Space In General
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Dotini
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MYSTERY MARS PLUME BAFFLES SCIENTISTS
Mystery plume on Mars
16 February 2015
Plumes seen reaching high above the surface of Mars are causing a stir among scientists studying the atmosphere on the Red Planet.
On two separate occasions in March and April 2012, amateur astronomers reported definite plume-like features developing on the planet.
The plumes were seen rising to altitudes of over 250 km above the same region of Mars on both occasions. By comparison, similar features seen in the past have not exceeded 100 km.
“At about 250 km, the division between the atmosphere and outer space is very thin, so the reported plumes are extremely unexpected,” says Agustin Sanchez-Lavega of the Universidad del País Vasco in Spain, lead author of the paper reporting the results in the journal Nature.
High-altitude plume on Mars
The features developed in less than 10 hours, covering an area of up to 1000 x 500 km, and remained visible for around 10 days, changing their structure from day to day.
None of the spacecraft orbiting Mars saw the features because of their viewing geometries and illumination conditions at the time.
However, checking archived Hubble Space Telescope images taken between 1995 and 1999 and of databases of amateur images spanning 2001 to 2014 revealed occasional clouds at the limb of Mars, albeit usually only up to 100 km in altitude.
But one set of Hubble images from 17 May 1997 revealed an abnormally high plume, similar to that spotted by the amateur astronomers in 2012.
Scientists are now working on determining the nature and cause of the plumes by using the Hubble data in combination with the images taken by amateurs.
Hubble spies mystery plume on Mars
“One idea we’ve discussed is that the features are caused by a reflective cloud of water-ice, carbon dioxide-ice or dust particles, but this would require exceptional deviations from standard atmospheric circulation models to explain cloud formations at such high altitudes,” says Agustin.
“Another idea is that they are related to an auroral emission, and indeed auroras have been previously observed at these locations, linked to a known region on the surface where there is a large anomaly in the crustal magnetic field,” adds Antonio Garcia Munoz, a research fellow at ESA’s ESTEC and co-author of the study.
The jury is still out on the nature and genesis of these curious high-altitude martian plumes. Further insights should be possible following the arrival of ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter at the Red Planet, scheduled for launch in 2016.
Mystery plume on Mars
16 February 2015
Plumes seen reaching high above the surface of Mars are causing a stir among scientists studying the atmosphere on the Red Planet.
On two separate occasions in March and April 2012, amateur astronomers reported definite plume-like features developing on the planet.
The plumes were seen rising to altitudes of over 250 km above the same region of Mars on both occasions. By comparison, similar features seen in the past have not exceeded 100 km.
“At about 250 km, the division between the atmosphere and outer space is very thin, so the reported plumes are extremely unexpected,” says Agustin Sanchez-Lavega of the Universidad del País Vasco in Spain, lead author of the paper reporting the results in the journal Nature.
High-altitude plume on Mars
The features developed in less than 10 hours, covering an area of up to 1000 x 500 km, and remained visible for around 10 days, changing their structure from day to day.
None of the spacecraft orbiting Mars saw the features because of their viewing geometries and illumination conditions at the time.
However, checking archived Hubble Space Telescope images taken between 1995 and 1999 and of databases of amateur images spanning 2001 to 2014 revealed occasional clouds at the limb of Mars, albeit usually only up to 100 km in altitude.
But one set of Hubble images from 17 May 1997 revealed an abnormally high plume, similar to that spotted by the amateur astronomers in 2012.
Scientists are now working on determining the nature and cause of the plumes by using the Hubble data in combination with the images taken by amateurs.
Hubble spies mystery plume on Mars
“One idea we’ve discussed is that the features are caused by a reflective cloud of water-ice, carbon dioxide-ice or dust particles, but this would require exceptional deviations from standard atmospheric circulation models to explain cloud formations at such high altitudes,” says Agustin.
“Another idea is that they are related to an auroral emission, and indeed auroras have been previously observed at these locations, linked to a known region on the surface where there is a large anomaly in the crustal magnetic field,” adds Antonio Garcia Munoz, a research fellow at ESA’s ESTEC and co-author of the study.
The jury is still out on the nature and genesis of these curious high-altitude martian plumes. Further insights should be possible following the arrival of ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter at the Red Planet, scheduled for launch in 2016.
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Astronomers have ascertained that a red dwarf star passed by our own solar system 70,000 years ago, coming to within 0.8 light years from the Sun - that's five times closer than the nearest star is to the solar system today.
http://www.realclearscience.com/blo...tar_flew_by_the_edge_of_the_solar_system.html
http://iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/800/1/L17?fromSearchPage=true
http://www.realclearscience.com/blo...tar_flew_by_the_edge_of_the_solar_system.html
http://iopscience.iop.org/2041-8205/800/1/L17?fromSearchPage=true
Dotini
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Crab Nebula
Our solar system
The yellow shape in this figure is the heliopause, the boundary between the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium. The sun sits at the center of this large bubble, but is too small to be seen here.
As the sun skims through the galaxy, it flings out charged particles in a stream of plasma called the solar wind, and the solar wind creates a bubble extending far outside the solar system known as the heliosphere. For decades, scientists have visualized the heliosphere as shaped like a comet, with a very long tail extending thousands of times as far as the distance from the Earth to the sun.
New research suggests that the sun's magnetic field controls the large-scale shape of the heliosphere "much more than had been previously thought," says Merav Opher, associate professor of astronomy and director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University (BU). In the new model, the magnetic field squeezes the solar wind along the sun's North and South axes, producing two jets that are then dragged downstream by the flow of the interstellar medium through which the heliosphere moves.
The model indicates that the heliospheric tail doesn't extend to large distances but is split into two by the two jets, and that the format of the jets is similar to that of astrophysical jets observed in many other stars and around black holes.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-view-solar-astrophysical-jets-driven.html#jCp
Our solar system
The yellow shape in this figure is the heliopause, the boundary between the heliosphere and the local interstellar medium. The sun sits at the center of this large bubble, but is too small to be seen here.
As the sun skims through the galaxy, it flings out charged particles in a stream of plasma called the solar wind, and the solar wind creates a bubble extending far outside the solar system known as the heliosphere. For decades, scientists have visualized the heliosphere as shaped like a comet, with a very long tail extending thousands of times as far as the distance from the Earth to the sun.
New research suggests that the sun's magnetic field controls the large-scale shape of the heliosphere "much more than had been previously thought," says Merav Opher, associate professor of astronomy and director of the Center for Space Physics at Boston University (BU). In the new model, the magnetic field squeezes the solar wind along the sun's North and South axes, producing two jets that are then dragged downstream by the flow of the interstellar medium through which the heliosphere moves.
The model indicates that the heliospheric tail doesn't extend to large distances but is split into two by the two jets, and that the format of the jets is similar to that of astrophysical jets observed in many other stars and around black holes.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-02-view-solar-astrophysical-jets-driven.html#jCp
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- FoolKiller1979
The concept that solar wind and magnetism creates a heliosphere so large has always amazed me. It disturbs me that a flow of interstellar medium is strong enough to bend that.
The forces that surround us in the universe are massive, beyond the imagining of the average person, and we never notice it.
The forces that surround us in the universe are massive, beyond the imagining of the average person, and we never notice it.
Dotini
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If I recall correctly, the density of the ISM plasma is ~40 times that of the plasma measured by Voyager in the heliosphere. Space science is happily in an era of new discoveries, new mysteries, and new ideas.
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Dotini
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That's no moon....!http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/dawn-probe-spots-bright-surprise-ceres-it-ice-n312831
NASA / JPL-CALTECH / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA
Very cool picture 👍 Kudos to the Dawn team
Also, the heliopause (pictured above) looks like it would be nice with some strawberry jam and a cup of coffee...
vasiliflame
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Space as far as we know is lifeless but it has so much soul. it's so beautiful.
Ploom on Mars is intresting maybe a solor wind?
Ploom on Mars is intresting maybe a solor wind?
CodeRedR51
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SpaceX launch tonight in about 1.5 hours. Not sure if they are going to try and land the booster or not.
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/
Edit: no booster landing, it's a regular Falcon9 rocket, not a Falcon9R.
http://www.spacex.com/webcast/
Edit: no booster landing, it's a regular Falcon9 rocket, not a Falcon9R.
Last edited:
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CodeRedR51
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I was searching for some SpaceX stuff and stumbled upon this image taken of the drone platform that shows the damage after the first landing attempt. Thought I would post it.
Dotini
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It's party time for Rosetta and 67P. See the gorgeous photos of cometary jets, glows, streaks and blobs around the active nucleus.
http://www.universetoday.com/119296/dust-whirls-swirls-and-twirls-at-rosettas-comet/
Montage of four single-frame images of Comet 67P/C-G taken by Rosetta’s Navigation Camera (NAVCAM) at the end of February 2015. The images were taken on 25 February (top left), 26 February (top right) and on two occasions on 27 February (bottom left and right). Exposure times are 2 seconds each and the images have been processed to bring out the details of the comet’s many jets. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
This photo taken on Feb. 27 shows the comet with peacock-like display of dusty jets. Below center is a streak that may be a dust particle that traveled during the exposure. Other small white spots are also likely dust or bits of comet that have broken off. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
All were taken between February 25-27 at distances around 50-62 miles (80 to 100 km) from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Looking more closely, the comet nucleus appears to be “glowing” with a thin layer of dust and gas suspended above the surface. In the lower left Feb. 27 image, a prominent streak is visible. While this might be a cosmic ray zap, its texture hints that it could also be a dust particle captured during the time exposure. Because it moved a significant distance across the frame, the possible comet chunk may be relatively close to the spacecraft. Just a hunch.
Particularly striking and collimated jets emerge from the comet’s shadowed Hathor region between the two lobes. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
http://www.universetoday.com/119296/dust-whirls-swirls-and-twirls-at-rosettas-comet/
Montage of four single-frame images of Comet 67P/C-G taken by Rosetta’s Navigation Camera (NAVCAM) at the end of February 2015. The images were taken on 25 February (top left), 26 February (top right) and on two occasions on 27 February (bottom left and right). Exposure times are 2 seconds each and the images have been processed to bring out the details of the comet’s many jets. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
This photo taken on Feb. 27 shows the comet with peacock-like display of dusty jets. Below center is a streak that may be a dust particle that traveled during the exposure. Other small white spots are also likely dust or bits of comet that have broken off. Credits: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
All were taken between February 25-27 at distances around 50-62 miles (80 to 100 km) from the center of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Looking more closely, the comet nucleus appears to be “glowing” with a thin layer of dust and gas suspended above the surface. In the lower left Feb. 27 image, a prominent streak is visible. While this might be a cosmic ray zap, its texture hints that it could also be a dust particle captured during the time exposure. Because it moved a significant distance across the frame, the possible comet chunk may be relatively close to the spacecraft. Just a hunch.
Particularly striking and collimated jets emerge from the comet’s shadowed Hathor region between the two lobes. Credit: ESA/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0
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CodeRedR51
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CodeRedR51
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And so it begins...
Dotini
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A "different" view of our planet.
http://www.newscientist.com/article...-of-the-inside-of-the-earth.html#.VQgptkvoaX3
(Image: Ebru Bozdağ, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, and David Pugmire, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Eavesdropping on earthquakes is painting a picture of the Earth's interior that looks like the swirling colours inside a marble. This view beneath the Pacific Ocean, based on simulations run by Jeroen Tromp from Princeton University and his team, uses different colours to represent the speed of seismic tremors, giving an insight into the planet's inner structure.
http://www.newscientist.com/article...-of-the-inside-of-the-earth.html#.VQgptkvoaX3
(Image: Ebru Bozdağ, University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, and David Pugmire, Oak Ridge National Laboratory)Eavesdropping on earthquakes is painting a picture of the Earth's interior that looks like the swirling colours inside a marble. This view beneath the Pacific Ocean, based on simulations run by Jeroen Tromp from Princeton University and his team, uses different colours to represent the speed of seismic tremors, giving an insight into the planet's inner structure.
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Saturn's rings vs Saturn's moon, Prometheus
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Heading out shortly to watch the eclipse - should be 90% by 9.30 am, but it is getting cloudier here... there was glimpses on blue sky half an hour ago though, so we might get lucky.
Wiegert
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@Touring Mars I've got a perfect view of it from work. Thankfully unobstructed by the morning mist. 👍
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We got an incredible lucky break here - it was completely cloudy as the maximum was approaching, but amazingly a patch of lighter cloud arrived right on time and meant we could clearly see the eclipse with the naked eye for about 3 minutes - right over the maximum - before it clouded over again and started to rain. The chances of that happening in Glasgow are about a bazillion to one against.
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About as good as we got..
Totally forgot about this so I didn't have chance to sort my kit out. Took this at 1/8000, f36, and holding two polarising filters on the lens, which were both much smaller than the 86mmØ of the lens. I think we were only due about 85% anyway. Also, Cummins next door pump out a lot of water vapour into the local atmosphere.
ed: just realised I could have taken the camera to f40
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Solar Eclipse 20/03/2015
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Stunning! Have you got those as individual shots too?
Have you got those as individual shots too?
