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New Hubble images reveal Pluto's dynamic surface
The most detailed images yet of Pluto, taken by the Hubble Telescope, reveal a yellow-black sphere whose surface appears to be among the most dynamic in the solar system. The the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003 and released on Thursday. / M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute) / NASA / ESA / Reuters
New images of the distant ice ball captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and released Thursday reveal a sphere swathed in muted blotches of black, charcoal, white, and yellow-orange.
The colors testify to the nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide that are the prime ingredients in Pluto's ices and its faint wisp of an atmosphere. The images – the most detailed yet taken of Pluto – reveal a surface that is among the most dynamic in the solar system.
The new images, gathered between 2002 and 2003 and processed over the past seven years, also show large differences in surface features compared with images taken in 1994, explained Mike Brown, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology at a NASA briefing Thursday.
On Earth, "ice caps come and go; there's Mars, where ice caps come and go," he says. "Then there's Pluto. You're looking at the surface in the solar system that has the biggest changes of anything we're ever seen." These changes appear in some images as the morphing of dark and light patches across the surface over time, and may be linked to the changing seasons on Pluto, researchers say. Pluto’s trip around the sun takes 248 years. So one would expect the march of the seasons to be closer to a snail's pace.
“But it's a little bit of a surprise to see this big a change this fast,” in surface features as well in as other aspects of Pluto's appearance, says Marc Buie, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., and the lead scientist on the project. The colors in the composite images represent "my best guess of what the true-color appearance would be if you were sitting in your spacecraft floating around Pluto," Dr. Buie says.
This is the most detailed view to date of the entire surface of the dwarf planet Pluto, as constructed from multiple NASA Hubble Space Telescope photographs taken from 2002 to 2003. The center disk (180 degrees) has a mysterious bright spot that is unusually rich in carbon monoxide frost. Pluto is so small and distant that the task of resolving the surface is as challenging as trying to see the markings on a soccer ball 40 miles away. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute).
The view is similar to the one humans get of the moon with the naked eye, he says. There's not enough detail to pick out individual mountains or craters, but enough to suggest significant differences in surface features. Images will help plan for fly-by
The new images of what was once the solar system's ninth planet come as NASA's first mission to Pluto, New Horizons, has passed the half-way point in its trip to Pluto and at least one other object beyond in the Kuiper Belt – a region that begins just beyond Neptune and reaches deep into the outer solar system.
Launched Jan. 16, 2006, the spacecraft is on track for a flyby of Pluto and its companion Charon. The craft will achieve its closest approach to the pair on July 14, 2015. Indeed, the new Hubble images already are helping the New Horizons team plan its observations during the flyby, Buie says.
Pluto is the key destination on the spacecraft's trip. But a fly-by allows for no do-overs. So the encounter is carefully choreographed. The Hubble images, along with others gathered by ground and space-based telescopes over the next five years, will help scientists lay out a careful time line of commands that the craft will use to ensure the right instruments are aimed at the right places at the right times.
Images took seven years and 20 computers
To build the new portraits of Pluto, Buie's team gathered 384 Hubble images of the dwarf planet between 2002 and 2003. But in each image, Pluto appears only as a tiny dot of light. So the team employed a technique called “dithering” to generate images slightly offset from each other. The individual images emerged after seven years of processing on 20 homemade computers running in parallel.
In analyzing the images, Buie’s team see other changes in Pluto beyond shifting surface features. Data gathered between 1954 and 2000 showed that Pluto's surface displayed a reddish tint – somewhere between the hue of Mars and Jupiter's moon Io, Buie says. That color remained virtually unchanged during that time. But the dwarf planet's average color during the period Buie and his team gathered their data was 20 to 30 percent redder.
The change might be hard to distinguish with the naked eye. But "it's a very marked change. Put it in the context of what the rest of the solar system's surfaces do,” this rate of change is “unprecedented,” he says.
The top picture was taken in 1994 by the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera. The bottom image was taken in 2002-2003 by the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The dark band at the bottom of each map is the region that was hidden from view at the time the data were taken. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Buie (Southwest Research Institute) Photo No. STScI-PR10-06b
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Spiegel Pluto: Ice world of ice and stone
Pluto with moons: The photo of the "Hubble" Space Telescope from 2006 shows that the dwarf planet has more than just a companion.
Iridescent pigments on Pluto: The photos were taken from data of the years 1994, 2002 and 2003, and re-calculated on the computer for four years. Overall, the dwarf planet has become significantly redder.
Source
Spiegel.de
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Endeavour on the way to the ISS >
Nzz.ch
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India to send two astronauts into space in 2016
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Crew STS 130: Commander: George D. "Zambo" Zamka; Pilot: Terry Virts; Mission Specialists:- MS1 Kathryn P. "Kay" Hire, MS2 Stephen Robinson, MS3 Nicholas Patrick, MS4 Robert L. Behnken. Primary Payload: Tranquility (Node 3) and Cupola. >
Space.gs
Feb 7: At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the astronauts on space shuttle Endeavour's STS-130 crew, dressed in their orange launch-and-entry suits, pause for a group portrait in front of the Astrovan that will transport them to Launch Pad 39A for the first STS-130 launch attempt. From left are Mission Specialists Robert Behnken, Nicholas Patrick, Stephen Robinson and Kathryn Hire; Pilot Terry Virts; and Commander George Zamka. Image credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett.
After a one day delay due to clouds, space shuttle Endeavour launched at 3:14 a.m. CST Monday from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida with a new module and an attached cupola for the International Space Station that should increase human understanding of our home planet. It was the last scheduled night launch in shuttle program history. Commander George Zamka, Pilot Terry Virts and Mission Specialists Kay Hire, Stephen Robinson, Nicholas Patrick and Robert Behnken began their 13-day mission with an eight and a half minute dash to orbit to begin the pursuit of the orbital outpost, lighting up the central Florida coast as Endeavour arced to the northeast en route to space.
When Endeavour lifted off, the station was traveling at almost five miles a second about 212 miles over western Romania. Endeavour is scheduled to dock with the station at 11:09 p.m. Tuesday over the northern coast of Spain. Aboard the station waiting to welcome Endeavour crew members are Expedition 22 Commander Jeff Williams, cosmonaut flight engineers Max Suraev and Oleg Kotov, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer.
more...
http://space.gs/10/sts-130/02.html
Nov 21: Astronaut Randy Bresnik, STS-129 mission specialist, performs a task near the European Space Agency's Columbus module, on the International Space Station during the second STS-129 space walk. During the six-hour, eight-minute spacewalk, Bresnik and astronaut Mike Foreman (out of frame), mission specialist, installed a Grappling Adaptor to On-Orbit Railing Assembly, or GATOR, on the Columbus laboratory. GATOR contains a ship-tracking antenna system and a HAM radio antenna. They relocated a floating potential measurement unit that gauges electric charges that build up on the station, deployed a Payload Attach System on the space-facing side of the Starboard 3 truss segment and installed a wireless video system that allows spacewalkers to transmit video to the station and relay it to Earth. Credit: NASA
Nov 21: Astronaut Randy Bresnik, STS-129 mission specialist, performs a task near the European Space Agency's Columbus module, on the International Space Station during the second STS-129 space walk. Credit: NASA
Nov 23: Astronaut Robert L. Satcher Jr., STS-129 mission specialist, participates in the mission's third and final session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station. During the five-hour, 42-minute spacewalk, Satcher and astronaut Randy Bresnik (out of frame), mission specialist, removed a pair of micrometeoroid and orbital debris shields from the Quest airlock and strapped them to the External Stowage Platform #2, then moved an articulating foot restraint to the airlock, and released a bolt on a starboard truss ammonia tank assembly (ATA) in preparation for an STS-131 spacewalk that will replace the ATA. Credit: NASA
Nov 24: Astronaut Nicole Stott, STS-129 mission specialist, takes one of her final "strolls" through the modules and hatchways of the International Space Station on the eve of her departure from the orbital outpost. Credit: NASA
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Networkworld News
NASA Endeavour set to dock with, expand International Space Station
NASA Endeavour inspects shuttle, preps for early am ISS link-up
By Michael Cooney, Network World, February 09, 2010
ISS-Modul "Tranquility"
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The Hindu >
Gl. Med. Cov.
NASA’s
space shuttle Endeavour crew is making
preparations to link-up with the International Space Station after it spent most of
today giving the spacecraft the once over looking for any damage that may have occurred during launch.
Such inspections to the
shuttle’s thermal tile protection system are routine as the tiles have been a source of problems since the first launch of the
spacecraft in 1981. According to NASA the thermal protection system is made up of various materials designed mostly to protect the craft and crew from an amazing array of temperature differences from minus 250 F in the cold soak of space to re-entry temperatures that reach nearly 3,000 F.
NASA has tons of cool space technologies that may never get to space
The astronauts pay particular attention to inspection of the shuttle’s heat-resistant tiles and reinforced carbon-carbon surfaces on the wing leading edges and the nose. The crew’s spacesuits are also given the once-over as the crew will use them for scheduled three space walks.
Endeavour is scheduled to dock with the ISS shortly after midnight Wednesday. Once docked the shuttle and ISS crews will begin removing from the space shuttle’s storage bay and docking the life support module known as Tranquility.
According to NASA, the pressurized Tranquility module will bump out the room for crew members and many of the space station's life support and environmental control systems including include air revitalization, oxygen generation and water recycling. A waste and hygiene compartment and a treadmill also will be relocated from other areas of the station, NASA stated.
Tranquility will be linked to the Earth-facing side of the ISS’ Unity node. The new node will provide an additional docking point for space shuttles and other crew vehicles visiting the station in the future.
Cupola module
Astronauts will also begin attaching the room with a view module known as the Cupola module. NASA says the Cupola node could be considered the ultimate observation deck as the small, dome-shaped module has seven windows -- six around the sides and one on top -- that can be shuttered when not in use to protect them from micrometeoroids and the harsh space environment.
Interior of the Cupola
Just under ten feet in diameter, the Cupola will accommodate two crew members and portable workstations that can control station and robotic activities. The view will let the crew monitor spacewalks and docking operations, as well as provide a spectacular view of Earth and other celestial objects, NASA stated.
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Space.com
Shuttle Endeavour Closes in on Space Station
NASA's Latest Mission to the International Space Station / PC World - The Space Shuttle Endeavour has launched on a mission to deliver a new observation module to the International Space Station (ISS).
Reuters -
Space Shuttle Endeavour Readies for ISS Docking eWeek
NASA Endeavour set to dock with, expand International Space Station msnbc.com -
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InformationWeek -
Computerworld -
Washingtonpost -
http://www.nasa.gov/station -
Aviationweek -
gaetanomarano.it -
Spaceref
all 3,239 news articles »
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Dailytech.com
Job Losses Concern NASA Administrator
Michael Barkoviak - February 9, 2010
NASA is concerned about job losses in Florida, Texas and other locations
Some
NASA space officials have showed concern in the direction of the U.S. space agency, as President Barack Obama prepares to begin outsourcing even more of NASA's missions to private contractors. Space officials will plead to Congress to try and save up to 1,000 jobs in Washington. There is concern if
Obama's new budget is approved, even more jobs could be lost in the future. NASA wants to keep part of the Constellation program active, which could help save some of the proposed 1,000 jobs that will be lost.
President
Obama's 2011 budget has killed any realistic hope the U.S. space agency will be able to return to the moon in the next 10 years. "We are
departing from the model of the past, in which the government funded all of human space activities," said
Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, during an interview. "This represents the entrance of the entrepreneurial mindset into a field that is poised for rapid growth and new jobs. And NASA will be driving competition, opening new markers and access to space, and catalyzing the potential of American industry. This is a good investment for America."
Both NASA and the Russian space program face similar dilemmas of upgrading aging space technology while losing precious funds. The NASA Constellation space program is currently running behind schedule, and the U.S. Government has already invested more than $9 billion to help keep the project alive longer. More recently, shuttle Endeavour
partook in NASA's last nighttime shuttle launch, and the crew will work on the International Space Station (ISS) during the two-week mission.
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Latest Endeavour Flight Will Bring Tranquility to ISS
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