Curiosity is a new Mars Rover that looks like a UFO when it’s all folded up in its space-pod, but looks like a Transformer when it is deployed.

The space travelling robot has been folded up and sealed into its anti-germ container (to avoid letting germs out into the Martian ecosystem, the rover is sterilized and sealed up) in preparation for its launch, which is coming up soon.

According to NASA, Launch Window opens at 10:21 EST on November 25th. Arrival at the planet Mars is expected in August, 2012 .

The main thing this robot is curious about is the presence of microbial life, past or present, on the red planet.

You can keep track of Mars rover missions on the NASA web site, here

Remember the gravity mapping project on the moon?

NASA’s Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-B spacecraft successfully executed its first flight path correction maneuver Wednesday, Oct. 5. The rocket burn helped refine the spacecraft’s trajectory as it travels from Earth to the moon and provides separation between itself and its mirror twin, GRAIL-A. The first burn for GRAIL-A occurred on Sept. 30.

“Both spacecraft are alive and with these burns, prove that they’re kicking too, as expected,” said David Lehman, GRAIL project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “There is a lot of time and space between now and lunar orbit insertion, but everything is looking good.”

More here

NASA will hold a news conference at 1 p.m. EDT (10 a.m. PDT) on Thurs., Sept. 29, to reveal near-Earth asteroid findings and implications for future research. The briefing will take place at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission, launched in December 2009, captured millions of images of galaxies and objects in space. During the news conference, panelists will discuss results from an enhancement of WISE called Near-Earth Object WISE (NEOWISE) that hunted for asteroids.

Details here.

Tonight and tomorrow, there should be auroras visible much much farther south than normal. According to Universe Today you should see Auroras in most US states north of the southern tier of states. Unless they are exaggerating. Worth a look.

Or, for that matter, a solar eclipse? If the moon is going around the earth once a month shouldn’t the moon’s shadow fall on the earth (a solar eclipse) every month, and the earth’s shadow fall on the moon (a lunar eclipse) once a month?
Continue reading Why isn’t there a lunar eclipse every month? →

As you know, the UARS (Satellite) is in the process of de-orbiting. It is a bit more like a death watch (have you ever done one of those?) than a technological procedure. The satellite was pushed into a dangerous orbit that would drag it down within several days, and it is now losing its grip on orbital inertia as it plows ungracefully through thicker and thicker regions of the upper atmosphere. One wonders what might affect UARS’s orbit. Would a powerful weather front with tall thunderheads, or a hurricane cause enough extra molecules of air to be pushed up a bit farther, to cause the satellite to slow slightly as it plummet through a bump in the atmosphere? Does it take a hit whenever it passes over the Tibetan Plateaux? Is there enough of a difference in friction on the sunny vs shady side of the earth to matter? What about lunar tidal forces, will they start to count? I know nothing of these things so this is all conjecture. For all I know there are Leprechauns riding on the damn thing that at some point will tip it over and make it fall to Earth.

In any event, NASA does have a software model to calculate the likely time of death of UARS, and the time equals, in turn, the location of where whatever debris is left of the trolley-sized space-machine hits the planet. And this morning, NASA has put out a new estimate.

UARS will likely re-enter tomorrow, September 23rd, during the afternoon, US Eastern Daylight Time. It will NOT be passing over North America during that time. Remember that the field of debris is expected to be quite long and narrow.

What this means is that you should keep an eye on Twitter. The hashtag is #UARS. The moment you start to see tweets of fireworks or debris, plot it on a map. Two points is all you’ll need to predict the downstream end of the debris field.

You should have a pair of gloves and several different size bags ready, as well as some stick-on labels, a Magic Marker, and a notebook and pencil to label the bits and take notes on where you found them.

Good luck, Astro-litter-bugs!

[Photo from Wikipedia]

NASA’s WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer ) telescope has collected some important data on black holes, in particular, about the big jets of energy that stream out of them.

Scientists study jets to learn more about the extreme environments around black holes. Much has been learned about the material feeding black holes, called accretion disks, and the jets themselves, through studies using X-rays, gamma rays and radio waves. But key measurements of the brightest part of the jets, located at their bases, have been difficult despite decades of work. WISE is offering a new window into this missing link through its infrared observations.

“Imagine what it would be like if our sun were to undergo sudden, random bursts, becoming three times brighter in a matter of hours and then fading back again. That’s the kind of fury we observed in this jet,” said Poshak Gandhi, a scientist with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). He is the lead author of a new study on the results appearing in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. “With WISE’s infrared vision, we were able to zoom in on the inner regions near the base of the stellar-mass black hole’s jet for the first time and the physics of jets in action.”

More here

According to the latest estimates from NASA, the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere next Thursday, Friday or Saturday. It will strike somewhere between …. well, it will strike the earth somewhere, not likely near the poles. Could hit anywhere, really.

UPDATE HERE

Continue reading UARS will crash on September 23rd, +/1 one day →

The asteroid Baptistina has been on trial for several years, implicated in the K/T Boundary mass extinction event that killed off the dinosuars. But the jury is finally in. Baptistina is off the hook.
Continue reading Baptistina Cleared in Planetary Extinction Case →

The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA’s Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet — a planet orbiting two stars — 200 light-years from Earth.

Unlike Star Wars’ Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet, known as Kepler-16b, by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it.

“This discovery confirms a new class of planetary systems that could harbor life,” Kepler Principal Investigator William Borucki, of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said. “Given that most stars in our galaxy are part of a binary system, this means the opportunities for life are much broader than if planets form only around single stars. This milestone discovery confirms a theory that scientists have had for decades but could not prove until now.”

Read the whole thing and see the pretty pictures here.

It has been something of a struggle over the years for the people of the Minnesota Planetarium Society. They’ve been trying to get a planetarium in Minneapolis for some time now, but for a number of reasons (not their fault) this has proved too difficult. Now there is good news. The Bell Museum, which is part of the University of Minnesota, will “absorb” the planetarium project, and eventually, there may very well be a dome that will replicate the night sky in Minnesota. I spoke with Nathan Laible, the Board Chair of the widely respected Minnesota Planetarium Society about the Planetarium Project, its rocky history, and it’s very exciting future.
Continue reading Minnesota Planetarium Society Absorbed By Bell Natural History Museum! →

Probably not, but they are cagily announcing a rather unusual press conference that has a certain familiar ring to it.

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — NASA will host a news briefing at 11 a.m. PDT, Thursday, Sept. 15, to announce a new discovery by the Kepler mission. The briefing will be held in the Syvertson auditorium, building N-201, at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. The event will be carried live on NASA Television and the agency’s website…

The Kepler mission is focused on finding Earth-size planets in the Goldilocks Zone, where, say, alien life could live. But of course it wouldn’t be alien to themselves, you understand.

Interesting and potentially strange but it gets stranger:

A representative from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of Lucasfilm Ltd., will join a panel of scientists to discuss the discovery.

Which can only mean one thing, right?

Source

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA’s twin lunar Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft lifted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 9:08 a.m. EDT (6:08 a.m. PDT) Saturday, Sept. 10, to study the moon in unprecedented detail.

GRAIL-A is scheduled to reach the moon on New Year’s Eve 2011, while GRAIL-B will arrive New Year’s Day 2012. The two solar-powered spacecraft will fly in tandem orbits around the moon to measure its gravity field. GRAIL will answer longstanding questions about the moon and give scientists a better understanding of how Earth and other rocky planets in the solar system formed.

“If there was ever any doubt that Florida’s Space Coast would continue to be open for business, that thought was drowned out by the roar of today’s GRAIL launch,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. “GRAIL and many other exciting upcoming missions make clear that NASA is taking its next big leap into deep space exploration, and the space industry continues to provide the jobs and workers needed to support this critical effort.”

Read the rest here.

NASA is giving the public the power to journey through the solar system using a new interactive Web-based tool.

The “Eyes on the Solar System” interface combines video game technology and NASA data to create an environment for users to ride along with agency spacecraft and explore the cosmos. Screen graphics and information such as planet locations and spacecraft maneuvers use actual space mission data.

“This is the first time the public has been able to see the entire solar system and our missions moving together in real time,” said Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s Headquarters in Washington. “It demonstrates NASA’s continued commitment to share our science with everyone.”

The virtual environment uses the Unity game engine to display models of planets, moons, asteroids, comets and spacecraft as they move through our solar system. With keyboard and mouse controls, users cruise through space to explore anything that catches their interest. A free browser plug-in, available at the site, is required to run the Web application.

“You are now free to move about the solar system,” said Blaine Baggett, executive manager in the Office of Communication and Education at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. “See what NASA’s spacecraft see — and where they are right now — all without leaving your computer.”

Read the rest here