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Showing posts with the label earth

An American satellite obtained a unique view of a lunar eclipse

The DSCOVR spacecraft, which was launched in February, has a camera that stares constantly at the sunlit face of the Earth. The images are being used to track moving features such as clouds and dust storms, and to monitor the climate. But on 27 September, it was in just the right position to see the Moon go behind the Earth and into its shadow. On the ground at this time, skywatchers would have observed the lunar body turn a shade of red. It does this because some sunlight is still able to reach the Moon's surface after being filtered through the Earth's atmosphere. "Our camera is normally centred on the Earth but we use the Moon for calibration," explained Jay Herman, the US space agency's (Nasa) lead investigator onDSCOVR's Epic camera system. "That's what we were doing on this occasion. We were staring at the Moon and the Earth moved in front about four hours before the eclipse was seen on Earth. And that's because we were at an an...

The New Horizons sent the super-sharp pictures of Pluto

The images released by the US space agency on Friday show details on the surface of the dwarf planet at a resolution better than 80m per pixel. On Earth at this scale, one could easily discern a city park. With New Horizons, we see crystal clear views of mountains, craters and smooth ice fields. "These close-up images, showing the diversity of terrain on Pluto, demonstrate the power of our robotic planetary explorers to return intriguing data to scientists back here on Planet Earth," said John Grunsfeld, the head of Nasa's science directorate. "New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see." The probe got to about 12,500km from the surface of the dwarf and acquired a mass of pictures and other instrument data. But because of the vast separation to Earth, and the modest transm...

Scientists drill a hole into the Indian Ocean floor to try to get below the Earth's crust for the first time

They want to sample rock from the planet's mantle - its deep interior. In the process, the researchers hope to check their assumptions about the materials from which the crust itself is made. It will probably take several years to drop the full 5 to 5.5km, says co-team leader, Prof Chris MacLeod. But Prof MacLeod suspects the discontinuity could also describe in places the depth to which water has managed to penetrate into the peridotites to produce a different type of rock known as serpentinite. This is in addition to the 700m of water between the drilling ship, the Joides Resolution (JR), and the seabed. "In total, we think it will take three expeditions," the Cardiff University geologist told. "The science is approved and we have funding for this initial two-month investigation. But we will need to come back and we may not complete the task until the 2020s." There have been several attempts to drill into the mantle, but none has yet succeede...

Two ice volcanoes found on the surface of Pluto

Wright Mons on Pluto They are seen in images returned from the New Horizons probe, which flew past the distant dwarf planet in July. The mountains are several km high and tens of km across, and each has what appears to be a depression in the top. Unlike Earth volcanoes that spew molten rock, Pluto's volcanoes - if that is what they are - would likely erupt an icy slush of substances such as water, nitrogen, ammonia or methane. The suggestion was raised at the 47th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences, where the mission team is presenting over 50 research reports from the flyby. The scientists still need to do further work to confirm their volcano idea. What would help in particular is information on the composition of the materials making up the local terrain. "If we can constrain the compositions of these features then we'd have something to work with, with respect to modelling how t...

British astronaut Tim Peake mission to the space station will generate an Apollo-like fervour

Tim Peake Mr Peake told that he is going to the orbiting lab primarily to do science, but that his priority will be to share his experiences. He believes his mission can inspire more young people to become interested in science and engineering. Mr Peake's six-month stint on the station begins in December when he leaves Earth on a Russian Soyuz rocket. The Union flag is going to be flown and worn in space againTim Peake, on being British "The legacy I hope is that this will inspire a new generation to look at science, to look at space, as an exciting career path, and to make choices that push them in that direction," he said. Friday saw him go in front of the media in his home country for the final time before his great adventure gets under way. He now heads to Moscow to complete final training, before then flying to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch. Not having fresh air for 6 months is what I'll miss mostTim Peak...

Total lunar eclipse to meet supermoon

The Moon will turn a rusty hue in the early hours of Monday and may seem larger in the sky. The event is caused by a total lunar eclipse coinciding with another astronomical event called a supermoon. It's the second total lunar eclipse this year, but the first since 2008 where the whole eclipse will be visible from the UK. The entire eclipse will be visible from eastern North America, South America, West Africa and western Europe. Skywatchers in the western half of North America, the rest of Europe and Africa, the Middle East and South Asia will see a partial one. From the UK, observers will see the Moon pass through the Earth's shadow in the early hours of Monday morning. In North and South America the eclipse will be seen on Sunday evening. The last time a total lunar eclipse was visible in its entirety from the UK was 2008; the next time one will be visible after this is in 2019 The supermoon, where Earth's satellite is near its minimum distan...