Clipmarks | JohnWaterman's 'solar system' clips

MarsCam: World's most distant webcam goes live

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:16:22 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

You can use a webcam to sneak peeks at birds’ nests, active volcanoes, watch the Shuttle launch, and even to check traffic. But that’s just local stuff. What if you want more of a far look?

Then you need to check out the most distant webcam (so far) in the solar system: the Mars Express Visual Monitoring Camera

This camera on board Europe’s Mars Express orbiter has been circling the red planet since 2003. It was used to confirm the Beagle lander’s separation from the main spacecraft, and that completed its main mission. But last year, controllers wondered if the camera could be turned back on to provide some tourist views of Mars, so they began a new campaign to check out the camera. It turned on just fine

The image above shows something we never can see from Earth: a crescent Mars, with the Sun peeking over the limb (you need to have Mars between you and the Sun to see this, and Earth is always closer to the Sun than Mars)

Clip Source: www.esa.int

The VMC: An ordinary camera in an extraordinary place!

Cassini Prepares For Close Flyby of Saturn's Geyser-Spewing Moon

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 11:36:55 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: This Monday 11th August

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus is of big interest to planetary scientists trying to understand the dynamics of the moon's geysers and fissures. On August 11, the Cassini spacecraft will swoop by Enceladus for a close flyby, just 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the surface, with the fractures, or "tiger stripes" near the moon's south pole, where icy jets erupt as the target of study for the Cassini instruments

Clip Source: www.nasa.gov

Our main goal is to get the most detailed images and remote sensing data ever of the geologically active features on Enceladus

Seeing inside one of the fissures in high resolution may provide more information on the terrain and depth of the fissures, as well as the size and composition of the ice grains inside

Enceladus flyby blog

Clip Source: blogs.nasa.gov

Prepare to be Amazed!

one of the most remarkable places in the solar system

we have the chance of seeing those very special locales on the tiger stripe fractures that we now know are active, warm eruption vents

Mars: Stairs, Polygons, Dunes and Troughs

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:54:17 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

Meridiani Planum on Mars, where the Mars Rover Opportunity has been traversing the past four plus years, is not just covered with flat, endless plains. Of course, Opportunity has been entering and studying a few of the craters in the region. Here's a crater in Meridiani that's a whopper

This crater is so large that the HiRISE image is entirely within it, and the crater rim is not visible. The most prominent feature is layered sedimentary rocks that look like a grand stairway. These rocks have been eroded, most likely by wind, or possibly flowing water.

Click here for a full resolution picture of this area.

HiRISE also has taken some great images of the polygon features found in the high northern latitudes, that form from the ground seasonally freezing and thawing

polygons and a few dunes

This image is from an area

known as Elysium Planitia

just north of Mars’ equator

interesting geologic history

catastrophic floods of water

For more spectacular images, see the HiRISE website.

Tags: astronomy, hirise, mars, planets, solar system

Electrical Activity on Titan Confirmed: The Spark for Life?

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 09:03:34 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.universetoday.com

Titan not only has an atmosphere it has hydrocarbon lakes, oceans, sand dunes and now research has just been published proving Saturn's moon is sparkling with electrical activity. Scientists are in general agreement that organic molecules, the precursors to life on Earth, are a consequence of lightning in the atmosphere

using data from the Huygens probe

scientists have "unequivocally" proven that Titan has electrical storms

causing much excitement as this could mean that organic compounds may be found in abundance

The fruits from the Cassini-Huygens mission are coming thick and fast. Only yesterday, Nancy reviewed the discovery of liquid hydrocarbon lakes

Now Titan has all the necessary components for life; it has an atmosphere with electrical activity, increasing the opportunity for prebiotic organic compounds to form, thus increasing the possibility for life to evolve

Titan is already considered a "unique world in the solar system"

Tags: astronomy, titan, life, solar system, saturn

Jupiter’s Red Spot chews up and spits out a storm

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:20:27 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com

Hubble took this sequence of amazing pictures, showing the Great Red Spot — a storm far larger than our entire planet — chewing up and spitting out a smaller, though still ginormous, storm.

In the first panel you can see the smaller storm on the left (this is the same storm we saw in May, when Jupiter suddenly got acne). In the middle panel, taken about six weeks later, it just contacts the Spot. Over the next few days it swept around and below the Spot, and got tossed out the other side, seen in the last panel. Storms on Jupiter do this all the time; sometimes the smaller ones survive and sometimes they merge into the bigger storms. I can’t imagine what this might look like from a distance of, say, 1000 km above the cloud tops. Holy cow.

pictures are pretty close to true color, so this represents more or less what you’d see if you were there

the wind speeds

are about 620 kph (390 mph), more than twice the speeds in Earth’s most terrible hurricanes

a ferocious and terrifying place

Tags: jupiter, astronomy, science, solar system, planets

Scientists 'Astonished' to Find Water in Mercury's Thin Atmosphere

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:48:36 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.planetary.org

As MESSENGER flew past the night side of Mercury in January, its Fast Imaging Plasma Spectrometer (FIPS) scooped up ions from an atmosphere so tenuous that it's usually called an "exosphere." FIPS measured the expected amounts of ions like sodium, potassium, and calcium that had previously been detected in Mercury's exosphere, but to the science team's great surprise there was also water present, and in large amounts. "Nobody expected that. I don't know a single person that did. We were astonished, just astonished," said MESSENGER science team member Thomas Zurbuchen.

Click to enlarge >

How could there be water on Mercury?

Firstly, it has long been theorized

that there may be reservoirs of water ice in small areas of Mercury's poles where local topography creates permanently shadowed spots

Second, the water could come from comets. Third, the process of chemical sputtering could create water where none existed before from the ingredients of solar wind and Mercury rock

Tags: messenger, science, mercury, planets, solar system, astronomy

Phoenix - Mars weather and images direct to your desktop

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:28:21 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

Get the latest weather on Mars sent directly to your desktop. (Mac OSX 10.4.3+ or Windows Vista Required)

Mac Weather Widget (Mac OSX 10.4.3 or Higher)
Vista Weather Gadget (Windows Vista Required)
Add Phoenix Weather Widget to iGoogle

Screen Savers The Phoenix Mars Lander Screen Saver automatically downloads the latest available image updates throughout the duration of the mission directly from the NASA Photojournal.

Note: Every time your screen saver is activated, the latest updates will be brought automatically to your computer.

Mac Screen Saver
Windows Screen Saver

Clip Source: phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu

Vista users

If you have trouble installing the screen saver, quit the installation program and launch it again by right clicking on the executable and selecting "Run as administrator" instead of double clicking as usual

Tags: phoenix, mars, nasa, planets, astronomy, science, solar system

Astronomy Radio from the BBC

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:25:48 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: A selection

Clip Source: www.bbc.co.uk

BBC Radio 4

Cosmic Quest

Listen - Omnibus

Phoenix on Mars - first images

Mon, 26 May 2008 05:54:49 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

A Nasa spacecraft has sent back the first historic pictures of an unexplored region of Mars.

The Mars Phoenix lander touched down in the far north of the Red Planet

The probe is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water-ice thought to be buried beneath the surface

It will begin examining the site for evidence of the building blocks of life in the next few days

A signal confirming the lander had reached the surface was received at 2353 GMT on 25 May

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The probe had to survive a fiery plunge through the planet's thin atmosphere, slowing from a speed of nearly 21,000km/h

Nasa found out more about the landing when pictures from the probe reached the Earth.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The first images showed the "Arctic plain" where Phoenix came to rest - a region of Mars that has never been seen up close before.

Other shots confirmed that the probe's solar arrays had unfurled successfully, and that it had landed safely on its legs.

Landing on Mars is a notoriously tricky business. There has been about a 50% failure rate

Tags: nasa, phoenix, mars, astronomy, solar system, planets

Jupiter’s got acne!

Thu, 22 May 2008 18:46:46 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.badastronomy.com

Poor Jupiter. It’s breaking out^*.

The Great Red Spot is a vast, planet-sized hurricane that’s been blowing on Jupiter for hundreds of years. In 2006 it was joined by a smaller storm — though still thousands of miles across — called Oval BA (no relation).

And now a third red spot has popped up!

The third storm (the smaller one in the middle left on the Hubble picture above) was a more normal whitish oval up until recently, when it suddenly turned red. It’s unclear why

colors of the storms indicate their chemical composition, and red usually means complex organic compounds

dredged up from deep beneath Jupiter’s cloud tops, or maybe the storm gained altitude, high enough that incoming solar ultraviolet light was able to reassemble the molecules into new ones

That means that if you could see this from the side, it would look like a bump, or a welt, or, well, a pimple

if transported to Earth, even that small spot would cover most of a hemisphere

Tags: jupiter, solar system, planets, astronomy

The Chaotic Genesis of Planets

Tue, 13 May 2008 04:56:09 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Long viewed as a stately procession to a foregone conclusion, planetary formation turns out to be startlingly chaotic

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Editor's Note: This slideshow is a supplement to the Feature "The Chaotic Genesis of Planets" from the May 2008 issue of

Barely a decade ago scientists who study how planets form had to base their theory on a single example—our solar system. Now they have dozens of mature systems and dozens more in birth throes. No two are alike.

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

INTERSTELLAR CLOUD AND PROTOSUN

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

DUST GRAINS AND GAS

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

COSMIC DUST BUNNIES

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

PLANETESIMALS

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

LARGE PLANETESIMALS

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

FREE-FLOATING PLANETS

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

BIRTH OF GAS GIANT

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

GAS GIANT SATELLITES

Tags: planets, science, solar system

The Universe - The Guardian Science Course Part 1

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:29:22 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

The Guardian: Science course

Part I: The universe

Creation in the blink of an eye

Cosmologists are agreed that the universe began with a big bang. Direct evidence comes from the fact that the universe is still expanding today

Timeline of the universe

Scientists can now tell us what happened in nearly every millisecond of the big bang. Robert Matthews takes us through the first crucial moments

Heavenly bodies

Do you know your red dwarf from your neutron star, your supernova from your solar wind? When does an asteroid earn the status of planet? Read on ...

We are not alone

How was our solar system created? And now that we have discovered planets orbiting other stars, will we find one that supports life?

A view from here to eternity

Light is only part of the story - there's a whole set of different ways we can study the stars, from radiation to x-rays. But your eyes are a good start, writes Duncan Graham-Rowe

The night sky

The power of the dark side

The end of time

The hunt for aliens

Spider found on Mercury

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:38:14 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

A bizarre spider shape has been discovered on the surface of Mercury during the first flyby of the planet by NASA's Messenger spacecraft. The discovery of the spider – which is unlike anything seen elsewhere in the solar system – was announced on Wednesday

a strange spider-shaped feature near the centre of a huge impact scar called Caloris basin. The spider shape is formed by a set of troughs that crisscross to form polygonal shapes at the spider's centre and also radiate outwards

We have seen a number of impact basins in the solar system – we have never, ever seen anything like this in the centre of any of them, and it's fair to say that we haven't seen any features like this elsewhere on Mercury or on the Moon,"

appear to be stretch marks called extensional faults

formed as a result of part of the surface expanding

may have occurred when volcanic activity injected material below the surface

or when the surface rebounded after being pushed down by impacts

Stormy Jupiter reveals more secrets.

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 01:06:04 GMT

clipped by: pokkets
clipper's remarks: Jupiter has a metallic Hydrogen core that creates a Magnetosphere similar to the one created by Earth's Iron core. Scientists have known that Jupiter generates more energy than it receives from the Sun, but how it affectes the Atmosphere below the surface layer of clouds was unclear. They are still trying to work out the way the Atmosphere is affected by the combination of these energy sources, but they are learning to make a distinction between the two effects. This data shows effects that to be a result of Energy generated by Jupiter. They are thought to be below any possible influence of the sun. (Of course the scientists could always be surprised again. That seems to happen fairly often.)

Clip Source: www.abc.net.au

Stephen Pincock

Two enormous storms on the surface of Jupiter have provided important clues about the true nature of the solar system's biggest planet, astronomers say.

Professor Agustin Sánchez-Lavega from Universidad País Vasco in Spain and colleagues report their findings in today's issue of the journal Nature.

Jupiter's atmosphere is wreathed in a blanket of thick cloud that prevents telescopes from observing deeper into the planet.

Among the only clues are occasional storms, which burst through this cloud layer and appear as light patches within the planet's characteristic stripes.

In March 2007, a team

led by Sánchez-Lavega recorded two such events on Jupiter, using the Hubble Space Telescope.

amateur astronomers

relayed their data to the

team.

"The main thing the modelling showed was that there seems to a jet stream effect below the influence of the sun," says Valimberti.

"That indicates it is being generated by something internal within the planet, some kind of internal heat source."

Tags: jupiter, energy, astronomy

Images of Mercury are Pouring In

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 22:44:29 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: messenger.jhuapl.edu

Click on image to enlarge.

MESSENGER Views an Intriguing Crater
Release Date: January 20, 2008
Keywords: Mercury Flyby 1, NAC

The unnamed crater (52 kilometers, or 31 miles, in diameter) in the center of the image displays a telephone-shaped collapse feature on its floor. Such a collapse feature, not seen on the floors of other craters in this image, could reflect past volcanic activity at and just below the surface of this particular crater. MESSENGER team members are examining closely the more than 1200 images returned from this flyby for other surface features that can provide clues to the geological history of the innermost planet.

The crater is located in the southern hemisphere of Mercury, on the side that was not viewed by Mariner 10 during any of its three flybys (1974-1975)

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Tags: astronomy, science, mercury, messenger, planets, solar system