Orientation: Top is 8.25 degrees east of North Image Data: ASTER Bands 1, 2, 3 mixed for simulated true color. Date Acquired: November 15, 2002 and December 31, 2004 (ASTER), February 2000 (SRTM)

Tsunami Inundation, North of …

PIA06671

Sol (our sun)

ASTER, SIR-C/X-SAR

Title	Tsunami Inundation, North of Phuket, Thailand ASTER Images and SRTM Elevation Model
Original Caption Released with Image	Figure 1 The Indian Ocean coastline north of Phuket, Thailand is a major tourist destination that was in the path of the tsunami produced by a giant offshore earthquake on December 26, 2004. This disaster resulted in a heavy loss of life. These simulated natural color ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) images show a 27 kilometer (17-mile) long stretch of coast 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the Phuket airport in the Khao Lak area on December 31 (middle) and also two years earlier (left). The changes along the coast are obvious (changing from green to grey) where the vegetation was stripped away by the tsunami. The image on the right is a copy of the later ASTER scene but it includes highlighting in red for areas that have elevations within 10 meters (33 feet) of sea level. This elevation information was supplied by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). The red areas appear to include most of the tsunami inundated areas. The geographic correspondence of the imaged damage and the highlighted elevation range is quite good in the middle and upper parts of the scene and is consistent with an early field report of about 10 meters of inundation. In the south, the elevation range corresponds to a much wider area than the actual damage, but this is to be expected for areas increasingly far from the coast. Offshore bathymetry (depth variations), coastal landforms, distance from the coast, and additional factors other than elevation range control the damage extent. But elevation measurements along the coast, as provided by SRTM, give a general indication of areas at risk, as now confirmed by ASTER. ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet with its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet). These data provide scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping, and monitoring of 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. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. The U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. Elevation data used in this image were acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour,, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect three-dimensional measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter-long (200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. Size: 9.75 x 27.6 kilometers (6.0 x 17.1 miles), Location: 8.6 degrees North latitude, 98.3 degrees East longitude Orientation: Top is 8.25 degrees east of North Image Data: ASTER Bands 1, 2, 3 mixed for simulated true color. Date Acquired: November 15, 2002 and December 31, 2004 (ASTER), February 2000 (SRTM)

View of Callisto at Increasing Resolutions

View of Callisto at Increasi …

PIA01297

Jupiter

Solid-State Imaging

Title	View of Callisto at Increasing Resolutions
Original Caption Released with Image	Institute of Technology (Caltech). This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo, These four views of Jupiter's second largest moon, Callisto, highlight how increasing resolutions enable interpretation of the surface. In the global view (top left) the surface is seen to have many small bright spots, while the regional view (top right) reveals the spots to be the larger craters. The local view (bottom right) not only brings out smaller craters and detailed structure of larger craters, but also shows a smooth dark layer of material that appears to cover much of the surface. The close-up frame (bottom left) presents a surprising smoothness in this highest resolution (30 meters per picture element) view of Callisto's surface. North is to the top of these frames which were taken by the Solid State Imaging (SSI) system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft between November 1996 and November 1997. Even higher resolution images (better than 20 meters per picture element) of Callisto will be taken on June 30, 1999 during the 21st orbit of the spacecraft around Jupiter. The top left frame is scaled to 10 kilometers (km) per picture element (pixel) and covers an area about 4400 by 2500 km. The moon Callisto, which has a diameter of 4806 km, appears to be peppered with many bright spots. Images at this resolution of other cratered moons in the Solar System indicate that the bright spots could be impact craters. The ring structure of Valhalla, the largest impact structure on Callisto, is visible in the center of the frame. This color view combines images obtained in November 1997 taken through the green, violet, and 1 micrometer filters of the SSI system. The top right frame is ten times higher resolution (about 1 km per pixel) and covers an area approximately 440 by 250 km. Craters, which are clearly recognizable, appear to be the dominant landform on Callisto. The crater rims appear bright, while the adjacent area and the crater interiors are dark. This resolution is comparable to the best data available from the 1979 flyby's of NASA's two Voyager spacecraft, it reflects the understanding of Callisto prior to new data from Galileo. This Galileo image was taken in November 1996. The resolution of the bottom right image is again ten times better (100 meters per pixel) and covering an area of about 44 by 25 km. This resolution reveals that some crater rims are not complete rings, but are composed of bright isolated segments. Steep slopes near crater rims reveal dark material that appears to have slid down to reveal bright material. The thickness of the dark layer could be tens of meters. The image was taken in June 1997. The bottom left image at about 29 meters per pixel is the highest resolution available for Callisto. It covers an area about 4.4 by 2.5 km and is somewhat oblique. Craters are visible but no longer dominate the surface. The image was taken in November 1996. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is an operating division of California

Active Volcanic Plumes on Io

PIA00703

Jupiter

Solid-State Imaging

Title	Active Volcanic Plumes on Io
Original Caption Released with Image	This color image, acquired during Galileo's ninth orbit around Jupiter, shows two volcanic plumes on Io. One plume was captured on the bright limb or edge of the moon (see inset at upper right), erupting over a caldera (volcanic depression) named Pillan Patera after a South American god of thunder, fire and volcanoes. The plume seen by Galileo is 140 kilometers (86 miles) high and was also detected by the Hubble Space Telescope. The Galileo spacecraft will pass almost directly over Pillan Patera in 1999 at a range of only 600 kilometers (373 miles). The second plume, seen near the terminator (boundary between day and night), is called Prometheus after the Greek fire god (see inset at lower right). The shadow of the 75-kilometer (45- mile) high airborne plume can be seen extending to the right of the eruption vent. The vent is near the center of the bright and dark rings. Plumes on Io have a blue color, so the plume shadow is reddish. The Prometheus plume can be seen in every Galileo image with the appropriate geometry, as well as every such Voyager image acquired in 1979. It is possible that this plume has been continuously active for more than 18 years. In contrast, a plume has never been seen at Pillan Patera prior to the recent Galileo and Hubble Space Telescope images. North is toward the top of the picture. The resolution is about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) per picture element. This composite uses images taken with the green, violet and near infrared filters of the solid state imaging (CCD) system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft. The images were obtained on June 28, 1997, at a range of more than 600,000 kilometers (372,000 miles). The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is an operating division of California Institute of Technology (Caltech). This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web, on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at URL http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo

Nyiragongo volcano, Congo, Perspective View with Lava SRTM / ASTER / Landsat

Nyiragongo volcano, Congo, P …

PIA03338

Sol (our sun)

C-Band Interferometric Radar …

Title	Nyiragongo volcano, Congo, Perspective View with Lava SRTM / ASTER / Landsat
Original Caption Released with Image	The Nyiragongo volcano in the Congo erupted on January 17, 2002, and subsequently sent streams of lava into the city of Goma on the north shore of Lake Kivu. More than 100 people were killed, more than 12,000 homes were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee the broader community of nearly half a million people. This computer-generated visualization combines a Landsat satellite image and an elevation model from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) to provide a view of both the volcano and the city of Goma, looking slightly east of north. Additionally, image data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite were used to supply a partial map of the recent lava flows (red), including a complete mapping of their intrusion into Goma as of January 28, 2002. Lava is also apparent within the volcanic crater and at a few other locations. Thick (but broken) cloud cover during the ASTER image acquisition prevented a complete mapping of the lava distribution, but future image acquisitions should complete the mapping. Nyiragongo is the steep volcano on the right, Lake Kivu is in the foreground, and the city of Goma has a light pink speckled appearance along the shoreline. Nyiragongo peaks at about 3,470 meters (11,380 feet) elevation and reaches almost exactly 2,000 meters (6,560 feet)above Lake Kivu. The shorter but broader Nyamuragira volcano appears in the left background. Topographic expression has been exaggerated vertically by a factor of 1.5 for this visualization. Goma, Lake Kivu, Nyiragongo, Nyamuragira and other nearby volcanoes sit within the East African Rift Valley, a zone where tectonic processes are cracking, stretching, and lowering the Earth's crust. Volcanic activity is common here, and older but geologically recent lava flows (magenta in this depiction) are particularly apparent on the flanks of the Nyamuragira volcano. The Landsat image used here was acquired on December 11, 2001, about a month before the eruption, and shows an unusually cloud-free view of this tropical terrain. Minor clouds and their shadows were digitally removed to clarify the view, topographic shading derived from the SRTM elevation model was added to the Landsat image, and a false sky was added. Landsat has been providing visible and infrared views of the Earth since 1972. SRTM elevation data matches the 30-meter (98-foot) resolution of most Landsat images and substantially helps in analyzing the large and growing Landsat image archive. This Landsat 7 Thematic Mapper image was provided to the SRTM and ASTER projects by the United States Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center,Sioux Falls, S.D. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) will image Earth, for several years to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. ASTER is providing scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring dynamic conditions and temporal change. Elevation data used in this image was acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission(SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter (approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA)of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise, Washington, D.C. Size: View width 21 kilometers (13 miles), View distance 42 kilometers(26 miles) Location: 1.5 degrees South latitude, 29.3 degrees East longitude Orientation: View east-northeast, 5 degrees below horizontal Image Data: Landsat Bands 3, 2, 1 as red, green, blue, respectively. ASTER Band 12(thermal) shown as red overlay. Original Data Resolution: SRTM 1 arcsecond (30 meters or 98 feet), Landsat 30 meters (98 feet). ASTER (thermal) 90 meters (295 feet). Date Acquired: February 2000 (SRTM), December 11, 2001 (Landsat), January 28, 2002(ASTER)

Nyiragongo Volcano, Congo, Map View with Lava, Landsat / ASTER / SRTM

Nyiragongo Volcano, Congo, M …

PIA03339

Sol (our sun)

C-Band Interferometric Radar …

Title	Nyiragongo Volcano, Congo, Map View with Lava, Landsat / ASTER / SRTM
Original Caption Released with Image	The Nyiragongo volcano in the Congo erupted on January 17, 2002, and subsequently sent streams of lava into the city of Goma on the north shore of Lake Kivu. More than 100 people were killed, more than 12,000 homes were destroyed, and hundreds of thousands were forced to flee the broader community of nearly half a million people. This Landsat satellite image shows the volcano (right of center), the city of Goma, and surrounding terrain. Image data from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA's Terra satellite were used to supply a partial map of the recent lava flows (red overlay), including a complete mapping of their intrusion into Goma as of January 28, 2002. Lava is also apparent within the volcanic crater and at a few other locations. Thick (but broken) cloud cover during the ASTER image acquisition prevented a complete mapping of the lava distribution, but future image acquisitions should complete the mapping. Goma has a light pink speckled appearance along the shore of Lake Kivu. The city airport parallels, and is just right (east) of, the larger lava flow. Nyiragongo peaks at about 3,470 meters (11,380 feet) elevation and reaches almost exactly 2,000 meters (6,560 feet) above Lake Kivu. The shorter but much broader Nyamuragira volcano appears in the upper left. Goma, Lake Kivu, Nyiragongo, Nyamuragira and other nearby volcanoes sit within the East African Rift Valley, a zone where tectonic processes are cracking, stretching, and lowering the Earth's crust. Volcanic activity is common here, and older but geologically recent lava flows (magenta in this depiction) are particularly apparent on the flanks of the Nyamuragira volcano. The Landsat image used here was acquired on December 11, 2001, about a month before the eruption, and shows an unusually cloud-free view of this tropical terrain. Minor clouds and their shadows were digitally removed to clarify the view and topographic shading derived from the SRTM elevation model was added to the Landsat image. Landsat has been providing visible and infrared views of the Earth since 1972. SRTM elevation data matches the 30-meter (98-foot) resolution of most Landsat images and substantially helps in analyzing the large and growing Landsat image archive. This Landsat 7 Thematic Mapper image was provided to the SRTM and ASTER projects by the United States Geological Survey, Earth Resources Observation Systems (EROS) Data Center, Sioux Falls, S.D. With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region, and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) will image Earth for several years to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra satellite. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy,Trade and Industry. A joint, U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products. ASTER is providing scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring dynamic conditions and temporal change. Elevation data used in this image was acquired by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, launched on February 11, 2000. SRTM used the same radar instrument that comprised the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) that flew twice on the Space Shuttle Endeavour in 1994. SRTM was designed to collect 3-D measurements of the Earth's surface. To collect the 3-D data, engineers added a 60-meter(approximately 200-foot) mast, installed additional C-band and X-band antennas, and improved tracking and navigation devices. The mission is a cooperative project between NASA, the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) of the U.S. Department of Defense and the German and Italian space agencies. It is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Earth Science Enterprise,Washington, D.C. Size: 21 by 42 kilometers (13 by 26 miles) Location: 1.5 degrees South latitude, 29.3 degrees East longitude Orientation: East-northeast at top Image Data: Landsat Bands 3, 2, 1 as red, green, blue, respectively. ASTER Band 12 (thermal) shown as red overlay. Original Data Resolution: Landsat 30 meters (98 feet). ASTER (thermal) 90 meters (295 feet), SRTM 1 arcsecond (30 meters or 98 feet). Date Acquired: December 11, 2001 (Landsat), January 28, 2002 (ASTER), February 2000 (SRTM).

Wide Angle Movie

PIA02324

Earth

Imaging Science Subsystem - …

Title	Wide Angle Movie
Original Caption Released with Image	This brief movie illustrates the passage of the Moon through the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft's wide-angle camera field of view as the spacecraft passed by the Moon on the way to its closest approach with Earth on August 17, 1999. From beginning to end of the sequence, 25 wide-angle images (with a spatial image scale of about 14 miles per pixel (about 23 kilometers)were taken over the course of 7 and 1/2 minutes through a series of narrow and broadband spectral filters and polarizers, ranging from the violet to the near-infrared regions of the spectrum, to calibrate the spectral response of the wide-angle camera. The exposure times range from 5 milliseconds to 1.5 seconds. Two of the exposures were smeared and have been discarded and replaced with nearby images to make a smooth movie sequence. All images were scaled so that the brightness of Crisium basin, the dark circular region in the upper right, is approximately the same in every image. The imaging data were processed and released by the Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations (CICLOPS)at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, Tucson, AZ. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL/Cassini Imaging Team/University of Arizona Cassini, launched in 1997, is a joint mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.

Io imaging during Galileo's …

PIA01605

Jupiter

Title	Io imaging during Galileo's 24th orbit
Original Caption Released with Image	During its 14th orbit of Jupiter in March 29, 1998, NASA's Galileo spacecraft captured an image of Jupiter's moon, Io, that has the same lighting geometry that will exist during Io's close Io flyby on October 11, 1999 (the 24th orbit). The spacecraft groundtrack on Io is shown, with two-minute intervals marked by X's. The large X marks the location of closest approach, when Galileo will be just 500 kilometers (about 300 miles) above Io's surface. The curved boundary on the left marks the "terminator" or boundary between the lit day side and dark night side. Although the Pele volcano will be on the night side during the flyby, the hot lavas will be seen glowing in the dark. Other targets of interest that will be visible near closest approach are Pillan Patera, the site of dramatic surface changes [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA00744 ], Reiden Patera, Marduk, the bright plains of Colchis regio, and the rugged Dorian Montes mountains. Active volcanic plumes and high-temperature hot spots have been seen at Pele, Pillan, and Marduk. North is to the top of this image, which has a resolution of 2.6 kilometers (1.6 miles) per picture element. The image was taken at a range of 256,948 kilometers (about 160,000 miles) by the solid state imaging camera system on NASA's Galileo spacecraft. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the World Wide Web on the Galileo mission home page at URL http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov ] . Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo/sepo ] .

NASA Measures Fitow's Winds by Satellite

NASA Measures Fitow's Winds …

PIA09978

Sol (our sun)

SeaWinds Scatterometer

Title	NASA Measures Fitow's Winds by Satellite
Original Caption Released with Image	NASA's QuikScat satellite acquired this image of Category One Typhoon Fitow on Sept. 6, 2007, prior to the storm making landfall in Japan. The center of Fitow is indicated by the purple color. This image depicts wind speed in color and wind direction with small barbs. White barbs point to areas of heavy rain. The highest wind speeds, around the eye, are shown in purple. QuikScat, managed by JPL, measures ocean surface wind/stress by sending radar pulses to the surface and measuring the strength of the signals returned. "QuikScat Background" 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. More information about the QuikScat mission and observations is available at http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/quikscat/ [ http://winds.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/quikscat/index.cfm ]. QuikSCAT is managed for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, DC, by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

A New Hot Spot on Northern I …

PIA03602

Jupiter

Near Infrared Mapping Spectr …

Title	A New Hot Spot on Northern Io
Original Caption Released with Image	NASA's Galileo spacecraft has returned infrared imagery of a new hot spot on Jupiter's moon Io that was the source of a towering plume in August 2001, indicating a sulfur-dioxide concentration that may have been fallout from the plume. Galileo's near-infrared mapping spectrometer captured the image on the left during an Oct. 16, 2001 flyby of Io. Coloring indicates the intensity of glowing at a wavelength of 4.1 microns. Yellow, red, and white represent high temperatures. Black is where the near-infrared glow was so intense the image was saturated. Greens and blues are cold. The visible-light image on the right was obtained by Galileo's camera in 1999, before any volcanic activity was seen at this site. The first sign of activity came in August 2001, when Galileo detected an infrared hot spot and the tallest volcanic plume ever seen at Io. The dark blue band north of the hot spot in the new infrared image represents a concentration of sulfur-dioxide, which has a strong signature in the infrared. The sulfur-dioxide is thought to be from the fallout of the plume. The image shows high temperatures corresponding to yellow flows in the center of the visible-light image, and from a small caldera at the 8 o'lock position. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about Galileo and its discoveries is available on the Galileo mission home page at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov ]. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm ].

Artist's Concept of Deep Space 1 Encounter with Comet Borrelly

Artist's Concept of Deep Spa …

PIA04496

Star Tracker

Title	Artist's Concept of Deep Space 1 Encounter with Comet Borrelly
Original Caption Released with Image	Press Release September 18, 2001 Veteran Spacecraft Attempts to Earn Extra Credit at Comet Like a slugger trying to pile up extra home runs after breaking the world record, a venerable NASA spacecraft already famed for bringing science fiction's ion-engine technology to life is preparing to fly daringly close to a comet on Saturday, Sept. 22. Deep Space 1, which has already completed a highly successful mission testing a number of advanced spacecraft technologies, will attempt to pass inside the mostly unknown environment just 2,000 kilometers (about 1,200 miles) from the nucleus of comet Borrelly at 2230 Universal time (3:30 p.m. PDT) on Sept. 22."It has been a tremendously rewarding effort for the small Deep Space 1 team to keep this aged and wounded bird aloft," said Dr. Marc Rayman, project manager of Deep Space 1 at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "Its mission to test new technologies is already highly successful and any science we get at the comet will be a terrific bonus." By the time of the flyby Deep Space 1 will have completed three times its intended lifetime in space and its primary mission to test ion propulsion and 11 other high-risk, advanced technologies in September 1999. NASA extended the mission, taking advantage of the ion propulsion and other systems to target a chancy but exciting encounter with Borrelly. The spacecraft may tell us more about comets and their place in the solar system. The robotic explorer will attempt to investigate the comet's environment when it tries to fly through the cloud of gas and dust surrounding the comet's nucleus, known as the coma. The risks involved in gathering science data are very high, so results of this latest venture are unpredictable. The spacecraft will be traveling through a cloud of gas, dust and comet pieces to collect its data. Since Deep Space 1 wasn't built to go to a comet, it does not carry a protective shield. "We expect to be hit by debris from the comet, and at 16.5 kilometers per second (about 36,900 mph), even a tiny particle might prove fatal," said Rayman. "But this is an adventure too exciting to pass up." If all goes well, scientists will use the comet chaser's measurements to find out the nature of Borrelly's surface and to measure and identify the gases coming from the comet. The spacecraft will also attempt to measure the interaction of solar wind with the comet, a process that leads to formation of the beautiful tail. Borrelly makes a good target for study now, as it is just 1.34 astronomical units (about 200 million kilometers or 125 million miles) from the Sun -- the closest it will get for another seven years. The Sun's heat will make the gases escaping from the nucleus flow faster and more thickly, so they will be easier to study. The icy nucleus and the spacecraft will flash past each other at 16.5 kilometers per second (more than 36,900 miles per hour). The flight team is also hoping that Deep Space 1 will have enough gas to get, to the comet. The long-lived spacecraft keeps itself pointed correctly by firing small thrusters fueled by hydrazine gas. When the hydrazine runs out, Deep Space 1 will be unable to keep itself pointed correctly, and the spacecraft will die. The flight team has an estimate of how much gas is left, but a few hours' worth of gas could make all the difference in the comet encounter. As it approaches the center of the coma, the spacecraft will face its greatest challenge: to obtain pictures and infrared measurements of the nucleus. Deep Space 1 can't tell exactly where the nucleus is or what it will look like. The craft will have to locate the nucleus on its own and try to point the camera toward it as it streaks by. In late 1999, Deep Space 1 lost its star tracker, which helps determine the spacecraft's orientation. Faced with what could have been a mission-terminating injury, the controllers performed a spectacular ultra-long-distance rescue. They reconfigured the spacecraft to use the photographic camera to orient itself by the stars around it. The camera cannot align the spacecraft and snap photos of Borrelly at the same time. Instead, Deep Space 1 will have to rely on its fiber-optic gyroscopes to help maintain its orientation. But the gyros are not accurate enough by themselves, so engineers designed complex new software to help the camera stay pointed at the comet's nucleus during the critical few minutes that the probe will be close enough to try to get a view of it. More information can be found online at http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ ]http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ Deep Space 1 was launched in October 1998 as part of NASA's New Millennium Program, which is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

Potential Source of Sulfur F …

PIA03887

Jupiter

Solid-State Imaging

Title	Potential Source of Sulfur Flow on Io
Original Caption Released with Image	A field of bright lava flows next to a shield volcano could be a source of recent sulfur volcanism on Io, as detected by instruments aboard NASA's Galileo spacecraft. The mosaic at left combines higher-resolution images (330 meters or about 1080 feet per picture element) taken in October 2001 with lower-resolution color images (1.4 kilometers or 0.9 mile per picture element) taken in July 1999 by Galileo's solid-state imaging camera. By comparing these images with a map of hot spots taken in February by Galileo's near-infrared mapping spectrometer (lower right), Galileo scientists noted that a new hot spot west of the active volcano Prometheus became bright in February 2000 and dimmed later. This hot spot appears to correspond with the bright flow field just west of a recently discovered shield volcano (see PIA03532 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03532 ]), which is the only fresh volcanic material in the area. The relatively low intensity of the February 2000 hot spot in the infrared data suggests a low-temperature eruption, consistent with sulfur lava rather than silicate lava as found elsewhere on Io and also on Earth. Sulfur lavas are thought to cool to a gray-yellow color on Io, as seen in the new flow field visible in the camera image. This bright flow field could be the best example of active sulfur lava flows deposited on Io during the Galileo mission. At upper right is a global view of Io showing the location of the more-detailed images. The low temperature of this hot spot differs from many of Io's other active volcanoes, such as Pele, Tvashtar and Prometheus. Intense tidal flexing of Io helps keep the moon's interior molten, at some places producing silicate lavas hotter than any seen on Earth in billions of years. Io has the greatest known diversity of volcanic activity in the solar system. North is to the top of all these images. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about Galileo and its discoveries is available on the Galileo mission home page at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov ] . Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm ].

Io's Culann-Tohil Region in …

PIA03885

Jupiter

Solid-State Imaging

Title	Io's Culann-Tohil Region in Color
Original Caption Released with Image	North is to the top of all images. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about Galileo and its discoveries is available on the Galileo mission home page at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov ]. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm ]., Repeated flybys of Io by NASA's Galileo spacecraft have allowed scientists to develop an understanding of Io's Tohil-Culann region of interconnected volcanoes and mountains. An active volcano named Culann Patera (top center) is one of the most colorful volcanoes on Jupiter's innermost large moon (see PIA02535 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02535 ]). It lies just north of an enigmatic mountain called Tohil Mons (see PIA03600 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03600 ]). This mosaic image uses high-resolution Galileo images of Culann (200 meters or 660 feet per picture element) from the November 1999 flyby and high-resolution images of Tohil (165 meters or 540 feet per picture element) from the February 2000 flyby, and combines them with lower-resolution color images (1.4 kilometers or 0.9 mile per picture element) taken during the July 1999 flyby. Using the combined information, Galileo scientists have identified relationships among many colorful features in this complex. The volcano Culann has produced both dark black and dark red lava flows, as well as diffuse, inner and outer rings of red and yellowish sulfur particles from explosive plumes (for example, PIA02502 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02502 ]). Molten silicate rock inside Culann must occasionally mix with subsurface reservoirs of sulfur and sulfur dioxide to produce the plume deposits. The green color at the center of Culann and inside the older volcano Tohil Patera (center right) forms when red sulfur plume deposits land on dark black silicate lava flows and form a green veneer. The large white patch in southwestern Tohil Patera is rich in sulfur dioxide, and comparison with higher-resolution views (for example, PIA03527 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03527 ]) suggests that this might be a region of cold sulfur dioxide flows. The small white patches on the mountain Tohil Mons might be deposits of sulfur dioxide snow that accumulate in grooves and at the bases of steep slopes in colder areas on the mountain. At upper right is a global view of Io showing the location of the mosaic. Although Tohil Mons rises up to 6 kilometers (19,700 feet) above Io's plains, it is difficult to see in this image because the Sun was behind Galileo at the time it was taken. The topography of the mountainous region is clearer in a mosaic of images taken when the Sun was low in the sky, with illumination from the right (see figure below) The side-lit mosaic combines a high-resolution (330 meters or 1,100 feet per picture element) image from October 2001 with lower-resolution color images (1.4 kilometers or 0.9 mile per picture element) from July 1999.

Io's Culann-Tohil Region in …

PIA03885

Jupiter

Solid-State Imaging

Title	Io's Culann-Tohil Region in Color
Original Caption Released with Image	North is to the top of all images. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about Galileo and its discoveries is available on the Galileo mission home page at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov ]. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm ]., Repeated flybys of Io by NASA's Galileo spacecraft have allowed scientists to develop an understanding of Io's Tohil-Culann region of interconnected volcanoes and mountains. An active volcano named Culann Patera (top center) is one of the most colorful volcanoes on Jupiter's innermost large moon (see PIA02535 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02535 ]). It lies just north of an enigmatic mountain called Tohil Mons (see PIA03600 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03600 ]). This mosaic image uses high-resolution Galileo images of Culann (200 meters or 660 feet per picture element) from the November 1999 flyby and high-resolution images of Tohil (165 meters or 540 feet per picture element) from the February 2000 flyby, and combines them with lower-resolution color images (1.4 kilometers or 0.9 mile per picture element) taken during the July 1999 flyby. Using the combined information, Galileo scientists have identified relationships among many colorful features in this complex. The volcano Culann has produced both dark black and dark red lava flows, as well as diffuse, inner and outer rings of red and yellowish sulfur particles from explosive plumes (for example, PIA02502 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA02502 ]). Molten silicate rock inside Culann must occasionally mix with subsurface reservoirs of sulfur and sulfur dioxide to produce the plume deposits. The green color at the center of Culann and inside the older volcano Tohil Patera (center right) forms when red sulfur plume deposits land on dark black silicate lava flows and form a green veneer. The large white patch in southwestern Tohil Patera is rich in sulfur dioxide, and comparison with higher-resolution views (for example, PIA03527 [ http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA03527 ]) suggests that this might be a region of cold sulfur dioxide flows. The small white patches on the mountain Tohil Mons might be deposits of sulfur dioxide snow that accumulate in grooves and at the bases of steep slopes in colder areas on the mountain. At upper right is a global view of Io showing the location of the mosaic. Although Tohil Mons rises up to 6 kilometers (19,700 feet) above Io's plains, it is difficult to see in this image because the Sun was behind Galileo at the time it was taken. The topography of the mountainous region is clearer in a mosaic of images taken when the Sun was low in the sky, with illumination from the right (see figure below) The side-lit mosaic combines a high-resolution (330 meters or 1,100 feet per picture element) image from October 2001 with lower-resolution color images (1.4 kilometers or 0.9 mile per picture element) from July 1999.

Recent Eruption at Gish Bar Patera on Io

Recent Eruption at Gish Bar …

PIA03884

Jupiter

Solid-State Imaging

Title	Recent Eruption at Gish Bar Patera on Io
Original Caption Released with Image	This image taken by NASA's Galileo spacecraft reveals fresh lava in a wide pit named Gish Bar Patera on Jupiter's moon Io. The patera, or depression, is quite large: 106.3 kilometers (66 miles) by 115.0 kilometers (71 miles). Galileo has detected volcanic activity at this site in the past, particularly in late 1996. Galileo took this image on Oct. 16, 2001, during its 32nd orbit of Jupiter. Effects of a new eruption at Gish Bar can be seen in a comparison with images from 1999 (see figure below). The new eruption was first detected in infrared imaging by Galileo's near-infrared mapping spectrometer in August 2001. This visible-light image shows a pair of new lava flows. The largest runs to the western boundary and extends to the central and northern portions of the patera. The other flow corresponds to a secondary depression in the southeastern portion of the patera. Based on changes seen at this depression between July and October 1999, this is thought to be the site of an outburst seen by Earth-based observers in August 1999. Gish Bar Patera lies at the base of an 11-kilometer (36,000-foot) mountain at 15.6 degrees north latitude, 89.1 degrees west longitude on Io. This image was taken from a distance of 25,000 kilometers (15,500 miles) and has a resolution of 250 meters (820 feet) per pixel. The Sun is straight behind the observer, an illumination angle that minimizes shadows and emphasizes inherent brightness variations rather than topography. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Galileo mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. Additional information about Galileo and its discoveries is available on the Galileo mission home page at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov ]. Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/io.cfm ].

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