| Piú votate - Artistic Views of the Solar System |
000-0-Mars.jpgMeteor strike on Mars132 visiteMars may have lost much of its atmosphere during asteroid impacts early in its history.
The Beagle 2 lander will look for signatures of life on Mars, whether long-dead or still-living, by measuring the ratio of two different types of carbon in the rocks. Biological processes on Earth favour the lighter isotope of carbon, carbon-12, over the heavier carbon-13. Hence, a high carbon-12 to carbon-13 ratio is taken as evidence of life and has been found in rocks up to 4 billion years old, even where geological processing has occurred. The hope is that the same occurred on Mars.
(16 voti)
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Aeneas Crater on Dione.jpgAeneas Crater on Dione199 visitenessun commento
(16 voti)
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Mars~1.jpgNot too close, not too far...105 visitenessun commento
(15 voti)
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Mars-1.jpgSummer afternoon...On Mars!94 visitenessun commento
(15 voti)
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WW31.jpg1998-WW3194 visiteThis is an artist's view of a Kuiper Belt binary object, called 1998 WW31. These icy bodies orbit each other at the fringe of our Solar System.
The illustration depicts one member of the duo in the foreground; its companion - the dark, round object - is in the background. The objects are about the same size. Both are illuminated from behind by the Sun [the white dot at upper left]. Like other Kuiper Belt objects, this duo orbits the Sun, completing a circuit every 301 years while Pluto orbits the Sun every 248 years.
(15 voti)
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Voyagers-Heliosphere4b.jpgThe Voyagers at the "Final Frontier"90 visiteOriginal caption:"In the summer of 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to observe the planet Neptune, its final planetary target. Passing about 4.950 Km (about 3.000 miles) above Neptune's North Pole, Voyager 2 made its closest approach to any planet since leaving Earth 12 years before. Five hours later, Voyager 2 passed about 40.000 Km (about 25.000 miles) from Neptune's largest moon, Triton, the last solid body the spacecraft had an opportunity to study".
(15 voti)
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South Polar Spring-PIA08660.jpgSpring at the South Pole of Mars79 visiteSand-laden jets shoot into the Polar Sky in this view by noted space artist Ron Miller. It shows the Martian South Polar "Ice Cap" as Southern Spring begins.
(14 voti)
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Voyagers-Heliosphere5b.JPGThe Voyagers at the "Final Frontier"93 visiteThe twin Voyager 1 and 2 spacecrafts continue exploring where nothing from Earth has flown before. In the 25th year after their 1977 launches, they each are much farther away from Earth and the Sun than Pluto is and approaching the boundary region - the heliopause - where the Sun's dominance of the environment ends and Interstellar Space begins. Voyager 1, more than twice as distant as Pluto, is farther from Earth than any other human-made object and speeding outward at more than 17 Km per second (38.000 miles per hour). Both spacecraft are still sending scientific information about their surroundings through the Deep Space Network (DSN).
The primary mission was the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn.
After making a string of discoveries there - such as active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io and intricacies of Saturn's rings - the mission was extended. Voyager 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, and is still the only spacecraft to have visited those outer Planets. The adventurers' current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), will explore the outermost edge of the Sun's domain. And beyond.
(14 voti)
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mars-dust-devil-large-bg.jpgMartian Dust Devil130 visiteAh, Martian Summer! Finally, the days are long, just like on dear old Earth. And daytime highs rocket all the way up to a balmy 20C (68F) from the Summer nighttime low of -90C (-130F), meaning you and your fellow astronauts can warm up your machinery earlier to get a good start on mining operations.
But those warm daytime temperatures also bring alive the Martian devils. Dust devils, that is.
You were caught in one just yesterday - and a devilishly terrifying experience it was! This was no little Arizona desert whirlwind, only a few tens of meters high and a few meters across and past you in seconds.
No, what hit you yesterday was a monster column towering kilometers high and hundreds of meters wide, 10 times larger than any tornado on Earth. Red-brown sand and dust whipping around faster than 30 meters per second (70 miles per hour) dropped visibility to zero, scouring your faceplate, driving dust into every fold and wrinkle of your spacesuit.
For 15 minutes you huddled and endured the buffeting. The scariest part was the incessant crackling and flashing of miniature lightning bolts nipping at you and your rover, and the loud static on your radio that prevented you from calling for help.
Could this really happen?
(14 voti)
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OlympusMons-processed.jpgOlympus Mons, after Orbital Insertion68 visitenessun commentoMareKromium
(13 voti)
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Saturn_s Rings.jpgTouchin' "The Rings"...101 visitenessun commento
(13 voti)
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Voyagers-Heliosphere6b.JPGWhere are the "Pioneers"?98 visitePioneer 10 will continue into interstellar space, heading generally for the red star Aldebaran, which forms the eye of Taurus. Aldebaran is about 68 LY away and it will take Pioneer over 2 MY to reach it.
The Mission of Pioneer 11 has ended: the last communication from
Pioneer 11 was received in November 1995, shortly before the Earth's motion carried it out of view of the spacecraft antenna. The spacecraft is headed toward the constellation of Aquila, Northwest of the constellation of Sagittarius. Pioneer 11 will pass near one of the stars of Sagittarius in about 4 MY.
PIONEER SPACECRAFT CONDITIONS: very cold with most temperature readings at the bottom of their scale. Bus voltage about 26 volts (nominal is 28). Uplink received from DSS 14 at -131.7 dbm. Two commands received, both confirmed as executed. Geiger Tube Telescope Instrument on, and data received.
Project Phoenix has been observing Pioneer 10 at Arecibo in Puerto Rico through the auspices of the SETI Institute. The signal from Pioneer 10 was also picked up at Arecibo on 2 March 2002.
The last telemetered data from the University of Iowa cosmic ray instrument were as follows: 2 March 2002 (39 minutes of clean data) (r = 79.83 AU) 27 April 2002 (33 minutes of clean data) (r = 80.22 AU)
At GMT 17:27:30, Saturday, 4/28/01, the signal from Pioneer 10 was received at station 63 in Madrid, the first time since August 5/6 of 2000. So it appears that Pioneer 10 has life, albeit in another mode - i.e., only in a two-way coherent mode. We have been listening for the Pioneer 10 signal in a one-way downlink non-coherent transmission mode since last summer with no success. We therefore conclude that in order [for Pioneer 10] to talk to us, we need to talk to it. This means from now on, we need two-way round-trip light time (RTLT) passes to allow the Deep Space Network (DSN) to send up a strong stable signal to lock up with a coherent downlink signal.
(13 voti)
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