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VIDEO: Another trip around the Earth

Jonathan Nally — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:00:56 +0000

HERE ARE SOME MORE fantastic short videos taken by astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) in Earth orbit. The ISS circles the globe every 92.5 minutes at a speed of about 27,745 kilometres per hour. This unique vantage points enables us to see the planet spinning below, with numerous countries, cities and landscapes passing underneath.

A couple of the videos show a point of view looking out the main window of the Station’s “Cupola“. The multi-window observation post attached to the side of the ISS gives astronauts and cosmonauts not only the ability to get great views of the Earth, but also to keep an eye on activities—such as spacewalks and spacecraft movements—outside the station.

Story by Jonathan Nally. Videos courtesy NASA.

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Must-see video of the Sun!

Jonathan Nally — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 14:00:38 +0000

THIS TWO-MINUTE VIDEO shows highlights from the Solar Dynamics Observatory’s second year of studying our nearest star. The NASA spacecraft takes continuous imagery at many wavelengths, providing an unprecedented insight into the life and times of the Sun.

Story by Jonathan Nally. Imagery courtesy NASA / Goddard Space Flight Centre Scientific Visualisation Studio

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VIDEO: The road to Mars

Jonathan Nally — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 14:00:27 +0000

WHAT DOES IT TAKE to get a spacecraft from Earth all the way to Mars? There are a few key things to consider, as explained in this 60-second video from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Adapted from information issued by NASA / JPL / Caltech.

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VIDEO: Twister on Mars!

Jonathan Nally — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:00:55 +0000

AN AFTERNOON WHIRLWIND on Mars lofts a twisting column of dust more 800 metres into the air in this image from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

HiRISE captured the image on February 16, 2012, while the orbiter passed over the Amazonis Planitia region of northern Mars. In the area observed, paths of many previous whirlwinds, or dust devils, are visible as streaks on the dusty surface.

The active dust devil displays a delicate arc produced by a westerly breeze partway up its height. The dust plume is about 30 metres in diameter.

The image was taken during the time of Martian year when that planet is farthest from the Sun. Just as on Earth, winds on Mars are powered by solar heating. Exposure to the Sun’s rays declines during this season, yet even now, dust devils act relentlessly to clean the surface of freshly deposited dust, a little at a time.

Dust devils occur on Earth as well as on Mars. They are spinning columns of air, made visible by the dust they pull off the ground. Unlike a tornado, a dust devil typically forms on a clear day when the ground is heated by the Sun, warming the air just above the ground. As heated air near the surface rises quickly through a small pocket of cooler air above it, the air may begin to rotate, if conditions are just right.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been examining Mars with six science instruments since 2006. Now in an extended mission, the orbiter continues to provide insights into the planet’s ancient environments and how processes such as wind, meteorite impacts and seasonal frosts continue to affect the Martian surface today. This mission has returned more data about Mars than all other orbital and surface missions combined.

Adapted from information issued by Guy Webster, Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA / JPL-Caltech / University of Arizona.

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VIDEO: Two amazing views of Planet Earth

Jonathan Nally — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:22:13 +0000

THESE TWO AMAZING NASA VIDEOS were taken by the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The one above was made in mid March, and shows the view looking down as the Station sailed across Brazil and out into the Atlantic Ocean and across the Earth’s “terminator”. The terminator is the line dividing the half of the planet lit by the Sun and the half in shadow. The camera view also shows Soyuz (manned) and Progress (unmanned) spacecraft docked with the Station.

The video below was taken a little later in March and shows what it’s like to see an aurora from above. The Station was flying over the southern part of the Indian Ocean at the time. Toward the end of the video we can see daylight beginning to break across the horizon in the right-hand half of the screen.

Story by Jonathan Nally. Videos courtesy NASA.

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VIDEO: Tornadoes on the Sun!

Jonathan Nally — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 14:00:35 +0000

THIS TIME-LAPSE ANIMATION shows enormous tornado-like vortices on the Sun’s limb as seen by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory in February this year. The individual images that make up this animation were taken at 36-second intervals.

Adapted from information issued by NASA / Goddard Space Flight Centre Scientific Visualisation Studio.

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LAUNCH VIDEO: Australian defence satellite

Jonathan Nally — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 14:00:50 +0000

A NEW SATELLITE was successfully launched in Kazakhstan last week, which will improve communications abilities for Australian Defence Force personnel operating in the Middle East.

The IS-22 satellite was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The launch was managed by Intelsat, an international satellite service provider.

(With the video above, you might like to forward to the 3:00 point, as nothing much happens before then.)

The Australian Defence Force has purchased an Ultra High Frequency communications payload, which forms part of the satellite. More than 30 per cent of the satellite is dedicated to Australian Defence communications.

“This satellite means we will be able to transmit voice and data anywhere between the west coast of Africa and the east coast of Australia,” said Minister for Defence Materiel Jason Clare. “It will make it easier for commanders in Australia to provide troops on the ground with information faster and more effectively.

“It will also mean that troops can provide intelligence and information back to Headquarters.”

Currently, the ADF has limited use of United States’ satellites in this region.

The launch of the IS-22 means that Australia now has its own dedicated Defence satellite communications network in this region.

The satellite will also be used for commercial purposes, but Defence has put in place high level security measures including data encryption to protect ADF communication links.

The $269 million program has delivered the project on time and within budget. Intelsat is contracted to operate the satellite for 15 years after launch.

The following video from Boeing gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the satellite before launch:

Adapted from information issued by the Australian Government / Boeing / Intelsat.

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VIDEO: When worlds (seem to) collide

Jonathan Nally — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:00:20 +0000

LAST YEAR, EUROPE’S MARS EXPRESS spacecraft—in orbit around Mars—underwent a special manoeuvre to observe a conjunction between Jupiter and the larger of Mars’ two moons, Phobos. A conjunction is when two unrelated astronomical bodies appear to line up in the sky.

This sequence of images shows Phobos moving from right to left through the camera’s field of view and then disappearing from the field of view. At the moment when Mars Express, Phobos and Jupiter were in a line, Phobos was 11,389 km from the spacecraft, while Jupiter was more than 529,000,000 km away.

Because Jupiter was nearly 50,000 times as far away as Phobos, the largest planet in the Solar System (140,000 km in diameter) appears much smaller than the Martian moon.

While Mars Express and Phobos were both moving through space, the spacecraft’s camera was fixed on Jupiter. The sequence includes a total of 104 individual images that were taken over a span of 68 seconds.

Adapted from information issued by ESA / DLR / FU Berlin (G. Neukum).

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Rocket volley to study the atmosphere

Jonathan Nally — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 01:00:07 +0000

NASA SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED five suborbital sounding rockets March 27 from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia as part of a study of the upper level jet stream.

The first rocket was launched at 4:58am US EDT and each subsequent rocket was launched at 80 second intervals. Each rocket released a chemical tracer that created milky, white clouds at the edge of space.

The goal of the Anomalous Transport Rocket Experiment (ATREX) was to improve understanding of the process that drives fast-moving winds high in the thermosphere.

Tracking the way the clouds move can help scientists understand the movement of the winds some 110 kilometres up in the sky, which in turn will help create better models of the electromagnetic regions of space that can damage man-made satellites and disrupt communications systems.

Winds up high

Fiery trails from four of the five sounding rockets are clearly visible in the time-lapse photograph (bottom of this page) of the launch. The other image (below) shows two of the clouds left in the wake of the experiment; the rockets released trimethyl aluminium, a substance that burns spontaneously in the presence of oxygen.

The harmless by-products of this glowing reaction were visible to the naked eye as far south as Wilmington, North Carolina; west to Charlestown, West Virginia; and north to Buffalo, New York. Both photographs were taken near the launch site at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.

Throughout the experiment, researchers used specialised cameras in North Carolina, Virginia, and New Jersey—as well as temperature and pressure instruments on two of the rockets—to monitor the clouds.

By measuring how quickly the clouds move away from each other and integrating that information into atmospheric models, they hope to improve their understanding of the 320 to 480 kilometre winds in the thermosphere.

Each ATREX rocket released a chemical that reacts with oxygen, forming milky white clouds in the upper atmosphere.

First noticed by scientists in the 1960s, the winds are thought to be part of a high-altitude jet stream that’s distinct from the one lower in the troposphere, where commercial aircraft fly. Observing the turbulence produced by these winds should make it possible to determine what’s driving them.

An improved understanding of the upper jet stream will make it easier to model the electromagnetic regions of space that can damage satellites and disrupt communications systems. The experiment will also help explain how the effects of atmospheric disturbances in one part of the globe can be transported to other parts of the globe in a mere day or two.

The launches are part of a broader sounding rocket programmeat NASA that conducts approximately 20 flights a year from launch sites around the world.

The trails of the five ATREX sounding rockets captured in a time-lapse photo.

Photographs courtesy NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility. Text adapted from information issued by Karen Fox and Adam Voiland, NASA Earth Observatory.

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Unknown objects at the limits

Jonathan Nally — Sat, 17 Mar 2012 07:54:52 +0000

NASA’s FERMI GAMMA-RAY TELESCOPE is finding hundreds of new objects at the very edge of the electromagnetic spectrum. Many of them have one thing in common—astronomers have no idea what they are. This short video from NASA explains what it’s all about.

Adapted from information issued by NASA.

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