Topic: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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 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 Cassini Spacecraft discovers possible Activity on Saturn’s Moon Dione

May 30, 2013 |

Written by Jia-Rui Cook
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – From a distance, most of the Saturnian moon Dione resembles a bland cueball.

Thanks to close-up images of a 500-mile-long (800-kilometer-long) mountain on the moon from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, scientists have found more evidence for the idea that Dione was likely active in the past. It could still be active now.

The Cassini spacecraft looks down, almost directly at the north pole of Dione. The feature just left of the terminator at bottom is Janiculum Dorsa, a long, roughly north-south trending ridge. (Image credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)

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NASA uses Century-Old Science to Confirm Global Warming

May 28, 2013 |

Written by Alan Buis
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA - A new NASA and university analysis of ocean data collected more than 135 years ago by the crew of the HMS Challenger oceanographic expedition provides further confirmation that human activities have warmed our planet over the past century.

Researchers from the University of Tasmania, Sandy Bay, Australia; and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, combined the ship’s measurements of ocean temperatures with modern observations from the international Argo array of ocean profiling floats. They used both as inputs to state-of-the-art climate models, to get a picture of how the world’s oceans have changed since the Challenger’s voyage.

Drawing of the HMS Challenger survey vessel preparing to measure ocean temperatures by lowering thermometers deep into the ocean on ropes in 1872. A new NASA and University of Tasmania study combined the ship’s 135-plus-year-old measurements of ocean temperatures with modern observations to get a picture of how the world’s ocean has changed since the Challenger’s voyage. The research reveals that warming of Earth can be clearly detected since 1873, with the ocean absorbing the majority of the heat. (Image credit: NOAA)

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NASA’s Ames Research Center simulation reveals Galaxies maybe Fed by Funnels of Fuel

May 27, 2013 |

Written by Whitney Clavin
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Computer simulations of galaxies growing over billions of years have revealed a likely scenario for how they feed: a cosmic version of swirly straws.

The results show that cold gas — fuel for stars — spirals into the cores of galaxies along filaments, rapidly making its way to their “guts.” Once there, the gas is converted into new stars, and the galaxies bulk up in mass.

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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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NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft data suggests Wild Weather for Saturn’s Moon Titan this Summer

May 23, 2013 |

Written by Jia-Rui C. Cook
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Pasadena, CA – Saturn’s moon Titan might be in for some wild weather as it heads into its spring and summer, if two new models are correct. Scientists think that as the seasons change in Titan’s northern hemisphere, waves could ripple across the moon’s hydrocarbon seas, and hurricanes could begin to swirl over these areas, too.

The model predicting waves tries to explain data from the moon obtained so far by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Both models help mission team members plan when and where to look for unusual atmospheric disturbances as Titan summer approaches.

Ligeia Mare, shown in here in data obtained by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, is the second largest known body of liquid on Saturn’s moon Titan. It is filled with liquid hydrocarbons, such as ethane and methane, and is one of the many seas and lakes that bejewel Titan’s north polar region. Cassini has yet to observe waves on Ligeia Mare and will look again during its next encounter on May 23rd, 2013. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell)

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