Topic: earth

NASA’s Deep Space Network Antenna captures Radar images of Asteroid 1998 QE2 and its Moon as it past by Earth

June 7, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA – Scientists working with NASA’s 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, CA, have released a second, longer, more refined movie clip of asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon. The 55 individual images used in the movie were generated from data collected at Goldstone on June 1st, 2013.

Each of the individual images obtained on June 1st, 2013, required about five minutes of data collection by the Goldstone radar. At the time of the observations that day, asteroid 1998 QE2 was about 3.75 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Earth. The resolution is about 125 feet (38 meters) per pixel.

This image of asteroid 1998 QE2 was obtained on June 1, 2013, when the asteroid was about 3.75 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Earth. The small white dot at lower right is the moon, or satellite, orbiting asteroid 1998 QE2. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR)

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NASA’s Terra Spacecraft Photo shows Destructive path of Oklahoma Tornado

June 6, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA – A new image taken by NASA’s Terra spacecraft using the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument it has on board reveals the extent of destruction from the deadly Newcastle-Moore tornado that ripped through central Oklahoma on May 20th, 2013.

The Newcastle-Moore tornado was rated at EF-5 on the Enhanced Fujita scale. An EF-5 is the most powerful category of tornado.

The Newcastle-Moore EF-5 tornado ripped through central Oklahoma on May 20, 2013, killing 24 people and leaving behind more than $2 billion in damage. (Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team)

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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope gets unique chance to hunt Earth-sized planets during Rare Alignment with Proxima Centauri

June 5, 2013 |

Greenbelt, MD – During the next few years, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope will have two opportunities to hunt for Earth-sized planets around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri.

The opportunities will occur in October 2014 and February 2016 when Proxima Centauri, the star nearest to our sun, passes in front of two other stars. Astronomers plotted Proxima Centauri’s precise path in the heavens and predicted the two close encounters using data from Hubble.

This plot shows the projected motion of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri (green line) over the next decade, as plotted from Hubble Space Telescope observations. Because of parallax due to Earth’s motion around the sun, the path appears scalloped. (Credit:NASA, ESA, K. Sahu and J. Anderson (STScI), H. Bond (STScI and Pennsylvania State University), M. Dominik (University of St. Andrews), and Digitized Sky Survey (STScI/AURA/UKSTU/AAO))

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NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission data from Voyage to Mars to aid future Deep Space Expeditions

June 4, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission radiation measurements taken as it delivered the Curiosity rover to Mars in 2012 are providing NASA the information it needs to design systems to protect human explorers from radiation exposure on deep-space expeditions in the future.

Curiosity’s Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft.

Cruise Vehicles (Artist Concept) – This set of artist’s concepts shows NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory cruise capsule and NASA’s Orion spacecraft, which is being built now at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and will one day send astronauts to Mars. (Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JSC)

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NASA’s GRAIL Twin Spacecraft data shows origin of Surface Gravity on Earth’s Moon

June 3, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA – The origin of massive invisible regions that make the moon’s gravity uneven, a phenomenon that affects the operations of lunar-orbiting spacecraft has been uncovered by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission.

Because of GRAIL’s findings, future spacecraft on missions to other celestial bodies can navigate with greater precision.

Using a precision formation-flying technique, the twin GRAIL spacecraft mapped the moon’s gravity field, as depicted in this artist’s rendering. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover data reveals Pebble Rocks on Mars came from Ancient Streambed

June 2, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA – NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity investigated pebble-containing slabs on Mars last year. Researchers’ have completed a detailed analysis and review of these slabs. The initial interpretation of the pebbled slabs is that they are part of an ancient streambed.

The rocks are the first ever found on Mars that contain streambed gravels. The sizes and shapes of the gravels embedded in these conglomerate rocks — from the size of sand particles to the size of golf balls — enabled researchers to calculate the depth and speed of the water that once flowed at this location.

This set of images compares the Link outcrop of rocks on Mars (left) with similar rocks seen on Earth (right). (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS and PSI)

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NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) discovers additional Asteroids between Jupiter and Mars

June 1, 2013 |

Pasadena, CA -  A new and improved family tree for asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter has been created using data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)

Astronomers used millions of infrared snapshots from the asteroid-hunting portion of the WISE all-sky survey, called NEOWISE, to identify 28 new asteroid families. The snapshots also helped place thousands of previously hidden and uncategorized asteroids into families for the first time. The findings are a critical step in understanding the origins of asteroid families, and the collisions thought to have created these rocky clans.

This artist’s conception shows how families of asteroids are created. Over the history of our solar system, catastrophic collisions between asteroids located in the belt between Mars and Jupiter have formed families of objects on similar orbits around the sun. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

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NASA Radar Images of Approaching Asteroid 1998 QE2 shows it has a Moon

May 31, 2013 |

Asteroid to Pass by Earth on Friday, May 31st

Washington, D.C. – Researchers have found in a sequence of radar images that the approaching asteroid 1998 QE2 has a moon, or rather another asteroid orbiting about it. These images were obtained on the evening of May 29th (May 30th Universal Time) by the 70-meter Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, CA, when the asteroid was about 6 million kilometers from Earth.

The preliminary estimate for the size of the asteroid’s satellite is approximately 600 meters wide. The asteroid itself is approximately 2.7 kilometers in diameter and has a rotation period of less than four hours.

Asteroid 1998 QE2 revealed to be Binary Asteroid. Artist Rendition. (NASA)

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NASA reports Asteroid to Flyby Earth on Friday, May 31st

May 30, 2013 |

Washington, D.C. – It’s like deja vu. Another asteroid is paying a visit to the Earth-Moon system.

Asteroids have been a hot topic since February 15th  when one small asteroid exploded over Russia and another larger one, 2012 DA14, made a record setting close approach to Earth on the same day. This time the interloper is 1998 QE2, a potentially hazardous asteroid 2.7 km in diameter.  Astronomers are preparing to study the space rock as it harmlessly passes by on May 31st.

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NASA’s Herschel Space Observatory sees Two Galaxies Merge

May 26, 2013 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – A massive and rare merging of two galaxies has been spotted in images taken by the Herschel space observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important NASA participation.

Follow-up studies by several telescopes on the ground and in space, including NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, tell a tale of two faraway galaxies intertwined and furiously making stars. Eventually, the duo will settle down to form one super-giant elliptical galaxy.

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