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Pathfinder Landing
This photo shows Mars Pathfi
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6/14/95
| Date |
6/14/95 |
| Description |
This photo shows Mars Pathfinder's configuration shortly after landing on the Martian surface on July 4, 1997. The spacecraft will land four hours before sunrise and spend most of that time standing itself upright, retracting its air bags, as seen here, and opening its petals to expose the 22-pound rover. As the sun comes up on Mars, the rover will power up its solar panels and prepare to roll off onto the Martian surface for a week of exploration. Mars Pathfinder, managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is scheduled for launch on Dec. 2, 1996. |
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Mars Pathfinder
This artist's rendering show
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8/6/96
| Date |
8/6/96 |
| Description |
This artist's rendering shows Pathfinder's unique descent to the surface of Mars. The spacecraft, enclosed in a cocoon of airbags, has just been severed from the tether which connected it to a huge parachute and Viking-derived heatshield used to slow the spacecraft's speed after entry in the Martian atmosphere. Once the spacecraft comes to a halt, the airbags will deflate and the spacecraft will stand itself right side up, then open its panels to expose its solar panels. As the sun rises over Mars, Pathfinder will power on, along with a miniature companion rover, called Sojourner, which sits on the inside of one of its panels. Sojourner will use one of two exit ramps to roll off the lander and drive onto the surface of Mars. There it will begin a week of science experiments on the surface of Mars, while the lander takes panoramic photographs of the Martian terrain. The Mars Pathfinder mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C., and is scheduled for launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, atop a Delta II expendable launch vehicle on Dec. 2, 1996. ##### |
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Eruption at Tvashtar Catena,
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NASA's Galileo spacecraft ca
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5/18/00
| Date |
5/18/00 |
| Description |
NASA's Galileo spacecraft caught this volcanic eruption in action on Jupiter's moon Io on November 25, 1999. This mosaic shows Tvashtar Catena, a chain of calderas, in enhanced color. It combines low resolution (1.3 kilometers, or .8 miles, per picture element) color images of Io taken on July 3, 1999 with the much higher resolution (180 meters, or 197 yards, per picture element) black and white images taken in November. The molten lava was hot enough, and therefore bright enough, to saturate, or overexpose, Galileo's camera (original image is inset in lower right corner). The bright lava curtain (a chain of lava fountains) and surface flows shown in the color image were assembled as an interpretive drawing by Galileo scientists, based on their knowledge of how the camera behaves when saturated. The lava appears to be producing fountains to heights of up to 1.5 kilometers (5,000 feet) above the surface. Several other lava flows can be seen on the floors of the calderas. The darkest flows are probably the most recent. The elongated caldera in the center of the image is almost surrounded by a mesa that is about 1 kilometer (.6 miles) high. In places the mesa's margins are scalloped, which is typical of an erosional process called sapping. This occurs when fluid escapes from the base of a cliff, causing the material above it to collapse. On Earth, sapping is caused by springs of groundwater. Similar features on Mars are one of the key pieces of evidence that water flowed on Mars' surface in the past. On Io, the fluid is believed to be sulfur dioxide, which should vaporize almost instantaneously when it reaches the near vacuum at Io's surface, blasting away material at the base of the cliffs. North is to the top of the image and the Sun illuminates the surface from the lower left. The high resolution black and white image was taken at a distance of 17,000 kilometers (11,000 miles). The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA manages the mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. This image and other images and data received from Galileo are posted on the Galileo mission home page at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov . Background information and educational context for the images can be found at http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/images/io/ioimages.html . ##### |
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SEASONAL CHANGES IN MARS' NO
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These images, which seem to
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| Description |
These images, which seem to have been taken while NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was looking directly down on the Martian North Pole, were actually created by assembling mosaics of three sets of images taken by HST in October, 1996 and in January and March, 1997 and projecting them to appear as they would if seen from above the pole. This first mosaic is a view which could not actually be seen in nature because at this season a portion of the pole would have actually been in shadow, the last view, taken near the summer solstice, would correspond to the Midnight Sun on Earth with the pole fully illuminated all day. The resulting polar maps begin at 50 degrees N latitude and are oriented with 0 degrees longitude at the 12 o'clock position. This series of pictures captures the seasonal retreat of Mars' north polar cap. October 1996 (early spring in the Northern hemisphere): In this map, assembled from images obtained between Oct. 8 and 15, the cap extends down to 60 degrees N latitude, nearly it's maximum winter extent. (The notches are areas where Hubble data were not available). A thin, comma-shaped cloud of dust can be seen as a salmon-colored crescent at the 7 o'clock position. The cap is actually fairly circular about the geographic pole at this season, the bluish "knobs" where the cap seems to extend further are actually clouds that occurred near the edges of the three separate sets of images used to make the mosaic. January 1997 (mid-spring): Increased warming as spring progresses in the northern hemisphere has sublimated the carbon dioxide ice and frost below 70 degrees north latitude. The faint darker circle inside the cap boundary marks the location of circumpolar sand dunes (see March '97 map), these dark dunes are warmed more by solar heating than are the brighter surroundings, so the surface frost sublimates from the dunes earlier than from the neighboring areas. Particularly evident is the marked hexagonal shape of the polar cap at this season, noted previously by HST in 1995 and Mariner 9 in 1972, this may be due to topography, which isn't well known, or to wave structure in the circulation. This map was assembled from WFPC2 images obtained between Dec. 30, 1996 and Jan. 4, 1997. March 30, 1997 (early summer): The cap has fully retreated to its remnant core of water-ice. This residual cap is actually almost cut into two by a large, horn-shaped canyon called Chasma Borealis which is cut deeply into the polar terrain. The HST images also reveal a curious layered terrain which is evidence of past climatic changes on Mars. The sublimation of all of the carbon dioxide has exposed the ring of dark sand dunes which encircle the North Polar Cap. Outliers of ice persist south of the polar sand sea (between the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock positions). The bright circular features at 3, 6, and 9 o'clock are ice-filled craters. All images were taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The color is constructed from images taken in red (673 nm) , blue (410 nm) and green (502 nm) light. The resolution at the North Pole ranges from about 115 km/pixel in October '96 to about 45 km/pixel in March '97. Credit: Phil James (Univ. Toledo), Todd Clancy (Space Science Inst., Boulder, CO), Steve Lee (Univ. Colorado), and NASA |
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Riding a Trail of Debris
| Title |
Riding a Trail of Debris |
| Description |
This image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the comet Encke riding along its pebbly trail of debris (long diagonal line) between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. This material actually encircles the solar system, following the path of Encke's orbit. Twin jets of material can also be seen shooting away from the comet in the short, fan-shaped emission, spreading horizontally from the comet. Encke, which orbits the Sun every 3.3 years, is well traveled. Having exhausted its supply of fine particles, it now leaves a long trail of larger more gravel-like debris, about one millimeter in size or greater. Every October, Earth passes through Encke's wake, resulting in the well-known Taurid meteor shower. This image was captured by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer when Encke was 2.6 times farther away than Earth is from the Sun. It is the best yet mid-infrared view of the comet at this great distance. The data are helping astronomers understand how rotating comets eject particles as they circle the Sun. |
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Band of Rubble
| Title |
Band of Rubble |
| Description |
This artist's animation illustrates a massive asteroid belt in orbit around a star the same age and size as our Sun. Evidence for this possible belt was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope when it spotted warm dust around the star, presumably from asteroids smashing together. The view starts from outside the belt, where planets like the one shown here might possibly reside, then moves into to the dusty belt itself. A collision between two asteroids is depicted near the end of the movie. Collisions like this replenish the dust in the asteroid belt, making it detectable to Spitzer. The alien belt circles a faint, nearby star called HD 69830 located 41 light-years away in the constellation Puppis. Compared to our own solar system's asteroid belt, this one is larger and closer to its star -- it is 25 times as massive, and lies just inside an orbit equivalent to that of Venus. Our asteroid belt circles between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Because Jupiter acts as an outer wall to our asteroid belt, shepherding its debris into a series of bands, it is possible that an unseen planet is likewise marshalling this belt's rubble. Previous observations using the radial velocity technique did not locate any large gas giant planets, indicating that any planets present in this system would have to be the size of Saturn or smaller. Asteroids are chunks of rock from "failed" planets, which never managed to coalesce into full-sized planets. Asteroid belts can be thought of as construction sites that accompany the building of rocky planets. |
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It's a Rocky World
| Title |
It's a Rocky World |
| Description |
This artist's concept show a massive asteroid belt in orbit around a star the same age and size as our Sun. Evidence for this possible belt was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope when it spotted warm dust around the star, presumably from asteroids smashing together. The view is from outside the belt, where planets like the one shown in the foreground, might possibly reside. A collision between two asteroids is depicted to the right. Collisions like this replenish the dust in the asteroid belt, making it detectable to Spitzer. The alien belt circles a faint, nearby star called HD 69830 located 41 light-years away in the constellation Puppis. Compared to our own solar system's asteroid belt, this one is larger and closer to its star -- it is 25 times as massive, and lies just inside an orbit equivalent to that of Venus. Our asteroid belt circles between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Because Jupiter acts as an outer wall to our asteroid belt, shepherding its debris into a series of bands, it is possible that an unseen planet is likewise marshalling this belt's rubble. Previous observations using the radial velocity technique did not locate any large gas giant planets, indicating that any planets present in this system would have to be the size of Saturn or smaller. Asteroids are chunks of rock from "failed" planets, which never managed to coalesce into full-sized planets. Asteroid belts can be thought of as construction sites that accompany the building of rocky planets. |
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Birth of an Earth-like Plane
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| Title |
Birth of an Earth-like Planet |
| Description |
This artist's conception shows a binary-star, or two-star, system, called HD 113766, where astronomers suspect a rocky Earth-like planet is forming around one of the stars. At approximately 10 to 16 million years old, astronomers suspect this star is at just the right age for forming rocky planets. The system is located approximately 424 light-years away from Earth. The two yellow spots in the image represent the system's two stars. The brown ring of material circling closest to the central star depicts a huge belt of dusty material, more than 100 times as much as in our asteroid belt, or enough to build a Mars-size planet or larger. The rocky material in the belt represents the early stages of planet formation, when dust grains clump together to form rocks, and rocks collide to form even more massive rocky bodies called planetesimals. The belt is located in the middle of the system's terrestrial habitable zone, or the region around a star where liquid water could exist on any rocky planets that might form. Earth is located in the middle of our Sun's terrestrial habitable zone. Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers learned that the belt material in HD 113866 is more processed than the snowball-like stuff that makes up infant solar systems and comets, which contain pristine ingredients from the early solar system. However, it is not as processed as the stuff found in mature planets and asteroids. This means that the dust belt is made out of just the right mix of materials to be forming an Earth-like planet. It is composed mainly of rocky silicates and metal sulfides (like fool's gold), similar to the material found in lava flows. The white outer ring shows a concentration of icy dust also detected in the system. This material is at the equivalent position of the asteroid belt in our solar system, but only contains about one-sixth as much material as the inner ring. Astronomers say it is not clear from the Spitzer observations if anything is occurring in the icy belt, but they believe it could be a source of water later on for the planet that grows from the inner warm ring. |
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Evidence for Strange Stellar
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| Title |
Evidence for Strange Stellar Family |
| Description |
This artist concept depicts a quadruple-star system called HD 98800. The system is approximately 10 million years old, and is located 150 light-years away in the constellation TW Hydrae. HD 98800 contains four stars, which are paired off into doublets, or binaries. The stars in the binary pairs orbit around each other, and the two pairs also circle each other like choreographed ballerinas. One of the stellar pairs, called HD 98800B, has a disk of dust around it, while the other pair does not. Although the four stars are gravitationally bound, the distance separating the two binary pairs is about 50 astronomical units (AU) -- slightly more than the average distance between our sun and Pluto. Using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists finally have a detailed view of HD 98800B's potential planet-forming disk. Astronomers used the telescope's infrared spectrometer to detect the presence of two belts in the disk made of large dust grains. One belt sits approximately 5.9 AU away from the central binary, or about the distance from the sun to Jupiter, and is likely made up of asteroids and comets. The other belt sits at 1.5 to 2 AU, comparable to the area where Mars and the asteroid belt sit, and consists of fine dust grains. |
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Artist's Conception of Sedna
| Title |
Artist's Conception of Sedna |
| Description |
In this artist's visualization, the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," is shown where it resides at the outer edges of the known solar system. The object is so far away that the Sun appears as an extremely bright star instead of the large, warm disc observed from Earth. All that is known about Sedna's appearance is that it has a reddish hue, almost as red and reflective as the planet Mars. In the distance is a hypothetical small moon, which scientists believe may be orbiting this distant body. |
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Orbit of Sedna
| Title |
Orbit of Sedna |
| Description |
This animation shows the location of the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," in relation to the rest of the Solar System. Starting at the inner Solar System, which includes the orbits of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars (all in yellow), the view pulls away through the asteroid belt and the orbits of the outer planets beyond (green). Pluto and the distant Kuiper Belt objects are seen next until finally Sedna comes into view. As the field widens the full orbit of Sedna can be seen along with its current location. Sedna is nearing its closest approach to the Sun, its 10,000-year orbit typically takes it to far greater distances. Moving past Sedna, what was previously thought to be the inner edge of the Oort cloud appears. The Oort cloud is a spherical distribution of cold, icy bodies lying at the limits of the Sun's gravitational pull. Sedna's presence suggests that this Oort cloud is much closer than scientists believed. |
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Sedna's Night Sky Location
| Title |
Sedna's Night Sky Location |
| Description |
This view shows where the newly discovered planet-like body, dubbed "Sedna," would lie in the evening skies at around 8:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on the date its discovery was announced (March 15, 2004). It was located in the constellation of Cetus and formed a triangle with Mars and Venus in the direction of the setting Sun. Sedna is so faint, however, that it can not be seen with the naked eye, or with telescopes typically used by amateur astronomers. |
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NASA TV's This Week at NASA,
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* With skies overcast skies,
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01/22/2010
| Description |
* With skies overcast skies, the next space shuttle crew set down their T-38s at the Kennedy Space Center, eager to begin their launch dress rehearsal, or Terminal Countdown Demonstration test. The crew will fly aboard space shuttle Endeavour bringing the Tranquility node and its cupola for installation on the International Space Station. The STS-130 mission is scheduled to liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, February 7, at 4:39 a.m. Eastern. * The scheduled launch of NASA's new Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, is drawing near. Its prelaunch briefing, conducted at NASA headquarters in Washington and the Kennedy Space Center, gave media a look at SDO's unprecedented mission to study the sun and its dynamic behavior. * JSC: The next International Space Station crew briefed reporters on their upcoming mission. NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson was joined by Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skyorsov and Mikhail Kornlenko to discuss their upcoming Expedition 23 mission. * Members of the STS-129 crew continued their whirlwind tour of NASA centers. Five members of the space shuttle Atlantis crew thanked employees at the Stennis Space Center for their part in a safe STS-129 mission to the International Space Station in November. * The Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity this week celebrates six years of exploration and research on the surface of the red planet. * The most powerful camera aboard the NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars will soon be taking photo suggestions from the public. |
| Date |
01/22/2010 |
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August 2006: View of the Pla
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| Description |
August 2006: View of the Planets |
| Full Description |
Just before the eastern sky brightens with sunrise, three planets and the waning crescent moon join the starry twilight tapestry. Then, as the bright stars of Gemini and Orion fade with oncoming dawn, the planets rise and shine. About 45 minutes before sunrise on Aug. 20 to 22 the planets Venus, Mercury and Saturn dance on the ecliptic -- the plane of Earth's orbit and the imaginary line tracing it in the sky. The sun, moon and planets appear to move along this line. Venus, rising an hour and a half before sunrise, is the easiest to see in the morning sky. Two hundred forty-one million kilometers (150 million miles) distant, Venus is Earth-sized. Mercury, at a distance of 183 million kilometers (114 million miles), is the fastest and smallest of the inner planets and appears brighter than the more distant Saturn. Saturn, 1,517 million kilometers (943 million miles) distant, was at conjunction with the sun just two weeks ago and now rises nearly an hour before sunrise. On Aug. 26 and 27, Saturn pairs with much brighter Venus at dawn. What other planets can we see in late August? Mars sets 45 minutes after sunset by month's end but is lost from view in the twilight, while brilliant Jupiter remains prominent as the only planet visible for a few hours during the late August evenings. Credit: NASA/JPL |
| Date |
August 18, 2006 |
|
Giant Landslide on Iapetus
| Description |
Giant Landslide on Iapetus |
| Full Description |
A spectacular landslide within the low-brightness region of Iapetus's surface known as Cassini Regio is visible in this image from Cassini. Iapetus is one of the moons of Saturn. The landslide material appears to have collapsed from a scarp 15 kilometers high (9 miles) that forms the rim of an ancient 600 kilometer (375 mile) impact basin. Unconsolidated rubble from the landslide extends halfway across a conspicuous, 120-kilometer diameter (75-mile) flat-floored impact crater that lies just inside the basin scarp. Landslides are common geological phenomena on many planetary bodies, including Earth and Mars. The appearance of this landslide on an icy satellite with low-brightness cratered terrain is reminiscent of landslide features that were observed during NASA's Galileo mission on the Jovian satellite Callisto. The fact that the Iapetus landslide traveled many kilometers from the basin scarp could indicate that the surface material is very fine-grained, and perhaps was fluffed by mechanical forces that allowed the landslide debris to flow extended distances. In this view, north is to the left of the picture and solar illumination is from the bottom of the frame. The image was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Dec. 31, 2004, at a distance of about 123,400 kilometers (76,677 miles) from Iapetus and at a Sun-Iapetus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 78 degrees. Resolution achieved in the original image was 740 meters (2,428 feet) per pixel. The image has been contrast-enhanced and magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility. 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 mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov . For images visit the Cassini imaging team home page http://ciclops.org . Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute |
| Date |
January 7, 2005 |
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Sedna's Orbit
| title |
Sedna's Orbit |
| description |
These four panels show the location of the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," which lies in the farthest reaches of our Solar System. Each panel, moving counterclockwise from the upper left, successively zooms out to place Sedna in context. The first panel shows the orbits of the inner planets, including Earth, and the asteroid belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. In the second panel, Sedna is shown well outside the orbits of the outer planets and the more distant Kuiper Belt objects. Sedna's full orbit is illustrated in the third panel along with the object's current location. Sedna is nearing its closest approach to the Sun, its 10,000-year orbit typically takes it to far greater distances. The final panel zooms out much farther, showing that even this large elliptical orbit falls inside what was previously thought to be the inner edge of the Oort cloud. The Oort cloud is a spherical distribution of cold, icy bodies lying at the limits of the Sun's gravitational pull. Sedna's presence suggests that this Oort cloud is much closer than scientists believed. *Image Credit*: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (SSC-Caltech) |
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The Plane of the Ecliptic
| title |
The Plane of the Ecliptic |
| description |
The Plane of the Ecliptic is illustrated in this Clementine star tracker camera image which reveals (from right to left) the Moon lit by Earthshine, the Sun's corona rising over the Moon's dark limb, and the planets Saturn, Mars, and Mercury. The ecliptic plane is defined as the imaginary plane containing the Earth's orbit around the Sun. In the course of a year, the Sun's apparent path through the sky lies in this plane. The planetary bodies of our solar system all tend to lie near this plane, since they were formed from the Sun's spinning, flattened, proto-planetary disk. The snapshot above nicely captures a momentary line-up looking out along this fundamental plane of our solar system. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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'McMurdo' Panorama from Spir
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| title |
'McMurdo' Panorama from Spirit's 'Winter Haven' |
| description |
This 360-degree view, called the "McMurdo" panorama, comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit. From April through October 2006, Spirit has stayed on a small hill known as "Low Ridge." There, the rover's solar panels are tilted toward the sun to maintain enough solar power for Spirit to keep making scientific observations throughout the winter on southern Mars. This view of the surroundings from Spirit's "Winter Haven" is presented in approximately true color. Oct. 26, 2006, marks Spirit's 1,000th sol of what was planned as a 90-sol mission. (A sol is a Martian day, which lasts 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35 seconds). The rover has lived through the most challenging part of its second Martian winter. Its solar power levels are rising again. Spring in the southern hemisphere of Mars will begin in early 2007. Before that, the rover team hopes to start driving Spirit again toward scientifically interesting places in the "Inner Basin" and "Columbia Hills" inside Gusev crater. The McMurdo panorama is providing team members with key pieces of scientific and topographic information for choosing where to continue Spirit's exploration adventure. The Pancam began shooting component images of this panorama during Spirit's sol 814 (April 18, 2006) and completed the part shown here on sol 932 (Aug. 17, 2006). The panorama was acquired using all 13 of the Pancam's color filters, using lossless compression for the red and blue stereo filters, and only modest levels of compression on the remaining filters. The overall panorama consists of 1,449 Pancam images and represents a raw data volume of nearly 500 megabytes. It is thus the largest, highest-fidelity view of Mars acquired from either rover. Additional photo coverage of the parts of the rover deck not shown here was completed on sol 980 (Oct. 5 , 2006). The team is completing the processing and mosaicking of those final pieces of the panorama, and that image will be released on the Web shortly to augment this McMurdo panorama view. This beautiful scene reveals a tremendous amount of detail in Spirit's surroundings. Many dark, porous-textured volcanic rocks can be seen around the rover, including many on Low Ridge. Two rocks to the right of center, brighter and smoother-looking in this image and more reflective in infrared observations by Spirit's miniature thermal emission spectrometer, are thought to be meteorites. On the right, "Husband Hill" on the horizon, the rippled "El Dorado" sand dune field near the base of that hill, and lighter-toned "Home Plate" below the dunes provide context for Spirit's travels since mid-2005. Left of center, tracks and a trench dug by Spirit's right-front wheel, which no longer rotates, have exposed bright underlying material. This bright material is evidence of sulfur-rich salty minerals in the subsurface, which may provide clues about the watery past of this part of Gusev Crater. Spirit has stayed busy at Winter Haven during the past, six months even without driving. In addition to acquiring this spectacular panorama, the rover team has also acquired significant new assessments of the elemental chemistry and mineralogy of rocks and soil targets within reach of the rover's arm. The team plans soon to have Spirit drive to a very nearby spot on Low Ridge to access different rock and soil samples while maintaining a good solar panel tilt toward the sun for the rest of the Martian winter. Despite the long span of time needed for acquiring this 360-degree view -- a few images at a time every few sols over a total of 119 sols because the available power was so low -- the lighting and color remain remarkably uniform across the mosaic. This fact attests to the repeatability of wintertime sols on Mars in the southern hemisphere. |
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Viking 1 on Mars
| title |
Viking 1 on Mars |
| date |
07.23.1976 |
| description |
Sand dunes and large rocks are revealed in this panoramic image of Mars taken by Viking 1's Camera 1. The horizon is approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) away. The late afternoon sun is high in the sky over the left side of the picture. The support struts of the S-band high-gain antenna extends to the top of the picture. The American flags are located on the two RTG (Radioisotope Thermoeletric Generator) wind screens. In the middle third of the picture the rocky surface is covered by thick deposits of wind-blown material, forming numerous dunes. At the center of the picture on the horizon are two low hills which may be part of the rim of the distant crater. Two very large rocks are visible in the middle ground, the nearer one is 3 meters (10 feet) in diameter and is 8 meters (25 feets) from the spacecraft. A cloud layer is visible halfway between the horizon and the top of the picture. The meterology boom is located right of center. Behind it, the "White Mesa" is visible. In the nearer ground are numerous rocks about 10cm (4 inches) across, with horse-shoe shaped scour marks on their upwind side and wind tails in their lee. The fine grained material in the front of them contains small pits formed by impact of material kicked out by the lander's descent rocket engines. *Image Credit*: NASA |
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Victoria Crater' at Meridian
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| title |
Victoria Crater' at Meridiani Planum |
| date |
10.06.2006 |
| description |
This image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows "Victoria crater," an impact crater at Meridiani Planum, near the equator of Mars. The crater is approximately 800 meters (half a mile) in diameter. It has a distinctive scalloped shape to its rim, caused by erosion and downhill movement of crater wall material. Layered sedimentary rocks are exposed along the inner wall of the crater, and boulders that have fallen from the crater wall are visible on the crater floor. The floor of the crater is occupied by a striking field of sand dunes. Since January 2004, the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity has been operating at Meridiani Planum. Five days before this image was taken, Opportunity arrived at the rim of Victoria crater, after a drive of more than 9 kilometers (over 5 miles). The rover can be seen in this image, at roughly the "ten o'clock" position along the rim of the crater. This view is a portion of an image taken by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft on Oct. 3, 2006. The complete image is centered at minus7.8 degrees latitude, 279.5 degrees East longitude. The range to the target site was 297 kilometers (185.6 miles). At this distance the image scale is 29.7 centimeters (12 inches) per pixel (with 1 x 1 binning) so objects about 89 centimeters (35 inches) across are resolved. The image shown here has been map-projected to 25 centimeters (10 inches) per pixel and north is up. The image was taken at a local Mars time of 3:30 PM and the scene is illuminated from the west with a solar incidence angle of 59.7 degrees, thus the sun was about 30.3 degrees above the horizon. At a solar longitude of 113.6 degrees, the season on Mars is northern summer. This is an enhanced-color view generated from images acquired by the HiRISE camera using its red filter and blue-green filter. Images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment and additional information about the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mroor http://HiRISE.lpl.arizona.edu. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: http://www.nasa.gov. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems is the prime contractor for the project and built the spacecraft. The HiRISE camera was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation and is operated by the University of Arizona. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/UA |
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A Piece of the Asteroid Vest
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| title |
A Piece of the Asteroid Vesta |
| description |
This meteorite is a sample of the crust of the asteroid Vesta, which is only the third solar system object beyond Earth where scientists have a laboratory sample (the other extraterrestrial samples are from Mars and the Moon). The meteorite is unique because it is made almost entirely of the mineral pyroxene, common in lava flows. The meteorite's mineral grain structure also indicates it was once molten, and its oxygen isotopes are unlike oxygen isotopes found for all other rocks of the Earth and Moon. The meteorite's chemical identity points to the asteroid Vesta because it has the same unique spectral signature of the mineral pyroxene. The meteorite also has the same pyroxene signature as other small asteroids, recently discovered near Vesta, that are considered "chips" blasted off Vesta's surface. This debris extends all the way to an "escape hatch" region in the asteroid belt called the Kirkwood gap. This region is swept free of asteroids because Jupiter's gravitational pull removes material from the main belt and hurls it onto a new orbit that crosses Earth's path around the Sun. The meteorite probably followed this route to Earth. It was torn off Vesta's surface as part of a larger fragment. Subsequent collisions broke apart the parent fragment and threw pieces toward the Kirkwood gap and onto a collision course toward Earth. The fragment's journey ended in 1960 when it fell in Western Australia. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observations further confirm this scenario by revealing a giant impact basin on the 325-mile (525 km) diameter asteroid. The ancient impact was so powerful, it tore off a piece of the asteroid's crust, exposing a deeper mantle of rock. Most of the identified meteorites from Vesta are in the care of the Western Australian Museum. This 1.4 pound (631 gm) specimen comes from the New England Meteoritical Services. It is a complete specimen measuring 3.7 inch x 3.1 inch x 3.4 inch (9.6 cm x 8.1 cm x 8.7 cm) showing the fusion crust, evidence of the last stage in its journey to Earth. *Image Credit*: R. Kempton (New England Meteoritical Services) |
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Solar System Family Portrait
| title |
Solar System Family Portrait |
| description |
These six narrow-angle color images were made from the first ever 'portrait' of the solar system taken by Voyager 1, which was more than 4 billion miles from Earth and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic. The spacecraft acquired a total of 60 frames for a mosaic of the solar system which shows six of the planets. Mercury is too close to the sun to be seen. Mars was not detectable by the Voyager cameras due to scattered sunlight in the optics, and Pluto was not included in the mosaic because of its small size and distance from the sun. These blown-up images, left to right and top to bottom are Venus, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. The background features in the images are artifacts resulting from the magnification. The images were taken through three color filters -- violet, blue and green -- and recombined to produce the color images. Jupiter and Saturn were resolved by the camera but Uranus and Neptune appear larger than they really are because of image smear due to spacecraft motion during the long (15 second) exposure times. Earth appears to be in a band of light because it coincidentally lies right in the center of the scattered light rays resulting from taking the image so close to the sun. Earth was a crescent only 0.12 pixels in size. Venus was 0.11 pixel in diameter. The planetary images were taken with the narrow-angle camera (1500 mm focal length). *Image Note*: This 'Portrait' contains 18 frames taken through the Narrow Angle camera using the Violet, Blue, and Green Filters. The label information describes only 3 of these frames. *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
Untouched and Untouchable, F
…
| title |
Untouched and Untouchable, For Now |
| description |
Tantalizing vistas to the south beyond the edge of "Home Plate," shown here in 3D, will have to wait for another spring, if NASA's Mars rover Spirit survives until then. Though winter is months away, scientists are looking for a safe winter haven while the rover still has enough power to drive. Team members have concerns because Spirit is approaching its third Martian winter with more dust on its solar panels than it had during its first two winters. The dust lessens the panels' ability to convert sunlight into the electricity that Spirit needs for operations and survival. Spirit's goal is to reach a slope on the north side of Home Plate that will tilt the rover's solar panels to the north about 25 degrees, facing the sun. The hope is that this will keep the rover's electronics alive during the cold, dark winter. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell |
|
Opportunity's Second Martian
…
| title |
Opportunity's Second Martian Birthday at Cape Verde |
| date |
10.20.2007 |
| description |
A promontory nicknamed "Cape Verde" can be seen jutting out from the walls of Victoria Crater in this approximate true-color picture taken by the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The rover took this picture on martian day, or sol, 1329 (Oct. 20, 2007), more than a month after it began descending down the crater walls - and just 9 sols shy of its second Martian birthday on sol 1338 (Oct. 29, 2007). Opportunity landed on the Red Planet on Jan. 25, 2004. That's nearly four years ago on Earth, but only two on Mars because Mars takes longer to travel around the sun than Earth. One Martian year equals 687 Earth days. The overall soft quality of the image, and the "haze" seen in the lower right portion, are the result of scattered light from dust on the front sapphire window of the rover's camera. This view was taken using three panoramic-camera filters, admitting light with wavelengths centered at 750 nanometers (near infrared), 530 nanometers (green) and 430 nanometers (violet). Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell |
|
Spirit's Race Against Winter
| title |
Spirit's Race Against Winter |
| date |
11.29.2007 |
| description |
While struggling to reach a winter outpost necessary for survival on Mars, Spirit has been slowed by sand in the bottom of a shallow, bowl-like depression. Spirit's goal is to reach a slope on the north edge of "Home Plate" that will keep its solar panels trained on the Sun. If the rover can collect enough sunlight to survive, Spirit will continue to study terrain near "Home Plate," which the rover reached after crossing the floor of Gusev Crater and scaling the "Columbia Hills." This map shows the rover's progress from July 2004 to November 2007. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS/UNM/High-Resolution Science Imaging Experiment |
|
First Picture Clearly Showin
…
| title |
First Picture Clearly Showing Craters on Mars |
| date |
07.15.1965 |
| description |
With a range of 13,600 km and a sun angle of 29 degrees from zenith, this Mariner 4 image was the first picture showing unambiguous craters on the surface of Mars. The area, 262 x 310 km, is a heavily cratered region south of Amazonis Planitia, centered at 14 S, 174 W. North is at about 11:00. (Mariner 4, frame 07B) *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
Close-Up of Sol 24 Sunset
| title |
Close-Up of Sol 24 Sunset |
| description |
This is a close-up of the sunset on Sol 24 as seen by the Imager for Mars Pathfinder. The red sky in the background and the blue around the Sun are approximately as they would appear to the human eye. The color of the Sun itself is not correct -- the Sun was overexposed in each of the 3 color images that were used to make this picture. The true color of the Sun itself may be near white or slightly bluish. Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, developed and manages the Mars Pathfinder mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Imager for Mars Pathfinder (IMP) was developed by the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory under contract to JPL. Peter Smith is the Principal Investigator. *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
Asteroid Ida and its Satelli
…
| title |
Asteroid Ida and its Satellite Dactyl in Enhanced Color |
| date |
08.28.1993 |
| description |
During its examination of the asteroid Ida, the Galileo spacecraft returned images of a second object, Dactyl--the first confirmed satellite or moon of an asteroid, the much smaller moon is visible to the right of Ida. Asteroids are small interplanetary bodies of rock or metal that mostly orbit the Sun in a belt between Mars and Jupiter, but others are known elsewhere in the solar system. The Galileo spacecraft surveyed Ida in 1993 on its way to explore the Jupiter system in 1995-97. This color picture was made from images taken by the imaging system on the Galileo spacecraft about 14 minutes before its closest approach to asteroid 243 Ida on August 28, 1993. The range from the spacecraft was about 10,500 kilometers (6,500 miles). The images used are from the sequence in which Ida's moon 1993(2433)1 Dactyl was discovered. This picture contains images through the 4100-angstrom (violet), 7560 A (infrared) and 9680 A (infrared) filters. The color is "enhanced" in the sense that the CCD camera is sensitive to near infrared wavelengths of light beyond human vision, a "natural" color picture of this asteroid would appear mostly gray. Shadings in the image indicate changes in illumination angle on the many steep slopes of this irregular body as well as subtle color variations due to differences in the physical state and composition of the soil (regolith). There are brighter areas, appearing bluish in the picture, around craters on the upper left end of Ida, around the small bright crater near the center of the asteroid, and near the upper right-hand edge (the limb). This combination of more reflected blue light and greater absorption of near infrared light, suggest a difference in the abundance or composition of iron-bearing minerals in these areas. Ida's moon also has a deeper near-infrared absorption and a different color in the violet than any area on this side of Ida. The moon is not identical in spectral properties to any area of Ida in view here, though its overall similarity in reflectance and general spectral type suggests that it is made of the same basic rock types. Resolved images of Ida over a full rotation period (4.633 h) allowed detailed shape models to be developed, yielding volumes of 16,000+ -1,900 km cubed for Ida (mean radius, 15.7 km) and 1.4 km cubed for Dactyl (mean radius, 0.7 km, Belton et al., 1995, Nature, v. 374, p. 785- 788). These images and other data collected by the Galileo spacecraft may allow scientists to determine whether these asteroids are pieces of bigger ones that at one time partly melted and differentiated (forming a dense metallic core and rocky crust) or whether these are pieces of material unaltered since their formation during the birth of the Solar System. *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
All Planet Sizes
| title |
All Planet Sizes |
| description |
This illustration shows the approximate sizes of the planets relative to each other. Outward from the Sun, the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Jupiter's diameter is about 11 times that of the Earth's and the Sun's diameter is about 10 times Jupiter's. Pluto's diameter is slightly less than one-fifth of Earth's. The planets are not shown at the appropriate distance from the Sun. *Image Credit*: Lunar and Planetary Laboratory |
|
Luna 1
| title |
Luna 1 |
| date |
01.02.1959 |
| description |
Luna 1 was the first spacecraft to reach the Moon, and the first of a series of Soviet automatic interplanetary stations successfully launched in the direction of the Moon. The spacecraft was sphere-shaped. Five antennae extended from one hemisphere. Instrument ports also protruded from the surface of the sphere. There were no propulsion systems on the Luna 1 spacecraft itself. Because of its high velocity and its announced package of various metallic emblems with the Soviet coat of arms, it was concluded that Luna 1 was intended to impact the Moon. On 2 January 1959, after reaching escape velocity, Luna 1 separated from its 1472 kg third stage. The third stage, 5.2 m long and 2.4 m in diameter, travelled along with Luna 1. On 3 January, at a distance of 113,000 km from Earth, a large (1 kg) cloud of sodium gas was released by the spacecraft. This glowing orange trail of gas, visible over the Indian Ocean with the brightness of a sixth-magnitude star, allowed astronomers to track the spacecraft. It also served as an experiment on the behavior of gas in outer space. Luna 1 passed within 5995 km of the Moon's surface on 4 January after 34 hours of flight. It went into orbit around the Sun, between the orbits of Earth and Mars. The spacecraft contained radio equipment, a tracking transmitter, and telemetering system, five different sets of scientific devices for studying interplanetary space, including a magnetometer, geiger counter, scintillation counter, and micrometeorite detector, and other equipment. The measurements obtained during this mission provided new data on the Earth's radiation belt and outer space, including the discovery that the Moon had no magnetic field and that a solar wind, a strong flow of ionized plasma emmanating from the Sun, streamed through interplanetary space. *Image Credit*: NASA |
|
Gaspra - Highest Resolution
…
| title |
Gaspra - Highest Resolution Mosaic |
| date |
10.29.1991 |
| description |
This picture of asteroid 951 Gaspra is a mosaic of two images taken by the Galileo spacecraft from a range of 5,300 kilometers (3,300 miles), some 10 minutes before closest approach on October 29, 1991. The Sun is shining from the right, phase angle is 50 degrees. The resolution, about 54 meters/pixel, is the highest for the Gaspra encounter and is about three times better than that in the view released in November 1991. Gaspra is an irregular body with dimensions about 19 x 12 x 11 kilometers (12 x 7.5 x 7 miles). The portion illuminated in this view is about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from lower left to upper right. The north pole is located at upper left, Gaspra rotates counterclockwise every 7 hours. The large concavity on the lower right limb is about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) across, the prominent crater on the terminator, center left, about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile). A striking feature of Gaspra's surface is the abundance of small craters. More than 600 craters, 100-500 meters (330-1650 feet) in diameter are visible here. The number of such small craters compared to larger ones is much greater for Gaspra than for previously studied bodies of comparable size such as the satellites of Mars. Gaspra's very irregular shape suggests that the asteroid was derived from a larger body by nearly catastrophic collisions. Consistent with such a history is the prominence of groove-like linear features, believed to be related to fractures. These linear depressions, 100-300 meters wide and tens of meters deep, are in two crossing groups with slightly different morphology, one group wider and more pitted than the other. Grooves had previously been seen only on Mars's moon Phobos, but were predicted for asteroids as well. Gaspra also shows a variety of enigmatic curved depressions and ridges in the terminator region at left. The Galileo project, whose primary mission is the exploration of the Jupiter system in 1995-97, is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. *Image Credit*: JPL |
|
An Asteroid's Sky Trek
| title |
An Asteroid's Sky Trek |
| description |
While analyzing NASA Hubble Space Telescope images of the Sagittarius dwarf irregular galaxy (SagDIG), an international team of astronomers led by Simone Marchi, Yazan Momany, and Luigi Bedin were surprised to see the trail of a faint asteroid that had drifted across the field of view during the exposures. The trail is seen as a series of 13 reddish arcs on the right in this August 2003 Advanced Camera for Surveys image. As the Hubble telescope orbits around the Earth, and the Earth moves around the Sun, a nearby asteroid in our solar system will appear to move with respect to the vastly more distant background stars, due to an effect called parallax. It is somewhat similar to the effect you see from a moving car, in which trees by the side of the road appear to be moving much more rapidly than background objects at much larger distances. If the Hubble exposure were a continuous one, the asteroid trail would appear like a continuous wavy line. However, the exposure with Hubble's camera was actually broken up into more than a dozen separate exposures. After each exposure, the camera's shutter was closed while the image was transferred from the electronic detector into the camera's computer memory, this accounts for the many interruptions in the asteroid's trail. Since the trajectory of the Hubble spacecraft around the Earth is known very accurately, it is possible to triangulate the distance to the asteroid in a manner similar to that used by terrestrial surveyors. It turns out to be a previously unknown asteroid, located 169 million miles from Earth at the time of observation. The distance places the new object, most likely, in the main asteroid belt, lying between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Based on the observed brightness of the asteroid, the astronomers estimate that it has a diameter of about 1.5 miles. The brightest stars in the picture (easily distinguished by the spikes radiating from their images, produced by optical effects within the telescope), are foreground stars lying within our own Milky Way galaxy. Their distances from Earth are typically a few thousand light-years. The faint, bluish SagDIG stars lie at about 3.5 million light-years (1.1 Megaparsecs) from us. Lastly, background galaxies (reddish/brown extended objects with spiral arms and halos) are located even further beyond SagDIG at several tens of millions parsecs away. There is thus a vast range of distances among the objects visible in this photo, ranging from about 169 million miles for the asteroid, up to many quadrillions of miles for the faint, small galaxies. The team reported their science findings about the asteroid in the October 2004 issue of New Astronomy. *Image Credit*: NASA, ESA, and Y. Momany (University of Padua) |
|
Asteroid Gaspra
| title |
Asteroid Gaspra |
| date |
10.29.1991 |
| description |
This picture of asteroid 951 Gaspra is a mosaic of two images taken by the Galileo spacecraft from a range of 5300 kilometers, some 10 minutes before closest approach on October 29, 1991. The Sun is shining from the right, phase angle is 500. The resolution, about 54 meters/pixel, is the highest for the Gaspra encounter and is about three times better than that in the view released in November 1991. Gaspra is an irregular body with dimensions about 19 x 12 x 11 kilometers. The portion illuminated in this view is about 18 kilometers from lower left to upper right. The north pole is located at upper left, Gaspra rotates counterclockwise every 7 hours. The large concavity on the lower right limb is about 6 kilometers across. The prominent crater on the terminator, center left, is about 1.5 kilometers. A striking feature of Gaspra's surface is the abundance of small craters. More than 600 craters, 100 to 500 meters in diameter, are visible here. The number of such small craters compared to larger ones is much greater for Gaspra than for previously studied bodies of comparable size (such as the satellites of Mars). Gaspra's very irregular shape suggests that the asteroid was derived from a larger body by nearly catastrophic collisions. Consistent with such a history is the prominence of groove-like linear features believed to be related to fractures. These linear depressions, 100 to 300 meters wide and tens of meters deep, are in two crossing groups with slightly different morphology, with one group wider and more pitted than the other. Grooves had previously been seen only on Mars' moon Phobos, but were predicted for asteroids as well. Gaspra also shows a variety of enigmatic curved depressions and ridges in the terminator region at left. The Galileo project, whose primary mission was the exploration of the Jupiter system, was managed for NASA's Office of Space Science and Applications by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. *Image Credit*: U.S. Geological Survey |
|
Hubble Optical (26 June 2001
…
| Name |
Hubble Optical (26 June 2001) |
|
Mars and Acidalia
| Title |
Mars and Acidalia |
| Full Description |
Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space- based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped these images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images, which, together, show the entire planet. Each view depicts the planet as it completes one quarter of its daily rotation. In these views the north polar cap is tilted toward the Earth and is visible prominently at the top of each picture. The images were taken in the middle of the Martian northern summer, when the polar cap had shrunk to its smallest size. During this season the Sun shines continuously on the polar cap. Previous telescopic and spacecraft observations have shown that this summertime "residual" polar cap is composed of water ice, just like Earth's polar caps. These Hubble telescope snapshots reveal that substantial changes in the bright and dark markings on Mars have occurred in the 20 years since the NASA Viking spacecraft missions first mapped the planet. The Martian surface is dynamic and ever changing. Some regions that were dark 20 years ago are now bright red, some areas that were bright red are now dark. Winds move sand and dust from region to region, often in spectacular dust storms. Over long timescales many of the larger bright and dark markings remain stable, but smaller details come and go as they are covered and then uncovered by sand and dust. This image is centered near the location of the Pathfinder landing site. Dark sand dunes that surround the polar cap merge into a large, dark region called Acidalia. This area, as shown by images from the Hubble telescope and other spacecraft, is composed of dark, sand-sized grains of pulverized volcanic rock. Below and to the left of Acidalia are the massive Martian canyon systems of Valles Marineris, some of which form long linear markings that were once thought by some to be canals. Early morning clouds can be seen along the left limb of the planet, and a large cyclonic storm composed of water ice is churning near the polar cap. |
| Date |
06/30/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|
Mars and Elysium
| Title |
Mars and Elysium |
| Full Description |
Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space- based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped these images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained these four images, which, together, show the entire planet. Each view depicts the planet as it completes one quarter of its daily rotation. In these views the north polar cap is tilted toward the Earth and is visible prominently at the top of each picture. The images were taken in the middle of the Martian northern summer, when the polar cap had shrunk to its smallest size. During this season the Sun shines continuously on the polar cap. Previous telescopic and spacecraft observations have shown that this summertime "residual" polar cap is composed of water ice, just like Earth's polar caps. These Hubble telescope snapshots reveal that substantial changes in the bright and dark markings on Mars have occurred in the 20 years since the NASA Viking spacecraft missions first mapped the planet. The Martian surface is dynamic and ever changing. Some regions that were dark 20 years ago are now bright red, some areas that were bright red are now dark. Winds move sand and dust from region to region, often in spectacular dust storms. Over long timescales many of the larger bright and dark markings remain stable, but smaller details come and go as they are covered and then uncovered by sand and dust. This image is centered near another volcanic region known as Elysium. This area shows many small, dark markings that have been observed by the Hubble telescope and other spacecraft to change as a result of the movement of sand and dust across the Martian surface. In the upper left of this image, at high northern latitudes, a large chevron-shaped area of water ice clouds mark a storm front. Along the right limb, a large cloud system has formed around the Olympus Mons volcano. |
| Date |
06/30/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|
Mars and Syrtis Major
| Title |
Mars and Syrtis Major |
| Full Description |
Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space- based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped these images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images, which, together, show the entire planet. Each view depicts the planet as it completes one quarter of its daily rotation. In these views the north polar cap is tilted toward the Earth and is visible prominently at the top of each picture. The images were taken in the middle of the Martian northern summer, when the polar cap had shrunk to its smallest size. During this season the Sun shines continuously on the polar cap. Previous telescopic and spacecraft observations have shown that this summertime "residual" polar cap is composed of water ice, just like Earth's polar caps. These Hubble telescope snapshots reveal that substantial changes in the bright and dark markings on Mars have occurred in the 20 years since the NASA Viking spacecraft missions first mapped the planet. The Martian surface is dynamic and ever changing. Some regions that were dark 20 years ago are now bright red, some areas that were bright red are now dark. Winds move sand and dust from region to region, often in spectacular dust storms. Over long timescales many of the larger bright and dark markings remain stable, but smaller details come and go as they are covered and then uncovered by sand and dust. The dark feature known as Syrtis Major was first seen telescopically by the astronomer Christiaan Huygens in the 17th century. Many small, dark, circular impact craters can be seen in this region, attesting to the Hubble telescope's ability to reveal fine detail on the planet's surface. To the south of Syrtis is a large circular feature called Hellas. Viking and more recently Mars Global Surveyor have revealed that Hellas is a large and deep impact crater. These Hubble telescope pictures show it to be filled with surface frost and water ice clouds. Along the right limb, late afternoon clouds have formed around the volcano Elysium. |
| Date |
06/30/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|
Mars and Tharsis
| Title |
Mars and Tharsis |
| Full Description |
Taking advantage of Mars's closest approach to Earth in eight years, astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have taken the space- based observatory's sharpest views yet of the Red Planet. The telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 snapped these images between April 27 and May 6, when Mars was 54 million miles (87 million kilometers) from Earth. From this distance the telescope could see Martian features as small as 12 miles (19 kilometers) wide. The telescope obtained four images, which together show the entire planet. Each view depicts the planet as it completes one quarter of its daily rotation. In these views the north polar cap is tilted toward the Earth and is visible prominently at the top of each picture. The images were taken in the middle of the Martian northern summer, when the polar cap had shrunk to its smallest size. During this season the Sun shines continuously on the polar cap. Previous telescopic and spacecraft observations have shown that this summertime "residual" polar cap is composed of water ice, just like Earth's polar caps. These Hubble telescope snapshots reveal that substantial changes in the bright and dark markings on Mars have occurred in the 20 years since the NASA Viking spacecraft missions first mapped the planet. The Martian surface is dynamic and ever changing. Some regions that were dark 20 years ago are now bright red, some areas that were bright red are now dark. Winds move sand and dust from region to region, often in spectacular dust storms. Over long timescales many of the larger bright and dark markings remain stable, but smaller details come and go as they are covered and then uncovered by sand and dust. This image is centered on the region of the planet known as Tharsis, home of the largest volcanoes in the solar system. The bright, ring- like feature just to the left of center is the volcano Olympus Mons, which is more than 340 miles (550 kilometers) across and 17 miles (27 kilometers) high. Thick deposits of fine-grained, windblown dust cover most of this hemisphere. The colors indicate that the dust is heavily oxidized ("rusted"), and millions (or perhaps billions) of years of dust storms have homogenized its composition. Prominent late afternoon clouds along the right limb of the planet can be seen. |
| Date |
06/30/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|
Pioneer F Plaque Location
| Title |
Pioneer F Plaque Location |
| Full Description |
The Pioneer F spacecraft, destined to be the first man made object to escape from the solar system into interstellar space, carries this pictorial plaque. It is designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system, who might intercept it millions of years from now, when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings. (Hopefully, any aliens reading the plaque will not use this knowledge to immediately invade Earth.) The design is etched into a 6 inch by 9 inch gold-anodized aluminum plate, attached to the spacecraft's attenna support struts in a position to help shield it from erosion by interstellar dust. The radiating lines at left represents the positions of 14 pulsars, a cosmic source of radio energy, arranged to indicate our sun as the home star of our civilization. The "1-" symbols at the ends of the lines are binary numbers that represent the frequencies of these pulsars at the time of launch of Pioneer F relative of that to the hydrogen atom shown at the upper left with a "1" unity symbol. The hydrogen atom is thus used as a "universal clock," and the regular decrease in the frequencies of the pulsars will enable another civilization to determine the time that has elapsed since Pioneer F was launched. The hydrogen is also used as a "universal yardstick" for sizing the human figures and outline of the spacecraft shown on the right. The hydrogen wavelength, about 8 inches, multiplied by the binary number representing "8" shown next to the woman gives her height, 64 inches. The figures represent the type of creature that created Pioneer. The man's hand is raised in a gesture of good will. Across the bottom are the planets, ranging outward from the Sun, with the spacecraft trajectory arching away from Earth, passing Mars, and swinging by Jupiter. |
| Date |
02/25/1972 |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
|
Pioneer F Plaque Symbology
| Title |
Pioneer F Plaque Symbology |
| Full Description |
The Pioneer F spacecraft, destined to be the first man made object to escape from the solar system into interstellar space, carries this pictorial plaque. It is designed to show scientifically educated inhabitants of some other star system, who might intercept it millions of years from now, when Pioneer was launched, from where, and by what kind of beings. (With the hope that they would not invade Earth.) The design is etched into a 6 inch by 9 inch gold-anodized aluminum plate, attached to the spacecraft's attenna support struts in a position to help shield it from erosion by interstellar dust. The radiating lines at left represents the positions of 14 pulsars, a cosmic source of radio energy, arranged to indicate our sun as the home star of our civilization. The "1-" symbols at the ends of the lines are binary numbers that represent the frequencies of these pulsars at the time of launch of Pioneer F relative of that to the hydrogen atom shown at the upper left with a "1" unity symbol. The hydrogen atom is thus used as a "universal clock," and the regular decrease in the frequencies of the pulsars will enable another civilization to determine the time that has elapsed since Pioneer F was launched. The hydrogen is also used as a "universal yardstick" for sizing the human figures and outline of the spacecraft shown on the right. The hydrogen wavelength, about 8 inches, multiplied by the binary number representing "8" shown next to the woman gives her height, 64 inches. The figures represent the type of creature that created Pioneer. The man's hand is raised in a gesture of good will. Across the bottom are the planets, ranging outward from the Sun, with the spacecraft trajectory arching away from Earth, passing Mars, and swinging by Jupiter. |
| Date |
02/25/1972 |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
|
Solar System Montage
| Title |
Solar System Montage |
| Full Description |
This is a montage of planetary images taken by spacecraft managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA. Included are (from top to bottom) images of Mercury, Venus, Earth (and Moon), Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The spacecraft responsible for these images are as follows: the Mercury image was taken by Mariner 10, the Venus image by Magellan, the Earth image by Galileo, the Mars image by Viking, and the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune images by Voyager. Pluto is not shown as no spacecraft has yet visited it. The inner planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, and Mars) are roughly to scale to each other, the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are roughly to scale to each other. Actual diameters are given below: Sun 1,390,000 km Mercury 4,879 km Venus 12,104 km Earth 12,756 km Moon 3,475 km Mars 6,794 km Jupiter 142.984 km Saturn 120,536 km Uranus 51,118 km Neptune 49,528 km Pluto 2,390 km |
| Date |
04/09/1999 |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
|
First Image from Mariner 4
| Title |
First Image from Mariner 4 |
| Full Description |
A "real-time data translator" machine converted Mariner 4 digital image data into numbers printed on strips of paper. Too anxious to wait for the official processed image, employees from the Voyager Telecommunications Section attached these strips side by side to a display panel and hand colored the numbers like a paint-by-numbers picture. The completed image was framed and presented to JPL director, William Pickering. Mariner 4 was launched on November 28, 1964 and journeyed for 228 days to the Red Planet, providing the first close-range images of Mars. The spacecraft carried a television camera and six other science instruments to study the Martian atmosphere and surface. The 22 photographs taken by Mariner revealed the existence of lunar type craters upon a desert-like surface. After completing its mission, Mariner 4 continued past Mars to the far side of the Sun. On December 20, 1967, all operations of the spacecraft were ended. |
| Date |
UNKNOWN |
| NASA Center |
Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
|
First Picture of Mars
| Title |
First Picture of Mars |
| Full Description |
Sand dunes and large rocks are revealed in this panoramic image of Mars, the first photograph taken by Viking 1's Camera 1 on July 23, 1976. The horizon is approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) away. The left and right thirds of the picture are the same area that were photographed on July 20 (Sol 0) by camera 2 and provide stereo coverage. The middle third reveals a part of the Martian Surface not seen on the July 20th panorama. The late afternoon sun is high in the sky over the left side of the picture. The support struts of the S-band high-gain antenna extends to the top of the picture. The American flags are located on the two RTG (Radioisotope Thermoeletric Generator) wind screens. In the middle third of the picture the rocky surface is covered by thick deposits of wind-blown material, forming numerous dunes. At the center of the picture on the horizon are two low hills which may be part of the rim of the distant crater. Two very large rocks are visible in the middle ground, the nearer one is 3 meters (10 feet) in diameter and is 8 meters (25 feets) from the spacecraft. A cloud layer is visible halfway between the horizon and the top of the picture. The meterology boom is located right of center. Behind it, the "White Mesa" is visible, which could be seen on the far left side of the Sol 0 Camera 2 panorama. In the nearer ground are numerous rocks about 10cm (4 inches) across, with horse-shoe shaped scour marks on their upwind side and wind tails in their lee. The fine grained material in the front of them contains small pits formed by impact of material kicked out by the lander's descent rocket engines. |
| Date |
07/23/1976 |
| NASA Center |
Headquarters |
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Viking Pre-Launch Test Fligh
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| Title |
Viking Pre-Launch Test Flight |
| Full Description |
The Titan booster is a two-stage liquid-fueled rocket, with two additional large, solid-propellant rockets attached. It is a member of the Titan family that was used in NASA's Gemini program. The Centaur is a liquid oxygen- liquid hydrogen, high- energy upper stage used on Surveyor flights to the Moon and on Mariner flights to Mars. At liftoff, the solid rockets provide 9.61 million newtons (2.16 million pounds) of thrust. When the solids burn out, the first stage of the Titan booster ignites, and followed by the second-stage ignition as the first stage shuts down. The Centaur ignites on second stage shutdown to inject the spacecraft into orbit. Then after a 30-minute coast around the Earth into position for re-start, the Centaur re-ignites to propel Viking on its Mars trajectory. Once this maneuver is completed the spacecraft separates from the Centaur, which subsequently is deflected away from the flight path to prevent its impact on the surface of Mars. Shortly after separating from the Centaur, the orbiter portion of the combined orbiter-lander spacecraft orients and stabilizes the spacecraft by using the Sun and a very bright star in the southern sky, Canopus, for celestial reference. For more information about Titan and Centaur, please see Chapters 4 and 8, respectively, in Roger Launius and Dennis Jenkins' book To Reach the High Frontier published by The University Press of Kentucky in 2002. |
| Date |
01/20/1974 |
| NASA Center |
Kennedy Space Center |
|
Asteroid or Mini-Planet? Hub
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| Title |
Asteroid or Mini-Planet? Hubble Maps the Ancient Surface of Vesta |
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Hubble Watches the Red Plane
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| Title |
Hubble Watches the Red Planet as Mars Global Surveyor Begins Aerobraking |
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Hubble Stays on Trail of Fad
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| Title |
Hubble Stays on Trail of Fading Gamma-Ray Burst Fireball, Results Point to Extragalactic Origin |
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Hale-Bopp Observations with
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| Title |
Hale-Bopp Observations with Hubble and IUE Surprise Astronomers |
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NASA Selects Home for Next G
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| Title |
NASA Selects Home for Next Generation Space Telescope |
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