|
|
Venus - Simple Cylindrical M
…
PIA00255
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Radar
| Title |
Venus - Simple Cylindrical Map of Surface (Western Half) |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
The western half of Venus is displayed in this simple cylindrical map of the planet's surface. The left edge of the image is at 240 degrees east longitude, the right edge at 67.5 degrees east longitude. The top and bottom of the image are at 90 degrees north latitude and 90 degrees south latitude, respectively. Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the first cycle of Magellan mapping are mapped onto a rectangular latitude-longitude grid to create this image. Data gaps are filled with Pioneer-Venus Orbiter altimetric data, or a constant mid-range value. Simulated color is used to enhance small-scale structure. The simulated hues are based on color images recorded by the Soviet Venera 13 and 14 spacecraft. The image was produced by the Solar System Visualization project and the Magellan science team at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory. |
|
Venus - Computer Simulated G
…
PIA00270
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Radar
| Title |
Venus - Computer Simulated Global View Centered at 90 Degrees East Longitude |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This global view of the surface of Venus is centered at 90 degrees east longitude. Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the three eight-month cycles of Magellan radar mapping are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create this image. Magellan obtained coverage of 98 percent of the surface of Venus. Remaining gaps are filled with data from previous Venus missions -- the Venera 15 and 16 radar and Pioneer-Venus Orbiter altimetry -- and data from Earth-based radar observations from the Arecibo radio telescope. Simulated color is used to enhance small-scale structures. The simulated hues are based on color images obtained by the Venera 13 and 14 landing craft. The bright feature near the center of the image is Ovda Regio, a mountainous region in the western portion of the great Aphrodite equatorial highland. The dark areas scattered across the Venusian plains consist of extremely smooth deposits associated with large meteorite impacts. The image was produced by the Solar System Visualization Project and the Magellan Science team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Multimission Image Processing Laboratory. The Magellan mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science. |
|
Venus - Global View Centered
…
PIA00478
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Radar
| Title |
Venus - Global View Centered at 180 degrees |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This global view of the surface of Venus is centered at 180 degrees east longitude. Magellan synthetic aperture radar mosaics from the first cycle of Magellan mapping, and a 5 degree latitude-longitude grid, are mapped onto a computer-simulated globe to create this image. Data gaps are filled with Pioneer-Venus Orbiter data, or a constant mid-range value. The image was produced by the Solar System Visualization project and the Magellan Science team at the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory. |
|
Kuiper Crater
PIA02411
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Science Subsystem -
…
| Title |
Kuiper Crater |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
The Mariner 10 Television-Science Team has proposed the name "Kuiper" for this very conspicuous bright Mercury crater (top center) on the rim of a larger older crater. Prof. Gerard P. Kuiper, a pioneer in planetary astronomy and a member of the Mariner 10 TV team, died December 23, 1973, while the spacecraft was enroute to Venus and Mercury. Mariner took this picture (FDS 27304) from 88,450 kilometers (55,000 miles) some 2 1/2 hours before it passed Mercury on March 29. The bright-floored crater, 41 kilometers (25 miles) in diameter, is the center of a very large bright are which could be seen in pictures sent from Mariner 10 while Mercury was more than two million miles distant. The larger crater is 80 kilometers (50 miles) across. The Mariner 10 mission, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, explored Venus in February 1974 on the way to three encounters with Mercury-in March and September 1974 and in March 1975. The spacecraft took more than 7,000 photos of Mercury, Venus, the Earth and the Moon. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Northwestern University |
|
| General Description |
Behind the Scenes : TRAINING Imagery |
|
| General Description |
Behind the Scenes : TRAINING Imagery |
|
Venus - Phoebe Region
PIA00211
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Radar
| Title |
Venus - Phoebe Region |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This Magellan radar image is of part of the Phoebe region of Venus. It is a mosaic of parts of revolutions 146 and 147 acquired in the first radar test on Aug. 16, 1990. The area in the image is located at 291 degrees east longitude, 19 degrees south latitude. The image shows an area 30 kilometers (19.6 miles) wide and 76 km (47 miles) long. On the basis of Pioneer Venus and Arecibo data, it is known that two major rift zones occur in southern Phoebe Regio and that they terminate at about 20 to 25 degrees south latitude, about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) apart. This image is of an area just north of the southern end of the western rift zone. The region is characterized by a complex geologic history involving both volcanism and faulting. Several of the geologic units show distinctive overlapping or cross cutting relationships that permit identification and separation of geologic events and construction of the geologic history of the region. The oldest rocks in this image form the complexly deformed and faulted, radar bright, hilly terrain in the northern half. Faults of a variety of orientations are observed. A narrow fault trough (about one-half to one km (three tenths to six tenths of a mile) wide is seen crossing the bright hills near the lower part in the middle of the image. This is one of the youngest faults in the faulted, hilly unit as it is seen to cut across many other structures. The fault trough in turn appears to be embayed and flooded by the darker plains that appear in the south half of the image. These plains are interpreted to be of volcanic origin. The dark plains may be formed of a complex of overlapping volcanic flows. For example, the somewhat darker region of plains in the lower left (southwest) corner of the image may be a different age series of plains forming volcanic lava flows. Finally, the narrow bright line crossing the image in its lower part is interpreted to be a fault which cross cuts both plains units and is thus the youngest event in the sequence. These relationships show the interplay of volcanic activity and faulting that have influenced this region and a number of other regions on Venus. |
|
Venus - Comparison of Initia
…
PIA00220
Sol (our sun)
Imaging Radar
| Title |
Venus - Comparison of Initial Magellan Radar Test and Data Acquired in 4/91 |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
This image compares Magellan data acquired in August 1990 during the initial test of the radar system (black and white insets) with data acquired by the spacecraft in April 1991 (color background). The area is in the southern hemisphere of Venus, and represents an area about 540 kilometers (330 miles) on a side, centered on latitude 35 degrees south and longitude 294 degrees east. The Magellan radar illuminates the surface from the left. The northern and eastern parts of the area consist of plains which appear moderately dark to dark on the radar image because they are relatively smooth at a scale comparable to the wavelength of the radar, 12.5 centimeters (about 5 inches). The bright terrain in the southwestern part of the image is about 500 to 700 meters (1640 to 2300 feet) higher than the plains, it is characterized by abundant faults and fractures, which appear as straight to gently curved bright lines. Many of these linear features are large enough to infer that they are grabens, which are troughs bounded on both sides by faults. However, many of them are too narrow to determine if they are faults or simply fractures that have roughened the surface. This elevated faulted and fractured region is part of a large east-west elongated ridge mapped by the Pioneer Venus radar altimeter, the portion shown here is about midway between Themis Regio and Tefnut Mons. The plains are probably underlain by volcanic lavas. The various shades indicate that minor differences in surface roughness are present, and these may be used to map out the distribution of different lavas. The small, bright patches on the plains represent places where the lava surfaces are relatively rough. Just left of the center of the image is a sharply defined volcanic crater about 15 kilometers (9 miles) in diameter. Immediately north of this crater are numerous round spots about 204 kilometers (102 miles) across that are small volcanic domes. |
|
Visual aid titled "The Magel
…
| Title |
Visual aid titled "The Magellan Mission to Venus |
| Description |
Visual aid titled "The Magellan Mission to Venus" describes data that will be collected and science objectives. Images and brightness temperatures will be obtained for 70-90% of the surface, with a radar resolution of 360 meters or better. The global gravity field model will be refined by combining Magellan and Pioneer-Venus doppler data. Altimetry data will be used to measure the topography of 70-90% of the surface with a vertical accuracy of 120-360 meters. Science objectives include: to improve the knowledge of the geological history of Venus by analysis of the surface morphology and electrical properties and the processes that control them, and to improve the knowledge of the geophysics of Venus, principally its density distribution and dynamics. Magellan, named for the 16th century Portuguese explorer, will be deployed from the payload bay (PLB) of Atlantis, Orbiter Vehicle (OV) 104, during mission STS-30. |
| Date Taken |
1988-04-27 |
|
Marshall Team Fires Recreate
…
| Name of Image |
Marshall Team Fires Recreated Goddard Rocket |
| Date of Image |
2003-07-23 |
| Full Description |
In honor of the Centernial of Flight Celebration and commissioned by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a team of engineers from Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) built a replica of the first liquid-fueled rocket. The original rocket, designed and built by rocket engineering pioneer Robert H. Goddard in 1926, opened the door to modern rocketry. Goddard's rocket reached an altitude of 41 feet while its flight lasted only 2.5 seconds. The Marshall design team's plan was to stay as close as possible to an authentic reconstruction of Goddard's rocket. The same propellants were used - liquid oxygen and gasoline - as available during Goddard's initial testing and firing. The team also tried to construct the replica using the original materials and design to the greatest extent possible. By purposely using less advanced techniques and materials than many that are available today, the team encountered numerous technical challenges in testing the functional hardware. There were no original blueprints or drawings, only photographs and notes. However, this faithful adherence to historical accuracy has allowed the team to experience many of the same challenges Goddard faced 77 years ago, and more fully appreciate the genius of this extraordinary man. In this photo, the replica is shown firing in the A-frame launch stand in near-flight configuration at MSFC's Test Area 116 during the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 39th Joint Propulsion Conference on July 23, 2003. |
|
A Step Toward Gravitational
…
| Title |
A Step Toward Gravitational Wave Detection |
| Explanation |
Accelerate a charge and you'll get electromagnetic radiation [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html ]: light. But accelerate any mass and you'll get gravitational radiation [ http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/grav_radiation.html ]. Light is seen all the time, but, so far, a confirmed direct detection of gravitational radiation [ http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/NumRel/GravWaves.html ] has yet to be made [ http://sam.phys.lsu.edu/background/history.html ]. When absorbed, gravitational waves [ http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/LIGO_web/about/factsheet.html ] (GWs) create a tiny symmetric jiggle similar to squashing a rubber ball and letting go quickly. Separated detectors can be used to discern GWs [ http://www.sciam.com/askexpert/physics/physics14.html ] from everyday bumps. Powerful astronomical GW sources would coincidentally jiggle even detectors on opposite ends of the Earth. Pictured above [ http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/LIGO_web/firstlock/ ] are the two-kilometer-long arms of one such detector: the LIGO Hanford Observatory [ http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/ ] in Washington [ http://www.state.wa.us/ ], which recently achieved a phase-lock [ http://www.ligo-wa.caltech.edu/news/0010han/G000309-00.pdf ] milestone to future GW detection. When it and its sister interferometer [ http://www.ligo-la.caltech.edu/ ] in Louisiana [ http://www.state.la.us/ ] come online in 2002, they may see a GW [ http://www.ligo.caltech.edu/%7Everonica/Aspen2000/webpages/scripts/ ] sky so strange it won't be immediately understood. APOD mourns the recent passing of Joseph Weber [ http://www.physics.umd.edu/photon/iss006/Weber.html#VTrimble_statement ], a visionary thinker and pioneer in gravitational wave detection. |
|
Near-Shoemaker Views Eros
| Title |
Near-Shoemaker Views Eros |
| Explanation |
Orbiting [ http://near.jhuapl.edu/NEAR/NewMissionDesign/ ] asteroid 433 Eros, 145 million miles from Earth, NASA's NEAR spacecraft has been returning stunning views [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000829.html ] as its year long mission of exploration nears completion [ http://www.jhuapl.edu/public/pr/000313.htm ]. A mosaic of NEAR images [ http://near.jhuapl.edu/NEAR/iod/archive.html ] recorded at a range of about 127 miles, this picture [ http://near.jhuapl.edu/NEAR/iod/20000314/index.html ] illustrates some of the amazing contrasts which apparently exist within the domain of this diminutive world. Features as small as 65 feet are visible here, while long shadows [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000224.html ] emphasize the differences in the cratered regions at the left and smooth grooved terrain at right. Up close [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000308.html ], the undulating surface seems flecked with bright deposits and peppered with enormous boulders [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970905.html ]. Last year, NASA changed the spacecraft name from NEAR to NEAR-Shoemaker in honor of the late Dr. Eugene M. Shoemaker [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980115.html ], legendary geologist, comet hunter [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990814.html ], and inspirational pioneer in the field of interplanetary science. Tomorrow [ http://near.jhuapl.edu/media/eom_events/index.html ], NEAR-Shoemaker [ http://near.jhuapl.edu/instruments/ ] will complete [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010206.html ] its scheduled mission as it will be commanded to descend [ http://near.jhuapl.edu/NEAR/iod/20010209/ ] to the surface of the ancient asteroid [ http://www.nineplanets.org/asteroids.html ]. |
|
Shepard Flies Freedom 7
| Title |
Shepard Flies Freedom 7 |
| Explanation |
Forty years ago today (May 5, 1961 [ http://www.thespaceplace.com/history/mercury/ mercury03.html ]), at the dawn of the space age [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/ index.html ], NASA controllers "lit the candle" and sent Alan Shepard arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980404.html ]. The picture shows the pressure-suited Shepard before launch in his cramped space capsule [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/diagrams/ mercury.html ] dubbed "Freedom 7" [ http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/MR3/ 10073523.htm ]. Broadcast live to a global television audience, the flight of Freedom 7 [ http://www.nasm.edu/galleries/attm/nojs/rm.ey.f7.1.html ] - the first space flight by an American - followed less than a month after the first human venture into space by Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010414.html ]. Freedom 7's historic flight [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/40thmerc7/ intro.htm ] was suborbital, lasting only about 15 minutes, but during it Shepard demonstrated manual control of his capsule. Naval aviator [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/40thmerc7/ shepard.htm ] Shepard was chosen as one of the original seven Mercury Program [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/ toc.htm ] astronauts. He considered this first flight [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/ch11-4.htm ] the greatest challenge and actively sought the assignment. Shepard's career as an astronaut spanned a remarkable period in human achievement and in 1971 he walked on the moon [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a14/ a14.crew.html ] as commander of the Apollo 14 mission. A true pioneer and intrepid explorer, Alan Shepard died in 1998 [ http://www.nasa.gov/shepard.html ] at age 74. |
|
Saturn The Giant
| Title |
Saturn The Giant |
| Explanation |
Forty years ago today (May 25, 1961) U.S. president John Kennedy announced [ http://history.nasa.gov/moondec.html ] the goal of landing Americans on the Moon by the end of the decade. Kennedy's ambitious speech triggered [ http://www.wamu.org/special/moon.html ] a nearly unprecedented peacetime technological mobilization and one result was the Saturn V [ http://www.hrw.com/science/si-science/earth/spacetravel/ spacerace/SpaceRace/sec300/sec380.html ] moon rocket [ http://kids.msfc.nasa.gov/Rockets/ ]. Its development directed by rocket pioneer Wernher Von Braun, the three stage Saturn V stood [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-350/ch-3-1.html ] over 36 stories tall. It had a cluster of five first stage [ http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-000559.html ] engines fueled by [ http://users.commkey.net/Braeunig/space/propel.htm ] liquid oxygen and kerosene which together were capable of producing 7.5 million pounds of thrust. Giant Saturn V rockets ultimately hurled [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4204/ contents.html ] nine Apollo missions [ http://history.nasa.gov/apollo.html ] to the Moon and back again [ http://www.literature.org/authors/verne-jules/ round-the-moon/ ] with six landing on the lunar surface [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/ ]. The first landing, by Apollo 11 [ http://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/ introduction.htm ], occurred on July 20, 1969 achieving Kennedy's goal. Bathed in light, this Saturn V [ http://www.apollosaturn.com/frame-sv.htm ] awaits an April 11, 1970 launch on the third lunar landing mission, Apollo 13 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010519.html ]. |
|
Alan B. Shepard Jr. 1923-199
…
| Title |
Alan B. Shepard Jr. 1923-1998 |
| Explanation |
On another Friday (May 5, 1961), at the dawn of the space age [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/sputnik/index.html ], NASA controllers "lit the candle" and sent Alan B. Shepard Jr. arcing into space atop a Redstone rocket [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980404.html ]. The picture shows the pressure-suited Shepard before the launch in his cramped space capsule [ http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/MERC_OV/10073402.htm ] dubbed "Freedom 7" [ http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/images/pao/MR3/10073523.htm ]. This historic flight [ http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/history/mercury/mr-3/mr-3.html ] - the first spaceflight by an American - made Shepard a national hero [ http://www.nasm.edu/GALLERIES/GAL114/SpaceRace/ ]. Born in East Derry, New Hampshire on November 18, 1923, Shepard graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1944 and went on to train and serve as a Naval Aviator. Chosen as one of the original seven Mercury Program [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/toc.htm ] astronauts, he considered this first flight [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4201/ch11-4.htm ] the greatest challenge and actively sought the assignment. Shepard's accomplishments in his career as an astronaut spanned a remarkable period in human achievement and in 1972 he walked on the moon [ http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/ ] as commander of the Apollo 14 mission. A true pioneer and intrepid explorer, Alan Shepard died Tuesday [ http://www.nasa.gov/shepard.html ] at age 74 after a lengthy illness. |
|
Asteroid 9969 Braille
| Title |
Asteroid 9969 Braille |
| Explanation |
NASA probe Deep Space 1 [ http://nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1/ ] zoomed past asteroid 9969 Braille [ http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/files/misc/ds1asteroid.pdf ] last week as it continued to test its new ion drive [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981203.html ] in the inner Solar System [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/overview.html ]. The flyby was the closest approach a spacecraft has ever made to an asteroid [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980712.html ]. Looking back afterwards, DS1 took the above picture [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ds1news/ ]. Formerly known as 1992 KD, the 9969th asteroid discovered was renamed in honor of Louis Braille [ http://www.cnib.ca/braille_information/louis_braille.htm ], a pioneer in written communication for the blind. 9969 Braille [ http://huey.jpl.nasa.gov/~spravdo/1992kd.htm ] is thought by some to have collided with asteroid Vesta [ http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/95/20.html ] in the distant past and broken up, providing debris for many of the meteorites [ http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/meteorites.html ] that fall to Earth. Asteroid [ http://www.hawastsoc.org/solar/eng/asteroid.htm ] 9969 Braille rotates only once in 9 days, and has an orbit greatly tilted relative to the ecliptic plane [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap990529.html ] of the planets. |
|
Hubble Provides Clear Images
…
PIA01269
Sol (our sun)
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Provides Clear Images of Saturn's Aurora |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Propulsion Laboratory and managed by the Goddard Spaced Flight Center for NASA's Office of Space Science. This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/, This is the first image of Saturn's ultraviolet aurora taken by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope in October 1997, when Saturn was a distance of 810 million miles (1.3 billion kilometers) from Earth. The new instrument, used as a camera, provides more than ten times the sensitivity of previous Hubble instruments in the ultraviolet. STIS images reveal exquisite detail never before seen in the spectacular auroral curtains of light that encircle Saturn's north and south poles and rise more than a thousand miles above the cloud tops. Saturn's auroral displays are caused by an energetic wind from the Sun that sweeps over the planet, much like the Earths aurora that is occasionally seen in the nighttime sky and similar to the phenomenon that causes fluorescent lamps to glow. But unlike the Earth, Saturn's aurora is only seen in ultraviolet light that is invisible from the Earths surface, hence the aurora can only be observed from space. New Hubble images reveal ripples and overall patterns that evolve slowly, appearing generally fixed in our view and independent of planet rotation. At the same time, the curtains show local brightening that often follow the rotation of the planet and exhibit rapid variations on time scales of minutes. These variations and regularities indicate that the aurora is primarily shaped and powered by a continual tug-of-war between Saturn's magnetic field and the flow of charged particles from the Sun. Study of the aurora on Saturn had its beginnings just seventeen years ago. The Pioneer 11 spacecraft observed a far-ultraviolet brightening on Saturn's poles in 1979. The Saturn flybys of the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft in the early 1980s provided a basic description of the aurora and mapped for the first time planets enormous magnetic field that guides energetic electrons into the atmosphere near the north and south poles. The first images of Saturn's aurora were provided in 1994-5 by the Hubble Space Telescopes Wide Field and Planetary Camera (WFPC2). Much greater ultraviolet sensitivity of the new STIS instrument allows the workings of Saturn's magnetosphere and upper atmosphere to be studied in much greater detail. These Hubble aurora investigations provide a framework that will ultimately complement the in situ measurements of Saturn's magnetic field and charged particles by NASA/ ESA's Cassini spacecraft, now en route to its rendezvous with Saturn early in the next decade. Two STIS imaging modes have been used to discriminate between ultraviolet emissions predominantly from hydrogen atoms (shown in red) and emissions due to molecular hydrogen (shown in blue). Hence the bright red aurora features are dominated by atomic hydrogen, while the white traces within them map the more tightly confined regions of molecular hydrogen emissions. The southern aurora is seen at lower right, the northern at upper left. The Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 was developed by the Jet |
|
Mercury Astronauts and a Red
…
| Title |
Mercury Astronauts and a Redstone |
| Explanation |
Space suited project Mercury [ http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/history/mercury/mercury.html ] astronauts John H. Glenn [ http://politicsusa.com/PoliticsUSA/resources/almanac/ohs1.html.cgi ], Virgil I. Grissom [ http://repos.msfc.nasa.gov/history/mm/grisbio.html ], and Alan B. Shepard Jr. [ http://repos.msfc.nasa.gov/history/mm/shepbio.html ] (left to right) are pictured here posing in front of a Redstone rocket [ http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/pioneer.html ] in this 1961 NASA publicity photo. Project Mercury [ http://www.osf.hq.nasa.gov/mercury/ ] was the first U.S. program designed to put humans in space. It resulted in 6 manned flights using one-man capsules and Redstone and Atlas rockets. Shortly after the first U.S. manned flight on May 5, 1961, a suborbital flight piloted by Alan Shepard, President Kennedy announced the goal of a manned lunar landing by 1970. This goal was achieved by NASA's Apollo program [ http://bang.lanl.gov/solarsys/apo14.htm ] and Shepard himself walked on the moon as a member of the Apollo 14 [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951209.html ] mission. |
|
Venus: Earth's Cloudy Twin C
…
| Title |
Venus: Earth's Cloudy Twin Credit: Galileo [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] Spacecraft, JPL [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ ], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/ ]; |
| Explanation |
This picture by the Galileo spacecraft [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/galileo.html ] shows just how cloudy Venus [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/venus.html ] is. Venus [ http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=34067 ] is very similar to Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010204.html ] in size and mass - and so is sometimes referred to as Earth's sister planet - but Venus [ http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/welcome/venus.htm ] has a quite different climate. Venus [ http://spacelink.nasa.gov/NASA.Projects/Space.Science/Solar.System/Pioneer.Venus/Venus.Discoveries ]' thick clouds and closeness to the Sun [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap980830.html ] (only Mercury [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010819.html ] is closer) make it the hottest planet - much hotter than the Earth [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/earth.html ]. Humans could not survive there, and no life of any sort has ever been found. When Venus is visible [ http://www.space.com/spacewatch/venus_guide_031024.html ] it is usually the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/moon.html ]. More than 20 spacecraft have visited Venus [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/PhotoGallery-Venus.html ] including Venera 9 [ http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=1975-050D ], which landed on the surface, and Magellan [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/magellan/ ], which used radar to peer through the clouds and make a map of the surface [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030427.html ]. This visible light picture of Venus [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/venus.html ] was taken by the Galileo spacecraft [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap951206.html ] that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Many things about Venus remain unknown, including the cause of mysterious bursts of radio waves [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1995JATP...57..557S ]. |
|
Hubble Observes Surface of T
…
| Title |
Hubble Observes Surface of Titan |
| Description |
Laboratory and managed by the Goddard Spaced Flight Center for NASA's Office of Space Science. This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/, Scientists for the first time have made images of the surface of Saturn's giant, haze-shrouded moon, Titan. They mapped light and dark features over the surface of the satellite during nearly a complete 16-day rotation. One prominent bright area they discovered is a surface feature 2,500 miles across, about the size of the continent of Australia. Titan, larger than Mercury and slightly smaller than Mars, is the only body in the solar system, other than Earth, that may have oceans and rainfall on its surface, albeit oceans and rain of ethane-methane rather than water. Scientists suspect that Titan's present environment -- although colder than minus 289 degrees Fahrenheit, so cold that water ice would be as hard as granite -- might be similar to that on Earth billions of years ago, before life began pumping oxygen into the atmosphere. Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and his team took the images with the Hubble Space Telescope during 14 observing runs between Oct. 4 - 18. Smith announced the team's first results last week at the 26th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Co-investigators on the team are Mark Lemmon, a doctoral candidate with the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, John Caldwell of York University, Canada, Larry Sromovsky of the University of Wisconsin, and Michael Allison of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York City. Titan's atmosphere, about four times as dense as Earth's atmosphere, is primarily nitrogen laced with such poisonous substances as methane and ethane. This thick, orange, hydrocarbon haze was impenetrable to cameras aboard the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft that flew by the Saturn system in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The haze is formed as methane in the atmosphere is destroyed by sunlight. The hydrocarbons produced by this methane destruction form a smog similar to that found over large cities, but is much thicker. Smith's group used the Hubble Space Telescope's WideField/Planetary Camera 2 at near-infrared wavelengths (between .85 and 1.05 microns). Titan's haze is transparent enough in this wavelength range to allow mapping of surface features according to their reflectivity. Only Titan's polar regions could not be mapped this way, due to the telescope's viewing angle of the poles and the thick haze near the edge of the disk. Their image-resolution (that is, the smallest distance seen in detail) with the WFPC2 at the near-infrared wavelength is 360 miles. The 14 images processed and compiled into the Titan surface map were as "noise" free, or as free of signal interference, as the space telescope allows, Smith said. Titan makes one complete orbit around Saturn in 16 days, roughly the duration of the imaging project. Scientists have suspected that Titan's rotation also takes 16 days, so that the same hemisphere of Titan always faces Saturn, just as the same hemisphere of the Earth's moon, always faces the Earth. Recent observations by Lemmon and colleagues at the University of Arizona confirm this true. It's too soon to conclude much about what the dark and bright areas in the Hubble Space Telescope images are -- continents, oceans, impact craters or other features, Smith said. Scientists have long suspected that Titan's surface was covered with a global ehtane-methane ocean. The new images show that there is at least some solid surface. Smith's team made a total 50 images of Titan last month in their program, a project to search for small scale features in Titan's lower atmosphere and surface. They have yet to analyze images for information about Titan's clouds and winds. That analysis could help explain if the bright areas are major impact craters in the frozen water ice-and-rock or higher-altitude features. The images are important information for the Cassini mission, which is to launch a robotic spacecraft on a 7-year journey to Saturn in October 1997. About three weeks before Cassini's first flyby of Titan, the spacecraft is to release the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe to parachute to Titan's surface. Images like Smith's team has taken of Titan can be used to identify choice landing spots - - and help engineers and scientists understand how Titan's winds will blow the parachute through the satellite's atmosphere. UA scientists play major roles in the Cassini mission: Carolyn C. Porco, an associate professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, leads the 14-member Cassini Imaging Team. Jonathan I. Lunine, also an associate professor at the lab, is the only American selected by the European Space Agency to be on the three-member Huygens Probe interdisciplinary science team. Smith is a member of research professor Martin G. Tomasko's international team of scientists who will image the surface of Titan in visible light and in color with the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, one of five instruments in the Huygens Probe's French, German, Italian and U.S. experiment payload. Senior research associate Lyn R. Doose is also on Tomasko's team. Lunine and LPL professor Donald M. Hunten are members of the science team for another U.S. instrument on that payload, the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer. Hunten was on the original Cassini mission science definition team back in 1983. PHOTO CAPTION: Four global projections of the HST Titan data, separated in longitude by 90 degrees. Upper left: hemisphere facing Saturn. Upper right: leading hemisphere (brightest region). Lower left: the hemisphere which never faces Saturn. Lower right: trailing hemisphere. Not that these assignments assume that the rotation is synchronous. The imaging team says its data strongly support this assumption -- a longer time baseline is needed for proof. The surface near the poles is never visible to an observer in Titan's equatorial plane because of the large optical path. The Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 was developed by the Jet Propulsion |
| Date |
11.08.1994 |
|
Hubble Observes Surface of T
…
PIA01465
Saturn
Wide Field Planetary Camera
…
| Title |
Hubble Observes Surface of Titan |
| Original Caption Released with Image |
Laboratory and managed by the Goddard Spaced Flight Center for NASA's Office of Space Science. This image and other images and data received from the Hubble Space Telescope are posted on the World Wide Web on the Space Telescope Science Institute home page at URL http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/, Scientists for the first time have made images of the surface of Saturn's giant, haze-shrouded moon, Titan. They mapped light and dark features over the surface of the satellite during nearly a complete 16-day rotation. One prominent bright area they discovered is a surface feature 2,500 miles across, about the size of the continent of Australia. Titan, larger than Mercury and slightly smaller than Mars, is the only body in the solar system, other than Earth, that may have oceans and rainfall on its surface, albeit oceans and rain of ethane-methane rather than water. Scientists suspect that Titan's present environment -- although colder than minus 289 degrees Fahrenheit, so cold that water ice would be as hard as granite -- might be similar to that on Earth billions of years ago, before life began pumping oxygen into the atmosphere. Peter H. Smith of the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and his team took the images with the Hubble Space Telescope during 14 observing runs between Oct. 4 - 18. Smith announced the team's first results last week at the 26th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society Division for Planetary Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Co-investigators on the team are Mark Lemmon, a doctoral candidate with the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, John Caldwell of York University, Canada, Larry Sromovsky of the University of Wisconsin, and Michael Allison of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York City. Titan's atmosphere, about four times as dense as Earth's atmosphere, is primarily nitrogen laced with such poisonous substances as methane and ethane. This thick, orange, hydrocarbon haze was impenetrable to cameras aboard the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft that flew by the Saturn system in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The haze is formed as methane in the atmosphere is destroyed by sunlight. The hydrocarbons produced by this methane destruction form a smog similar to that found over large cities, but is much thicker. Smith's group used the Hubble Space Telescope's WideField/Planetary Camera 2 at near-infrared wavelengths (between .85 and 1.05 microns). Titan's haze is transparent enough in this wavelength range to allow mapping of surface features according to their reflectivity. Only Titan's polar regions could not be mapped this way, due to the telescope's viewing angle of the poles and the thick haze near the edge of the disk. Their image-resolution (that is, the smallest distance seen in detail) with the WFPC2 at the near-infrared wavelength is 360 miles. The 14 images processed and compiled into the Titan surface map were as "noise" free, or as free of signal interference, as the space telescope allows, Smith said. Titan makes one complete orbit around Saturn in 16 days, roughly the duration of the imaging project. Scientists have suspected that Titan's rotation also takes 16 days, so that the same hemisphere of Titan always faces Saturn, just as the same hemisphere of the Earth's moon, always faces the Earth. Recent observations by Lemmon and colleagues at the University of Arizona confirm this true. It's too soon to conclude much about what the dark and bright areas in the Hubble Space Telescope images are -- continents, oceans, impact craters or other features, Smith said. Scientists have long suspected that Titan's surface was covered with a global ehtane-methane ocean. The new images show that there is at least some solid surface. Smith's team made a total 50 images of Titan last month in their program, a project to search for small scale features in Titan's lower atmosphere and surface. They have yet to analyze images for information about Titan's clouds and winds. That analysis could help explain if the bright areas are major impact craters in the frozen water ice-and-rock or higher-altitude features. The images are important information for the Cassini mission, which is to launch a robotic spacecraft on a 7-year journey to Saturn in October 1997. About three weeks before Cassini's first flyby of Titan, the spacecraft is to release the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe to parachute to Titan's surface. Images like Smith's team has taken of Titan can be used to identify choice landing spots - - and help engineers and scientists understand how Titan's winds will blow the parachute through the satellite's atmosphere. UA scientists play major roles in the Cassini mission: Carolyn C. Porco, an associate professor at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, leads the 14-member Cassini Imaging Team. Jonathan I. Lunine, also an associate professor at the lab, is the only American selected by the European Space Agency to be on the three-member Huygens Probe interdisciplinary science team. Smith is a member of research professor Martin G. Tomasko's international team of scientists who will image the surface of Titan in visible light and in color with the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, one of five instruments in the Huygens Probe's French, German, Italian and U.S. experiment payload. Senior research associate Lyn R. Doose is also on Tomasko's team. Lunine and LPL professor Donald M. Hunten are members of the science team for another U.S. instrument on that payload, the gas chromatograph mass spectrometer. Hunten was on the original Cassini mission science definition team back in 1983. PHOTO CAPTION: Four global projections of the HST Titan data, separated in longitude by 90 degrees. Upper left: hemisphere facing Saturn. Upper right: leading hemisphere (brightest region). Lower left: the hemisphere which never faces Saturn. Lower right: trailing hemisphere. Not that these assignments assume that the rotation is synchronous. The imaging team says its data strongly support this assumption -- a longer time baseline is needed for proof. The surface near the poles is never visible to an observer in Titan's equatorial plane because of the large optical path. The Wide Field/Planetary Camera 2 was developed by the Jet Propulsion |
|
|
![Venus: Earth's Cloudy Twin Credit: Galileo [ http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov/ ] Spacecraft, JPL [ http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/ ], NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/ ];](http://mm04.nasaimages.org/MediaManager/srvr?mediafile=/Size1/NVA2-4-NA/6350/venus2_gal_big.jpg&userid=1&username=admin&resolution=1&servertype=JVA&cid=4&iid=NVA2&vcid=NA&usergroup=NASA_Astronomy_Picture_of_the_Day_Collecti-4-Admin&profileid=16)
