Dinosaur 13 [Pharyngula]

Last night, I watched an excellent documentary, Dinosaur 13, so I’m going to recommend it to you all — it’s available on Amazon streaming video and Netlix. It’s the story of the fossil T. rex, Sue, and it’s enthralling and depressing.

The fun part is the beginning, when some commercial fossil hunters discover tyrannosaur bones eroding out of a hillside in South Dakota. I had some mixed feelings — those bones belong in a museum, not serving for profit! — but it’s clear that this team from the Black Hills Institute were pros, and were also skillful preparators. It’s a difficult balance, because while they are trying to make money selling specimens, it’s the nature of fossils that they really are just weathering out of the rocks, and if someone doesn’t collect them, they’ll just be lost rubble.

And Sue was an amazing find. The skeleton is 80% complete, and she was the largest of her species found to date. Peter Larson and his crew were enraptured.

Then the documentary turns grim. The law stepped in and argued that since it was found on federal land, the Black Hills Institute had no right to the specimen, and seized everything. It got tied up in an ugly legal wrangle for years. They decided that the rancher, Maurice Williams, who had let Larson dig up the skeleton for $5000 had no right to sell it either: he was leasing government land for his livestock, so it wasn’t his (apparently he hadn’t been paying for it, either).

There’s an incredible injustice. Larson is found guilty of not filling out some forms, and is given a punitive sentence of 2 years in federal prison. Sue is auctioned off for about $8 million dollars, and the money goes to…Maurice Williams? That part made no sense. It should have gone to paleontological research, if anything, not another lucky parasitic rancher who contributed nothing to the discovery.

At least Sue went to a good home, the Field Museum. And now I’m thinking that maybe this summer I’ll take a weekend drive out to the western side of South Dakota and visit the Black Hills Institute Museum.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1YOpMIt

Last night, I watched an excellent documentary, Dinosaur 13, so I’m going to recommend it to you all — it’s available on Amazon streaming video and Netlix. It’s the story of the fossil T. rex, Sue, and it’s enthralling and depressing.

The fun part is the beginning, when some commercial fossil hunters discover tyrannosaur bones eroding out of a hillside in South Dakota. I had some mixed feelings — those bones belong in a museum, not serving for profit! — but it’s clear that this team from the Black Hills Institute were pros, and were also skillful preparators. It’s a difficult balance, because while they are trying to make money selling specimens, it’s the nature of fossils that they really are just weathering out of the rocks, and if someone doesn’t collect them, they’ll just be lost rubble.

And Sue was an amazing find. The skeleton is 80% complete, and she was the largest of her species found to date. Peter Larson and his crew were enraptured.

Then the documentary turns grim. The law stepped in and argued that since it was found on federal land, the Black Hills Institute had no right to the specimen, and seized everything. It got tied up in an ugly legal wrangle for years. They decided that the rancher, Maurice Williams, who had let Larson dig up the skeleton for $5000 had no right to sell it either: he was leasing government land for his livestock, so it wasn’t his (apparently he hadn’t been paying for it, either).

There’s an incredible injustice. Larson is found guilty of not filling out some forms, and is given a punitive sentence of 2 years in federal prison. Sue is auctioned off for about $8 million dollars, and the money goes to…Maurice Williams? That part made no sense. It should have gone to paleontological research, if anything, not another lucky parasitic rancher who contributed nothing to the discovery.

At least Sue went to a good home, the Field Museum. And now I’m thinking that maybe this summer I’ll take a weekend drive out to the western side of South Dakota and visit the Black Hills Institute Museum.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1YOpMIt

NRL-Developed Micro-UAV Named POPULAR SCIENCE ‘Best of What’s New’

Winner of the 2015 POPULAR SCIENCE ‘Best of What’s New Award,’ the NRL-developed Close-in Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft (CICADA) is a low-cost, GPS-guided micro disposable air vehicle designed for launch from manned or unmanned aircraft, balloons, or precision guided munitions. Essentially a flying printed circuit board, the micro-unmanned glider can be equipped with mission specific sensors and has an integrated rate gyroscope and GPS receiver for navigation and flight control of the vehicle. (Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

The small glider Close-in Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft (CICADA) developed by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) aerospace engineers, Aaron D. Kahn and Dr. Daniel J. Edwards, has been named ‘2015 Best of What’s New‘ by the distinguished science and technology publication, POPULAR SCIENCE.

The CICADA unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a low-cost, GPS-guided micro disposable air vehicle that can be deployed in large numbers. Having no source of propulsion onboard, the small craft is released from another airborne platform at altitude and the CICADA then glides to its destination. Its lack of a motor and small size makes it nearly undetectable in flight.

“Essentially a flying circuit board, CICADA is inherently stable in glide and is designed for launch from manned or unmanned aircraft, balloons, or precision guided munitions,” Edwards says. “After deployment, CICADA glides to a waypoint, enters an orbit, and then descends within that orbit until it reaches the ground, typically landing with an average error of fifteen feet from the commanded orbit.”

Having a 3.5 to 1 glide ratio, CICADA allows sensors to be deployed at very comfortable standoff distances. In the air, meteorological, chemical, or biological measurements can be taken, quickly sampling a large volume of the sky. Once on the ground, communication nodes will be established.

The POPULAR SCIENCE 28^th Annual Best of What’s New Award nominates ideas that are revolutionary, that transform their category, solve an unsolvable problem, and incorporate entirely new ideas, and functions, i.e., the product or technology must exist and must be demonstrable and testable.

Follow Armed with Science on Twitter!

Disclaimer: The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense of this website or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities such as military exchanges and Morale, Welfare and Recreation sites, the Department of Defense does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this DOD website.

 

from Armed with Science http://ift.tt/1MGVzyA

Winner of the 2015 POPULAR SCIENCE ‘Best of What’s New Award,’ the NRL-developed Close-in Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft (CICADA) is a low-cost, GPS-guided micro disposable air vehicle designed for launch from manned or unmanned aircraft, balloons, or precision guided munitions. Essentially a flying printed circuit board, the micro-unmanned glider can be equipped with mission specific sensors and has an integrated rate gyroscope and GPS receiver for navigation and flight control of the vehicle. (Photo: U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

The small glider Close-in Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft (CICADA) developed by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) aerospace engineers, Aaron D. Kahn and Dr. Daniel J. Edwards, has been named ‘2015 Best of What’s New‘ by the distinguished science and technology publication, POPULAR SCIENCE.

The CICADA unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is a low-cost, GPS-guided micro disposable air vehicle that can be deployed in large numbers. Having no source of propulsion onboard, the small craft is released from another airborne platform at altitude and the CICADA then glides to its destination. Its lack of a motor and small size makes it nearly undetectable in flight.

“Essentially a flying circuit board, CICADA is inherently stable in glide and is designed for launch from manned or unmanned aircraft, balloons, or precision guided munitions,” Edwards says. “After deployment, CICADA glides to a waypoint, enters an orbit, and then descends within that orbit until it reaches the ground, typically landing with an average error of fifteen feet from the commanded orbit.”

Having a 3.5 to 1 glide ratio, CICADA allows sensors to be deployed at very comfortable standoff distances. In the air, meteorological, chemical, or biological measurements can be taken, quickly sampling a large volume of the sky. Once on the ground, communication nodes will be established.

The POPULAR SCIENCE 28^th Annual Best of What’s New Award nominates ideas that are revolutionary, that transform their category, solve an unsolvable problem, and incorporate entirely new ideas, and functions, i.e., the product or technology must exist and must be demonstrable and testable.

Follow Armed with Science on Twitter!

Disclaimer: The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the Department of Defense of this website or the information, products or services contained therein. For other than authorized activities such as military exchanges and Morale, Welfare and Recreation sites, the Department of Defense does not exercise any editorial control over the information you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this DOD website.

 

from Armed with Science http://ift.tt/1MGVzyA

Best Reads Of 2015 [Aardvarchaeology]

Andy Weir’s The Martian. My single best read this year!

Here are my best reads in English during 2015. My total was 56 books and 17 of them were e-books. Find me at Goodreads!

• The Summing Up. W. Somerset Maugham 1938. An old writer and traveller looks back on his life and turns out to have settled upon pretty much the same philosophy as myself.
• Live and Let Die. (James Bond #2.) Ian Fleming 1954. Short and neat action novel.
• The Martian. Andy Weir 2014. Robinson Crusoe on Mars! With science! And jokes!
• Going Solo. Roald Dahl 1986. Youth memoir of a WW2 fighter pilot.
• Tour de Lovecraft – the Tales. Kenneth Hite 2008. Snappy and insightful commentary on the Sage of Providence’s fiction.
• The Girl with All the Gifts. Mike Carey 2014. From a neat opening conundrum to the fungal zombie apocalypse!
• Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars. Daniel Pinkwater 1979. Funny and bizarre Young Adult novel.
• The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England: a Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century. Ian Mortimer 2008. Making it all come alive. The people you’ll meet are generally young, gullible and violent!
• The Reckoning: the Murder of Christopher Marlowe. Charles Nicholl 1992. Deep dive into Elizabethan sectarian-political spying. Could be improved with some trimming of peripherally relevant asides.
• Recovering Apollo 8. Kristine Kathryn Rusch 2011. Elon Musk-like space entrepreneur jump-starts a lot of tech through his ultimately pointless quest to salvage fictitious Apollo wreckage.
• The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream. G.C. Edmondson 1965. Time travel in a sailing boat. Entertaining though laddish.
• Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. Alfred W. Crosby 1986. He’s eco-centric and he knows absolutely nothing about archaeology or paleoecological methods. But it’s a compelling perspective nonetheless!
• The Detective. (Johannes Cabal #2.) Jonathan L. Howard 2010. Sardonic, elegant and laughing-out-loud funny!

Dear Reader, what were your best reads of the year?

Here’s my list for 2014.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1VpuzdX

Andy Weir’s The Martian. My single best read this year!

Here are my best reads in English during 2015. My total was 56 books and 17 of them were e-books. Find me at Goodreads!

• The Summing Up. W. Somerset Maugham 1938. An old writer and traveller looks back on his life and turns out to have settled upon pretty much the same philosophy as myself.
• Live and Let Die. (James Bond #2.) Ian Fleming 1954. Short and neat action novel.
• The Martian. Andy Weir 2014. Robinson Crusoe on Mars! With science! And jokes!
• Going Solo. Roald Dahl 1986. Youth memoir of a WW2 fighter pilot.
• Tour de Lovecraft – the Tales. Kenneth Hite 2008. Snappy and insightful commentary on the Sage of Providence’s fiction.
• The Girl with All the Gifts. Mike Carey 2014. From a neat opening conundrum to the fungal zombie apocalypse!
• Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars. Daniel Pinkwater 1979. Funny and bizarre Young Adult novel.
• The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England: a Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century. Ian Mortimer 2008. Making it all come alive. The people you’ll meet are generally young, gullible and violent!
• The Reckoning: the Murder of Christopher Marlowe. Charles Nicholl 1992. Deep dive into Elizabethan sectarian-political spying. Could be improved with some trimming of peripherally relevant asides.
• Recovering Apollo 8. Kristine Kathryn Rusch 2011. Elon Musk-like space entrepreneur jump-starts a lot of tech through his ultimately pointless quest to salvage fictitious Apollo wreckage.
• The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream. G.C. Edmondson 1965. Time travel in a sailing boat. Entertaining though laddish.
• Ecological Imperialism: the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900. Alfred W. Crosby 1986. He’s eco-centric and he knows absolutely nothing about archaeology or paleoecological methods. But it’s a compelling perspective nonetheless!
• The Detective. (Johannes Cabal #2.) Jonathan L. Howard 2010. Sardonic, elegant and laughing-out-loud funny!

Dear Reader, what were your best reads of the year?

Here’s my list for 2014.

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1VpuzdX

After 8 years, Dawn probe brings Ceres into closest focus

Curiosity’s 10 best images of Mars in 2015

Strata rocks and dark sand in an area that has been named ‘Kimberley.’ The strata in the foreground dip towards the base of Mount Sharp, indicating flow of water toward a basin that existed before the larger bulk of the mountain formed. The images obtained by NASA’s Curiosity rover in October, 2015, led scientists conclude there were ancient lakes on this area. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Since its August 5-6, 2012 landing on Mars – an event known to space scientists as seven minutes of terror – NASA’s Curiosity rover has been studying the surface of Mars. Its job now is to determine whether the Gale Crater area, the area in which it landed, ever had the right conditions to support microbial life. As of December, 2015 – using its 17 cameras – Curiosity has acquired over 292,000 images from the surface of Mars. The images on this page are our picks of some of the best images captured by the rover in 2015.

Curiosity has seen a lot of layered rocks on the surface of Mars, like these amazing rocks captured in July, 2015. Read more about this image. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The rover mission’s official name is the Mars Science Laboratory. The rover itself is 9 feet (about 3 meters) long and 7 feet (about 2.7 meters) wide, and weighs about 2,000 pounds (900 kg).

It’s not Arizona or Utah … this is planet Mars as seen by Curiosity on September, 2015. This image shows regions that include a long ridge teeming with hematite, an iron oxide. Just beyond is an undulating plain rich in clay minerals. And just beyond that are a multitude of rounded buttes, all high in sulfate minerals. The changing mineralogy in these layers of Mount Sharp suggests a changing environment in early Mars, though all involve exposure to water billions of years ago. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Sunset on Mars. The Curiosity rover captured the sun setting on April 15, 2015 from the Gale Crater. The color has been calibrated and white-balanced to remove camera artifacts. The rover’s ‘Mastcam’ sees color very similarly to what human eyes see, although it is actually a little less sensitive to blue than people are. Dust in the Martian atmosphere has fine particles that permit blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors. That causes the blue colors in the mixed light coming from the sun to stay closer to sun’s part of the sky, compared to the wider scattering of yellow and red colors. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Two orbiters that were already studying Mars when Curiosity arrived. They are the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars Odyssey. These two act as satellites, relaying pictures and data from the rover back to Earth.

Diverse composition of mineral veins at the ‘Garden City’ site investigated by Curiosity suggests multiple episodes of groundwater activity. The prominent mineral veins vary in thickness and brightness, and include: 1) thin, dark-toned fracture filling material; 2) thick, dark-toned vein material in large fractures; 3) light-toned vein material, which was deposited last. Researchers used the Mastcam and other instruments on Curiosity in March and April 2015 to study the structure and composition of mineral veins at Garden City, for information about fluids that deposited minerals in fractured rock there. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Because color images use much more data or bandwidth to be transmitted to our planet, a lot of black and white images are sent to the orbiting spacecraft that occasionally passes over the rover’s location for a short time. However, some color images are eventually sent.

This is an area lining the northwestern edge of Mount Sharp. The scene combines multiple images taken with the Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Sept. 25, 2015. Dunes are larger than wind-blown ripples of sand or dust that Curiosity and other rovers have visited previously. You can see the dark dunes by clicking again after opening this panorama. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Giant antennas at California (USA), Australia and Spain compose the Deep Space Network that receives pictures and data from the Mars spacecraft as well as from other interplanetary spacecraft.

A selfie on Mars. Curiosity extended its robotic arm and used the camera on the arm’s end to capture this self portrait on October 6, 2015. The image was taken at the ‘Big Sky’ site, where its drill collected the mission’s fifth taste of Mount Sharp. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Dark rocks on route to mountains. Diverse terrain is visible on this image taken on Mount Sharp on April 10, 2015. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Damage on the aluminum wheels is evident after 7 miles (11.3 km) on the odometer of the Curiosity rover. Mars’ terrain and diverse rocks led to more wheel damage than was expected. However scientists think the 20 inches (51 cm) wheels may permit the rover to continue its mission. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A Solar Eclipse from Mars. Curiosity captured Phobos, one of the two small martian moons passing in front of the Sun in July, 2015. Although Phobos is only about 14 miles (22.5 km) in diameter, it orbits Mars at just 6,000 km ( 3,728 miles) which is relatively close. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Where is Curiosity right now? The rover is located in an area of Mount Sharp that has been named Namib dune. The rover is analyzing the composition and grain size of a ripple.

Seven minutes of terror. Even if you have seen this video before, these images which show how Curiosity landed on Mars may still give you goosebumps:

Bottom line: EarthSky choices for Mars Curiosity rover’s 10 best images of Mars in 2015. Check ’em out!

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1QZ6fAn

Strata rocks and dark sand in an area that has been named ‘Kimberley.’ The strata in the foreground dip towards the base of Mount Sharp, indicating flow of water toward a basin that existed before the larger bulk of the mountain formed. The images obtained by NASA’s Curiosity rover in October, 2015, led scientists conclude there were ancient lakes on this area. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Since its August 5-6, 2012 landing on Mars – an event known to space scientists as seven minutes of terror – NASA’s Curiosity rover has been studying the surface of Mars. Its job now is to determine whether the Gale Crater area, the area in which it landed, ever had the right conditions to support microbial life. As of December, 2015 – using its 17 cameras – Curiosity has acquired over 292,000 images from the surface of Mars. The images on this page are our picks of some of the best images captured by the rover in 2015.

Curiosity has seen a lot of layered rocks on the surface of Mars, like these amazing rocks captured in July, 2015. Read more about this image. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

The rover mission’s official name is the Mars Science Laboratory. The rover itself is 9 feet (about 3 meters) long and 7 feet (about 2.7 meters) wide, and weighs about 2,000 pounds (900 kg).

It’s not Arizona or Utah … this is planet Mars as seen by Curiosity on September, 2015. This image shows regions that include a long ridge teeming with hematite, an iron oxide. Just beyond is an undulating plain rich in clay minerals. And just beyond that are a multitude of rounded buttes, all high in sulfate minerals. The changing mineralogy in these layers of Mount Sharp suggests a changing environment in early Mars, though all involve exposure to water billions of years ago. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Sunset on Mars. The Curiosity rover captured the sun setting on April 15, 2015 from the Gale Crater. The color has been calibrated and white-balanced to remove camera artifacts. The rover’s ‘Mastcam’ sees color very similarly to what human eyes see, although it is actually a little less sensitive to blue than people are. Dust in the Martian atmosphere has fine particles that permit blue light to penetrate the atmosphere more efficiently than longer-wavelength colors. That causes the blue colors in the mixed light coming from the sun to stay closer to sun’s part of the sky, compared to the wider scattering of yellow and red colors. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Two orbiters that were already studying Mars when Curiosity arrived. They are the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and Mars Odyssey. These two act as satellites, relaying pictures and data from the rover back to Earth.

Diverse composition of mineral veins at the ‘Garden City’ site investigated by Curiosity suggests multiple episodes of groundwater activity. The prominent mineral veins vary in thickness and brightness, and include: 1) thin, dark-toned fracture filling material; 2) thick, dark-toned vein material in large fractures; 3) light-toned vein material, which was deposited last. Researchers used the Mastcam and other instruments on Curiosity in March and April 2015 to study the structure and composition of mineral veins at Garden City, for information about fluids that deposited minerals in fractured rock there. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Because color images use much more data or bandwidth to be transmitted to our planet, a lot of black and white images are sent to the orbiting spacecraft that occasionally passes over the rover’s location for a short time. However, some color images are eventually sent.

This is an area lining the northwestern edge of Mount Sharp. The scene combines multiple images taken with the Mast Camera on NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover on Sept. 25, 2015. Dunes are larger than wind-blown ripples of sand or dust that Curiosity and other rovers have visited previously. You can see the dark dunes by clicking again after opening this panorama. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Giant antennas at California (USA), Australia and Spain compose the Deep Space Network that receives pictures and data from the Mars spacecraft as well as from other interplanetary spacecraft.

A selfie on Mars. Curiosity extended its robotic arm and used the camera on the arm’s end to capture this self portrait on October 6, 2015. The image was taken at the ‘Big Sky’ site, where its drill collected the mission’s fifth taste of Mount Sharp. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Dark rocks on route to mountains. Diverse terrain is visible on this image taken on Mount Sharp on April 10, 2015. The color has been approximately white-balanced to resemble how the scene would appear under daytime lighting conditions on Earth. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Damage on the aluminum wheels is evident after 7 miles (11.3 km) on the odometer of the Curiosity rover. Mars’ terrain and diverse rocks led to more wheel damage than was expected. However scientists think the 20 inches (51 cm) wheels may permit the rover to continue its mission. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

A Solar Eclipse from Mars. Curiosity captured Phobos, one of the two small martian moons passing in front of the Sun in July, 2015. Although Phobos is only about 14 miles (22.5 km) in diameter, it orbits Mars at just 6,000 km ( 3,728 miles) which is relatively close. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

Where is Curiosity right now? The rover is located in an area of Mount Sharp that has been named Namib dune. The rover is analyzing the composition and grain size of a ripple.

Seven minutes of terror. Even if you have seen this video before, these images which show how Curiosity landed on Mars may still give you goosebumps:

Bottom line: EarthSky choices for Mars Curiosity rover’s 10 best images of Mars in 2015. Check ’em out!

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1QZ6fAn

Spectacular new image of earthrise

View larger. | Spectacular new image of earthrise seen from the moon, from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter using cameras operated by Arizona State University. Africa, the south Atlantic Ocean and the eastern edge of South America can be seen. The large tan area on the upper right is the Sahara Desert. In the foreground on the moon, you are seeing the Compton crater. Read more about this image.

As seen from any one spot on the moon’s surface, Earth never rises or sets. Because one side of the moon always faces Earth, the Earth hangs relatively motionless in the lunar sky. But orbiting spacecraft can see earthrises and earthsets. This week, Arizona State University emailed us this amazing new image of an earthrise seen from the moon, along with Q-and-A with Mark Robinson, who is the principal investigator for the cameras aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnissance Orbiter. In it, Robinson talked about this image, which was acquired by the orbiter’s camera (the LROC) in October.

Q: How did you know this image would be possible?

A: [The LROC has] taken pictures of the Earth more than 10 times in the past. We wanted to get a limb shot (showing the edge of the moon). What makes it really hard is getting the moon in the foreground … That was not by accident. We have software tools that allow us to visualize observations. We know where the spacecraft is going to be in the future … We determined from which orbits the Earth will be visible near the limb. Once we know the ground track where the Earth will be visible, we then find a view with a dramatic foreground.

Question: What are some of the pieces that had to come together to make this photo?

Answer: Just a few of the steps: You have to roll the spacecraft, in this case about 70 degrees, but the spacecraft is traveling at over 1,600 meters per second. We’re restricted in the length of one exposure time to something close to 0.4 milliseconds. You also move the spacecraft in the direction of flight so that you can get a wide enough field of view. When a spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit, the timing changes from image-to-image in an orbit. We have to compute all of that beforehand to get it exactly right … That timing has to be precisely carried out … We have to predict the temperature of the CCD (electronic equivalent of film). The Wide Angle Camera (WAC) is imaging an area multiple times while the Narrow Angle Cameras (NAC) takes just one picture. We blow up the WAC images and combine them to produce higher resolution, and then overlay this sharper image on the NAC image. We wanted the Earth to be on the horizon, and that only happens from certain areas of the moon. It’s only when the spacecraft is above the boundary between the nearside and farside that you can see the Earth behind the limb (edge of the moon).

Q: LRO has been in orbit for more than six years. If you picked the best shots to show your friends, what are they?

A: We’ve taken more than a million images. My answer changes every three days. The Apollo landing sites are fantastic. You can see the tracks the astronauts left on the surface of the moon. To me, as a scientist, it’s really great because it helps me visualize the photographs they took on the surface. The significance of the geologic context. ‘All right, now I know they got that soil sample there, and I can see what it looks like.’

Bottom line: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this new image of Earthrise from the moon in October, 2015, using the orbiter’s camera (the LROC) operated by Arizona State University.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1OklYYL

View larger. | Spectacular new image of earthrise seen from the moon, from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter using cameras operated by Arizona State University. Africa, the south Atlantic Ocean and the eastern edge of South America can be seen. The large tan area on the upper right is the Sahara Desert. In the foreground on the moon, you are seeing the Compton crater. Read more about this image.

As seen from any one spot on the moon’s surface, Earth never rises or sets. Because one side of the moon always faces Earth, the Earth hangs relatively motionless in the lunar sky. But orbiting spacecraft can see earthrises and earthsets. This week, Arizona State University emailed us this amazing new image of an earthrise seen from the moon, along with Q-and-A with Mark Robinson, who is the principal investigator for the cameras aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnissance Orbiter. In it, Robinson talked about this image, which was acquired by the orbiter’s camera (the LROC) in October.

Q: How did you know this image would be possible?

A: [The LROC has] taken pictures of the Earth more than 10 times in the past. We wanted to get a limb shot (showing the edge of the moon). What makes it really hard is getting the moon in the foreground … That was not by accident. We have software tools that allow us to visualize observations. We know where the spacecraft is going to be in the future … We determined from which orbits the Earth will be visible near the limb. Once we know the ground track where the Earth will be visible, we then find a view with a dramatic foreground.

Question: What are some of the pieces that had to come together to make this photo?

Answer: Just a few of the steps: You have to roll the spacecraft, in this case about 70 degrees, but the spacecraft is traveling at over 1,600 meters per second. We’re restricted in the length of one exposure time to something close to 0.4 milliseconds. You also move the spacecraft in the direction of flight so that you can get a wide enough field of view. When a spacecraft is in an elliptical orbit, the timing changes from image-to-image in an orbit. We have to compute all of that beforehand to get it exactly right … That timing has to be precisely carried out … We have to predict the temperature of the CCD (electronic equivalent of film). The Wide Angle Camera (WAC) is imaging an area multiple times while the Narrow Angle Cameras (NAC) takes just one picture. We blow up the WAC images and combine them to produce higher resolution, and then overlay this sharper image on the NAC image. We wanted the Earth to be on the horizon, and that only happens from certain areas of the moon. It’s only when the spacecraft is above the boundary between the nearside and farside that you can see the Earth behind the limb (edge of the moon).

Q: LRO has been in orbit for more than six years. If you picked the best shots to show your friends, what are they?

A: We’ve taken more than a million images. My answer changes every three days. The Apollo landing sites are fantastic. You can see the tracks the astronauts left on the surface of the moon. To me, as a scientist, it’s really great because it helps me visualize the photographs they took on the surface. The significance of the geologic context. ‘All right, now I know they got that soil sample there, and I can see what it looks like.’

Bottom line: NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this new image of Earthrise from the moon in October, 2015, using the orbiter’s camera (the LROC) operated by Arizona State University.

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1OklYYL

Moon and Jupiter late night to dawn

Tonight – December 30, 2015 – if you stay up until very late evening, you just might catch the waning the moon and the giant planet Jupiter coming up over your eastern horizon. But if you’re not one to stay up late, wake up before sunrise on December 31 to catch the moon and Jupiter much higher up in the sky as seen from the entire Earth. Click here for recommended almanacs that can help you find when the moon and Jupiter rise into your sky.

Once the moon and Jupiter rise on the night of December 30, they’ll go westward across the sky, much as the sun does during the day.

We’re now approaching the best time of year to see Jupiter. That always happens for some weeks around the time Earth passes between the sun and this giant planet. In 2016, that event occurs on March 8. Astronomers call it an opposition of Jupiter, because then Jupiter will appear opposite the sun in our sky, rising in the east as the sun sets in the west.

Between now and March 8, watch for Jupiter a little earlier each evening!

Have a telescope or even a good pair of binoculars? Once Jupiter climbs above the murk and haze of you horizon, you might want to take a look at Jupiter’s four major moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This handy sky chart on Jupiter’s moons will let you know which moon is which.

Also, know that Jupiter isn’t the only planet in the morning sky. In fact, three other planets are also there, gearing up to be joined by Mercury. When Mercury joins the other planets before dawn, we’ll be able to see five planets in the sky simultaneously. That’ll happen between about January 20 and February 20, 2016. It hasn’t happened since 2005, so mark your calendar!

The planets have been for early birds over the past months, and they still are. Besides Jupiter, catch Venus, Saturn and Mars in the predawn sky now. See the sky chart below.

Astronomy events, star parties, festivals, workshops for 2016

There are four planets in the morning sky now. Venus and Saturn aren’t far from the sunrise point on the horizon. Mars is to the south before dawn (or north if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere). Brilliant Jupiter shines near Mars and Spica, outside this chart. Soon, Mercury will come back to the predawn sky, and then 5 planets will be visible simultaneously.

By the way … Mars is another planet to watch in 2016. Earth will pass between Mars and the sun this May. That’s something we do only once about every two years. So Mars’ appearance in our sky alternates from year to year: one year great, then next year not-so-hot. 2015 was a not-so-hot year. 2016 will be awesome!

The illustration below is from NASA’s Tumblr page. It’s shows the disk size of Mars, as viewed through a telescope. Mars appears larger in a telescope because the distance between Earth and Mars will be decreasing rapidly over the coming months, as we sweep up behind Mars in orbit and prepare to go between it and the sun in May.

I hope the chart below gives you an inkling of the excitement to come in early 2016, regarding the planet Mars!

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If you have a telescope, you’ll be amazed at the changes you’ll see in Mars during 2016. January through December are all prime Mars observing months. Between January and May next year, Mars triples in apparent diameter as its orbit around the sun brings it closer to Earth. Without a telescope, during 2016, you’ll see Mars brighten rapidly – get as bright as Jupiter – then fade again. Illustration via nasa.tumblr.com.

Bottom line: Watch for the moon and Jupiter, as they shine close together on the sky’s dome from late night until dawn on December 30-31, 2015. Also … a preview of Mars in 2016!

When can I see all five visible planets simultaneously?

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1QXjYbm

Tonight – December 30, 2015 – if you stay up until very late evening, you just might catch the waning the moon and the giant planet Jupiter coming up over your eastern horizon. But if you’re not one to stay up late, wake up before sunrise on December 31 to catch the moon and Jupiter much higher up in the sky as seen from the entire Earth. Click here for recommended almanacs that can help you find when the moon and Jupiter rise into your sky.

Once the moon and Jupiter rise on the night of December 30, they’ll go westward across the sky, much as the sun does during the day.

We’re now approaching the best time of year to see Jupiter. That always happens for some weeks around the time Earth passes between the sun and this giant planet. In 2016, that event occurs on March 8. Astronomers call it an opposition of Jupiter, because then Jupiter will appear opposite the sun in our sky, rising in the east as the sun sets in the west.

Between now and March 8, watch for Jupiter a little earlier each evening!

Have a telescope or even a good pair of binoculars? Once Jupiter climbs above the murk and haze of you horizon, you might want to take a look at Jupiter’s four major moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. This handy sky chart on Jupiter’s moons will let you know which moon is which.

Also, know that Jupiter isn’t the only planet in the morning sky. In fact, three other planets are also there, gearing up to be joined by Mercury. When Mercury joins the other planets before dawn, we’ll be able to see five planets in the sky simultaneously. That’ll happen between about January 20 and February 20, 2016. It hasn’t happened since 2005, so mark your calendar!

The planets have been for early birds over the past months, and they still are. Besides Jupiter, catch Venus, Saturn and Mars in the predawn sky now. See the sky chart below.

Astronomy events, star parties, festivals, workshops for 2016

There are four planets in the morning sky now. Venus and Saturn aren’t far from the sunrise point on the horizon. Mars is to the south before dawn (or north if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere). Brilliant Jupiter shines near Mars and Spica, outside this chart. Soon, Mercury will come back to the predawn sky, and then 5 planets will be visible simultaneously.

By the way … Mars is another planet to watch in 2016. Earth will pass between Mars and the sun this May. That’s something we do only once about every two years. So Mars’ appearance in our sky alternates from year to year: one year great, then next year not-so-hot. 2015 was a not-so-hot year. 2016 will be awesome!

The illustration below is from NASA’s Tumblr page. It’s shows the disk size of Mars, as viewed through a telescope. Mars appears larger in a telescope because the distance between Earth and Mars will be decreasing rapidly over the coming months, as we sweep up behind Mars in orbit and prepare to go between it and the sun in May.

I hope the chart below gives you an inkling of the excitement to come in early 2016, regarding the planet Mars!

Donate: Your support means the world to us

If you have a telescope, you’ll be amazed at the changes you’ll see in Mars during 2016. January through December are all prime Mars observing months. Between January and May next year, Mars triples in apparent diameter as its orbit around the sun brings it closer to Earth. Without a telescope, during 2016, you’ll see Mars brighten rapidly – get as bright as Jupiter – then fade again. Illustration via nasa.tumblr.com.

Bottom line: Watch for the moon and Jupiter, as they shine close together on the sky’s dome from late night until dawn on December 30-31, 2015. Also … a preview of Mars in 2016!

When can I see all five visible planets simultaneously?

from EarthSky http://ift.tt/1QXjYbm