Category Archives: Solar System
Beauty in Motion
I saw this amazing video on Bad Astronomy today and I loved it so much that I couldn’t resist sharing it. This video uses raw footage from the Cassini and Voyager missions to Jupiter and Saturn to illustrate the beauty of the two gas giant planets. The footage was compiled and edited by Vimeo user Sander van den Berg and the effect is stunning! By looking at images of the planets online or even through a telescope it can become easy to think of them as mere static worlds, like jewels in the sky. The wonderful reality is that these worlds are vividly alive and active! From massive storms the size of Earth on Jupiter to billions of ice particles racing around Saturn to form its rings, there is an orchestra of motion at the very heart of each planet. This short movie captures that masterpiece in a way that reminds you of the grandeur of the first time you saw a picture of a planet in grade school and restores that “Wow!” factor that can become less enthralling over time. The movie is simply called “Outer Space” and I think that simple title captures the essence of what’s happening in the footage. Enjoy!
Click here to view the video and read more about it on Vimeo.
Enceladus Flyby
The Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn, everyone’s favorite planet (right??), will make it’s closest flyby of Saturn’s tiny, icy moon Enceladus since 2008 at 2:30 EDT today. The probe will fly over Enceladus’ south polar region at an altitude of 46 miles (74 kilometers) near an area famous for its ice-spewing mega-geysers. Cassini discovered active cyrovolcanism on Encledadus during its first flyby of the moon in 2005. It astonished astronomers that a moon so cold and icy could have volcanic activity at all. Further investigation lead to the discovery of a region in the southern hemisphere known as “the Tiger Stripes” where there are four large rifts in the icy surface. Below the surface it is believed that there is a local or planetwide ocean of water that is heated far above what is expected of a small icy world so far from the Sun. Enceladus must must have a hot core just like our own planet that is heated by the friction caused by the gravitational pull of Saturn and orbital resonances from other moons. Since Enceladus orbits within Saturn’s rings very close to the planet it feels the strong gravitational pull of not only Saturn but of the ring system and the other moons that orbit Saturn. The south polar region of Enceladus is particularly interesting to astronomers because it shows clear evidence of ongoing geological activity. The southern terrain is largely free from impact craters which leads us to believe that the surface is being reshaped by the geological forces at work beneath the surface. Enceladus is one of only three moons where we have seen eruptions; the other two being Jupiter’s moon Io and Neptune’s moon Triton.
Massive ice geysers around the Tiger Stripes region of Enceladus' south pole suggest the presence of heated liquid H2O Credit: NASA/
The intrigue of the geysers has prompted Cassini’s mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to carry out a flyby of the south pole region to “taste” the icy vapor with a device called an ion and neutral mass spectrometer. The data collected from the spectrometer will allow scientists to better understand the composition of the jets of ice and its subterranean source. Cassini’s composite infrared spectrometer will also be taking pictures of the Tiger Stripes looking for hot spots under the surface similar to the ones recently found detailed in the picture below.
The geological activity and presence of water on Enceladus is extremely exciting for NASA because if there’s water and heat there could also be micro-bacterial life. A discovery of life on Enceladus would be a massive breakthrough in understanding the picture of the universe and the early stages of life on our own planet as well. So far it’s the moons, not the planets that are leading the race of potential for life, so I vote to study more moons!
Evidence of subterranean heat below the Tiger Stripes region on Enceladus Credit: NASA/J
Rest in pieces Phobos-Grunt
Another Russian mission to Mars, another failure to reach Mars. The failure of the Russian Mars probe Phobos-Grunt is but the most recent chapter in a lengthening story of Russian space failures. The Russian space agency Roscosmos is increasingly embarrassing itself more and more with every little (and big) failure it tucks into its belt. The once proud Russian space program is now in total shambles as they try to repair the damage done by another failed interplanetary mission. Not only is the Phobos-Grunt failure a huge financial hit for Russia, but it is a reputation killer. It will surely take time for Roscosmos to gain the trust of the world’s space industry after this latest failure.
The Phobos-Grunt Mars probe was launched on November 9,2011 and was supposed to shoot off to Mars from low Earth orbit, LEO, as Mars reaches its closest point to Earth. The failure occurred during the transit in LEO when the engines were supposed to ignite and propel the probe into its Mars-bound trajectory. The engines did not light and the probe was stranded in Earth’s orbit. For two months Roscosmos tried to regain control of the stranded probe but were unable to re-establish communication. Then finally, yesterday, the probe lost orbital velocity and began to fall out of orbit sending it engulfed in flames back down to the surface. While most of the 14.9 ton probe burned up upon re-entry, the remains fell into the Pacific Ocean Sunday about 800 miles west of Chile. The spacecraft was carrying a full tank of toxic liquid propellant because of the lack of engine burn but it is believed that it all vaporized about 60 miles above the surface due to its low boiling point. Phobos-Grunt was also carrying a small amount of the radioactive metal Cobalt-57 but the Russian space agency said that it poses no threat of contamination.
Artist's conception of Phobos-Grunt re-entry
Perhaps the most embarrassing aspect of the Phobos-Grunt saga was when the Roscosmos started pointing the finger at other countries for causing the failure. One finger, specifically, was pointed at…you guessed it…the United States claiming that we used our military and surveillance satellites to interrupt communications with the probe. According to Roscosmos it is very easy to use a satellite to cut off communications with a spacecraft being controlled by computers on the other side of the world. While they’re correct in that observation you can’t help but smack yourself on the forehead! Why on Earth would anybody want to sabotage a spacecraft heading towards Mars when the international space community has been united for over 30 years for mutual scientific advancement and understanding of our solar system? It’s just laughable that they would try to brush off their own technological failures on another country when the Russian space chief admitted that the mission was ill-prepared but gave the mission the green light due to the limited window of opportunity for the Earth-Mars transit.
In my opinion, this news is worrisome for the United States. The Russian space program seems to have fallen from grace and its once proud standard of excellence. This is the same country that put the first satellite into orbit, put the first human being into space, and so many other monumental space advancements. We even rely on Russian Soyuz rockets to transport our astronauts to the International Space Station since the Shuttle program is no more. What happens when a Soyuz rocket explodes carrying American astronauts? We rely on the the Russians for our space exploration and we can’t afford to allow their sometimes sketchy preparation and detail overlook to compromise American lives and science. Russia really needs to get their act together as a space-capable country. If NASA, the ESA, and the world’s confidence in the Russian space program has not been shaken I would be deeply worried. Phobos-Grunt’s failure could be the beginning of a far worse story if they don’t start to cover all their bases and do their homework before every mission, whether great or small. The world depends on them to be reliable and in the extremely dangerous realm of space exploration the smallest detail can lead to catastrophic and deadly results.
My First Astrophoto…Sort of
On Sunday night I went outside in my driveway and spent a good while taking in the beauty of the full moon with my binoculars. It was a perfectly clear night and I had an amazing view of the moon for over an hour! The only drawback was that it was almost at zenith so my arms and neck needed frequent breaks. I am not equipped at all for astrophotography but I figured I’d give it a shot. All I had was my iPhone and its tiny lens so snapping a picture of the moon was not an option through my binoculars because there was simply too much light for my phone to handle. So I focused my attention to Jupiter which was hanging low in the East sky around midnight. I am simply in love with the sight of Jupiter’s moons through my 15×70′s so I decided to try it out with my phone. Unfortunately with binoculars you can never get a complete image because you can only hold the phone up to one of the eyepieces. Although the size of the planet is reduced and the moons aren’t visible (far too faint for my phone’s camera) I’m relatively please with how it turned out! Take a look:
My first attempt at astrophotography...a mild success
So there it is! Obviously if you compare that to any other amateur’s pictures of Jupiter this is the worst, but I’m proud of it nonetheless! It’s still amazing that something that is 816 million kilometers away and yet we can see it with our naked eyes, and even better with equipment. So that’s that. I hope that brought you at least mild enjoyment. Until next time, remember Psalm 97:6, “The heavens proclaim His righteousness, and all the peoples see His glory“
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The Planets
I’m home from work sick today and I’m watching a show called “The Planets” on the Science Channel about the gas giants and I have to say that it is fascinating! I didn’t know that NASA’s 1977 Voyager mission to the outer solar system was executed to coordinate with a perfect planetary alignment that happens only once every 175 years. Although we don’t know for sure how the outer planets formed you sure do learn something new everyday on the Science Channel!
Moons of Jupiter
When I got my new Celestron Sky Master binos for Christmas the first thing I absolutely couldn’t wait to see was the moons of Jupiter. I took my new toy out to the field next to my house and set up the tripod and looked upon a strange new world with my own eyes for the first time! It was a spectacular sight to say the least! This picture is not mine, I don’t have the money for astrophotographpy yet. The picture comes from www.tomsastroblog.com, but it is the exact same view that I saw through my binos on Christmas night 2011.
Jupiter's moons (Io, Europa, and Ganymede) seen through binoculars
