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NASA reveals the oldest supernova

Scientists have released footage of the oldest supernova,
which was captured from four separate telescopes.
Report by Louise Hulland.

Rodan spotted in Texas, sez scientist

Unmasking a Flying Predator in Texas

LONG BEACH, Calif., Dec. 6, 2010 — For generations, the mystery lights of Marfa, Texas, have entertained residents with their strange dancing. On some warmer nights, a ball of light seems to split into two, which will separate and fly away from each other before turning around and flying back together. They have recently been linked to flying lights in the southwest Pacific, lights that natives of Papua New Guinea testify are from large flying creatures.

In southwest Texas, local residents have speculated about dancing devils or ghosts. Scientists have preferred something along the lines of ball lightning or earthlights, but all their scientific explanations have tripped over the resemblances to line dancing. If atmospheric energies or tectonic stresses cause the displays, why do two lights horizontally separate for a long distance before coming back together?

Now a cryptozoologist from California has explained the dancing lights of Marfa. Tales of spooks may hold a spark of truth, for recent research implies intelligence directs the lights: Bioluminescent flying predators may be hunting at night and catching a few unlucky Big Brown Bats: Eptesicus fuscus.

According to Jonathan Whitcomb, a cryptozoology author in Long Beach, California, when one of the bioluminescent predators has been glowing for awhile, not far above the ground, it will be joined by another of its kind, which will then turn on its own glow. After insects have been attracted to that area, the two creatures will separate, which appears to distant human observers to be one light splitting into two. The predators will fly away from each other for some distance, then turn back and fly together. During the separation, bats may begin feeding on the concentration of insects before being caught from two sides by the larger predators.

Whitcomb was a forensic videographer, in 2004, when he traveled to Papua New Guinea, hoping to videotape the glowing nocturnal “ropen,” said to be a large flying predator and scavenger. Although he did not see the creature, he interviewed many natives, who impressed him with their credibility and amazed him with what they had seen. Whitcomb became convinced that the ropen is a pterosaur, commonly called by Americans “pterodactyl” or “flying dinosaur.”

After returning to the United States, he wrote many web pages about the concept of modern living pterosaurs in the southwest Pacific. He was surprised at the response: emails and phone calls from eyewitnesses of apparent pterosaurs in the United States.

He analyzed the eyewitness accounts of those flying creatures and wrote a nonfiction book: “Live Pterosaurs in America.” The second edition of that cryptozoology book has just been published (ISBN-13: 9781456341350).

Although Whitcomb admits that Marfa Lights may come from an unknown bioluminescent bird or bat, he says, “It is more likely than not from a creature similar to the ropen of Papua New Guinea, and my associates and I are sure about the ropen: It is a pterosaur.”

Are Glaciers in Western Hemisphere GROWING ?

Climbing Redwood Giants

MESSENGER Begins Historic Orbit Around Mercury

NASA’s MESSENGER spacecraft successfully achieved orbit around Mercury at approximately 9 p.m. EDT Thursday. This marks the first time a spacecraft has accomplished this engineering and scientific milestone at our solar system's innermost planet.

For the next several weeks, APL engineers will be focused on ensuring the spacecraft’s systems are all working well in Mercury’s harsh thermal environment. Starting on March 23, the instruments will be turned on and checked out, and on April 4 the mission's primary science phase will begin.

ATK and Astrium Unveil the Liberty™ Launch Vehicle Initiative for NASA's CCDev-2 Competition

_{The new Liberty launch vehicle will use existing infrastructure at Kennedy Space Center, such as the Mobile Launcher shown here. (PRNewsFoto/ATK)}

Based on the Most Reliable Propulsion Systems in the World, the Liberty™ can Achieve a First Flight by 2013 and Close the U.S. Human Space Flight Gap.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- ATK (NYSE: ATK) and Astrium (an EADS Company) are working together in response to NASA's Commercial Crew Development-2 (CCDev-2) procurement. The team is offering NASA launch services with the Liberty™ rocket. This new launch vehicle combines two of the world's most reliable propulsion systems, with a collective heritage of nearly 150 successful flights.

ATK would supply the human-rated first stage, which it developed under NASA's Space Exploration Program. The five-segment solid rocket first stage is derived from the Space Shuttle's four-segment solid rocket boosters (SRBs) which are built by ATK and have flown 107 successful missions since 1988 (encompassing 214 SRBs).

Astrium, the developer and manufacturer of the Ariane 5 launcher, working with Snecma (Safran Group), Europe's leading propulsion company, is providing Liberty's second stage based on the liquid-fueled cryogenic core of the Ariane 5 vehicle powered by the Vulcain2 engine. The Ariane 5 Launcher, operated by Arianespace, has flown more than 40 consecutive successful missions over nearly eight years and has launched more commercial satellites than any other launch vehicle in the world during that time. The Ariane 5 enjoys the lowest launch insurance rates in the industry due to an unrivaled safety record in the commercial launch services market.

"This team represents the true sense of international partnership in that we looked across borders to find the best for our customers," said Blake Larson, President of ATK Aerospace Systems Group. "Together we combine unique flight-proven systems and commercial experience that allows us to offer the market's most capable launch vehicle along with flexibility to meet a wide variety of emerging needs. Liberty provides greater performance at less cost than any other comparable launch vehicle."

Liberty would be a two stage launcher able to deliver 44,500 pounds to the International Space Station orbit, which would give it a launch capability to carry any crew vehicle in development. Both stages were designed for human-rating since inception and would enable unmatched crew safety. Since Liberty uses qualified, proven, and reliable systems, the team has planned an initial flight by the end of 2013, a second test flight in 2014, and operational capability in 2015.

"The Liberty initiative provides tremendous value because it builds on European Ariane 5 launcher heritage, while allowing NASA to leverage the mature first stage," said Charlie Precourt, Vice President and General Manager of ATK Space Launch Systems. "We will provide unmatched payload performance at a fraction of the cost, and we will launch it from the Kennedy Space Center using facilities that have already been built. This approach allows NASA to utilize the investments that have already been made in our nation's ground infrastructure and propulsion systems for the Space Exploration Program."

The advantages of the Liberty launch system are extensive. It is built on a solid foundation of human-rated launch technology, and leverages billions of dollars of investments by NASA and NATO-allied European Governments in the frame of the European Space Agency. This international effort—which embodies the spirit of global cooperation articulated in the recent National Space Policy—will afford NASA a readily available, cost-effective solution for human spaceflight. Finally, NASA is already extremely familiar with the Ariane and ATK launch systems, both of which have played historic roles in directly supporting NASA's mission.

The five-segment first stage design is based on more than 30 years of safety-driven improvements on the space shuttle program. The result is a higher performing, more reliable solid rocket motor, which equates to increased safety for crew and mission success for cargo. Besides adding a fifth segment, ATK also enhanced the propellant grain, provided a larger nozzle opening, and upgraded the liner and insulation — all designed to meet performance requirements and increase reliability while significantly lowering manufacturing costs.

The five-segment first stage was successfully ground tested twice (September 2009 and August 2010), and the successful Ares I-X flight test in October 2009 demonstrated vehicle proof of concept, and vital flight performance of a launch vehicle configuration very comparable to Liberty. It also demonstrated effective vehicle integration, ground processing and launch operations.

Other Liberty team members include: United Space Alliance (USA) of Houston, Texas and Kennedy Space Center, Fla. for launch vehicle integration and ground operations support, and L-3 Communications of Cincinnati, Ohio for first stage avionics.

About ATK – ATK is an aerospace, defense, and commercial products company with operations in 24 states, Puerto Rico, and internationally, and revenues of approximately $4.8 billion. News and information can be found on the Internet at www.atk.com.

About Astrium - Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, is dedicated to providing civil and defence space systems and services. In 2009, Astrium had a turnover of euro 4.8 billion and more than 15,000 employees in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and the Netherlands. Its three main areas of activity are Astrium Space Transportation for launchers and orbital infrastructure, Astrium Satellites for spacecraft and ground segment, and Astrium Services for comprehensive end-to-end value-added solutions covering secure and commercial satcoms and networks, high security satellite communications equipment, bespoke geo-information and navigation services worldwide.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2009, the Group – comprising Airbus, Astrium, Cassidian and Eurocopter – generated revenues of euro 42.8 billion and employed a workforce of more than 119,000. EADS operates in the United States through EADS North America. News and information can be found on the Internet at www.astrium.eads.net

About Snecma (Safran Group): Snecma (Safran Group) is one of the world's leading manufacturers of aircraft and space engines, with a wide range of propulsion systems on offer. The company designs and builds commercial aircraft engines – including the CFM56 world's leader – and military aircraft engines, together with a complete range of engine maintenance repair and overhaul (MRO) services. Snecma develops and produces propulsion systems and equipment for launch vehicles and satellites. In this field, Snecma brings together 40 partners across twelve of the European Space Agency's member states, to produce Ariane's Vulcain, Vulcain2 and HM7B engines. www.snecma.com

About Ariane 5: The Ariane 5 Launcher in the frame of ESA (European Space Agency) programs, is developed and manufactured by Astrium and operated by Arianespace. Arianespace is the world's leading launch Service & Solutions company, providing innovation to its customers since 1980. Backed by 21 shareholders and the European Space Agency, Arianespace offers an unrivalled family of launchers, comprising Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega, and an international workforce renowned for a culture of commitment and excellence. As of January 31, 2011, Arianespace has launched with Ariane launchers a total of 289 payloads, including more than half of all the commercial satellites now in service worldwide. It has a backlog of 21 Ariane 5 and 18 Soyuz launches, equal to more than three years of business.

City Lights Redux

A night view of the upper two-thirds of the Florida peninsula was recorded by the Expedition 26 crew aboard the International Space Station on Dec. 28, 2010. Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center are very well lighted on the Atlantic Ocean side of the peninsula to the right in this image. The Tampa-St. Petersburg area is seen on the Gulf of Mexico or left side of the frame. At top or in the north areas of the picture are portions of the state’s panhandle as well as cities and communities in southern Georgia.

NASA'S NEOWISE COMPLETES SCAN FOR ASTEROIDS AND COMETS

WASHINGTON -- NASA's NEOWISE mission has completed its survey of small
bodies, asteroids and comets, in our solar system. The mission's
discoveries of previously unknown objects include 20 comets, more
than 33,000 asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and
134 near-Earth objects (NEOs). The NEOs are asteroids and comets with
orbits that come within 28 million miles of Earth's path around the
sun.
 
NEOWISE is an enhancement of the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer,
or WISE, mission that launched in December 2009. WISE scanned the
entire celestial sky in infrared light about 1.5 times. It captured
more than 2.7 million images of objects in space, ranging from
faraway galaxies to asteroids and comets close to Earth.
 
In early October 2010, after completing its prime science mission, the
spacecraft ran out of frozen coolant that keeps its instrumentation
cold. However, two of its four infrared cameras remained operational.
These two channels were still useful for asteroid hunting, so NASA
extended the NEOWISE portion of the WISE mission by four months, with
the primary purpose of hunting for more asteroids and comets, and to
finish one complete scan of the main asteroid belt.
 
"Even just one year of observations from the NEOWISE project has
significantly increased our catalog of data on NEOs and the other
small bodies of the solar systems," said Lindley Johnson, NASA's
program executive for the NEO Observation Program.
Now that NEOWISE has successfully completed a full sweep of the main
asteroid belt, the WISE spacecraft will go into hibernation mode and
remain in polar orbit around the Earth, where it could be called back
into service in the future.
 
In addition to discovering new asteroids and comets, NEOWISE also
confirmed the presence of objects in the main belt that already had
been detected. In just one year, it observed about 153,000 rocky
bodies out of approximately 500,000 known objects. Those include the
33,000 that NEOWISE discovered.
 
NEOWISE also observed known objects closer and farther to us than the
main belt, including roughly 2,000 asteroids that orbit along with
Jupiter, hundreds of NEOs and more than 100 comets.
 
These observations will be key to determining the objects' sizes and
compositions. Visible-light data alone reveals how much sunlight
reflects off an asteroid, whereas infrared data is much more directly
related to the object's size. By combining visible and infrared
measurements, astronomers also can learn about the compositions of
the rocky bodies -- for example, whether they are solid or crumbly.
The findings will lead to a much-improved picture of the various
asteroid populations.
 
NEOWISE took longer to survey the whole asteroid belt than WISE took
to scan the entire sky because most of the asteroids are moving in
the same direction around the sun as the spacecraft moves while it
orbits the Earth. The spacecraft field of view had to catch up to,
and lap, the movement of the asteroids in order to see them all.
 
"You can think of Earth and the asteroids as racehorses moving along
in a track," said Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator of NEOWISE
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "We're moving
along together around the sun, but the main belt asteroids are like
horses on the outer part of the track. They take longer to orbit than
us, so we eventually lap them."
 
NEOWISE data on the asteroid and comet orbits are catalogued at the
NASA-funded International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, a
clearinghouse for information about all solar system bodies at the
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass. The science
team is analyzing the infrared observations now and will publish new
findings in the coming months.
 
When combined with WISE observations, NEOWISE data will aid in the
discovery of the closest dim stars, called brown dwarfs. These
observations have the potential to reveal a brown dwarf even closer
to us than our closest known star, Proxima Centauri, if such an
object does exist. Likewise, if there is a hidden gas-giant planet in
the outer reaches of our solar system, data from WISE and NEO-WISE
could detect it.
 
The first batch of observations from the WISE mission will be
available to the public and astronomical community in April.
"WISE has unearthed a mother lode of amazing sources, and we're having
a great time figuring out their nature," said Edward (Ned) Wright,
the principal investigator of WISE at UCLA.
 
JPL manages WISE for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at the
agency's headquarters in Washington. The mission was competitively
selected under NASA's Explorers Program, which NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages. The Space Dynamics
Laboratory in Logan, Utah, built the science instrument, and Ball
Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colo., built the
spacecraft. Science operations and data processing take place at the
Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena. JPL manages NEOWISE for NASA's Planetary
Sciences Division. The mission's data processing also takes place at
the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center.
 
For more information about WISE, visit:
 
 
 
http://www.nasa.gov/wise

NASA's Hubble Finds Most Distant Galaxy Candidate Ever Seen in Universe

WASHINGTON (MMD Newswire) January 26, 2011 -- Astronomers have pushed NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to its limits by finding what is likely to be the most distant object ever seen in the universe. The object's light traveled 13.2 billion years to reach Hubble, roughly 150 million years longer than the previous record holder. The age of the universe is approximately 13.7 billion years.

The tiny, dim object is a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the big bang. More than 100 such mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our Milky Way. The new research offers surprising evidence that the rate of star birth in the early universe grew dramatically, increasing by about a factor of 10 from 480 million years to 650 million years after the big bang.

"NASA continues to reach for new heights, and this latest Hubble discovery will deepen our understanding of the universe and benefit generations to come," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, who was the pilot of the space shuttle mission that carried Hubble to orbit. "We could only dream when we launched Hubble more than 20 years ago that it would have the ability to make these types of groundbreaking discoveries and rewrite textbooks."

Astronomers don't know exactly when the first stars appeared in the universe, but every step farther from Earth takes them deeper into the early formative years when stars and galaxies began to emerge in the aftermath of the big bang.

"These observations provide us with our best insights yet into the earlier primeval objects that have yet to be found," said Rychard Bouwens of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Bouwens and Illingworth report the discovery in the Jan. 27 issue of the British science journal Nature.

This observation was made with the Wide Field Camera 3 starting just a few months after it was installed in the observatory in May 2009, during the last NASA space shuttle servicing mission to Hubble. After more than a year of detailed observations and analysis, the object was positively identified in the camera's Hubble Ultra Deep Field-Infrared data taken in the late summers of 2009 and 2010.

The object appears as a faint dot of starlight in the Hubble exposures. It is too young and too small to have the familiar spiral shape that is characteristic of galaxies in the local universe. Although its individual stars can't be resolved by Hubble, the evidence suggests this is a compact galaxy of hot stars formed more than 100-to-200 million years earlier from gas trapped in a pocket of dark matter.

"We're peering into an era where big changes are afoot," said Garth Illingworth of the University of California at Santa Cruz. "The rapid rate at which the star birth is changing tells us if we go a little further back in time we're going to see even more dramatic changes, closer to when the first galaxies were just starting to form."

The proto-galaxy is only visible at the farthest infrared wavelengths observable by Hubble. Observations of earlier times, when the first stars and galaxies were forming, will require Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The hypothesized hierarchical growth of galaxies -- from stellar clumps to majestic spirals and ellipticals -- didn't become evident until the Hubble deep field exposures. The first 500 million years of the universe's existence, from a z of 1000 to 10, is the missing chapter in the hierarchical growth of galaxies. It's not clear how the universe assembled structure out of a darkening, cooling fireball of the big bang. As with a developing embryo, astronomers know there must have been an early period of rapid changes that would set the initial conditions to make the universe of galaxies what it is today.

"After 20 years of opening our eyes to the universe around us, Hubble continues to awe and surprise astronomers," said Jon Morse, NASA's Astrophysics Division director at the agency's headquarters in Washington. "It now offers a tantalizing look at the very edge of the known universe -- a frontier NASA strives to explore."

Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.

NASA Selects United Negro College Fund To Help Build Science Careers

_{Charles F. Bolden. Former shuttle astronaut and current director of NASA}

WASHINGTON -- NASA has selected the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corp. of Falls Church, Va., to administer a $1 million career development and educational program designed to address the critical shortage of U.S. minority students in science and engineering fields.

The NASA Astrobiology Institute's (NAI) Minority Institution Research Support (MIRS) program in Moffett Field, Calif., is providing the funding for the four-year effort. The program will provide opportunities for up to four faculty members and eight students from minority-serving institutions to partner with astrobiology investigators. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and the future of life on Earth and the potential for life elsewhere.

"Providing new education opportunities for minority students will both enrich lives and answer a critical need for proficiency in science and engineering," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. "But just as importantly, the program is an investment to cultivate imaginative thinking about the field of astrobiology."

The United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corp. will use its extensive database of 14,000 registrants to develop an online community to provide webinars, virtual training and videoconferences, and provide outreach and recruitment for program participants. The program's objective is to engage more teachers from under-represented schools in astrobiology research and increase the number of students pursuing careers in astrobiology.

"Our nation's underserved populations are a tremendous resource on which we must draw, not just for science, but for everything we do," said Carl Pilcher, director of NASA's Astrobiology Institute. "We are extremely pleased that the NAI MIRS program will continue contributing under the leadership of such a strong and experienced partner."

Founded in 1998, NAI is a partnership between NASA, 14 U.S. teams of universities and other organizations, and six international consortia. NAI's goals are to promote, conduct, and lead interdisciplinary astrobiology research, train a new generation of astrobiology researchers, and share the excitement of the field.

NAI is part of NASA's Astrobiology Program at the agency's headquarters in Washington. The institute initiated the MIRS program in 2002 as part of its mission to help train a new generation of researchers in astrobiology and increase diversity within the astrobiology community.

_{because a mind is a terrible thing to waste}

LRO Sees Apollo Landing Sites

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has returned its first imagery of the Apollo moon landing sites. The pictures show the Apollo missions' lunar module descent stages sitting on the moon's surface, as long shadows from a low sun angle make the modules' locations evident.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, or LROC, was able to image five of the six Apollo sites, with the remaining Apollo 12 site expected to be photographed in the coming weeks.

The satellite reached lunar orbit June 23 and captured the Apollo sites between July 11 and 15. Though it had been expected that LRO would be able to resolve the remnants of the Apollo mission, these first images came before the spacecraft reached its final mapping orbit. Future LROC images from these sites will have two to three times greater resolution.

Although these pictures provide a reminder of past NASA exploration, LRO's primary focus is on paving the way for the future. By returning detailed lunar data, the mission will help NASA identify safe landing sites for future explorers, locate potential resources, describe the moon's radiation environment and demonstrate new technologies.

"Not only do these images reveal the great accomplishments of Apollo, they also show us that lunar exploration continues," said LRO project scientist Richard Vondrak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "They demonstrate how LRO will be used to identify the best destinations for the next journeys to the moon."

The spacecraft's current elliptical orbit resulted in image resolutions that were slightly different for each site but were all around four feet per pixel. Because the deck of the descent stage is about 12 feet in diameter, the Apollo relics themselves fill an area of about nine pixels. However, because the sun was low to the horizon when the images were made, even subtle variations in topography create long shadows. Standing slightly more than ten feet above the surface, each Apollo descent stage creates a distinct shadow that fills roughly 20 pixels.

The image of the Apollo 14 landing site had a particularly desirable lighting condition that allowed visibility of additional details. The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package, a set of scientific instruments placed by the astronauts at the landing site, is discernable, as are the faint trails between the module and instrument package left by the astronauts' footprints.

Launched on June 18, LRO carries seven scientific instruments, all of which are currently undergoing calibration and testing prior to the spacecraft reaching its primary mission orbit. The LROC instrument comprises three cameras -- two high-resolution Narrow Angle Cameras and one lower resolution Wide Angle Camera. LRO will be directed into its primary mission orbit in August, a nearly-circular orbit about 31 miles above the lunar surface.

Goddard built and manages LRO, a NASA mission with international participation from the Institute for Space Research in Moscow. Russia provided the neutron detector aboard the spacecraft.

_{Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle. Image width: 282 meters (about 925 ft.)
Apollo 15 lunar module, Falcon. Image width: 384 meters (about 1,260 ft.)}

_{Apollo 16 lunar module, Orion.
Image width: 256 meters (about 840 ft.) Apollo 17 lunar module, Challenger. Image width: 359 meters (about 1,178 ft.)}

_{Apollo 14 lunar module, Antares. Image width: 538 meters (about 1,765 ft.)}

_{This photograph shows Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin in front of the lunar module. The photo helps provide a scale to the LROC images shown above. Credit: NASA/Neil Armstrong}

_{This graphic shows the approximate locations of the Apollo moon landing sites. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio}

NASA's LRO Exposes Moon's Complex, Turbulent Youth

_{Map showing global compositional variations measured by the Diviner lunar radiometer aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image credit: NASA/GSFC/UCLA/JPL}

PASADENA, Calif. – The moon's surface is more complex than previously thought and was bombarded by two distinct populations of asteroids or comets in its youth, according to three new papers in the Sept. 17 issue of Science that describe data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Two of the papers describe data from LRO's Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment instrument that reveal the complex geologic processes that forged the lunar surface. The data showed previously unseen compositional differences in the crustal highlands, and confirmed the presence of anomalously silica-rich material in five distinct regions.

All minerals and rocks absorb and emit energy with unique signatures that reveal their identity and formation mechanisms. For the first time, the Diviner instrument is providing scientists with global, high-resolution infrared maps of the moon, enabling them to make a definitive identification of silicate minerals commonly found within its crust. "Diviner is literally viewing the moon in a whole new light," said Benjamin Greenhagen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., lead author of one of the Diviner papers.

Lunar geology can be roughly broken down into two categories – the anorthositic highlands, rich in calcium and aluminium, and the basaltic "maria," giant impact basins filled with solidified lava flows that are abundant in iron and magnesium. Both of these crustal rocks are considered the direct result of crystallization from lunar mantle material, the partially molten layer beneath the crust.

Diviner's observations have confirmed that most lunar terrains have signatures consistent with compositions in these two broad categories. But they have also revealed lunar soil compositions with more sodium than that of typical anorthosite crust. The widespread nature of these soils reveals that there may have been variations in the chemistry and cooling rate of the magma ocean that formed the early lunar crust, or they could be the result of secondary processing of the early lunar crust.

Most impressively, in several locations around the moon, Diviner has detected highly silicic minerals such as quartz, potassium-rich and sodium-rich feldspar -- minerals that are only associated with highly evolved lithologies, or rocks that have undergone extensive magmatic processing. Detection of silicic minerals at these locations is significant, as they occur in areas previously shown to exhibit anomalously high abundances of the element thorium, another proxy for highly evolved lithologies.

"The silicic features we've found on the moon are fundamentally different from the more typical basaltic mare and anorthositic highlands," said Timothy Glotch of Stony Brook University, N.Y., lead author of the second Diviner paper. "The fact that we see this composition in multiple geologic settings suggests that there may have been multiple processes producing these rocks."

One thing not apparent in the data is evidence for pristine lunar mantle material, which previous studies have suggested may be exposed at some places on the lunar surface. Even in the South Pole Aitken basin, also known as SPA, the largest, oldest, and deepest impact crater on the moon -- deep enough to have penetrated through the crust and into the mantle -- there is no evidence of mantle material.

The implications of this are as yet unknown. Perhaps there are no such exposures of mantle material, or maybe they occur in areas too small for Diviner to detect. But it's likely that if the impact that formed this crater did excavate any mantle material, it has since been mixed with crustal material from later impacts inside and outside the basin.

"The new Diviner data will help in selecting the appropriate landing sites for potential future robotic missions to return samples from SPA," Greenhagen said. "We want to use these samples to date the SPA-forming impact and potentially study the lunar mantle, so it's important to use Diviner data to identify areas with minimal mixing."

In the other paper, lead author James Head of Brown University in Providence, R.I., describes an analysis of a detailed global topographic map of the moon created using LRO's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter. This new dataset shows that the older highland impactor population can be clearly distinguished from the younger population in the lunar maria. The highlands have a greater density of large craters, implying that the earlier population of impactors had a proportionally greater number of large fragments than the population characterizing later lunar history, Head said.

Head said details about impactor populations on the moon have implications for the earliest history of all the planets in the inner solar system, including Earth. "Like the Rosetta stone, the lunar record can be used to translate the 'hieroglyphics' of the poorly preserved impact record on Earth," he said.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built and manages the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, a NASA mission with international participation from the Institute for Space Research in Moscow. JPL designed, built and operates the Diviner instrument. The University of California, Los Angeles is the home institution of Diviner's principal investigator, David Paige. LOLA was built by Goddard.

NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover

_{An artist's concept illustrates what the Mars rover Curiosity will look like on Mars. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.}

_{Engineers working in a clean room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, installed six new wheels on the Curiosity rover, and rotated all six wheels at once on July 9, 2010. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech}

Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity, is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, a long-term program of robotic exploration of the Red Planet. The mission is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in late 2011, and arrive at an intriguing region of Mars in August 2012. The goal of Curiosity, a rolling laboratory, is to assess whether Mars ever had an environment capable of supporting microbial life and conditions favorable for preserving clues about life, if it existed. This will help us better understand whether life could have existed on the Red Planet and, if so, where we might look for it in the future.

1. How Big Is It?: The Mini Cooper-sized rover is much bigger than its rover predecessors, Spirit, Opportunity and Sojourner. Curiosity is twice as long (about 2.8 meters, or 9 feet) and four times as heavy as Spirit and Opportunity, which landed in 2004. Sojourner, about the size of a microwave oven, landed in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder mission.

2. Landing--Where and How: In November 2008, possible landing sites were narrowed to four finalists, all linked to ancient wet conditions. NASA will select a site believed to be among the most likely places to hold a geological record of a favorable environment for life. The site must also meet safe-landing criteria. The landing system is similar to a sky crane heavy-lift helicopter. After a parachute slows the rover's descent toward Mars, a rocket-powered backpack will lower the rover on a tether during the final moments before landing. This method allows landing a very large, heavy rover on Mars (instead of the airbag landing systems of previous Mars rovers). Other innovations enable a landing within a smaller target area than previous Mars missions.

3. Toolkit: Curiosity will use 10 science instruments to examine rocks, soil and the atmosphere. A laser will vaporize patches of rock from a distance, and another instrument will search for organic compounds. Other instruments include mast-mounted cameras to study targets from a distance, arm-mounted instruments to study targets they touch, and deck-mounted analytical instruments to determine the composition of rock and soil samples acquired with a powdering drill and a scoop.

4. Big Wheels: Each of Curiosity's six wheels has an independent drive motor. The two front and two rear wheels also have individual steering motors. This steering allows the rover to make 360-degree turns in-place on the Mars surface. The wheels' diameter is double the wheel diameter on Spirit and Opportunity, which will help Curiosity roll over obstacles up to 75 centimeters (30 inches) high.

5. Rover Power: A nuclear battery will enable Curiosity to operate year-round and farther from the equator than would be possible with only solar power.

Crescent Moon

A last quarter crescent moon above Earth's horizon is featured in this image photographed by the Expedition 24 crew on the International Space Station.

from Webmaster B. javamanmonk: The 2010 International "Observe the Moon Night" was on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010, but it is fun to observe the moon on just about any evening, get outside tonight and take a look, share your photos with us on Facebook or other social media.

Observe the Moon!

_{Natinal Voice Gazette stock image of half moon}

_{Natinal Voice Gazette stock image of the Moon in Florida on September 11, 2010}

09.16.10 - The moon is the Earth's nearest celestial neighbor and a geologic wonderland. There are mountains that are many miles high, lava flows several hundred miles long and enormous lava tubes and craters of every size. It is the brightest object in the night sky and has profoundly influenced the course of human civilization.

For early humans, the moon provided lighting for hunting and defined when crops should be planted and harvested. Markings of lunar phases appear in cave paintings in France and defined the arrangement of Stonehenge.

The 2010 International "Observe the Moon Night" is happening on Saturday, Sept. 18.

_{A setting last quarter crescent moon amid the thin line of Earth's atmosphere. (NASA)}

_{A last quarter crescent moon is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 24 crew member on the International Space Station. (NASA)}

NASA'S LUNAR SPACECRAFT COMPLETES EXPLORATION MISSION PHASE

WASHINGTON -- NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, will
complete the exploration phase of its mission on Sept. 16, after a
number of successes that transformed our understanding of Earth's
nearest neighbor.

LRO completed a one-year exploration mission in a polar orbit
approximately 31 miles above the moon's surface. It produced a
comprehensive map of the lunar surface in unprecedented detail;
searched for resources and safe landing sites for potential future
missions to the moon; and measured lunar temperatures and radiation
levels.

The mission is turning its attention from exploration objectives to
scientific research, as program management moves from NASA's
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to the Science Mission
Directorate at the agency's Headquarters in Washington.

"LRO has been an outstanding success. The spacecraft has performed
brilliantly," said Doug Cooke, associate administrator of the
Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. "LRO's science and
engineering teams achieved all of the mission's objectives, and the
incredible data LRO gathered will provide discoveries about the moon
for years to come."

The LRO team will continue to send data gathered during the last year
to the Planetary Data System, which archives and distributes
scientific information from NASA planetary missions, astronomical
observations and laboratory measurements.

By the time LRO achieves full mission success in March, and its data
is processed and released to the scientific community, it will have
sent more information to the Planetary Data System than all other
previous planetary missions combined. During its new phase of
discovery, LRO will continue to map the moon for two to four more
years.

"The official start of LRO's science phase should write a new and
intriguing chapter in lunar research," said Ed Weiler, associate
administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. "This mission is
one more asset added to NASA's vast science portfolio."

The spacecraft launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida
carrying a suite of seven instruments on June 18, 2009. LRO formally
began its detailed survey of the moon in September 2009.

Results from the mission include: new observations of the Apollo
landing sites; indications that permanently shadowed and nearby
regions may harbor water and hydrogen; observations that large areas
in the permanently shadowed regions are colder than Pluto; detailed
information about lunar terrain; and the first evidence of a globally
distributed population of thrust faults that indicates the moon has
recently contracted and may still be shrinking.

LRO also took high resolution pictures of the Lunokhod 1 rover that
had been lost for almost 40 years. The rover, which carries a
retroreflector, was located to within approximately 150 feet. The
accurate position data enabled researchers on Earth to bounce laser
signals off the retroreflector for the first time ever. The
retroreflector is providing important new information about the
position and motion of the moon.

LRO also supported the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite
impact, a companion mission sent to determine if the moon's poles
harbor water ice, by helping to select a promising impact site. LRO
observed both the expanding plume that arose after the impact and the
evolving temperature at the site.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., built and
manages LRO for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. The
Institute for Space Research in Moscow provides the neutron detector
aboard the spacecraft. For more information about LRO, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/lro

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