Posts Tagged ‘ Planets ’

As you most likely know, we’re just a day away from the planned launch of the Mars Science Laboratory. Curiosity is scheduled to launch on Nov. 26, 2011, at 10:02a.m. EST (7:02a.m. PST) for an eight-month, 570 million kilometer (354 million mile), trip to the red planet. Curiosity will launch from on top of an Atlas V rocket, one of the largest rockets currently available for interplanetary travel. The launch window exists from now until December 18, 2011, but as of today the current weather forecast shows a 70% chance for good weather come launch time.

NASA will be providing coverage of the launch both online and on NASA TV, with launch coverage beginning at 7:30am EST (4:30am PST).
Check out this video for an animated look at some of the mission milestones. (The animation is very cinematic and has what sounds like a Jason Bourne-themed score.)

Stay tuned to 46BLYZ.com for future coverage of the Mars Science Laboratory.

Following insertion into Mercury’s orbit on March 17, Messenger has finally sent home the first images ever recorded from within the orbit of our innermost planet.

You’ll want to click this image for the full-size version:

JHU/APL –
Early this morning, at 5:20 am EDT, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury. This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System’s innermost planet. Over the subsequent six hours, MESSENGER acquired an additional 363 images before downlinking some of the data to Earth. The MESSENGER team is currently looking over the newly returned data, which are still continuing to come down. Tomorrow, March 30, at 2 pm EDT, attend the NASA media telecon to view more images from MESSENGER’s first look at Mercury from orbit.

Currently, Messenger is the commissioning phase of the mission and is testing out its various equipment and instruments. In a few days, it will begin its year-long primary mission which will answer questions about the formation and composition of the smallest and innermost planet in our solar system.

Today, at about 4:45 AKDT (8:45 EST), NASA’s Messenger will become the first spacecraft to enter Mercury’s orbit. Messenger launched on August 3, 2004 and will undertake a plethora of scientific tasks, including studying the chemical composition, geology and magnetic field of Mercury. It should increase our understanding of Mercury’s geological history, investigate the presence of a liquid outer core, and determine why Mercury’s Northern and Southern poles are highly-reflective to radar (the hypothesis is ice!).

NASA will broadcast a live webcast of the event: http://mfile.akamai.com/7111/live/reflector:22179.asx?bkup=22194 (streaming media link) beginning at 8:457:55pm EST.

The first few days in orbit, the orbital commissioning phase, will focus on ensuring that the spacecraft systems are all working well in the harsh thermal environment of orbit. By March 24, Messenger’s instruments will be activated and checked out, with the science portion of the mission commencing on April 4.

For more information about the mission:

NASA Messenger Mission Page
Ice on Mercury
Messenger Page -Johns Hopkins University – Applied Physics Laboratory

Here’s what Home looked like today:

(NASA / NOAA GOES-13 satellite image showing earth on Feb. 7, 2010 – Click through image for higher resolutions.)

Ain’t she a fine looking planet? Enjoy the wallpaper fodder.

Explanation: Late last year, a new, remarkably bright storm erupted in Saturn’s northern hemisphere. Amateur astronomers first spotted it in early December, with the ringed gas giant rising in planet Earth’s predawn sky. Orbiting Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft was able to record this close-up of the complex disturbance from a distance of 1.8 million kilometers on December 24th. Over time, the storm has evolved, spreading substantially in longitude, and now stretches far around the planet. Saturn’s thin rings are also seen slicing across this space-based view, casting broad shadows on the planet’s southern hemisphere. – NASA Astronomy Picture Of The Day

(Click image for full resolution)

This view of Saturn, its rings and the moon Tethys represents “Target 1″ in the fall 2009 edition of the Cassini Scientist for a Day contest. (See http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/scientistforaday8thedition/.) The contest is designed to give students a taste of life as a scientist by challenging them to write an essay describing the value of one target choice among three for Cassini to image.

A bonus feature in the image is the presence of bright spokes on and just above the ansa, or curved edge of the darkened ringplane. The spokes are made visible here by sunlight scattering through the dust-sized icy particles and toward Cassini’s cameras.

Images taken using red, blue and green spectral filters were combined to create this color view. The images were acquired with the Cassini wide-angle camera on Oct. 11, 2009 at a distance of 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Saturn. – NASA