Jupiter's South Pole

This rather nifty picture of Jupiter's south pole was taken by Cassini as it passed by on its way to Saturn in December, 2000. The image is a montage of 36 separate images, and shows the south pole in the center and the equator at the edge. Certainly a new view of the planet. More here.

Solar Eclipse

A total solar eclipse today swept all the way from Brazil to Mongolia, providing an awesome show for all those lucky enough to be in its path. Some of the reactions are highlighted in this NY Times article, and a nice simulation of how an eclipse occurs can be found here. A more extensive site here.

Disabled Spirit Faces Martian Winter

Mars Exploration Rover Spirit recently experienced trouble with one of its six wheels, and as recovery efforts failed, the rover is now operating with only five wheels. Because winter is approaching in Spirit's area of the planet, the rover is moving toward "McCool Hill" (sadly not in Google Mars' database), whose north-facing slopes will allow for maximum daily ouput from the solar panels. Spirit has spent the last few weeks exploring "Home Plate," where it discovered the complex layered rocks pictured above.

On Inflation

Inflation theory, proposed around 25 years ago, has posited that quantum fluctuations present at the outset of the Big Bang were amplified during a short period of extremely rapid expansion to form the matter density fluctuations that eventually resulted in the formation of the first stars and galaxies in the Universe. New data from the Wilkonson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) - mapping both temperature and polarization variations in the CMB - are enabling scientists to discriminate between competing models for inflation, representing a tremendous advance for cosmological physics. The NYTimes article is here.

Essay: Quantum Mysticism

For millenia, humans have possessed a strong belief in our centrality and privileged place in the Universe. With advances in science, however, this belief has been challenged repeatedly; Earth and humanity far from constitute the center of the Universe, instead, we exist on a planet in an average sort of solar system, with an average sort of star, in an average sort of galaxy, in no particularly favored location in the Universe. Receiving little affirmation from astronomy, the search for evidence of our privilege has thus turned toward the quantum world. A nice essay from the NYTimes.

Google Brings Us Mars

Thanks to Google, the surface of Mars can now be explored just as Google Earth has allowed us to explore Earth. Google Mars is the result of a collaboration between Google and Arizona State University, and utilizes 17,000 images from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyseey. The surface can be explored as a relief map showing surface elevation, optical images, or infrared measurements. Google Mars provides surprising surface detail, along with information about landmarks such as the landing sites of the Mars Exploration Rovers and Mars Valles Marineris, Mars' Grand Canyon. Definitely worth a browse, and when future MER press releases mention sites you aren't familiar with, you know where to go. Also check out Google Moon to view the sites of the Apollo moon landings.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Approaches Mars

NASA's Mars Reconnaisasance Orbiter is beginning its final approach to the planet today. In order to arrive in its low orbit around the planet, the spacecraft will fire its main thrusters for 27 minutes this afternoon, resulting in a decrease in speed by about 20%. In the next six months, the spacecraft will go through a process of aerobreaking, in which the spacecraft will go through 500 successive dips toward a low orbit around Mars by utilizing the friction in its atmosphere to decrease its orbit size. The primary science phase of the mission thus won't begin until November. Here is a nice animation of the aerobreaking process, and more animations available here. Image credit HubbleSite.org.

Astrobiology Budget

As mentioned in an earlier post, the White House's newly proposed NASA budget has 2007 funding for NASA's Astrobiology program cut to 50% of its 2005 level. Here is a commentary by Rocco Mancinelli, the SETI Institute Principal Investigator, about the importance and implications of the field of astrobiology.

Potential Liquid Water on Enceladus

NASA's Cassini mission has found potential liquid water on Saturn's moon Enceladus, pictured in the image above. The images from Cassini have shown jets and plumes ejected from the surface of Enceladus at very high speeds. Scientists believe that the jets are erupting from pockets of liquid water near the moon's surface, similar to cold versions of the geysers at Yellowstone. Though other moons in the solar system are believed to have liquid water (like Jupiter's moon Europa), in Enceladus' case, this water may be only tens of meters away from the moon's surface.