Solar System

[Drone]

Mars

Jovian system

Sun

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

A "lonely mountain" stands unaccompanied on the icy gray surface of the dwarf planet Ceres, in amazing new photographs from NASA's Dawn spacecraft.

http://www.space.com/30364-ceres-lo...m-space#ooid=ZtcTA3dzoB8dvUL5XeTi23E_DakLf0WG

The mountain, with an altitude of 21,120 feet (6,437 meters), is one of many gorgeous features captured in the new images, which Dawn took on Aug. 19. Shining craters, sloping ridges and round dimples also cover the surface of Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt. We at Space.com combined the photos into a video that explores the new Ceres images in detail.

Dawn currently orbits Ceres at an altitude of 915 miles (1,470 kilometers), but in October, the probe will start spiraling down to an orbit just 230 miles (375 km) above the surface. So Dawn will soon be sending back even higher-resolution images of the icy body's surface. [See more amazing photos of dwarf planet Ceres]

The new images offer a closer look at some of the mysterious aspects of Ceres' surface, including the massive Gaue crater, which is 52 miles (84 km) in diameter. The images feature a resolution of about 450 feet (140 m) per pixel. Additionally, the pictures show "narrow, braided features" on the surface, according to a statement from NASA.

Ceres is about 590 miles (950 km) wide and holds joint status as an asteroid and a dwarf planet. In Dawn's current orbit, the probe takes 11 days (or 14 orbits around Ceres) to create a complete map of the dwarf planet's entire surface. Dawn will map the surface of Ceres six times in the next two months, NASA officials said.

This extensive imaging allows scientists to model the surface in 3D, and instruments on board the spacecraft are collecting information about the distribution and composition of materials on Ceres' surface. Of particular interest are the mysterious white spots seen on Ceres. (To cast your vote as to what the white spots might be made of, go to NASA's online poll.)

Dawn's instruments are also studying Ceres' gravitational field, making measurements that will be essential in planning the spacecraft's dip down to a lower orbit in October.

The $466 million Dawn spacecraft left Earth in September 2007 and orbited the massive asteroid Vesta for 14 months in 2011 and 2012. The probe arrived at Ceres on March 6, 2015.

 

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^ Unfortunately we didn't get lots of Ceres images lately. It's been weeks since the last photo:

 

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Nasa's Comet Hitchhiker could tour the Kuiper Belt by 'jumping' from one asteroid to another.
explained

The Comet Hitchhiker concept (illustrated) was developed by Masahiro Ono at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena. A reusable tether would replace the fuel used in current spacecrafts by harvesting kinetic energy from the comets or asteroids and using this to harpoon the tether to various small bodies in space.

While closely flying by a target, a spacecraft would cast the extendable tether toward the asteroid or comet and become attached using a harpoon. Next, the spacecraft would reel out the tether while applying a brake that harvests energy as the spacecraft moves (illustrated). Nasa compared it to fishing on Earth

The proposal is described in the above diagrams. The researchers have been studying whether a harpoon could tolerate an impact of this magnitude, and whether a tether could be created strong enough to support this kind of manoeuvre. They found that a tether made of Kevlar longer than 62 miles (100km) could work

 

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Goodnight, Saturn

3000th Comet Spotted by SOHO

Moon photobombing Sun

 

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ESA's sun-watching satellite Proba-2 captured Sept. 13's partial solar eclipse three times as it orbited the Earth; in each, its extreme ultraviolet SWAP imager caught the moon approaching and overshadowing part of the sun.
Credit: ESA/Royal Observatory of Belgium

K.J. Mulder snapped a series of partial-solar-eclipse photos Sept. 13 from his home in South Africa, using a 3.5-inch Skywatcher refractor telescope equipped with a Baader solar filter. Hazy clouds occasionally blocked his view.
Credit: K.J. Mulder/Worlds in Ink

Sunday, Sept. 27 will bring another spectacular sight: Observers throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, western Asia and the eastern Pacific Ocean region will be able to see a "supermoon" lunar eclipse, when an extra-bright and large full moon will be blotted out by the Earth's shadow — the first such eclipse since 1982. A similar event will not occur again until 2033, so be sure to look up.

http://www.space.com/30510-total-solar-eclipse-visible-from-united-states-in-2017-visualization.html

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Is the Earth causing the moon to SHRINK?

Nasa scientists have identified more than 3,200 cracks, each several miles long and dozens of feet deep, crisscrossing the moon's surface.

Gravitational forces exerted by the Earth on the moon are causing cracks to form on the satellite's surface as it cools and shrinks, shown in the animation above (© NASA/Arizona State University/Smithsonian Institution)

Analysis of these faults, which are thought to be a result of the moon shrinking in size as its core cools, has revealed they are forming due to the gravitational tidal forces from Earth.
Dr Thomas Watters, a senior scientist at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, said: 'There is a pattern in the orientations of the thousands of faults.
'It suggests something else is influencing their formation, something that's also acting on a global scale - 'massaging' and realigning them.'
Scientists first noticed these faults, known as lobate scarps in 2010 when Nasa's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft spotted them littering the moon's surface.
They initially thought the cooling and subsequent contracting of the liquid outer core was causing the solid crust above to buckle and crack.
This would result in a pattern of so-called thrust faults with no particular pattern in their orientation.
However, analysis of high-resolution images of almost three-quarters of the lunar surface from the spacecraft has revealed more than 3,000 more of the features.
Researchers found the faults appeared to have particular orientations which suggests they are forming under the influence of other forces.
They said changes in the gravitational pull on the moon as is moves around the Earth in its elliptical orbit would be sufficient to cause distinctive stress on the surface.

Dr Watters said when the tidal forces on the moon were superimposed on the global contraction caused by the cooling interior, the combined stresses produced cracks to form in distinct patterns.

+5
Scientists have now identified more than 3,200 lobate thrust faults, or cracks, on the surface of the moon. The red lines on the map above show their location and the arrows show their average orientation

The faults are the most common tectonic formations to appear on the surface of the moon. The image above from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera shows a prominent fault in the geological features in the Vitello Cluster, with a degraded crater in the middle that has been raised up as a result of the slippages

The fault scarps are very young and still seem to be actively forming today, and are thought to be the most common tectonic land formation on the moon.
Most are under 6.2 miles (10 km) long and only tens of yards high.
The researchers, whose work is published in the journal Geology, found that the stress on the moon reaches its peak when it is farthest from the Earth in its orbit, known as apogee.
If the faults are still active, the occurrence of shallow moonquakes related to slippage on the faults could be detected at this point.

Most of the faults, like the one shown above, are under 6.2 miles (10 km) long and only tens of yards high. Boulders in the crater can be seen to have aligned in rows parallel to the orientation of the fault scarp

While the moon is more commonly known to influence the Earth (pictured) by causing the ebb and flow of the tides, it seems our planet is having a far more devastating impact on the surface of the moon

Dr Mark Robinson, a researcher at the Arizona State University, principal investigator of the LRO Camera and co-author of the study, said: 'The discovery of so many previously undetected tectonic features as our LROC high-resolution image coverage continues to grow is truly remarkable.

'Early on in the mission we suspected that tidal forces played a role in the formation of tectonic features, but we did not have enough coverage to make any conclusive statements.

'Now that we have Narrow Angle Camera images with appropriate lighting for more than half of the moon, structural patterns are starting to come into focus.'

Launched in June 2009, the LRO has collected a treasure trove of data with its seven powerful instruments.

John Kelly, LRO project scientist at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, said: 'With LRO we've been able to study the moon globally in detail not yet possible with any other body in the solar system beyond Earth, and the LRO data set enables us to tease out subtle but important processes that would otherwise remain hidden.'

The lobate thrusts faults create step-like cliff formations on the surface of the moon, like the one shown above. They were initially thought to be due to the cooling of the interior causing the moon to shrink, cracking the brittle crust, but the new research has shown the Earth's gravity is also taking its toll.


MOON WAS ONCE COVERED WITH LAVA SPITTING FIRE FOUNTAINS
The moon was once home to 'fire fountains', similar to those seen in Hawaii today.
The Apollo missions found remnants of these lava fountains in tiny beads of volcanic glass on the moon.
Now, US scientists believe they have identified the volatile gas that drove those eruptions, finally solving the mystery to how they formed.
The moon's surface was hot and magma often bubbled up from below and broke the surface.
Lava associated with lunar fire fountains contained significant amounts of carbon, acording to new research.
As it rose from the lunar depths, that carbon combined with oxygen to make substantial amounts of carbon monoxide (CO) gas.
Carbon, as it combines with oxygen to form CO gas, would have degassed before other volatiles.
The CO gas was responsible for the fire fountains that sprayed volcanic glass over parts of the lunar surface.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

A spacecraft that launched in 1995 to study the sun has discovered its 3,000th comet, further bolstering its credentials as history's greatest comet hunter.

The dot in the cross-hairs is the 3,000th comet discovered by the NASA/European Space Agency Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), as seen on Sept. 14, 2015. The comet was spotted in SOHO data by Worachate Boonplod of Thailand


The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint effort of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), spotted comet number 3,000 on Sunday (Sept. 13). The landmark discovery was pulled out of SOHO's database by Worachate Boonplod of Thailand, NASA officials said.

"I am very happy to be part of a great milestone for SOHO's comet project," Boonplod said in a statement. "I would like to thank SOHO, ESA and NASA for making this opportunity possible, including other fellow comet hunters who I have learned a lot from." [Sungrazing Comets: How They Dive-Bomb the Sun (Infographic)]


excellent comet vid
http://www.space.com/30562-soho-spa...ts.html#ooid=AzZmdqdzp0arAi_4i3Bb3PBsIgMC6hif



Boonplod is one of many laypeople around the world who sift through SOHO's data in search of comets. Indeed, 95 percent of the spacecraft's comet discoveries have been made by such citizen scientists, NASA officials said.

SOHO has also proven extremely proficient at discovering and tracking "sungrazing" comets, which veer close to the sun (and sometimesplunge into the star).

"SOHO has a view of about 12.5 million miles [20.1 million kilometers] beyond the sun," said SOHO mission scientist Joe Gurman, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "So we expected it might from time to time see a bright comet near the sun. But nobody dreamed we'd approach 200 a year."

Studying sungrazers can reveal insights about the solar system's early days, because comets are relics from the planet-forming period 4.5 billion years ago, NASA officials said. And tracing their paths around and near the sun can help researchers learn more about the solar magnetic field and the solar wind.

Before SOHO's launch two decades ago, just 12 comets had been discovered by spacecraft, and a mere 900 others had been found by ground-based instruments, officials said.

SOHO spotted its 1,000th comet in 2005 and number 2,000 in December 2010.

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

A global ocean lies beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active moon Enceladus, researchers have revealed.
They say the find explains the moon's wobble, and mysterious icy sprays seen at its south pole.
The findings show the fine spray of water vapour, icy particles and simple organic molecules Cassini has observed coming from fractures near the moon's south pole is being fed by this vast liquid water reservoir.

Using data from NASA's Cassini mission, researchers found the magnitude of the moon's very slight wobble, as it orbits Saturn, can only be accounted for if its outer ice shell is not frozen solid to its interior, meaning a global ocean must be present.

The research is presented in a paper published online this week in the journal Icarus.
Previous analysis of Cassini data suggested the presence of a lens-shaped body of water, or sea, underlying the moon's south polar region.
However, gravity data collected during the spacecraft's several close passes over the south polar region lent support to the possibility the sea might be global, the team say.
The new results confirmed this.

'This was a hard problem that required years of observations, and calculations involving a diverse collection of disciplines, but we are confident we finally got it right,' said Peter Thomas, a Cassini imaging team member at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, and lead author of the paper.
Cassini scientists analyzed more than seven years' worth of images of Enceladus taken by the spacecraft, which has been orbiting Saturn since mid-2004.
They carefully mapped the positions of features on Enceladus - mostly craters - across hundreds of images, in order to measure changes in the moon's rotation with extreme precision.
As a result, they found Enceladus has a tiny, but measurable wobble as it orbits Saturn.

Because the icy moon is not perfectly spherical - and because it goes slightly faster and slower during different portions of its orbit around Saturn - the giant planet subtly rocks Enceladus back and forth as it rotates.
The team plugged their measurement of the wobble, called a libration, into different models for how Enceladus might be arranged on the inside, including ones in which the moon was frozen from surface to core.
'If the surface and core were rigidly connected, the core would provide so much dead weight the wobble would be far smaller than we observe it to be,' said Matthew Tiscareno, a Cassini participating scientist at the SETI Institute, Mountain View, California, and a co-author of the paper.
'This proves that there must be a global layer of liquid separating the surface from the core,' he said.
The mechanisms that might have prevented Enceladus' ocean from freezing remain a mystery.
Thomas and his colleagues suggest a few ideas for future study that might help resolve the question, including the surprising possibility that tidal forces due to Saturn's gravity could be generating much more heat within Enceladus than previously thought.

'This is a major step beyond what we understood about this moon before, and it demonstrates the kind of deep-dive discoveries we can make with long-lived orbiter missions to other planets,' said co-author Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at Space Science Institute (SSI), Boulder, Colorado, and visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. 'Cassini has been exemplary in this regard.'
The unfolding story of Enceladus has been one of the great triumphs of Cassini's long mission at Saturn. Scientists first detected signs of the moon's icy plume in early 2005, and followed up with a series of discoveries about the material gushing from warm fractures near its south pole. They announced strong evidence for a regional sea in 2014, and more recently, in 2015, they shared results that suggest hydrothermal activity is taking place on the ocean floor.
Cassini is scheduled to make a close flyby of Enceladus on Oct. 28, in the mission's deepest-ever dive through the moon's active plume of icy material. The spacecraft will pass a mere 30 miles (49 kilometers) above the moon's surface.
Researchers say rather than having a solid stone centre, like the Earth or our own moon, Enceladus may be formed around a core of boulders and ice.
The gravitational pull of Saturn would cause this unconsolidated rubble to flex and move around, generating heat which would melt the ice above.
This tidal heating, according to the scientists, would be enough to prevent the ocean below the surface from freezing solid.
The theory, which was put forward by Dr James Roberts, a planetary scientist at Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland, may also mean the ocean on Enceladus is more hospitable than previously believed.
Scientists had previously believed Saturn's tiny moon needed extremely high concentrations of antifreeze agents such as ammonia to keep oceans from forming.
The existence of Enceladus's subsurface ocean has been suspected for some time since Nasa's Cassini spacecraft spotted plumes of vapour and ice shooting out from the moon's surface.

Measurements by Cassini have also detected several gigawatts of heat being emitted from beneath the surface.
Dr Roberts said: 'There are several reasons why a liquid water layer is suspected to exist beneath the ice shell.
I find that fragmentation of the core increases tidal dissipation by a factor of 20, consistent with the long-term dynamically sustainable level, even when the interior is completely frozen, but only if the interior starts out warm and tidal heating is strong from the beginning.
'Although an ocean need not be present in order for the interior to experience significant tidal heating, all models that dissipate enough heat to prevent runaway cooling are also warm enough to have an ocean.

'Tidal dissipation in the weak core provides an additional source of heat that may prevent a global subsurface ocean from freezing.'
Saturn has been found to have 62 moons orbiting around the giant gas planet. Many of these are frozen inactive worlds, while others show signs of tectonic activity.
Discovered in 1789 by astronomer William Herschel, Enceladus orbits around 147,500 miles from Saturn every 32.8 hours.
It is around 318 miles across, while temperatures on the surface rarely rise above -330°F (-201°C).
Yet despite this extreme cold, Enceladus appears to have an extremely young icy surface, which suggests it is geologically active.
Giant plumes of ice and water vapour have been seen shooting out into space from the surface.
This has suggested that beneath the scarred and icy surface, there is an ocean of liquid salty water which may even contain organic molecules.
However, with a solid rocky core, as was suspected, the moon would lose heat over millions of years and be unable to maintain this liquid layer.
According to Dr Roberts, whose work is published in the journal Icarus, a soft, rubble-filled core would allow sufficient movement to produce enough heat to keep this layer liquid.
He found that an ocean beneath the surface would help to regulate the temperature of the moon's interior, preventing runaway cooling or widespread melting.
He added that it is possible the moon undergoes freezing and thaw cycles which leads to a rocky ocean floor.
Dr Roberts said: 'If the ocean cyclically freezes and thaws, the resulting expansion of the core fragments may result in size-sorting in the outermost layer of the core.
'During freeze cycles, meter-sized and smaller fragments may be suspended in a layer of dirty ice a few km thick, just above the core.
'During thaw cycles, these fragments form a regolith on the seafloor.'

 

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New CME

ISS over America

 

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Moon

Prometheus and Pandora are almost hidden in Saturn's rings in this image

An elongated solar filament that extended almost half the Sun broke away into space

 

[dorsetknob]

Moon starting to be eclipsed its 02:26 am GMT here in Dorset pity i got just a smartphone crap pictures looks nice through a fieldscope no blood moon yet

0:2:54 GMT moon 3/4 obscured by earths shadow can see some red tinge Now

and time for bed for me

 

[Ahhzz]

*sigh* I wanted to stay up for the Superblood moon, but we had a major day yesterday, and I gave up about an hour early....

 

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New images from ISS

Some old videos from Cassini

 

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Another active region and solar flare

Hurricane Joaquin

ISS over Asia

Nili fossae region and Mount Sharp, Mars

 

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Sunspots

Moon eclipse

Comet Catalina. Looking sexy!

 

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Tempel 1

Eros

All images of Eros can be found here






Nasa released 4K 60FPS video of Jupiter. Saturn, Uranus, Neptune will come later so stay tuned.

You can download it here, it's 11GB.


Some cool maps:

 

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Solar Wind

Impact craters on Pluto & Charon

Comet Encke

Enceladus

Titan & Saturn

Titan & Pandora

Mimas & Pandora

Giant close-up of Dione

New close-ups of Enceladus and more things are yet to come (late October - mid December). Stay tuned!

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

Absolutely remarkable................i reckon ive got a time machine in my head, cos pics like these turn me in to a kid again.

Nice one @Drone please keep ,em coming pal.


Mimas

 

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*Gently wipes ashes off Aqua's face*

Mars

Halley’s Comet

Moon

 

[CAPSLOCKSTUCK]

That video is even more beautiful than the woman who presented the weather report this morning on local tv.

 

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Dione & Saturn

Map of Titan

The Colorado River canyon, just above Grand Canyon (left), and Nanedi Vallis on Mars (right) pictured at the same scale shows how both canyons were formed by rivers that appear to have been approximately the same width. The river channel on Earth looks darker because it is filled with water, whereas Nanedi Vallis has been dry for billions of years.

 

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Another day, another coronal hole

Moon's South Pole & Mafic Mound

 

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Mangala Valles

The capital and largest city in Coahuila is sometimes called the “Athens of Mexico.”