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"title": "Curiosity Drills Into Mars and Strikes Clay",
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"content": "\u003cp>While prospecting the slopes of Mount Sharp for evidence of Mars’ past watery climates, NASA’s Curiosity rover struck clay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this doesn’t sound as worthy of a “Eureka!” as hitting the golden mother-lode, consider that, to scientists studying Mars’ past climates, clay is as good as gold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940722\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940722\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-800x393.jpg\" alt=\"Mosaic of the "clay-bearing unit" that NASA's Curiosity rover arrived at in February. The edge of Vera Rubin Ridge, Curiosity's previous exploration site, can be seen at the top of the picture. \" width=\"800\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-800x393.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-768x377.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-1020x501.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-1200x590.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mosaic of the “clay-bearing unit” that NASA’s Curiosity rover arrived at in February. The edge of Vera Rubin Ridge, Curiosity’s previous exploration site, can be seen at the top of the picture. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Clay is a treasure to researchers because the minerals it contains are known to have formed in the presence of water. So, \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/research-on-clay-formation-could-have-implications-for-how-to-search-for-life-on-mars/\">analyzing Martian clays\u003c/a> is a means of exploring what role water has played in Mars’ past climates. Mars’ once wetter, possibly more Earth-like, and maybe even life-friendly environment has long since dried up, but clues to it persist in the rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7376\">drilled the April 6 clay sample\u003c/a> from a patch of exposed bedrock, nicknamed “Aberlady,” within a region of Mount Sharp called the “clay-bearing unit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Saga of Mars’ History Written in Stone\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15292.html\">Mount Sharp\u003c/a> is a 3-mile-high mound of sedimentary rock sitting in the middle of 90-mile-wide Gale Crater, which we know once contained deep lakes that repeatedly formed and dried up in cycles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/10125640jpg\">sediments were laid down\u003c/a> at different times in the past two billion years, and each layer represents a page in the climate history of Mars. Erosion by wind action has opened up these pages for Curiosity to read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Curiosity’s Quest for Water\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mount Sharp’s “clay-bearing unit” was \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/mars/clay-bearing-unit-map.html\">discovered from orbit\u003c/a> by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in the years prior to Curiosity’s 2012 landing. That detection is \u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/features/mars/110311/\">one of the main reasons\u003c/a> that Gale Crater, and particularly Mount Sharp, were chosen for Curiosity’s expedition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity can bore into hard rock to get samples, with a hammering rock drill on its long robotic arm. The drill’s jack-hammer action was needed to penetrate earlier hard mudstones, but the April 6 clay tasting was of soft rock and required only rotary action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The drilled rock samples are delivered by the robotic arm to Curiosity’s internal laboratory instruments for analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity started detecting clay minerals in \u003ca href=\"https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/179797/scientists-analysing-martian-mudstones-reveal-chemistry/\">mudstone samples\u003c/a> shortly after landing, discoveries that only continued along its uphill trail. These lower mudstones are believed to have formed when rivers carrying sediments flowed into ancient lakes, where the sediments settled out on the lake bottom near the inlet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940712\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940712\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-800x584.jpg\" alt=\"Fine sediment layers along Mount Sharp's lower slopes typical of lake bottom sediments deposited by the waters of river inflow. Picture taken in 2014 by the Curiosity rover.\" width=\"800\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-800x584.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-768x561.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-1020x745.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-1200x877.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1.jpg 1588w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fine sediment layers along Mount Sharp’s lower slopes typical of lake bottom sediments deposited by the waters of river inflow. Picture taken in 2014 by the Curiosity rover.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While scientists await results of Curiosity’s analysis of the Aberlady sample, they are surveying the \u003ca href=\"https://www.newscientist.com/article/2197638-curiosity-is-entering-what-may-be-the-best-area-to-find-life-on-mars/\">unexplored territory\u003c/a> surrounding the rover — maybe like kids in a candy shop. Several intriguing geological features beckon with promises of discovery. There’s a lot to look forward to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Curiosity’s Progress and Future\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With all the recent headlines grabbed by new and upcoming Mars missions —\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/overview/\"> InSight\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/\">Mars 2020\u003c/a> rover namely — plus 2018’s loss of the veteran \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-record-setting-opportunity-rover-mission-on-mars-comes-to-end\">Opportunity rover\u003c/a>, Curiosity’s dogged and determined uphill progress may have been overshadowed by these robots of past, present, and future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Curiosity weathered last year’s major global dust storm without a hitch — the same dust storm that ended Opportunity’s 15-year Martian marathon. Indeed, Curiosity has fed us regular reports of mineralogical paleo-water-sightings for many months now, making the truly remarkable findings almost a routine event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940709\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Google Earth image showing Curiosity's 2012 landing site and its present location in the Clay-Bearing Unit above Vera Rubin Ridge. The summit of Mount Sharp is at the upper right, and the distant rim of Gale Crater is shown in the background. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google Earth image showing Curiosity’s 2012 landing site and its present location in the Clay-Bearing Unit above Vera Rubin Ridge. The summit of Mount Sharp is at the upper right, and the distant rim of Gale Crater is shown in the background. \u003ccite>(NASA/Google Earth)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But with this new rung of Mount Sharp’s sedimentary ladder now climbed, Curiosity’s \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/whereistherovernow/\">progress up the 3-mile-high mountain\u003c/a> can be appreciated. Though it has only climbed a vertical distance of about 1,000 feet in seven years, and in the bigger picture is still much closer to Mount Sharp’s foot than its summit, no other interplanetary rover in history can come close to boasting such a mountain-climbing record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What will Curiosity encounter in this new phase of is exploration, and \u003ca href=\"https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/22882/does-the-curiosity-rover-really-have-a-chance-of-driving-to-the-top-of-mt-sharp?rq=1\">how much higher will it climb\u003c/a> before it joins Opportunity in the history books?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>While prospecting the slopes of Mount Sharp for evidence of Mars’ past watery climates, NASA’s Curiosity rover struck clay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If this doesn’t sound as worthy of a “Eureka!” as hitting the golden mother-lode, consider that, to scientists studying Mars’ past climates, clay is as good as gold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940722\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940722\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-800x393.jpg\" alt=\"Mosaic of the "clay-bearing unit" that NASA's Curiosity rover arrived at in February. The edge of Vera Rubin Ridge, Curiosity's previous exploration site, can be seen at the top of the picture. \" width=\"800\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-800x393.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-160x79.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-768x377.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-1020x501.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x-1200x590.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/22405_PIA23139-1280x.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mosaic of the “clay-bearing unit” that NASA’s Curiosity rover arrived at in February. The edge of Vera Rubin Ridge, Curiosity’s previous exploration site, can be seen at the top of the picture. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Clay is a treasure to researchers because the minerals it contains are known to have formed in the presence of water. So, \u003ca href=\"https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/research-on-clay-formation-could-have-implications-for-how-to-search-for-life-on-mars/\">analyzing Martian clays\u003c/a> is a means of exploring what role water has played in Mars’ past climates. Mars’ once wetter, possibly more Earth-like, and maybe even life-friendly environment has long since dried up, but clues to it persist in the rocks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7376\">drilled the April 6 clay sample\u003c/a> from a patch of exposed bedrock, nicknamed “Aberlady,” within a region of Mount Sharp called the “clay-bearing unit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Saga of Mars’ History Written in Stone\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/multimedia/pia15292.html\">Mount Sharp\u003c/a> is a 3-mile-high mound of sedimentary rock sitting in the middle of 90-mile-wide Gale Crater, which we know once contained deep lakes that repeatedly formed and dried up in cycles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/10125640jpg\">sediments were laid down\u003c/a> at different times in the past two billion years, and each layer represents a page in the climate history of Mars. Erosion by wind action has opened up these pages for Curiosity to read.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Curiosity’s Quest for Water\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mount Sharp’s “clay-bearing unit” was \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/mars/clay-bearing-unit-map.html\">discovered from orbit\u003c/a> by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in the years prior to Curiosity’s 2012 landing. That detection is \u003ca href=\"https://www.lpi.usra.edu/features/mars/110311/\">one of the main reasons\u003c/a> that Gale Crater, and particularly Mount Sharp, were chosen for Curiosity’s expedition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity can bore into hard rock to get samples, with a hammering rock drill on its long robotic arm. The drill’s jack-hammer action was needed to penetrate earlier hard mudstones, but the April 6 clay tasting was of soft rock and required only rotary action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The drilled rock samples are delivered by the robotic arm to Curiosity’s internal laboratory instruments for analysis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Curiosity started detecting clay minerals in \u003ca href=\"https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/179797/scientists-analysing-martian-mudstones-reveal-chemistry/\">mudstone samples\u003c/a> shortly after landing, discoveries that only continued along its uphill trail. These lower mudstones are believed to have formed when rivers carrying sediments flowed into ancient lakes, where the sediments settled out on the lake bottom near the inlet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940712\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940712\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-800x584.jpg\" alt=\"Fine sediment layers along Mount Sharp's lower slopes typical of lake bottom sediments deposited by the waters of river inflow. Picture taken in 2014 by the Curiosity rover.\" width=\"800\" height=\"584\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-800x584.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-160x117.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-768x561.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-1020x745.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1-1200x877.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/2014-lakefloorsediment1.jpg 1588w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fine sediment layers along Mount Sharp’s lower slopes typical of lake bottom sediments deposited by the waters of river inflow. Picture taken in 2014 by the Curiosity rover.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While scientists await results of Curiosity’s analysis of the Aberlady sample, they are surveying the \u003ca href=\"https://www.newscientist.com/article/2197638-curiosity-is-entering-what-may-be-the-best-area-to-find-life-on-mars/\">unexplored territory\u003c/a> surrounding the rover — maybe like kids in a candy shop. Several intriguing geological features beckon with promises of discovery. There’s a lot to look forward to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Curiosity’s Progress and Future\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With all the recent headlines grabbed by new and upcoming Mars missions —\u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/mission/overview/\"> InSight\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/\">Mars 2020\u003c/a> rover namely — plus 2018’s loss of the veteran \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasas-record-setting-opportunity-rover-mission-on-mars-comes-to-end\">Opportunity rover\u003c/a>, Curiosity’s dogged and determined uphill progress may have been overshadowed by these robots of past, present, and future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Curiosity weathered last year’s major global dust storm without a hitch — the same dust storm that ended Opportunity’s 15-year Martian marathon. Indeed, Curiosity has fed us regular reports of mineralogical paleo-water-sightings for many months now, making the truly remarkable findings almost a routine event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940709\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940709\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Google Earth image showing Curiosity's 2012 landing site and its present location in the Clay-Bearing Unit above Vera Rubin Ridge. The summit of Mount Sharp is at the upper right, and the distant rim of Gale Crater is shown in the background. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/GE-MarsCuriosityLocation.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Google Earth image showing Curiosity’s 2012 landing site and its present location in the Clay-Bearing Unit above Vera Rubin Ridge. The summit of Mount Sharp is at the upper right, and the distant rim of Gale Crater is shown in the background. \u003ccite>(NASA/Google Earth)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But with this new rung of Mount Sharp’s sedimentary ladder now climbed, Curiosity’s \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/mission/whereistherovernow/\">progress up the 3-mile-high mountain\u003c/a> can be appreciated. Though it has only climbed a vertical distance of about 1,000 feet in seven years, and in the bigger picture is still much closer to Mount Sharp’s foot than its summit, no other interplanetary rover in history can come close to boasting such a mountain-climbing record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What will Curiosity encounter in this new phase of is exploration, and \u003ca href=\"https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/22882/does-the-curiosity-rover-really-have-a-chance-of-driving-to-the-top-of-mt-sharp?rq=1\">how much higher will it climb\u003c/a> before it joins Opportunity in the history books?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "We're Sending a Helicopter to Mars",
"headTitle": "We’re Sending a Helicopter to Mars | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Get ready for your next big Martian adventure!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not a Hollywood epic about the stranding and rescue of a lone astronaut, but a real-world expedition: the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPXU_uQThGo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mars 2020 rover\u003c/a> mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And NASA’s newest robot explorer isn’t going alone. Mars 2020 is being accompanied by the first-of-its-kind Mars Helicopter. Yes, in this case, NASA saved its innovation for the engineering, not the nomenclature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mars Helicopter\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late January, the fully assembled softball-sized, 4-pound robot with twin rotors was tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a chamber that replicates the actual conditions on Mars that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/the-physics-of-nasas-new-mars-helicopter/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">helicopter must endure, \u003c/a>temperatures were set as low as minus-130 degrees Fahrenheit, with a simulated atmosphere of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmospheric pressure at 100,000 feet on Earth. (The highest altitude reached by a helicopter here on this planet was 29,000 feet, where it \u003ca href=\"https://www.verticalmag.com/features/landing-everest-didier-delsalle-recalls-record-flight/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">landed\u003c/a> on the peak of Mount Everest.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940143\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/MHinflight-nasajplcaltech-800x448.jpg\" alt=\"Artist depiction of the Mars Helicopter in flight on Mars. \" width=\"800\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/MHinflight-nasajplcaltech.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/MHinflight-nasajplcaltech-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/MHinflight-nasajplcaltech-768x430.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist depiction of the Mars Helicopter in flight on Mars. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even Mars’ lower-surface gravity, one-third of Earth’s, was simulated during test flights, with a special tether providing a constant upward tug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mars Helicoper\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7361\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> passed \u003c/a>its two hovering test flights with flying colors, so to speak. The next time the helicopter takes off will be on Mars, in early 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Future of Martian Flight\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mars Helicopter is accompanying its mother-ship rover as a demonstration of technology that can be put to use on future missions — a beta test to see how well the technology performs on Mars, and to learn what features and capabilities might be included in next-generation copters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rovers are great for getting around on the surface of another planet, but the six-wheeled robots can’t roam everywhere; some terrain is navigationally challenging or simply impassable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a rover with a tiny solar-powered, flying camera-bot can deploy it to get close looks at intriguing geological features, scout what’s on the other side of hills and ridges that the rover can’t get to, and maybe even collect rock and soil samples over a wide range of territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mars scientists are probably waking up late at night imagining how to put future whirly-bots to use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mission of Mars 2020\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exploration of Mars has been an exciting ongoing adventure for the past several decades, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9YBPRF3o5w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mars 2020\u003c/a> has the potential to deliver the most exciting news yet: evidence of past Martian life. Not since the Viking landers conducted inconclusive experiments to detect signs of present life has a mission looked for Martians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Physically modeled after the rover Curiosity, which is presently looking for, and finding, clues to Mars’ past watery climate, one of Mars 2020’s objectives is to look for signs of anything that might have lived in those ancient seas and lakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940144\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940144\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-800x495.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram of Mars 2020's suite of instruments designed to look for the chemical residues of past Martian life, assess the climate, and investigate the geology at its landing site. \" width=\"800\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-800x495.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-768x475.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-1020x631.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-1200x743.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-1920x1188.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram of Mars 2020’s suite of instruments designed to look for the chemical residues of past Martian life, assess the climate, and investigate the geology at its landing site. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Along with a \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/instruments/\">suite of highly advanced scientific instruments\u003c/a>, the rover is also carrying an experiment, MOXIE, to produce oxygen from Mars’ atmospheric carbon dioxide to test how future human explorers might produce breathable oxygen from the Martian environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carrying On a Long Legacy of Mars Crawling\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With each successive landing mission, NASA adds something new to the conversation about the exploration of Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1976, the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/past/viking/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Viking missions \u003c/a>achieved the first successful landings on Mars, allowing for our first surface-view of the planet. They also attempted, optimistically, to find life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1997, \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/past/pathfinder/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pathfinder\u003c/a> carried the first rover, Sojourner, to set wheels on Martian dirt, and the 330 feet it traveled from rock to rock at the time felt like a marathon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940145\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940145\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-800x179.jpg\" alt=\"In the final days of its 15-year trek on Mars, the rover Opportunity captured this sweeping panorama from its final resting place in Perseverance Valley. \" width=\"800\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-800x179.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-160x36.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-768x171.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-1020x228.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-1200x268.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-1920x428.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the final days of its 15-year trek on Mars, the rover Opportunity captured this sweeping panorama from its final resting place in Perseverance Valley. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University/ASU)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2004, \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spirit and Opportunity\u003c/a> were the first wheels-on-the-ground expedition to search for signs of past water on Mars, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">culminating\u003c/a> in a spectacular 15-year, 26-mile odyssey of discovery by Opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2012 landing of \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Curiosity\u003c/a> kicked off the first mission to take us on a tour through time, reading the pages of Mars’ climate history through sedimentary layers going back a couple billion years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the most recent mission, \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">InSight\u003c/a>, will give us our first look inside Mars, straight to the core.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Launch and Landing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/timeline/\">Mars 2020 mission\u003c/a>, rover and helicopter, will launch in July 2020, with a landing projected for February 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From all that we now know about Mars’ once more Earth-like conditions, about the tenacity and adaptability of \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/extremophile.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">extremophile\u003c/a> life forms on Earth, and about the efficacy of the formation of organic compounds under the right conditions, scientists are optimistic that Mars 2020 could find evidence of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while I’d love to see microscopic pictures of Martian microbe fossils, I’ll settle for any chemical residues left in rock that we can point to and say:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was life here!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "The Mars 2020 rover mission's Mars Helicopter has passed its flight tests and is now cleared to fly Martian skies. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Get ready for your next big Martian adventure!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not a Hollywood epic about the stranding and rescue of a lone astronaut, but a real-world expedition: the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPXU_uQThGo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mars 2020 rover\u003c/a> mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And NASA’s newest robot explorer isn’t going alone. Mars 2020 is being accompanied by the first-of-its-kind Mars Helicopter. Yes, in this case, NASA saved its innovation for the engineering, not the nomenclature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mars Helicopter\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In late January, the fully assembled softball-sized, 4-pound robot with twin rotors was tested at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a chamber that replicates the actual conditions on Mars that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.wired.com/story/the-physics-of-nasas-new-mars-helicopter/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">helicopter must endure, \u003c/a>temperatures were set as low as minus-130 degrees Fahrenheit, with a simulated atmosphere of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmospheric pressure at 100,000 feet on Earth. (The highest altitude reached by a helicopter here on this planet was 29,000 feet, where it \u003ca href=\"https://www.verticalmag.com/features/landing-everest-didier-delsalle-recalls-record-flight/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">landed\u003c/a> on the peak of Mount Everest.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940143\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940143\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/MHinflight-nasajplcaltech-800x448.jpg\" alt=\"Artist depiction of the Mars Helicopter in flight on Mars. \" width=\"800\" height=\"448\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/MHinflight-nasajplcaltech.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/MHinflight-nasajplcaltech-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/MHinflight-nasajplcaltech-768x430.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist depiction of the Mars Helicopter in flight on Mars. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Even Mars’ lower-surface gravity, one-third of Earth’s, was simulated during test flights, with a special tether providing a constant upward tug.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mars Helicoper\u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7361\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> passed \u003c/a>its two hovering test flights with flying colors, so to speak. The next time the helicopter takes off will be on Mars, in early 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Future of Martian Flight\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mars Helicopter is accompanying its mother-ship rover as a demonstration of technology that can be put to use on future missions — a beta test to see how well the technology performs on Mars, and to learn what features and capabilities might be included in next-generation copters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rovers are great for getting around on the surface of another planet, but the six-wheeled robots can’t roam everywhere; some terrain is navigationally challenging or simply impassable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But a rover with a tiny solar-powered, flying camera-bot can deploy it to get close looks at intriguing geological features, scout what’s on the other side of hills and ridges that the rover can’t get to, and maybe even collect rock and soil samples over a wide range of territory.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mars scientists are probably waking up late at night imagining how to put future whirly-bots to use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mission of Mars 2020\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The exploration of Mars has been an exciting ongoing adventure for the past several decades, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9YBPRF3o5w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mars 2020\u003c/a> has the potential to deliver the most exciting news yet: evidence of past Martian life. Not since the Viking landers conducted inconclusive experiments to detect signs of present life has a mission looked for Martians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Physically modeled after the rover Curiosity, which is presently looking for, and finding, clues to Mars’ past watery climate, one of Mars 2020’s objectives is to look for signs of anything that might have lived in those ancient seas and lakes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940144\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940144\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-800x495.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram of Mars 2020's suite of instruments designed to look for the chemical residues of past Martian life, assess the climate, and investigate the geology at its landing site. \" width=\"800\" height=\"495\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-800x495.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-768x475.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-1020x631.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-1200x743.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover-1920x1188.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/mars2020rover.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram of Mars 2020’s suite of instruments designed to look for the chemical residues of past Martian life, assess the climate, and investigate the geology at its landing site. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Along with a \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/instruments/\">suite of highly advanced scientific instruments\u003c/a>, the rover is also carrying an experiment, MOXIE, to produce oxygen from Mars’ atmospheric carbon dioxide to test how future human explorers might produce breathable oxygen from the Martian environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Carrying On a Long Legacy of Mars Crawling\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With each successive landing mission, NASA adds something new to the conversation about the exploration of Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1976, the \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/past/viking/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Viking missions \u003c/a>achieved the first successful landings on Mars, allowing for our first surface-view of the planet. They also attempted, optimistically, to find life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 1997, \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/programmissions/missions/past/pathfinder/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pathfinder\u003c/a> carried the first rover, Sojourner, to set wheels on Martian dirt, and the 330 feet it traveled from rock to rock at the time felt like a marathon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1940145\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1940145\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-800x179.jpg\" alt=\"In the final days of its 15-year trek on Mars, the rover Opportunity captured this sweeping panorama from its final resting place in Perseverance Valley. \" width=\"800\" height=\"179\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-800x179.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-160x36.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-768x171.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-1020x228.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-1200x268.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2-1920x428.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/04/opportunitys-last-pan-nasajplcaltechcornellasu2.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the final days of its 15-year trek on Mars, the rover Opportunity captured this sweeping panorama from its final resting place in Perseverance Valley. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell University/ASU)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In 2004, \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spirit and Opportunity\u003c/a> were the first wheels-on-the-ground expedition to search for signs of past water on Mars, \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7334\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">culminating\u003c/a> in a spectacular 15-year, 26-mile odyssey of discovery by Opportunity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2012 landing of \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Curiosity\u003c/a> kicked off the first mission to take us on a tour through time, reading the pages of Mars’ climate history through sedimentary layers going back a couple billion years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the most recent mission, \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">InSight\u003c/a>, will give us our first look inside Mars, straight to the core.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Launch and Landing\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/timeline/\">Mars 2020 mission\u003c/a>, rover and helicopter, will launch in July 2020, with a landing projected for February 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From all that we now know about Mars’ once more Earth-like conditions, about the tenacity and adaptability of \u003ca href=\"https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/extremophile.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">extremophile\u003c/a> life forms on Earth, and about the efficacy of the formation of organic compounds under the right conditions, scientists are optimistic that Mars 2020 could find evidence of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And while I’d love to see microscopic pictures of Martian microbe fossils, I’ll settle for any chemical residues left in rock that we can point to and say:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There was life here!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>An Israeli spacecraft lost contact with Earth and crashed just moments before it was to land on the moon late Thursday, failing in an ambitious attempt to make history as the first privately funded lunar mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spacecraft lost communication with ground control as it was making its final descent to the moon. Moments later, the mission was declared a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We definitely crashed on surface of moon,” said Opher Doron, general manager of the space division of Israel Aerospace Industries. He said the spacecraft was in pieces scattered at the planned landing site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doron said that the spacecraft’s engine turned off shortly before landing. By the time power was restored, he said the craft was moving too fast to land safely. Scientists were still trying to figure out the cause of the failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the inertial measurement units failed. And that caused an unfortunate chain of events we’re not sure about,” he said. “The engine was turned off. The engine was stopped and the spacecraft crashed. That’s all we know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mishap occurred in front of a packed audience that included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was broadcast live on national television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The small robotic spacecraft, built by the non-profit SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, had hoped to match a feat that has only been achieved by the national space agencies of three countries: U.S., Russia and China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If at first you don’t succeed, try try again,” Netanyahu said. He vowed to put an Israeli spacecraft on the moon “intact” in the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists, who were giddy with excitement only second earlier, were visibly distraught, and celebrations at viewing centers across the country were dashed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Don’t stop believing! We came close but unfortunately didn’t succeed with the landing process. More updates to follow.\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceIL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SpaceIL\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Beresheet?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Beresheet\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/QnLAwEdKRv\">pic.twitter.com/QnLAwEdKRv\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Israel To The Moon (@TeamSpaceIL) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/TeamSpaceIL/status/1116430572551852032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 11, 2019\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>President Reuven Rivlin hosted dozens of youngsters at his official residence. The children, some wearing white spacesuits, appeared confused as the crash unfolded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are full of admiration for the wonderful people who brought the spacecraft to the moon,” Rivlin said. “True, not as we had hoped, but we will succeed in the end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The failure was a disappointing ending to a 6.5 million kilometer (4 million mile) lunar voyage, almost unprecedented in length, that was designed to conserve fuel and reduce price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spacecraft hitched a ride on the SpaceX Falcon rocket, launched from Florida in February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past two months, Beresheet traveled around the Earth several times before entering lunar orbit in hopes of joining the exclusive club of countries that have made it to the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. space agency NASA broadcast the landing attempt live on its dedicated TV channels, as well as online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While NASA regrets the end of the SpaceIL mission without a successful lunar landing of the Beresheet lander, we congratulate SpaceIL, the Israel Aerospace Industries and the state of Israel on the incredible accomplishment of sending the first privately funded mission into lunar orbit,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every attempt to reach new milestones holds opportunities for us to learn, adjust and progress,” he added. “I have no doubt that Israel and SpaceIL will continue to explore and I look forward to celebrating their future achievements.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>An Israeli spacecraft lost contact with Earth and crashed just moments before it was to land on the moon late Thursday, failing in an ambitious attempt to make history as the first privately funded lunar mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spacecraft lost communication with ground control as it was making its final descent to the moon. Moments later, the mission was declared a failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We definitely crashed on surface of moon,” said Opher Doron, general manager of the space division of Israel Aerospace Industries. He said the spacecraft was in pieces scattered at the planned landing site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doron said that the spacecraft’s engine turned off shortly before landing. By the time power was restored, he said the craft was moving too fast to land safely. Scientists were still trying to figure out the cause of the failure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the inertial measurement units failed. And that caused an unfortunate chain of events we’re not sure about,” he said. “The engine was turned off. The engine was stopped and the spacecraft crashed. That’s all we know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mishap occurred in front of a packed audience that included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and was broadcast live on national television.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The small robotic spacecraft, built by the non-profit SpaceIL and state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, had hoped to match a feat that has only been achieved by the national space agencies of three countries: U.S., Russia and China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If at first you don’t succeed, try try again,” Netanyahu said. He vowed to put an Israeli spacecraft on the moon “intact” in the next two years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists, who were giddy with excitement only second earlier, were visibly distraught, and celebrations at viewing centers across the country were dashed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n\u003cp lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Don’t stop believing! We came close but unfortunately didn’t succeed with the landing process. More updates to follow.\u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/SpaceIL?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#SpaceIL\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/Beresheet?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Beresheet\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/QnLAwEdKRv\">pic.twitter.com/QnLAwEdKRv\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>— Israel To The Moon (@TeamSpaceIL) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/TeamSpaceIL/status/1116430572551852032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 11, 2019\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>President Reuven Rivlin hosted dozens of youngsters at his official residence. The children, some wearing white spacesuits, appeared confused as the crash unfolded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are full of admiration for the wonderful people who brought the spacecraft to the moon,” Rivlin said. “True, not as we had hoped, but we will succeed in the end.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The failure was a disappointing ending to a 6.5 million kilometer (4 million mile) lunar voyage, almost unprecedented in length, that was designed to conserve fuel and reduce price.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spacecraft hitched a ride on the SpaceX Falcon rocket, launched from Florida in February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the past two months, Beresheet traveled around the Earth several times before entering lunar orbit in hopes of joining the exclusive club of countries that have made it to the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. space agency NASA broadcast the landing attempt live on its dedicated TV channels, as well as online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While NASA regrets the end of the SpaceIL mission without a successful lunar landing of the Beresheet lander, we congratulate SpaceIL, the Israel Aerospace Industries and the state of Israel on the incredible accomplishment of sending the first privately funded mission into lunar orbit,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Every attempt to reach new milestones holds opportunities for us to learn, adjust and progress,” he added. “I have no doubt that Israel and SpaceIL will continue to explore and I look forward to celebrating their future achievements.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "First Ever Image of a Black Hole",
"headTitle": "First Ever Image of a Black Hole | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The world is seeing the first-ever image of a black hole Wednesday, as an international team of researchers from the Event Horizon Telescope project released their look at the massive black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87 (M87). The image shows a dark disc “outlined by emission from hot gas swirling around it under the influence of strong gravity near its event horizon,” the consortium said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an astrophysicist, this is a thrilling day for me,” said National Science Foundation Director France A. Córdova.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The enormous black hole is some 55 million light years from Earth, with a mass some 6.5 billion times that of our sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am delighted to report that we have, for the first time, we have seen what we thought was unseeable. We have taken the first picture of a black hole,” said EHT Director Shep Doeleman, of Harvard University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Córdova and Doeleman led a news conference in Washington, D.C., to discuss the team’s finding — a process that took place simultaneously on four continents, as researchers held press conferences to share news of what they’re calling “a groundbreaking result.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have probably seen many, many images of black holes before,” said Heino Falcke, a principal investigator on BlackHoleCam. “But they were all simulations or animations. And this [image] is precious to all of us, because this one is finally real.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pointing to the screen at the European Research Council’s news conference in Brussels, Falcke said that the much-sought-after image “looks like a ring of fire. And it’s actually created by the force of gravity, by the deformation of space-time, where light actually goes around the black hole, almost in a circle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The black hole is some 100 billion kilometers across. But despite its massive size, anyone trying to find it in the night sky from the Earth’s surface would face the same challenge if they stood in Brussels and wanted to see a mustard seed in Washington, Falcke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s well known that a black hole’s gravity is so overpowering that even light cannot escape its center. But black holes also dramatically affect their surrounding space, most obviously by creating an accretion disk — the swirl of gas and material that rapidly orbits their singularities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Black holes are the X-games of physics. They represent an unexplored extreme of space-time,” as astrophysicist Adam Frank \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/09/21/552048703/are-we-about-to-see-a-black-hole\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote for NPR in 2017\u003c/a>. “While we now have good indirect evidence that they exist, getting a direct view of a black hole is the ultimate dream for a lot of physicists.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/lnJi0Jy692w?start=1981\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A breakthrough in black hole detection promises to answer a question that has dogged scientists since Albert Einstein proposed the existence of black holes in his general theory of relativity: How do you document the presence of something that’s invisible?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at the Event Horizon Telescope project say they were able to create an image of a black hole by using a network of eight radio telescopes to create “a virtual telescope dish as large as the Earth itself,” the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/blackholes/formedia.jsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Science Foundation says\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That array of telescopes is in places from Antarctica to Arizona. Before scientists can analyze data from the network, a painstaking process must take place. Each signal received by the telescopes must be synchronized wave by wave, using atomic clocks and a supercomputer to correlate and combine observations from around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks of observing the black hole, the EHT project amassed five petabytes of data — which Dan Marrone of the University of Arizona said was equivalent to “all of the selfies that 40k people will take in their lifetime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find a black hole massive enough to potentially be visible from an Earth-sized telescope, the Event Horizon researchers focused on “supermassive” black holes that are found at the centers of galaxies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team focused on the black hole at the center of galaxy M87 because of its gargantuan size and other characteristics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“M87 is the nearest galaxy with a supermassive black hole that’s generating a powerful jet — a beautiful streamer made of plasma travelling at close to the speed of light,” said Charles Gammie, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who is on the EHT Science Council Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://astro.illinois.edu/news/2019-04-10/astronomers-capture-first-image-black-hole\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">news release\u003c/a> about the breakthrough, Gammie said: “One of the great mysteries in astronomy has been how such jets are launched. Our simulations, which are based on the motion of magnetic fields and hot gas near the black hole, showed that the jets are powered by the black hole itself. Magnetic fields act to brake the rotation of the black hole and transfer its rotational energy to the jet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they analyzed the image and related data, astronomers also grew increasingly confident with other assumptions they’ve made based on theories about the workings of the universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once we were sure we had imaged the shadow, we could compare our observations to extensive computer models that include the physics of warped space, superheated matter and strong magnetic fields. Many of the features of the observed image match our theoretical understanding surprisingly well,” said Paul T.P. Ho, EHT board member and director of the East Asian Observatory. “This makes us confident about the interpretation of our observations, including our estimation of the black hole’s mass.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The world is seeing the first image of a black hole Wednesday. The image shows a dark disc, some 55 million light years from Earth, outlined by emissions from swirling hot gas.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The world is seeing the first-ever image of a black hole Wednesday, as an international team of researchers from the Event Horizon Telescope project released their look at the massive black hole at the center of galaxy Messier 87 (M87). The image shows a dark disc “outlined by emission from hot gas swirling around it under the influence of strong gravity near its event horizon,” the consortium said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As an astrophysicist, this is a thrilling day for me,” said National Science Foundation Director France A. Córdova.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The enormous black hole is some 55 million light years from Earth, with a mass some 6.5 billion times that of our sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I am delighted to report that we have, for the first time, we have seen what we thought was unseeable. We have taken the first picture of a black hole,” said EHT Director Shep Doeleman, of Harvard University.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Córdova and Doeleman led a news conference in Washington, D.C., to discuss the team’s finding — a process that took place simultaneously on four continents, as researchers held press conferences to share news of what they’re calling “a groundbreaking result.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You have probably seen many, many images of black holes before,” said Heino Falcke, a principal investigator on BlackHoleCam. “But they were all simulations or animations. And this [image] is precious to all of us, because this one is finally real.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pointing to the screen at the European Research Council’s news conference in Brussels, Falcke said that the much-sought-after image “looks like a ring of fire. And it’s actually created by the force of gravity, by the deformation of space-time, where light actually goes around the black hole, almost in a circle.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The black hole is some 100 billion kilometers across. But despite its massive size, anyone trying to find it in the night sky from the Earth’s surface would face the same challenge if they stood in Brussels and wanted to see a mustard seed in Washington, Falcke said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s well known that a black hole’s gravity is so overpowering that even light cannot escape its center. But black holes also dramatically affect their surrounding space, most obviously by creating an accretion disk — the swirl of gas and material that rapidly orbits their singularities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Black holes are the X-games of physics. They represent an unexplored extreme of space-time,” as astrophysicist Adam Frank \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/09/21/552048703/are-we-about-to-see-a-black-hole\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote for NPR in 2017\u003c/a>. “While we now have good indirect evidence that they exist, getting a direct view of a black hole is the ultimate dream for a lot of physicists.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://www.youtube.com/embed/lnJi0Jy692w?start=1981\" width=\"640\" height=\"359\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A breakthrough in black hole detection promises to answer a question that has dogged scientists since Albert Einstein proposed the existence of black holes in his general theory of relativity: How do you document the presence of something that’s invisible?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers at the Event Horizon Telescope project say they were able to create an image of a black hole by using a network of eight radio telescopes to create “a virtual telescope dish as large as the Earth itself,” the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/blackholes/formedia.jsp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Science Foundation says\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That array of telescopes is in places from Antarctica to Arizona. Before scientists can analyze data from the network, a painstaking process must take place. Each signal received by the telescopes must be synchronized wave by wave, using atomic clocks and a supercomputer to correlate and combine observations from around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a few weeks of observing the black hole, the EHT project amassed five petabytes of data — which Dan Marrone of the University of Arizona said was equivalent to “all of the selfies that 40k people will take in their lifetime.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To find a black hole massive enough to potentially be visible from an Earth-sized telescope, the Event Horizon researchers focused on “supermassive” black holes that are found at the centers of galaxies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The team focused on the black hole at the center of galaxy M87 because of its gargantuan size and other characteristics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“M87 is the nearest galaxy with a supermassive black hole that’s generating a powerful jet — a beautiful streamer made of plasma travelling at close to the speed of light,” said Charles Gammie, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who is on the EHT Science Council Board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://astro.illinois.edu/news/2019-04-10/astronomers-capture-first-image-black-hole\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">news release\u003c/a> about the breakthrough, Gammie said: “One of the great mysteries in astronomy has been how such jets are launched. Our simulations, which are based on the motion of magnetic fields and hot gas near the black hole, showed that the jets are powered by the black hole itself. Magnetic fields act to brake the rotation of the black hole and transfer its rotational energy to the jet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As they analyzed the image and related data, astronomers also grew increasingly confident with other assumptions they’ve made based on theories about the workings of the universe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once we were sure we had imaged the shadow, we could compare our observations to extensive computer models that include the physics of warped space, superheated matter and strong magnetic fields. Many of the features of the observed image match our theoretical understanding surprisingly well,” said Paul T.P. Ho, EHT board member and director of the East Asian Observatory. “This makes us confident about the interpretation of our observations, including our estimation of the black hole’s mass.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How Did Life Form 4 Billion Years Ago? NASA Thinks It Might Know",
"headTitle": "How Did Life Form 4 Billion Years Ago? NASA Thinks It Might Know | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Scientists may have rediscovered a long-lost recipe from Earth’s primordial cookbook for life, one that takes chemical ingredients that were available in the oceans of Earth’s youth, adds heat, and churns out the organic molecular building blocks of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is not only an important step in the journey toward solving the puzzle of how and where life originated on Earth, it also offers guidance for narrowing the search for life on other worlds — where to search and what to look for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Cookin’ in NASA’s Kitchen?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA \u003ca href=\"https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/\">astrobiologist\u003c/a> Laurie Barge and team, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/863/nasa-study-reproduces-origins-of-life-on-ocean-floor/\">set out to demonstrate\u003c/a> how organic molecules might have formed 4 billion years ago, in the pitch darkness on Earth’s deep-ocean floor surrounding vents of hot, chemical-laden water spouting from Earth’s interior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1939050\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/expl2006.jpg\" alt='An active hydrothermal \"chimney\", the mineral structure that forms around a hydrothermal vent. ' width=\"700\" height=\"1050\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/expl2006.jpg 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/expl2006-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An active hydrothermal ‘chimney,’ the mineral structure that forms around a hydrothermal vent. \u003ccite>(New Zealand American Submarine Ring of Fire 2007 Exploration, NOAA Vents Program, NOAA OAR/OER)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Called \u003ca href=\"https://www.whoi.edu/main/topic/hydrothermal-vents\">hydrothermal vents\u003c/a>, these deep-sea “hot springs” of chemicals and heat exist today, and all but certainly existed eons ago before life began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To accomplish their goal, Barge and team recreated in their lab the conditions that prevailed around hydrothermal vents in Earth’s primordial ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939049\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 320px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1939049\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/3481_Simulated_underwater_chimneys_forming_in_glass_container_of_liquid..gif\" alt=\"A time-lapse video of the formation of an amino acid "chimney" from a plume of fluid injected into a mixture simulating ocean water of the primordial Earth. The experiment was to show how hydrothermal vents on Earth's ocean floor may have produced the organic chemical precursors to life on Earth. \" width=\"320\" height=\"569\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A time-lapse video of the formation of an amino acid ‘chimney’ from a plume of fluid injected into a mixture simulating ocean water of the primordial Earth. The experiment was to show how hydrothermal vents on Earth’s ocean floor may have produced the organic chemical precursors to life on Earth. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/Flores)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They prepared a mixture of water, \u003ca href=\"https://www.astrobio.net/mars/could-green-rust-be-a-catalyst-for-martian-life/\">minerals\u003c/a> and other chemicals that would have been present in ocean water on the young Earth, removing oxygen from the mix to account for the fact that little of that element existed in the ocean or atmosphere in Earth’s pre-life era. Then, heating the water to 158 degrees Fahrenheit (the water temperature surrounding a hydrotherapy vent), they injected a water solution that included small amounts of oxygen and other minerals, to simulate a hydrothermal vent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mixing of the simulated primordial fluids produced chemical reactions, out of which formed alanine, an \u003ca href=\"http://www.biology.arizona.edu/biochemistry/problem_sets/aa/aa.html\">amino acid\u003c/a>, and alpha hydroxy acid. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, which in turn make up all living things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A tasty result to say the least! Before their very eyes the experimenters witnessed the genesis of molecules all-important to the formation of life. And since they had been careful to recreate the natural conditions that existed on the primordial Earth, it was not just the result of a contrived chemistry experiment, but a re-enactment of nature’s own original cookery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hydrothermal Vents Near and Far\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today we find communities of advanced life forms thriving around hydrothermal vents. Fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and many more species teem around these geothermal oases on the cold, dark ocean floor, their ecosystems sustained entirely by the chemical bounty of the Earth — no sunlight required.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939051\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1939051\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-Fauna_on_hydrothermal_vents-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Marine life thriving in the environment surrounding a deep-ocean hydrothermal vent. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-Fauna_on_hydrothermal_vents.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-Fauna_on_hydrothermal_vents-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-Fauna_on_hydrothermal_vents-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marine life thriving in the environment surrounding a deep-ocean hydrothermal vent. \u003ccite>(Submarine Ring of Fire 2006 Exploration, NOAA Vents Program)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It is probable that the ancestors of these complex organisms originated from the sunlit ocean world above and migrated to hydrothermal vents some time in the past, there to adapt to the very different environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the question remains: Where did the first, single-celled living organisms appear on Earth? In a sunlit \u003ca href=\"https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/origsoflife_03\">tidepool\u003c/a>, where organic molecules were sloshed together by waves? Or, did the first microbe spring forth from the dark warmth of a hydrothermal vent, from an original recipe cooked up wholly by the Earth?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understanding how organic compounds like amino acids might have originated around hydrothermal vents on Earth has powerful implications for our search for extraterrestrial life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we find signs of \u003ca href=\"https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-marc-solar-system/life-on-mars.html\">life on a planet like Mars\u003c/a>, past or present, we will be pressed to answer questions about its origin similar to the question of how Earth life originated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mars once had seas, which may have had some form of hydrothermal vent spouting away on the sea floor. But the young Mars also had an atmosphere, a warm and watery surface environment, a water cycle, and other attributes similar to Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, that life-friendly environment dried up a long time ago, so we might hope to find only the residues of past living things — or at best something still living deep under Mars’ surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Looking for Life in Unexpected Places\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But farther out from the sun we have detected oceans on at least two or three moons of gas giant planets, such as Jupiter’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/subject/3148/europa/\">Europa\u003c/a> and Saturn’s \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/science/enceladus/\">Enceladus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 782px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1939052\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/europa.jpg\" alt=\"Jupiter's moon Europa, as photographed by the Galileo spacecraft. The pattern of cracks in the icy crust indicates that it floats on an ocean of liquid water. \" width=\"782\" height=\"604\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/europa.jpg 782w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/europa-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/europa-768x593.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 782px) 100vw, 782px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jupiter’s moon Europa, as photographed by the Galileo spacecraft. The pattern of cracks in the icy crust indicates that it floats on an ocean of liquid water. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Neither of these moons has an atmosphere to speak of, and their surfaces are crusts of frigid ice exposed to the vacuum and radiation of space — not promising environments to search for life as we know it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under those icy crusts, though, are oceans of liquid water. Water vapor plumes erupting from cracks in Enceladus’ surface carry traces of chemicals like ammonia, one of the “precursor” chemicals for the formation of organic molecules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Europa’s ocean is global, may be up to 100 miles deep and has twice the water of Earth’s ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the ocean floors of either of these moons sport hydrothermal vents, then there may be environments down there similar to those surrounding Earth’s vents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We know that the hydrothermal vents on Earth support thriving communities of life, and from the laboratory recipe cooked up by Dr. Barge and team we know that such an environment can easily produce organic compounds, the precursor molecules of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understanding the genesis of life on Earth would also focus our search for signs of life on \u003ca href=\"https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/\">extrasolar planets\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939053\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1939053\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-An_exoplanet_seen_from_its_moon_artists_impression-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"An artist illustration of an exoplanet (upper right) viewed from the surface of one of its moons. \" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-An_exoplanet_seen_from_its_moon_artists_impression.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-An_exoplanet_seen_from_its_moon_artists_impression-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-An_exoplanet_seen_from_its_moon_artists_impression-768x480.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist illustration of an exoplanet (upper right) viewed from the surface of one of its moons. \u003ccite>(IAU/L. Calçada)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No spacecraft will be reaching exoplanets in our lifetimes (or those of our great great great grandchildren in all probability), but knowing what chemical telltales might indicate the presence of life would be a powerful tool for exploring life beyond our solar system — in nearby star systems, in distant reaches across the Milky Way galaxy, and possibly even other galaxies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d say that’s a lot of potential from a small bottle of hot mineral water bubbling away in a lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Scientists may have rediscovered a long-lost recipe from Earth’s primordial cookbook for life, one that takes chemical ingredients that were available in the oceans of Earth’s youth, adds heat, and churns out the organic molecular building blocks of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is not only an important step in the journey toward solving the puzzle of how and where life originated on Earth, it also offers guidance for narrowing the search for life on other worlds — where to search and what to look for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s Cookin’ in NASA’s Kitchen?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA \u003ca href=\"https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/\">astrobiologist\u003c/a> Laurie Barge and team, at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/863/nasa-study-reproduces-origins-of-life-on-ocean-floor/\">set out to demonstrate\u003c/a> how organic molecules might have formed 4 billion years ago, in the pitch darkness on Earth’s deep-ocean floor surrounding vents of hot, chemical-laden water spouting from Earth’s interior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939050\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1939050\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/expl2006.jpg\" alt='An active hydrothermal \"chimney\", the mineral structure that forms around a hydrothermal vent. ' width=\"700\" height=\"1050\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/expl2006.jpg 700w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/expl2006-160x240.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An active hydrothermal ‘chimney,’ the mineral structure that forms around a hydrothermal vent. \u003ccite>(New Zealand American Submarine Ring of Fire 2007 Exploration, NOAA Vents Program, NOAA OAR/OER)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Called \u003ca href=\"https://www.whoi.edu/main/topic/hydrothermal-vents\">hydrothermal vents\u003c/a>, these deep-sea “hot springs” of chemicals and heat exist today, and all but certainly existed eons ago before life began.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To accomplish their goal, Barge and team recreated in their lab the conditions that prevailed around hydrothermal vents in Earth’s primordial ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939049\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 320px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1939049\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/3481_Simulated_underwater_chimneys_forming_in_glass_container_of_liquid..gif\" alt=\"A time-lapse video of the formation of an amino acid "chimney" from a plume of fluid injected into a mixture simulating ocean water of the primordial Earth. The experiment was to show how hydrothermal vents on Earth's ocean floor may have produced the organic chemical precursors to life on Earth. \" width=\"320\" height=\"569\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A time-lapse video of the formation of an amino acid ‘chimney’ from a plume of fluid injected into a mixture simulating ocean water of the primordial Earth. The experiment was to show how hydrothermal vents on Earth’s ocean floor may have produced the organic chemical precursors to life on Earth. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech/Flores)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>They prepared a mixture of water, \u003ca href=\"https://www.astrobio.net/mars/could-green-rust-be-a-catalyst-for-martian-life/\">minerals\u003c/a> and other chemicals that would have been present in ocean water on the young Earth, removing oxygen from the mix to account for the fact that little of that element existed in the ocean or atmosphere in Earth’s pre-life era. Then, heating the water to 158 degrees Fahrenheit (the water temperature surrounding a hydrotherapy vent), they injected a water solution that included small amounts of oxygen and other minerals, to simulate a hydrothermal vent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mixing of the simulated primordial fluids produced chemical reactions, out of which formed alanine, an \u003ca href=\"http://www.biology.arizona.edu/biochemistry/problem_sets/aa/aa.html\">amino acid\u003c/a>, and alpha hydroxy acid. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, which in turn make up all living things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A tasty result to say the least! Before their very eyes the experimenters witnessed the genesis of molecules all-important to the formation of life. And since they had been careful to recreate the natural conditions that existed on the primordial Earth, it was not just the result of a contrived chemistry experiment, but a re-enactment of nature’s own original cookery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Hydrothermal Vents Near and Far\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today we find communities of advanced life forms thriving around hydrothermal vents. Fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and many more species teem around these geothermal oases on the cold, dark ocean floor, their ecosystems sustained entirely by the chemical bounty of the Earth — no sunlight required.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939051\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1939051\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-Fauna_on_hydrothermal_vents-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"Marine life thriving in the environment surrounding a deep-ocean hydrothermal vent. \" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-Fauna_on_hydrothermal_vents.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-Fauna_on_hydrothermal_vents-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-Fauna_on_hydrothermal_vents-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marine life thriving in the environment surrounding a deep-ocean hydrothermal vent. \u003ccite>(Submarine Ring of Fire 2006 Exploration, NOAA Vents Program)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It is probable that the ancestors of these complex organisms originated from the sunlit ocean world above and migrated to hydrothermal vents some time in the past, there to adapt to the very different environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the question remains: Where did the first, single-celled living organisms appear on Earth? In a sunlit \u003ca href=\"https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/origsoflife_03\">tidepool\u003c/a>, where organic molecules were sloshed together by waves? Or, did the first microbe spring forth from the dark warmth of a hydrothermal vent, from an original recipe cooked up wholly by the Earth?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understanding how organic compounds like amino acids might have originated around hydrothermal vents on Earth has powerful implications for our search for extraterrestrial life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we find signs of \u003ca href=\"https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/review/dr-marc-solar-system/life-on-mars.html\">life on a planet like Mars\u003c/a>, past or present, we will be pressed to answer questions about its origin similar to the question of how Earth life originated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mars once had seas, which may have had some form of hydrothermal vent spouting away on the sea floor. But the young Mars also had an atmosphere, a warm and watery surface environment, a water cycle, and other attributes similar to Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And, that life-friendly environment dried up a long time ago, so we might hope to find only the residues of past living things — or at best something still living deep under Mars’ surface.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Looking for Life in Unexpected Places\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But farther out from the sun we have detected oceans on at least two or three moons of gas giant planets, such as Jupiter’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/subject/3148/europa/\">Europa\u003c/a> and Saturn’s \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/cassini/science/enceladus/\">Enceladus\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939052\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 782px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1939052\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/europa.jpg\" alt=\"Jupiter's moon Europa, as photographed by the Galileo spacecraft. The pattern of cracks in the icy crust indicates that it floats on an ocean of liquid water. \" width=\"782\" height=\"604\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/europa.jpg 782w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/europa-160x124.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/europa-768x593.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 782px) 100vw, 782px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jupiter’s moon Europa, as photographed by the Galileo spacecraft. The pattern of cracks in the icy crust indicates that it floats on an ocean of liquid water. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Neither of these moons has an atmosphere to speak of, and their surfaces are crusts of frigid ice exposed to the vacuum and radiation of space — not promising environments to search for life as we know it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under those icy crusts, though, are oceans of liquid water. Water vapor plumes erupting from cracks in Enceladus’ surface carry traces of chemicals like ammonia, one of the “precursor” chemicals for the formation of organic molecules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Europa’s ocean is global, may be up to 100 miles deep and has twice the water of Earth’s ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the ocean floors of either of these moons sport hydrothermal vents, then there may be environments down there similar to those surrounding Earth’s vents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We know that the hydrothermal vents on Earth support thriving communities of life, and from the laboratory recipe cooked up by Dr. Barge and team we know that such an environment can easily produce organic compounds, the precursor molecules of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Understanding the genesis of life on Earth would also focus our search for signs of life on \u003ca href=\"https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/\">extrasolar planets\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1939053\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1939053\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-An_exoplanet_seen_from_its_moon_artists_impression-800x500.jpg\" alt=\"An artist illustration of an exoplanet (upper right) viewed from the surface of one of its moons. \" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-An_exoplanet_seen_from_its_moon_artists_impression.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-An_exoplanet_seen_from_its_moon_artists_impression-160x100.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/03/800px-An_exoplanet_seen_from_its_moon_artists_impression-768x480.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist illustration of an exoplanet (upper right) viewed from the surface of one of its moons. \u003ccite>(IAU/L. Calçada)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>No spacecraft will be reaching exoplanets in our lifetimes (or those of our great great great grandchildren in all probability), but knowing what chemical telltales might indicate the presence of life would be a powerful tool for exploring life beyond our solar system — in nearby star systems, in distant reaches across the Milky Way galaxy, and possibly even other galaxies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’d say that’s a lot of potential from a small bottle of hot mineral water bubbling away in a lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Moon Missions Abound! Reasons to Be Excited About Lunar Exploration",
"headTitle": "Moon Missions Abound! Reasons to Be Excited About Lunar Exploration | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It’s a year to celebrate the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fifty years after astronauts first set foot on the lunar surface, our curiosity and passion for exploring our celestial neighbor is alive and well. Nearly a \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/missions-to-the-moon.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hundred total missions\u003c/a> (from the U.S., Russia, Japan and other space agencies) have traveled to the moon, and several more are in the pipeline. Humanity’s lunar obsession remains high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.psi.edu/epo/moon/moon.html\">How did the moon form\u003c/a>? What is it made of? What \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/jesseshanahan/2018/08/22/nasa-confirms-the-existence-of-water-on-the-moon/#1712ed2921bf\">material and scientific resources\u003c/a> does it offer? And, how might we ultimately return and even dwell there? These are questions that burn for answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The moon is our nearest and most accessible neighbor. We also now understand that Earth and the moon likely have a common origin. We are thus, not cut from the same cloth per se; we are cut from the same rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are a few highlights of what make 2019 a year to renew our personal fascination with Earth’s longtime companion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Moon Year Kickoff with Chang’e 4 and Yutu-2\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>China kicked off the year by accomplishing something no space agency had before: successfully landing the \u003ca href=\"https://spacenews.com/change-4-spacecraft-enter-lunar-nighttime-china-planning-future-missions-cooperation/\">Chang’e 4 spacecraft and its Yutu-2 rover \u003c/a>on the far side of the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of the Chang'e 4 lander (left) taken by the Yutu-2 rover, and of the rover (right) taken from Chang'e 4. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of the Chang’e 4 lander (left) taken by the Yutu-2 rover, and of the rover (right) taken from Chang’e 4. \u003ccite>(CNAS/CLEP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All prior landings, by all countries, took place on the moon’s Earth-facing side, the face that human eyes have beheld since the dawn of our species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before 1959, when the \u003ca href=\"http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Luna/Luna03.php\">Soviet Luna 3\u003c/a> became the first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the moon, no one had ever viewed its rugged, heavily cratered terrain. And it wasn’t until \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo-8.html\">Apollo 8\u003c/a> orbited the moon in 1968 that humans laid eyes directly on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, as far as wheels-on-the-ground exploration goes, the far side of the moon was \u003cem>luna incognita\u003c/em>, until Jan. 3 when Chang’e 4 landed in the 110-mile wide Von Karman crater, within the vast \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lola-20100409-aitken.html\">South Pole-Aitken Basin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Landing on the far side of the moon isn’t just good for China’s space-faring prestige, the scientific results should tell us a lot about the moon’s structure, how it was formed, and its history over the last 4.5 billion years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938102\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938102\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-800x400.jpg\" alt=\"The moon's near and far hemispheres: the side that faces Earth (left) and the far side that we cannot see.\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-160x80.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-768x384.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-1020x510.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The moon’s near and far hemispheres: the side that faces Earth (left) and the far side that we cannot see. \u003ccite>(NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The far side of the moon’s terrain is physically different from that of the near side. The far hemisphere is dominated by rugged highlands and possesses many more impact craters than the near side. Lunar maria, which means “seas” (these are the dark, blotchy lava plains that we can see with our eyes from Earth) are much less numerous and smaller than on the near side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracing the history of the moon’s formation requires an understanding of the reasons for the stark differences between the two lunar hemispheres, so Chang’e 4 and the Yutu-2 rover are well-positioned to turn up some eye-opening clues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten years ago, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html\">Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a> began mapping the lunar surface in high detail, and continues to send back enormous amounts of high-res, close-up imagery today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, there were so many pictures pouring back from the spacecraft that volunteer \u003ca href=\"https://sservi.nasa.gov/citizen-science/\">citizen scientists\u003c/a> were enlisted to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938094\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938094\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-800x368.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of the central peak of moon's Tycho Crater, taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. \" width=\"800\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-800x368.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-160x74.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-768x353.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-1020x469.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-1200x551.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of the central peak of moon’s Tycho Crater, taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. \u003ccite>(NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For several years, anyone with a computer and a desire to pore over thousands of pictures of dirt, rock, and craters — some of them never seen by another human — could \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lunarquest/mapping/11-058.html\">contribute to \u003c/a>mapping the moon by participating in crater-counting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That might sound dull to some, but the science of \u003ca href=\"https://phys.org/news/2014-03-lunar-crater-crowdsourcing-accurate-tool.html\">counting craters\u003c/a> can tell us a lot about the moon’s history, when and how much the moon was bombarded by debris at different times in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938096\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938096\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Chang'e 4 (center) and its Yutu-2 rover (smaller spot toward the upper left), captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter when it passed 50 miles above. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of Chang’e 4 (center) and its Yutu-2 rover (smaller spot toward the upper left), captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter when it passed 50 miles above. \u003ccite>(NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Jan. 30, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/chang-e-landers-a-closer-look\">snapped a picture of China’s Chang’e 4 and the Yutu-2\u003c/a> rover as it cruised by overhead, pinpointing its landing location and demonstrating the level of detail its powerful camera can capture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Apollo 11 Anniversary\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This July 2019 we mark and celebrate five decades since the first human landing on the moon, by \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html\">Apollo 11\u003c/a> and its astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (and let’s not forget Michael Collins orbiting high above in the Apollo command module).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938099\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/first-footprint-on-moon-800x721.jpg\" alt=\"The first footprint (or bootprint) on the moon, made by Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, July 20 1969. \" width=\"800\" height=\"721\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/first-footprint-on-moon.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/first-footprint-on-moon-160x144.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/first-footprint-on-moon-768x692.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first footprint (or bootprint) on the moon, made by Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, July 20 1969. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This feat, which NASA repeated five more times from 1969 to 1972, has yet to be matched, although more than one nation has its sights set on a human return there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Coming Up\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several lunar missions are scheduled to launch in 2019, including India’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.isro.gov.in/gslv-mk-iii-chandrayaan-2-mission\">\u003cem>Chandrayaan-2\u003c/em>\u003c/a> lander and rover, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.moonexpress.com/expeditions/\">Moon Express’s\u003c/a> (USA) \u003cem>Lunar Scout\u003c/em>, and China’s \u003ca href=\"https://gbtimes.com/chinas-change-5-lunar-sample-return-mission-to-launch-in-2019\">\u003cem>Chang’e 5\u003c/em>\u003c/a> sample return mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/nasa-orion-recovery-tests-humans-moon-space-science/\">A return to the moon in person\u003c/a> by humans won’t happen until 2022, when NASA is scheduled to test a crewed \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html\">Orion spacecraft\u003c/a> in a single free-return maneuver around the moon and back. It’ll be a quick trip, with no landings, but the mission will lay a path for returning to the moon’s surface again, and one day traveling far beyond.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Fifty years after the first astronauts set foot on the lunar surface, mysteries about our celestial neighbor are still driving exploration.",
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"title": "Moon Missions Abound! Reasons to Be Excited About Lunar Exploration | KQED",
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"headline": "Moon Missions Abound! Reasons to Be Excited About Lunar Exploration",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It’s a year to celebrate the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Fifty years after astronauts first set foot on the lunar surface, our curiosity and passion for exploring our celestial neighbor is alive and well. Nearly a \u003ca href=\"http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/space-missions/missions-to-the-moon.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hundred total missions\u003c/a> (from the U.S., Russia, Japan and other space agencies) have traveled to the moon, and several more are in the pipeline. Humanity’s lunar obsession remains high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.psi.edu/epo/moon/moon.html\">How did the moon form\u003c/a>? What is it made of? What \u003ca href=\"https://www.forbes.com/sites/jesseshanahan/2018/08/22/nasa-confirms-the-existence-of-water-on-the-moon/#1712ed2921bf\">material and scientific resources\u003c/a> does it offer? And, how might we ultimately return and even dwell there? These are questions that burn for answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The moon is our nearest and most accessible neighbor. We also now understand that Earth and the moon likely have a common origin. We are thus, not cut from the same cloth per se; we are cut from the same rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are a few highlights of what make 2019 a year to renew our personal fascination with Earth’s longtime companion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Moon Year Kickoff with Chang’e 4 and Yutu-2\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>China kicked off the year by accomplishing something no space agency had before: successfully landing the \u003ca href=\"https://spacenews.com/change-4-spacecraft-enter-lunar-nighttime-china-planning-future-missions-cooperation/\">Chang’e 4 spacecraft and its Yutu-2 rover \u003c/a>on the far side of the moon.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938097\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of the Chang'e 4 lander (left) taken by the Yutu-2 rover, and of the rover (right) taken from Chang'e 4. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/cnas-clep-change4andyutu2.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of the Chang’e 4 lander (left) taken by the Yutu-2 rover, and of the rover (right) taken from Chang’e 4. \u003ccite>(CNAS/CLEP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>All prior landings, by all countries, took place on the moon’s Earth-facing side, the face that human eyes have beheld since the dawn of our species.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Before 1959, when the \u003ca href=\"http://www.zarya.info/Diaries/Luna/Luna03.php\">Soviet Luna 3\u003c/a> became the first spacecraft to photograph the far side of the moon, no one had ever viewed its rugged, heavily cratered terrain. And it wasn’t until \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo-8.html\">Apollo 8\u003c/a> orbited the moon in 1968 that humans laid eyes directly on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, as far as wheels-on-the-ground exploration goes, the far side of the moon was \u003cem>luna incognita\u003c/em>, until Jan. 3 when Chang’e 4 landed in the 110-mile wide Von Karman crater, within the vast \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lola-20100409-aitken.html\">South Pole-Aitken Basin\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Landing on the far side of the moon isn’t just good for China’s space-faring prestige, the scientific results should tell us a lot about the moon’s structure, how it was formed, and its history over the last 4.5 billion years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938102\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938102\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-800x400.jpg\" alt=\"The moon's near and far hemispheres: the side that faces Earth (left) and the far side that we cannot see.\" width=\"800\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-800x400.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-160x80.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-768x384.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3-1020x510.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-moon-nearandfarsides3.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The moon’s near and far hemispheres: the side that faces Earth (left) and the far side that we cannot see. \u003ccite>(NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The far side of the moon’s terrain is physically different from that of the near side. The far hemisphere is dominated by rugged highlands and possesses many more impact craters than the near side. Lunar maria, which means “seas” (these are the dark, blotchy lava plains that we can see with our eyes from Earth) are much less numerous and smaller than on the near side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tracing the history of the moon’s formation requires an understanding of the reasons for the stark differences between the two lunar hemispheres, so Chang’e 4 and the Yutu-2 rover are well-positioned to turn up some eye-opening clues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ten years ago, NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/main/index.html\">Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a> began mapping the lunar surface in high detail, and continues to send back enormous amounts of high-res, close-up imagery today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, there were so many pictures pouring back from the spacecraft that volunteer \u003ca href=\"https://sservi.nasa.gov/citizen-science/\">citizen scientists\u003c/a> were enlisted to help.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938094\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938094\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-800x368.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of the central peak of moon's Tycho Crater, taken by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. \" width=\"800\" height=\"368\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-800x368.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-160x74.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-768x353.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-1020x469.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu-1200x551.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/tychocraterpeak-lro-nasagsfcasu.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of the central peak of moon’s Tycho Crater, taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. \u003ccite>(NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For several years, anyone with a computer and a desire to pore over thousands of pictures of dirt, rock, and craters — some of them never seen by another human — could \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lunarquest/mapping/11-058.html\">contribute to \u003c/a>mapping the moon by participating in crater-counting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That might sound dull to some, but the science of \u003ca href=\"https://phys.org/news/2014-03-lunar-crater-crowdsourcing-accurate-tool.html\">counting craters\u003c/a> can tell us a lot about the moon’s history, when and how much the moon was bombarded by debris at different times in the past.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938096\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938096\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of Chang'e 4 (center) and its Yutu-2 rover (smaller spot toward the upper left), captured by NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter when it passed 50 miles above. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/lro-change4.jpg 985w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Picture of Chang’e 4 (center) and its Yutu-2 rover (smaller spot toward the upper left), captured by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter when it passed 50 miles above. \u003ccite>(NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Jan. 30, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/chang-e-landers-a-closer-look\">snapped a picture of China’s Chang’e 4 and the Yutu-2\u003c/a> rover as it cruised by overhead, pinpointing its landing location and demonstrating the level of detail its powerful camera can capture.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Apollo 11 Anniversary\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This July 2019 we mark and celebrate five decades since the first human landing on the moon, by \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html\">Apollo 11\u003c/a> and its astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (and let’s not forget Michael Collins orbiting high above in the Apollo command module).\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1938099\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1938099\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/first-footprint-on-moon-800x721.jpg\" alt=\"The first footprint (or bootprint) on the moon, made by Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, July 20 1969. \" width=\"800\" height=\"721\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/first-footprint-on-moon.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/first-footprint-on-moon-160x144.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/first-footprint-on-moon-768x692.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The first footprint (or bootprint) on the moon, made by Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, July 20 1969. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>This feat, which NASA repeated five more times from 1969 to 1972, has yet to be matched, although more than one nation has its sights set on a human return there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Coming Up\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several lunar missions are scheduled to launch in 2019, including India’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.isro.gov.in/gslv-mk-iii-chandrayaan-2-mission\">\u003cem>Chandrayaan-2\u003c/em>\u003c/a> lander and rover, the \u003ca href=\"http://www.moonexpress.com/expeditions/\">Moon Express’s\u003c/a> (USA) \u003cem>Lunar Scout\u003c/em>, and China’s \u003ca href=\"https://gbtimes.com/chinas-change-5-lunar-sample-return-mission-to-launch-in-2019\">\u003cem>Chang’e 5\u003c/em>\u003c/a> sample return mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/nasa-orion-recovery-tests-humans-moon-space-science/\">A return to the moon in person\u003c/a> by humans won’t happen until 2022, when NASA is scheduled to test a crewed \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html\">Orion spacecraft\u003c/a> in a single free-return maneuver around the moon and back. It’ll be a quick trip, with no landings, but the mission will lay a path for returning to the moon’s surface again, and one day traveling far beyond.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity Is Officially Declared Dead",
"headTitle": "NASA’s Mars Rover Opportunity Is Officially Declared Dead | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Opportunity lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA has officially declared an end to the mission of the six-wheeled rover on Mars. Opportunity lost power in a dust storm last June, and all efforts to make contact have failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plucky robot operated on the red planet for more than 14 years — an astonishing achievement, given that the mission was technically supposed to last only 90 days. The rover drove more than 25 miles, returned thousands of pictures and changed the way scientists think about Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On landing day in January 2004, scientists were positively giddy about what they saw in the first pictures Opportunity sent after touching down at \u003ca href=\"https://themis.asu.edu/node/5390\">Meridiani Planum\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I will attempt no science analysis because it looks like nothing I’ve ever seen before in my life,” rover principle investigator \u003ca href=\"https://astro.cornell.edu/steven-w-squyres\">Steven W. Squyres\u003c/a> said during a news conference at NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/\">Jet Propulsion Laboratory\u003c/a> in Pasadena, Calif., shortly after landing. “We knew, going into this, at a fine scale the texture of Meridiani Planum was unlike almost anything else on Mars. As we had expected …”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Squyres stopped mid-sentence to gawk at a new picture of the landing site that had just appeared on a monitor screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Holy smokes,” he exclaimed. “I’m sorry, I’m just blown away by this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the weeks, then months, then years following landing, Squyres appeared at numerous news conferences to talk about the rover’s scientific discoveries. Asked last summer to share two of his favorites, he said, “OK, I’ll give you two. The first was right at the beginning at the landing site.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when Opportunity found \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/newsroom/pressreleases/20040302a.html\">evidence\u003c/a> that briny water once sloshed around on the surface of what is now a very dry planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second “was years and years later [when] we got to the rim of a very ancient crater,” Squyres said. The robot found evidence of what’s called \u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/336/6081/570\">hydrothermal events\u003c/a> in which hot water percolates through rocks and changes their mineral content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last summer, the planet that gave up so many of its secrets smothered the rover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1937973\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 512px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1937973\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppy1_wide-54b66aacd2d8f36503c147fe25412f52eb1f0e2e-s800-c85.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppy1_wide-54b66aacd2d8f36503c147fe25412f52eb1f0e2e-s800-c85.jpg 512w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppy1_wide-54b66aacd2d8f36503c147fe25412f52eb1f0e2e-s800-c85-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This image is among the first taken by NASA’s Opportunity rover after landing on a Martian plain called Meridiani Planum on Jan. 24, 2004. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On May 30, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a dust storm heading toward Opportunity’s location near the equator. Over the next few days, the enormous storm swirled over the entire planet, covering Opportunity’s solar panels with dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storm is one of the most intense ever observed on the Red Planet. As of June 10, it covered more than 15.8 million square miles (41 million square kilometers) — about the area of North America and Russia combined,” NASA \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/marsduststormtelecon\">said at the time\u003c/a>. “It has blocked out so much sunlight, it has effectively turned day into night for Opportunity, which is located near the center of the storm, inside Mars’ Perseverance Valley.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her power dropped to a trickle, and she was last heard from on June 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Opportunity’s twin, a rover named Spirit that landed three weeks earlier on the other side of the planet, met a similar cold and dark fate. Spirit explored for more than five years before getting stuck in the sand, its solar-powered batteries draining until the robot fell silent.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I made the decision to declare a spacecraft emergency because there wasn’t enough energy for the rover to sustain activities,” John Callas, Opportunity’s project manager, told NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Prior to this storm, the vehicle was in, actually, remarkably good health,” Callas said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mission managers weren’t exactly sure what was wrong with the rover. Opportunity survived a planet-wide dust storm in 2007 — but this time, with so little power, the rover might not have been able to protect electronic instruments from damage during the cold Martian nights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of waiting for the rover to wake up on its own, managers have spent the past several months pinging Opportunity with commands. But she remained silent and still in Perseverance Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1937974\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1937974\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppyconcept_custom-42e51205fd1e699ffd16c896895b78c1849f73dd-s800-c85.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"569\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppyconcept_custom-42e51205fd1e699ffd16c896895b78c1849f73dd-s800-c85.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppyconcept_custom-42e51205fd1e699ffd16c896895b78c1849f73dd-s800-c85-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppyconcept_custom-42e51205fd1e699ffd16c896895b78c1849f73dd-s800-c85-768x546.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist’s concept shows a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity were launched in 2003 and arrived at sites on Mars in January 2004. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that there would be \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/12/694021631/nasa-will-make-a-last-attempt-to-contact-mars-rover-opportunity\">one final attempt\u003c/a> to ping the rover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keri Bean was among those who helped send that last radio signal. Losing Opportunity, she says, is like a death in the family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bean was in high school when she saw a documentary about Opportunity called \u003ca href=\"https://movies.disney.com/roving-mars\">\u003cem>Roving Mars\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. “I especially remember them showing the landing footage,” she says. “And when they got the confirmation the spacecraft landed they were all cheering, they were so excited. And I was really drawn to the idea of exploring and being so interested and caring about something that much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bean went to graduate school at \u003ca href=\"https://www.tamu.edu/\">Texas A&M University\u003c/a> where she worked on the rover as a student, and ultimately landed a job at JPL where she joined the Opportunity mission team. She says losing the rover is like a death in the family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Me, personally, it’s been really hard because this is a project I’ve worked on for over a third of my life at this point,” Bean says. “And so just to lose that all of a sudden is really tough. But at least it was Mars that killed her — it wasn’t the rover failing or something else. It was Mars. And I feel like that’s really the only appropriate death for her at this point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA still has one rover operating on Mars. Curiosity landed in 2012 and is currently climbing up Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high mound in the middle of Gale Crater. Curiosity is nuclear powered, so dust storms don’t interfere with its power supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The space agency plans to send another rover to Mars in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=NASA%27s+Mars+Rover+Opportunity+Is+Officially+Declared+Dead+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "NASA's six-wheeled rover landed on the red planet in January 2004 for what was billed as a 90-day mission. The plucky robot was still going until a dust storm on Mars last summer killed it.",
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"description": "NASA's six-wheeled rover landed on the red planet in January 2004 for what was billed as a 90-day mission. The plucky robot was still going until a dust storm on Mars last summer killed it.",
"title": "NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity Is Officially Declared Dead | KQED",
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"headline": "NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity Is Officially Declared Dead",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Opportunity lost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA has officially declared an end to the mission of the six-wheeled rover on Mars. Opportunity lost power in a dust storm last June, and all efforts to make contact have failed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The plucky robot operated on the red planet for more than 14 years — an astonishing achievement, given that the mission was technically supposed to last only 90 days. The rover drove more than 25 miles, returned thousands of pictures and changed the way scientists think about Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On landing day in January 2004, scientists were positively giddy about what they saw in the first pictures Opportunity sent after touching down at \u003ca href=\"https://themis.asu.edu/node/5390\">Meridiani Planum\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I will attempt no science analysis because it looks like nothing I’ve ever seen before in my life,” rover principle investigator \u003ca href=\"https://astro.cornell.edu/steven-w-squyres\">Steven W. Squyres\u003c/a> said during a news conference at NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/\">Jet Propulsion Laboratory\u003c/a> in Pasadena, Calif., shortly after landing. “We knew, going into this, at a fine scale the texture of Meridiani Planum was unlike almost anything else on Mars. As we had expected …”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Squyres stopped mid-sentence to gawk at a new picture of the landing site that had just appeared on a monitor screen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Holy smokes,” he exclaimed. “I’m sorry, I’m just blown away by this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the weeks, then months, then years following landing, Squyres appeared at numerous news conferences to talk about the rover’s scientific discoveries. Asked last summer to share two of his favorites, he said, “OK, I’ll give you two. The first was right at the beginning at the landing site.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s when Opportunity found \u003ca href=\"https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/newsroom/pressreleases/20040302a.html\">evidence\u003c/a> that briny water once sloshed around on the surface of what is now a very dry planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The second “was years and years later [when] we got to the rim of a very ancient crater,” Squyres said. The robot found evidence of what’s called \u003ca href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/336/6081/570\">hydrothermal events\u003c/a> in which hot water percolates through rocks and changes their mineral content.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But last summer, the planet that gave up so many of its secrets smothered the rover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1937973\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 512px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1937973\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppy1_wide-54b66aacd2d8f36503c147fe25412f52eb1f0e2e-s800-c85.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppy1_wide-54b66aacd2d8f36503c147fe25412f52eb1f0e2e-s800-c85.jpg 512w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppy1_wide-54b66aacd2d8f36503c147fe25412f52eb1f0e2e-s800-c85-160x90.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This image is among the first taken by NASA’s Opportunity rover after landing on a Martian plain called Meridiani Planum on Jan. 24, 2004. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On May 30, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted a dust storm heading toward Opportunity’s location near the equator. Over the next few days, the enormous storm swirled over the entire planet, covering Opportunity’s solar panels with dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The storm is one of the most intense ever observed on the Red Planet. As of June 10, it covered more than 15.8 million square miles (41 million square kilometers) — about the area of North America and Russia combined,” NASA \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/marsduststormtelecon\">said at the time\u003c/a>. “It has blocked out so much sunlight, it has effectively turned day into night for Opportunity, which is located near the center of the storm, inside Mars’ Perseverance Valley.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Her power dropped to a trickle, and she was last heard from on June 10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Opportunity’s twin, a rover named Spirit that landed three weeks earlier on the other side of the planet, met a similar cold and dark fate. Spirit explored for more than five years before getting stuck in the sand, its solar-powered batteries draining until the robot fell silent.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I made the decision to declare a spacecraft emergency because there wasn’t enough energy for the rover to sustain activities,” John Callas, Opportunity’s project manager, told NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Prior to this storm, the vehicle was in, actually, remarkably good health,” Callas said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mission managers weren’t exactly sure what was wrong with the rover. Opportunity survived a planet-wide dust storm in 2007 — but this time, with so little power, the rover might not have been able to protect electronic instruments from damage during the cold Martian nights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead of waiting for the rover to wake up on its own, managers have spent the past several months pinging Opportunity with commands. But she remained silent and still in Perseverance Valley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1937974\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1937974\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppyconcept_custom-42e51205fd1e699ffd16c896895b78c1849f73dd-s800-c85.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"569\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppyconcept_custom-42e51205fd1e699ffd16c896895b78c1849f73dd-s800-c85.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppyconcept_custom-42e51205fd1e699ffd16c896895b78c1849f73dd-s800-c85-160x114.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/02/oppyconcept_custom-42e51205fd1e699ffd16c896895b78c1849f73dd-s800-c85-768x546.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist’s concept shows a NASA Mars Exploration Rover on the surface of Mars. The twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity were launched in 2003 and arrived at sites on Mars in January 2004. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that there would be \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/02/12/694021631/nasa-will-make-a-last-attempt-to-contact-mars-rover-opportunity\">one final attempt\u003c/a> to ping the rover.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Keri Bean was among those who helped send that last radio signal. Losing Opportunity, she says, is like a death in the family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bean was in high school when she saw a documentary about Opportunity called \u003ca href=\"https://movies.disney.com/roving-mars\">\u003cem>Roving Mars\u003c/em>\u003c/a>. “I especially remember them showing the landing footage,” she says. “And when they got the confirmation the spacecraft landed they were all cheering, they were so excited. And I was really drawn to the idea of exploring and being so interested and caring about something that much.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bean went to graduate school at \u003ca href=\"https://www.tamu.edu/\">Texas A&M University\u003c/a> where she worked on the rover as a student, and ultimately landed a job at JPL where she joined the Opportunity mission team. She says losing the rover is like a death in the family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Me, personally, it’s been really hard because this is a project I’ve worked on for over a third of my life at this point,” Bean says. “And so just to lose that all of a sudden is really tough. But at least it was Mars that killed her — it wasn’t the rover failing or something else. It was Mars. And I feel like that’s really the only appropriate death for her at this point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA still has one rover operating on Mars. Curiosity landed in 2012 and is currently climbing up Mount Sharp, a three-mile-high mound in the middle of Gale Crater. Curiosity is nuclear powered, so dust storms don’t interfere with its power supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The space agency plans to send another rover to Mars in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=NASA%27s+Mars+Rover+Opportunity+Is+Officially+Declared+Dead+&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Turn Around, It's a Total Eclipse of the Super Moon",
"headTitle": "Turn Around, It’s a Total Eclipse of the Super Moon | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>In the evening hours of Sunday, Jan. 20, a \u003ca href=\"https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2019Jan21T.pdf\">total lunar eclipse\u003c/a> will transform a full moon into a three-hour-plus celestial extravaganza. Not only will we witness the breathtaking beauty of the eclipse, but we’ll watch it during a super moon, when the moon is near its closest approach to Earth and appears larger in our sky than at any other time.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Light from all of Earth’s sunrises and sunsets softly illuminate the eclipsed moon, producing a celestial night light in the sky\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The best part of the show, when the moon begins to enter Earth’s full shadow (or umbra), begins at 7:33 p.m. and lasts until 10:50 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, when the moon will slip out of the shadow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The moon will be fully engulfed in Earth’s umbra starting at 8:41 p.m. This state of “totality” will last a full hour — so there’s plenty of time to enjoy the show. During totality, the moon will be high and rising higher in the Eastern sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 466px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1936679\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung.jpg\" alt=\"Total Lunar Eclipse that took place exactly 19 years ago, on January 20, 2000. \" width=\"466\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung.jpg 466w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung-240x174.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung-375x271.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Total lunar eclipse that took place exactly 19 years ago, on Jan. 20, 2000. \u003ccite>(Conrad Jung)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chabot Space & Science Center will be hosting a \u003ca href=\"https://chabotspace.org/calendar/total-lunar-eclipse-viewing/\">special eclipse-viewing event\u003c/a> from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., so come on up if you want to make this breathtaking spectacle of nature a memorable social event. (The forecast is for rain showers during the day on Sunday, becoming partly cloudy by evening. Keep your fingers crossed!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What You Will See\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A total lunar eclipse is sometimes referred to as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/blood-moon.html\">blood moon\u003c/a>” for the reddish hues it acquires during totality. The color can range from coppery to orange to downright red, depending on atmospheric conditions and the moon’s position in the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reddish color is an effect of Earth’s atmosphere, which filters out the bluer tones of sunlight and lets the redder colors pass through unhindered–like red stained-glass. That reddened, filtered sunlight grazing the edge of the Earth passes on and is bent into Earth’s shadow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This filtering of sunlight by the atmosphere is the same effect that makes the sun appear orange or red at sunrise or sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936682\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1936682\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-800x453.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the sun, Earth, and Moon in relation to Earth's shadow and the Moon's orbit. When in the penumbra (Earth's partial shadow), the Moon will be partially illuminated. Within the umbra (Earth's full shadow) no direct sunlight falls on the Moon, but some reddened rays of sunlight refracted and filtered by Earth's atmosphere provides soft illumination.\" width=\"800\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-160x91.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-768x435.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-240x136.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-375x212.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-520x294.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the sun, Earth, and Moon in relation to Earth’s shadow and the Moon’s orbit. When in the penumbra (Earth’s partial shadow), the Moon will be partially illuminated. Within the umbra (Earth’s full shadow) no direct sunlight falls on the Moon, but some reddened rays of sunlight refracted and filtered by Earth’s atmosphere provides soft illumination. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Without these effects of Earth’s atmosphere, the moon would go almost completely dark upon entering the umbra. Instead, the light from all of Earth’s sunrises and sunsets softly illuminate the eclipsed moon, producing a celestial night light in the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may find that the eclipsed moon looks more like a three-dimensional ball, rather than the flattish disk the full moon usually appears as. This quality is mostly due to the darkened moon not being overwhelmingly bright, as a full moon tends to be. The ruddy coloration may also have something to do with this, accentuating the moon against the otherwise black-and-white night sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Super Moon?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the full moon looks larger than usual on Jan. 20, it may not be your imagination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Sunday’s full moon is a so-called “super moon.” Though it is not an official astronomical term, a super moon is defined as one that takes place when the moon is within 90 percent of its closest approach to Earth (\u003ca href=\"https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2019Jan21T.pdf\">perigee\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday the moon will reach perigee, 222,000 miles from Earth, only a few hours after the eclipse, so at the time of eclipse it’ll be almost as close as it can get, and 15,000 miles closer than average. This will make the moon physically larger in the sky than average — thus the super moon label.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The actual difference in size between a super moon and nonsuper moon isn’t huge, but it is perceptible to the human eye. The problem is that you can’t compare two different full moons at the same time, side by side, unless you take a photograph of each and compare the pics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936683\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1936683\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Side by side comparison of the apparent size of the moon at apogee (left), at average distance (center), and at perigee (right) — the so-called super moon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Side by side comparison of the apparent size of the moon at apogee (left), at average distance (center), and at perigee (right) — the so-called super moon. \u003ccite>(Chabot Space & Science Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you could compare the full moon at perigee and at apogee (the moon’s greatest distance from Earth), the size difference would be equivalent to that between a nickel and a penny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greater effect of a super moon is the brightness, which is 30 percent greater than it is from the apogee full moon. That’s like turning up the dimmer switch on a lamp from two-thirds to full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coincidence of the eclipse and the super moon gives us a rare opportunity to see what happens when nature cranks the full moon’s dimmer switch from maximum to almost off, then back again. And it’ll all happen within a few hours time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enjoy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "On Sunday night, a total lunar eclipse will transform a full moon into a three-hour-plus celestial extravaganza. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>In the evening hours of Sunday, Jan. 20, a \u003ca href=\"https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2019Jan21T.pdf\">total lunar eclipse\u003c/a> will transform a full moon into a three-hour-plus celestial extravaganza. Not only will we witness the breathtaking beauty of the eclipse, but we’ll watch it during a super moon, when the moon is near its closest approach to Earth and appears larger in our sky than at any other time.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Light from all of Earth’s sunrises and sunsets softly illuminate the eclipsed moon, producing a celestial night light in the sky\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>The best part of the show, when the moon begins to enter Earth’s full shadow (or umbra), begins at 7:33 p.m. and lasts until 10:50 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, when the moon will slip out of the shadow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The moon will be fully engulfed in Earth’s umbra starting at 8:41 p.m. This state of “totality” will last a full hour — so there’s plenty of time to enjoy the show. During totality, the moon will be high and rising higher in the Eastern sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936679\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 466px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1936679\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung.jpg\" alt=\"Total Lunar Eclipse that took place exactly 19 years ago, on January 20, 2000. \" width=\"466\" height=\"337\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung.jpg 466w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung-160x116.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung-240x174.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/jan202000_eclipse_cjung-375x271.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 466px) 100vw, 466px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Total lunar eclipse that took place exactly 19 years ago, on Jan. 20, 2000. \u003ccite>(Conrad Jung)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Chabot Space & Science Center will be hosting a \u003ca href=\"https://chabotspace.org/calendar/total-lunar-eclipse-viewing/\">special eclipse-viewing event\u003c/a> from 6 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., so come on up if you want to make this breathtaking spectacle of nature a memorable social event. (The forecast is for rain showers during the day on Sunday, becoming partly cloudy by evening. Keep your fingers crossed!)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What You Will See\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A total lunar eclipse is sometimes referred to as a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/blood-moon.html\">blood moon\u003c/a>” for the reddish hues it acquires during totality. The color can range from coppery to orange to downright red, depending on atmospheric conditions and the moon’s position in the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The reddish color is an effect of Earth’s atmosphere, which filters out the bluer tones of sunlight and lets the redder colors pass through unhindered–like red stained-glass. That reddened, filtered sunlight grazing the edge of the Earth passes on and is bent into Earth’s shadow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This filtering of sunlight by the atmosphere is the same effect that makes the sun appear orange or red at sunrise or sunset.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936682\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1936682\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-800x453.jpg\" alt=\"Diagram showing the sun, Earth, and Moon in relation to Earth's shadow and the Moon's orbit. When in the penumbra (Earth's partial shadow), the Moon will be partially illuminated. Within the umbra (Earth's full shadow) no direct sunlight falls on the Moon, but some reddened rays of sunlight refracted and filtered by Earth's atmosphere provides soft illumination.\" width=\"800\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-160x91.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-768x435.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-240x136.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-375x212.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/lunareclipsediagram_nasa-520x294.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diagram showing the sun, Earth, and Moon in relation to Earth’s shadow and the Moon’s orbit. When in the penumbra (Earth’s partial shadow), the Moon will be partially illuminated. Within the umbra (Earth’s full shadow) no direct sunlight falls on the Moon, but some reddened rays of sunlight refracted and filtered by Earth’s atmosphere provides soft illumination. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Without these effects of Earth’s atmosphere, the moon would go almost completely dark upon entering the umbra. Instead, the light from all of Earth’s sunrises and sunsets softly illuminate the eclipsed moon, producing a celestial night light in the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You may find that the eclipsed moon looks more like a three-dimensional ball, rather than the flattish disk the full moon usually appears as. This quality is mostly due to the darkened moon not being overwhelmingly bright, as a full moon tends to be. The ruddy coloration may also have something to do with this, accentuating the moon against the otherwise black-and-white night sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Super Moon?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the full moon looks larger than usual on Jan. 20, it may not be your imagination.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Sunday’s full moon is a so-called “super moon.” Though it is not an official astronomical term, a super moon is defined as one that takes place when the moon is within 90 percent of its closest approach to Earth (\u003ca href=\"https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2019Jan21T.pdf\">perigee\u003c/a>).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Sunday the moon will reach perigee, 222,000 miles from Earth, only a few hours after the eclipse, so at the time of eclipse it’ll be almost as close as it can get, and 15,000 miles closer than average. This will make the moon physically larger in the sky than average — thus the super moon label.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The actual difference in size between a super moon and nonsuper moon isn’t huge, but it is perceptible to the human eye. The problem is that you can’t compare two different full moons at the same time, side by side, unless you take a photograph of each and compare the pics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936683\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1936683\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Side by side comparison of the apparent size of the moon at apogee (left), at average distance (center), and at perigee (right) — the so-called super moon.\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/supermoon-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Side by side comparison of the apparent size of the moon at apogee (left), at average distance (center), and at perigee (right) — the so-called super moon. \u003ccite>(Chabot Space & Science Center)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>If you could compare the full moon at perigee and at apogee (the moon’s greatest distance from Earth), the size difference would be equivalent to that between a nickel and a penny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The greater effect of a super moon is the brightness, which is 30 percent greater than it is from the apogee full moon. That’s like turning up the dimmer switch on a lamp from two-thirds to full.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The coincidence of the eclipse and the super moon gives us a rare opportunity to see what happens when nature cranks the full moon’s dimmer switch from maximum to almost off, then back again. And it’ll all happen within a few hours time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Enjoy!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "New Horizons Kicks Off 2019 With Ultima Thule Encounter",
"headTitle": "New Horizons Kicks Off 2019 With Ultima Thule Encounter | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>It was a happy New Year for NASA. Only minutes into 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft made another historic achievement in space exploration: a fly-by of the most distant object ever visited, the \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/kuiper-belt/exploration/?page=0&per_page=10&order=launch_date+desc%2Ctitle+asc&search=&tags=Kuiper+Belt&category=33\">Kuiper Belt\u003c/a> Object called “Ultima Thule.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 12:33 a.m. Eastern, January 1, \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/807/new-horizons-successfully-explores-ultima-thule/\">New Horizons passed within 2,200\u003c/a> miles of the KBO, collecting about 7 gigabytes of data that will be transmitted back to Earth in the months ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 19 miles long and 4 billion miles away from Earth, Ultima Thule is equivalent to a 1-inch target seen from 3,000 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is Ultima Thule, and How Did We Find It?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46742298\">Ultima Thule\u003c/a>, which is translated as “beyond the known world,” may be a tiny object, but just as New Horizons’ encounter with Pluto almost four years ago showed us, surprising and wonderful things can be wrapped up in small packages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The object was discovered by observations from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014, as part of a search for potential post-Pluto destinations of discovery for New Horizons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936298\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 533px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1936298\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute.jpg\" alt=\"New Horizon's first image of the Kuiper Belt Object "Ultima Thule," captured during approach from a distance of 18,000 miles. \" width=\"533\" height=\"585\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute.jpg 533w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute-160x176.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute-240x263.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute-375x412.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute-520x571.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">New Horizon’s first image of the Kuiper Belt Object “Ultima Thule,” captured during approach from a distance of 18,000 miles. \u003ccite>(NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As suspected from those observations, and now \u003ca href=\"http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190102\">confirmed by New Horizons\u003c/a>, Ultima Thule is a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/01/2014-mu69-contact-binary-first-new-horizons-returns/\">contact binary\u003c/a>“: two smaller objects that at some time in the past met each other. And so gently did they make contact, like the lightest of “kisses” between two billiard balls, both remained intact, and did not rebound from each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair have remained joined at the hip from then on, possibly since the earliest times in the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Two For the Price of One\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Ultima Thule (officially designated 2014 MU69) was selected from a short list of candidates as an extended target for New Horizons following the 2015 Pluto encounter, little more was known about it than its orbital characteristics, a rough estimate of its size, and that it had an elongated shape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Added to these meager facts was an assumption that the object was composed largely of frozen volatile materials (ices of water, ammonia, methane, and others), as cold and distant \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/K/Kuiper+Belt+Objects\">Kuiper Belt Objects\u003c/a> are expected to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the up-close encounter of Ultima Thule, NASA has bagged not only what were originally two separate KBOs, but potentially any morphological markings left behind by their union, so long ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three potential angles to peer into the past is not bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Kuiper Belt\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>The Kuiper Belt is a disk-shaped region of the solar system found between the orbit of Neptune (30 Astronomical Units from the sun, 1 AU being one sun-Earth distance) to about 50 AU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936297\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1936297\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"The journey of New Horizons, from its 2006 launch to its 2015 Pluto encounter and its path through the Kuiper Belt to date. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The journey of New Horizons, from its 2006 launch to its 2015 Pluto encounter and its path through the Kuiper Belt to date. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>First hypothesized as a wide belt of myriad small, icy objects in 1930, it wasn’t until 1992 that the first Kuiper Belt Object was discovered, 15760 Albion, orbiting the sun at distances between 40 and 46 AU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being so far from the heat of the sun and the gravitational disturbance of large planets, the Kuiper Belt represents a vast treasure trove of mostly undisturbed, pristine evidence of the earliest conditions in the solar system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936301\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1936301\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Artist concept of the early stages of formation of a hypothetical star system similar to our solar system. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-520x293.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of the early stages of formation of a hypothetical star system similar to our solar system. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On planets like Earth, meteoric impacts, weathering and tectonic activity tend to erase most traces of times long gone — but no so on a KBO. Frozen in time-capsule fashion, Kuiper Belt Objects can inform us of what was going on 4.6 billion years ago that led to the formation of the planets, including the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data acquired on Ultima Thule will add importantly to the growing body of “solar system archaeological evidence” amassed by other comet, asteroid, and planetary missions, such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.asteroidmission.org/\">OSIRIS-REx\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/\">Hayabusa 2\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://rosetta.esa.int/\">Rosetta \u003c/a>and soon \u003ca href=\"http://rosetta.esa.int/\">InSIGHT\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s On the Horizon For New Horizons Now?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>In the months ahead, New Horizons will send back all the pictures and other data acquired during the brief fly-by of Ultima Thule, so we have yet to be dazzled by the crispest, highest resolution images of the tiny contact binary. More to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With all systems still functioning, and plenty of course-correction fuel remaining on board, NASA is interested in finding yet another Kuiper Belt Object for New Horizons to target in the years ahead. So the adventure may not yet be over.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Minutes into 2019, New Horizons made a historic fly-by of the most distant object visited, Ultima Thule.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>It was a happy New Year for NASA. Only minutes into 2019, the New Horizons spacecraft made another historic achievement in space exploration: a fly-by of the most distant object ever visited, the \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/kuiper-belt/exploration/?page=0&per_page=10&order=launch_date+desc%2Ctitle+asc&search=&tags=Kuiper+Belt&category=33\">Kuiper Belt\u003c/a> Object called “Ultima Thule.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 12:33 a.m. Eastern, January 1, \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/807/new-horizons-successfully-explores-ultima-thule/\">New Horizons passed within 2,200\u003c/a> miles of the KBO, collecting about 7 gigabytes of data that will be transmitted back to Earth in the months ahead.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At 19 miles long and 4 billion miles away from Earth, Ultima Thule is equivalent to a 1-inch target seen from 3,000 miles away.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What is Ultima Thule, and How Did We Find It?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46742298\">Ultima Thule\u003c/a>, which is translated as “beyond the known world,” may be a tiny object, but just as New Horizons’ encounter with Pluto almost four years ago showed us, surprising and wonderful things can be wrapped up in small packages.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The object was discovered by observations from the Hubble Space Telescope in 2014, as part of a search for potential post-Pluto destinations of discovery for New Horizons.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936298\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 533px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1936298\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute.jpg\" alt=\"New Horizon's first image of the Kuiper Belt Object "Ultima Thule," captured during approach from a distance of 18,000 miles. \" width=\"533\" height=\"585\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute.jpg 533w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute-160x176.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute-240x263.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute-375x412.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/Ultimathule_NASA_Johns-Hopkins-University-Applied-Physics-Laboratory_Southwest-Research-Institute-520x571.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 533px) 100vw, 533px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">New Horizon’s first image of the Kuiper Belt Object “Ultima Thule,” captured during approach from a distance of 18,000 miles. \u003ccite>(NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>As suspected from those observations, and now \u003ca href=\"http://pluto.jhuapl.edu/News-Center/News-Article.php?page=20190102\">confirmed by New Horizons\u003c/a>, Ultima Thule is a “\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2019/01/2014-mu69-contact-binary-first-new-horizons-returns/\">contact binary\u003c/a>“: two smaller objects that at some time in the past met each other. And so gently did they make contact, like the lightest of “kisses” between two billiard balls, both remained intact, and did not rebound from each other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pair have remained joined at the hip from then on, possibly since the earliest times in the formation of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Two For the Price of One\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When Ultima Thule (officially designated 2014 MU69) was selected from a short list of candidates as an extended target for New Horizons following the 2015 Pluto encounter, little more was known about it than its orbital characteristics, a rough estimate of its size, and that it had an elongated shape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Added to these meager facts was an assumption that the object was composed largely of frozen volatile materials (ices of water, ammonia, methane, and others), as cold and distant \u003ca href=\"http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/K/Kuiper+Belt+Objects\">Kuiper Belt Objects\u003c/a> are expected to be.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the up-close encounter of Ultima Thule, NASA has bagged not only what were originally two separate KBOs, but potentially any morphological markings left behind by their union, so long ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Three potential angles to peer into the past is not bad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Kuiper Belt\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>The Kuiper Belt is a disk-shaped region of the solar system found between the orbit of Neptune (30 Astronomical Units from the sun, 1 AU being one sun-Earth distance) to about 50 AU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936297\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1936297\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"The journey of New Horizons, from its 2006 launch to its 2015 Pluto encounter and its path through the Kuiper Belt to date. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-1180x664.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/kuiper_belt_indepth_NASA-520x293.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The journey of New Horizons, from its 2006 launch to its 2015 Pluto encounter and its path through the Kuiper Belt to date. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>First hypothesized as a wide belt of myriad small, icy objects in 1930, it wasn’t until 1992 that the first Kuiper Belt Object was discovered, 15760 Albion, orbiting the sun at distances between 40 and 46 AU.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being so far from the heat of the sun and the gravitational disturbance of large planets, the Kuiper Belt represents a vast treasure trove of mostly undisturbed, pristine evidence of the earliest conditions in the solar system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936301\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1936301\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-800x450.jpg\" alt=\"Artist concept of the early stages of formation of a hypothetical star system similar to our solar system. \" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-800x450.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-160x90.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-768x432.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-1020x574.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-960x540.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-240x135.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-375x211.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires-520x293.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/106281main_image_feature_251_hires.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of the early stages of formation of a hypothetical star system similar to our solar system. \u003ccite>(NASA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>On planets like Earth, meteoric impacts, weathering and tectonic activity tend to erase most traces of times long gone — but no so on a KBO. Frozen in time-capsule fashion, Kuiper Belt Objects can inform us of what was going on 4.6 billion years ago that led to the formation of the planets, including the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data acquired on Ultima Thule will add importantly to the growing body of “solar system archaeological evidence” amassed by other comet, asteroid, and planetary missions, such as \u003ca href=\"https://www.asteroidmission.org/\">OSIRIS-REx\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://www.hayabusa2.jaxa.jp/en/\">Hayabusa 2\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"http://rosetta.esa.int/\">Rosetta \u003c/a>and soon \u003ca href=\"http://rosetta.esa.int/\">InSIGHT\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What’s On the Horizon For New Horizons Now?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>In the months ahead, New Horizons will send back all the pictures and other data acquired during the brief fly-by of Ultima Thule, so we have yet to be dazzled by the crispest, highest resolution images of the tiny contact binary. More to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With all systems still functioning, and plenty of course-correction fuel remaining on board, NASA is interested in finding yet another Kuiper Belt Object for New Horizons to target in the years ahead. So the adventure may not yet be over.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "It Was a Banner Year for Space Exploration, With Much More to Come ...",
"headTitle": "It Was a Banner Year for Space Exploration, With Much More to Come … | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Lots of impressive first-evers and inspiring discoveries took place in space exploration this year. And with several more tantalizing missions planned in 2019, it looks like we’re in for a great run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s an end-of-the-year highlights reel for 2018:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mars on the Menu\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s Insight lander both launched from Earth and landed on Mars this year. On Nov. 26 the spacecraft \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934922/insight-affirmation-people-still-go-gaga-for-mars\">successfully executed the chain of mission-critical maneuvers\u003c/a> that took it from 12,300 miles per hour to zero in just six-and-a half-minutes. With Insight now resting safely on the flat plain of Elysium Planitia, engineers are preparing and testing its instruments for the two-year mission to give us a peek inside Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1935989\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1935989\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Image of Insight's top deck taken from the Instrument Deployment Camera on the lander's robotic arm. The copper colored object in the foreground is SEIS, Insight's seismometer, which will be placed on the ground to listen for Marsquakes. The gray dome behind SEIS is the wind shield that will be placed on top of it. The black cylinder on the left is HP3, the ground-boring thermal probe that will measure heat flow from within Mars.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-960x960.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of Insight’s top deck taken from the Instrument Deployment Camera on the lander’s robotic arm. The copper-colored object in the foreground is SEIS, Insight’s seismometer, which will be placed on the ground to listen for Marsquakes. The gray dome behind SEIS is the wind shield that will be placed on top of it. The black cylinder on the left is HP3, the ground-boring thermal probe that will measure heat flow from within Mars. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In its first week in residence on the planet, Insight let us listen to the sound of Martian wind blowing across the spacecraft’s sensitive seismometer — the instrument that will listen for “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1922458/there-are-earthquakes-on-mars-wait-theyre-marsquakes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marsquakes\u003c/a>” and let scientists create sonogram-like maps of Mars’ interior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Passing the Torch of Discovery\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2018 saw both the demise of the highly successful extrasolar-planet- hunting space telescope Kepler and the launch of TESS, a next-generation exoplanet-discovery mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The durable Kepler, responsible for discovering 2,328 \u003ca href=\"https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/\">exoplanets\u003c/a>, finally ran out of fuel on Oct. 30, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/30/us/nasa-kepler-mission-ends/index.html\">NASA declared the space telescope retired\u003c/a>. Launched in 2009, Kepler’s mission was to find exoplanets around Earth’s size and located within their star’s “habitable zone,” the correct distance for the existence of liquid water on the surface. Kepler discovered 361 exoplanets within habitable zones, and a little more than 100 of these are approximately Earth-sized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, NASA launched \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/tess-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite\">TESS\u003c/a>, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which will continue the hunt, looking for exoplanets orbiting bright, nearby stars. Scientists predict that over the course of its initial two-year mission, TESS will detect 20,000 exoplanets, compared to the approximately 3,800 total confirmed at the time of its launch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of November this year, TESS had already scored its first detection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>First Mission to the Sun\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August, NASA launched the first-ever mission to the sun: the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1923614/where-no-robot-has-gone-before-right-into-the-suns-corona\">Parker Solar Probe\u003c/a>. Previously, all solar exploration had been from afar, using Earth- and space-based telescopes and space weather monitoring instruments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early November, the spacecraft came within 15 million miles of the sun’s visible surface — that’s less than half the distance between the sun and the planet Mercury — and sent back \u003ca href=\"https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/parker-probe-sun-image/\">the first pictures taken from inside its extended corona\u003c/a>. In the months ahead, Parker will gradually draw closer to the sun with every long, looping orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water on an Asteroid\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.asteroidmission.org/\">OSIRIS REx\u003c/a> spacecraft won’t enter into orbit of its scientific target, asteroid Bennu, until Dec. 31, it’s now close enough to begin investigating that lump of primordial rubble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1935987\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1935987\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-800x756.jpg\" alt=\"Image of asteroid Bennu captured by NASA;s OSIRIS REx spacecraft, now on final orbital approach.\" width=\"800\" height=\"756\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-800x756.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-160x151.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-768x726.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-1020x964.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-960x907.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-240x227.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-375x354.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-520x492.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of asteroid Bennu captured by NASA;s OSIRIS REx spacecraft, now on final orbital approach. \u003ccite>(NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And it’s already made a \u003ca href=\"https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-newly-arrived-osiris-rex-spacecraft-already-discovers-water-asteroid\">fascinating discovery\u003c/a>: Bennu’s composition includes hydrated minerals, indicating that the material interacted with water in the past. Bennu, with a mean radius of only 262 feet, is too small ever to have harbored liquid water, but the discovery shows that Bennu’s parent body — a much larger asteroid from which Bennu formed, possibly due to a cataclysmic collision — did. This makes Bennu a remarkably good choice to study in order to learn more about conditions during the early formation of the solar system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, OSIRIX REx will return to Earth with samples of Bennu for scientists to examine in the lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Winding Road to Mercury\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Oct. 20, \u003ca href=\"http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/\">Bepicolombo\u003c/a>, a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, was launched on a journey to the planet Mercury. Bepicolombo will become only the third mission to explore our solar system’s smallest planet, after NASA’s Mariner 10 and MESSENGER spacecraft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bepicolombo won’t head for Mercury immediately, but it will spend the months ahead making course-altering flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury itself. In 2025, the spacecraft will enter Mercury orbit and begin a comprehensive investigation of the planet’s magnetic field and its interior and exterior structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Investigating Asteroid Ryugu\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s \u003ca href=\"http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/hayabusa2/\">Hayabusa 2\u003c/a> spacecraft arrived at its target, asteroid 162173 Ryugu, in June, and has since been exploring the roughly half-mile sized rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1935988\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1935988\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/CAM-H_TD1R3_movie_v2.gif\" alt=\"Animation of view from Hyabusa 2 during a practice touch-down-and-takeoff maneuver. \" width=\"700\" height=\"490\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Animation of view from Hyabusa 2 during a practice touch-down-and-takeoff maneuver. \u003ccite>(JAXA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hayabusa 2 will ultimately collect rock samples from the asteroid and return them to Earth in 2020, furthering knowledge of conditions in the earliest times of the solar system’s formation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>To Boldy Go…\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years on the heels of Voyager 1’s breakaway plunge into interstellar space, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7301\">Voyager 2 spacecraft has also reached that frontier\u003c/a>, cruising through the boundary of the sun’s heliosphere on Nov. 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The heliosphere is the “bubble” of plasma and magnetic fields blown into space by the sun. Within the heliosphere, plasma temperature and density is dominated by the sun’s influence. Beyond its boundary, the gases are both cooler and denser, in the medium of interstellar space that stretches across the light years between stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now more than 35 years since launching, both Voyager spacecraft are our eyes and ears in the most distant regions of space that we have reached. In the next few years, NASA will begin a gradual shutdown of the Voyagers’ systems as power levels dwindle, and by 2025 both will go silent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Last Port of Call\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rounding out the year right on the wire, New Horizons, now three-and-a-half years after its historic flyby of Pluto, will make the first-ever close encounter with a Kuiper Belt Object, at 9:33 PM Pacific Time on Dec. 31.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tiny, nuclear-powered probe with pep \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/795/nasas-new-horizons-spacecraft-takes-the-inside-course-to-ultima-thule/\">will cruise within 2,200 miles of the object 2014 MU69\u003c/a>, nicknamed Ultima Thule. One of a multitude of small icy objects that populate the solar system beyond Neptune’s orbit in the region of the Kuiper Belt, 2014 MU69 will become the most distant object visited by a spacecraft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2019 Ho!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On deck for 2019: India to launch the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft to the moon, Israel to launch the SpaceIL lunar landers, OSIRIS-REx will collect a sample of asteroid Bennu, and China will launch the Chang’e 5 lunar sample return mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When will we have time to catch our breath?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Benjamin Burress has been a staff astronomer at Chabot Space & Science Center since 1999. He has also served on NASA’s Kuiper Airborne Observatory at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., and was Head Observer at the Naval Prototype Optical Interferometer program at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "From Mercury to Mars and beyond -- way beyond -- 2018 rocked our world in terms of exploring the solar system. And more tantalizing missions are scheduled in the coming years, as well.",
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"description": "From Mercury to Mars and beyond -- way beyond -- 2018 rocked our world in terms of exploring the solar system. And more tantalizing missions are scheduled in the coming years, as well.",
"title": "It Was a Banner Year for Space Exploration, With Much More to Come ... | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Lots of impressive first-evers and inspiring discoveries took place in space exploration this year. And with several more tantalizing missions planned in 2019, it looks like we’re in for a great run.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s an end-of-the-year highlights reel for 2018:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Mars on the Menu\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA’s Insight lander both launched from Earth and landed on Mars this year. On Nov. 26 the spacecraft \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1934922/insight-affirmation-people-still-go-gaga-for-mars\">successfully executed the chain of mission-critical maneuvers\u003c/a> that took it from 12,300 miles per hour to zero in just six-and-a half-minutes. With Insight now resting safely on the flat plain of Elysium Planitia, engineers are preparing and testing its instruments for the two-year mission to give us a peek inside Mars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1935989\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1935989\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-800x800.jpg\" alt=\"Image of Insight's top deck taken from the Instrument Deployment Camera on the lander's robotic arm. The copper colored object in the foreground is SEIS, Insight's seismometer, which will be placed on the ground to listen for Marsquakes. The gray dome behind SEIS is the wind shield that will be placed on top of it. The black cylinder on the left is HP3, the ground-boring thermal probe that will measure heat flow from within Mars.\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-800x800.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-160x160.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-768x768.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-1020x1020.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-960x960.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-240x240.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-375x375.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-520x520.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-50x50.jpg 50w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/insight-instrumentdeck4.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of Insight’s top deck taken from the Instrument Deployment Camera on the lander’s robotic arm. The copper-colored object in the foreground is SEIS, Insight’s seismometer, which will be placed on the ground to listen for Marsquakes. The gray dome behind SEIS is the wind shield that will be placed on top of it. The black cylinder on the left is HP3, the ground-boring thermal probe that will measure heat flow from within Mars. \u003ccite>(NASA/JPL-Caltech)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In its first week in residence on the planet, Insight let us listen to the sound of Martian wind blowing across the spacecraft’s sensitive seismometer — the instrument that will listen for “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1922458/there-are-earthquakes-on-mars-wait-theyre-marsquakes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marsquakes\u003c/a>” and let scientists create sonogram-like maps of Mars’ interior.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Passing the Torch of Discovery\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>2018 saw both the demise of the highly successful extrasolar-planet- hunting space telescope Kepler and the launch of TESS, a next-generation exoplanet-discovery mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The durable Kepler, responsible for discovering 2,328 \u003ca href=\"https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/\">exoplanets\u003c/a>, finally ran out of fuel on Oct. 30, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/30/us/nasa-kepler-mission-ends/index.html\">NASA declared the space telescope retired\u003c/a>. Launched in 2009, Kepler’s mission was to find exoplanets around Earth’s size and located within their star’s “habitable zone,” the correct distance for the existence of liquid water on the surface. Kepler discovered 361 exoplanets within habitable zones, and a little more than 100 of these are approximately Earth-sized.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, NASA launched \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/tess-transiting-exoplanet-survey-satellite\">TESS\u003c/a>, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which will continue the hunt, looking for exoplanets orbiting bright, nearby stars. Scientists predict that over the course of its initial two-year mission, TESS will detect 20,000 exoplanets, compared to the approximately 3,800 total confirmed at the time of its launch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As of November this year, TESS had already scored its first detection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>First Mission to the Sun\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In August, NASA launched the first-ever mission to the sun: the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1923614/where-no-robot-has-gone-before-right-into-the-suns-corona\">Parker Solar Probe\u003c/a>. Previously, all solar exploration had been from afar, using Earth- and space-based telescopes and space weather monitoring instruments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early November, the spacecraft came within 15 million miles of the sun’s visible surface — that’s less than half the distance between the sun and the planet Mercury — and sent back \u003ca href=\"https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/parker-probe-sun-image/\">the first pictures taken from inside its extended corona\u003c/a>. In the months ahead, Parker will gradually draw closer to the sun with every long, looping orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Water on an Asteroid\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.asteroidmission.org/\">OSIRIS REx\u003c/a> spacecraft won’t enter into orbit of its scientific target, asteroid Bennu, until Dec. 31, it’s now close enough to begin investigating that lump of primordial rubble.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1935987\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1935987\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-800x756.jpg\" alt=\"Image of asteroid Bennu captured by NASA;s OSIRIS REx spacecraft, now on final orbital approach.\" width=\"800\" height=\"756\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-800x756.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-160x151.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-768x726.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-1020x964.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-960x907.jpg 960w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-240x227.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-375x354.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu-520x492.jpg 520w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/asteroid_bennu.jpg 1041w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image of asteroid Bennu captured by NASA;s OSIRIS REx spacecraft, now on final orbital approach. \u003ccite>(NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And it’s already made a \u003ca href=\"https://www.asteroidmission.org/?latest-news=nasas-newly-arrived-osiris-rex-spacecraft-already-discovers-water-asteroid\">fascinating discovery\u003c/a>: Bennu’s composition includes hydrated minerals, indicating that the material interacted with water in the past. Bennu, with a mean radius of only 262 feet, is too small ever to have harbored liquid water, but the discovery shows that Bennu’s parent body — a much larger asteroid from which Bennu formed, possibly due to a cataclysmic collision — did. This makes Bennu a remarkably good choice to study in order to learn more about conditions during the early formation of the solar system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2023, OSIRIX REx will return to Earth with samples of Bennu for scientists to examine in the lab.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Winding Road to Mercury\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Oct. 20, \u003ca href=\"http://sci.esa.int/bepicolombo/\">Bepicolombo\u003c/a>, a joint mission of the European Space Agency and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, was launched on a journey to the planet Mercury. Bepicolombo will become only the third mission to explore our solar system’s smallest planet, after NASA’s Mariner 10 and MESSENGER spacecraft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bepicolombo won’t head for Mercury immediately, but it will spend the months ahead making course-altering flybys of Earth, Venus, and Mercury itself. In 2025, the spacecraft will enter Mercury orbit and begin a comprehensive investigation of the planet’s magnetic field and its interior and exterior structure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Investigating Asteroid Ryugu\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency’s \u003ca href=\"http://global.jaxa.jp/projects/sat/hayabusa2/\">Hayabusa 2\u003c/a> spacecraft arrived at its target, asteroid 162173 Ryugu, in June, and has since been exploring the roughly half-mile sized rock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1935988\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 700px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1935988\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2018/12/CAM-H_TD1R3_movie_v2.gif\" alt=\"Animation of view from Hyabusa 2 during a practice touch-down-and-takeoff maneuver. \" width=\"700\" height=\"490\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Animation of view from Hyabusa 2 during a practice touch-down-and-takeoff maneuver. \u003ccite>(JAXA)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Hayabusa 2 will ultimately collect rock samples from the asteroid and return them to Earth in 2020, furthering knowledge of conditions in the earliest times of the solar system’s formation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>To Boldy Go…\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Six years on the heels of Voyager 1’s breakaway plunge into interstellar space, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=7301\">Voyager 2 spacecraft has also reached that frontier\u003c/a>, cruising through the boundary of the sun’s heliosphere on Nov. 5.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The heliosphere is the “bubble” of plasma and magnetic fields blown into space by the sun. Within the heliosphere, plasma temperature and density is dominated by the sun’s influence. Beyond its boundary, the gases are both cooler and denser, in the medium of interstellar space that stretches across the light years between stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now more than 35 years since launching, both Voyager spacecraft are our eyes and ears in the most distant regions of space that we have reached. In the next few years, NASA will begin a gradual shutdown of the Voyagers’ systems as power levels dwindle, and by 2025 both will go silent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Last Port of Call\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rounding out the year right on the wire, New Horizons, now three-and-a-half years after its historic flyby of Pluto, will make the first-ever close encounter with a Kuiper Belt Object, at 9:33 PM Pacific Time on Dec. 31.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tiny, nuclear-powered probe with pep \u003ca href=\"https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/795/nasas-new-horizons-spacecraft-takes-the-inside-course-to-ultima-thule/\">will cruise within 2,200 miles of the object 2014 MU69\u003c/a>, nicknamed Ultima Thule. One of a multitude of small icy objects that populate the solar system beyond Neptune’s orbit in the region of the Kuiper Belt, 2014 MU69 will become the most distant object visited by a spacecraft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>2019 Ho!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On deck for 2019: India to launch the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft to the moon, Israel to launch the SpaceIL lunar landers, OSIRIS-REx will collect a sample of asteroid Bennu, and China will launch the Chang’e 5 lunar sample return mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When will we have time to catch our breath?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Benjamin Burress has been a staff astronomer at Chabot Space & Science Center since 1999. He has also served on NASA’s Kuiper Airborne Observatory at Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., and was Head Observer at the Naval Prototype Optical Interferometer program at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzslkblqG-w&ab_channel=marky244\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re on the internet right now — and, oh that’s right, you are — you’re probably aware that a streaking light in the sky just after sunset had many in the Bay Area, Wednesday, reaching for their cellphones. The mysterious trail of light was visible for several minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was not aliens or the anticipated rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article223366065.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scrubbed\u003c/a>, but a meteor, according to the Lick Observatory, near San Jose. The trail it left behind was smoke created by its disintegration in Earth’s atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Weather Service added that the meteor may have created what’s called a noctilucent cloud, one that is still illuminated by sunlight after the sun appears to have set for those on the ground. (For more details, see below.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meteor was unusual for a couple of reasons, says Ben Burress, a staff astronomer at \u003ca href=\"https://chabotspace.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> who also writes for KQED. First and foremost, it fell over a region where and a time of day when people could actually see it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Often these things happen over the ocean or unpopulated areas. They’re not as rare an event as people think,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, the object’s trail was particularly long-lived, probably because it was larger than your typical meteor. Usually, \u003cspan class=\"s1\">the objects, made of rock and metal, are marble-size or smaller.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cloud’s unusual wiggly shape can be attributed to the varying strengths and directions of the winds as the object plummeted through different altitudes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are some more videos captured by the public:\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/embed/qS9rG9l8Pu8?start=119\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/embed/4RHN5cVtlOc?start=18\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/amsmeteors/status/1075709900330811393\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aim/news/meteor-smoke.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA\u003c/a> has to say about noctilucent clouds:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Anyone who’s ever seen a noctilucent cloud or “NLC” would agree: They look alien. The electric-blue ripples and pale tendrils of NLCs reaching across the night sky resemble something from another world. Researchers say that’s not far off. A key ingredient for the mysterious clouds comes from outer space.”We’ve detected bits of ‘meteor smoke’ imbedded in noctilucent clouds,” reports James Russell of Hampton University, principal investigator of NASA’s AIM mission to study the phenomenon. “This discovery supports the theory that meteor dust is the nucleating agent around which NLCs form.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Danielle Venton contributed to this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/CzslkblqG-w'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/CzslkblqG-w'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>If you’re on the internet right now — and, oh that’s right, you are — you’re probably aware that a streaking light in the sky just after sunset had many in the Bay Area, Wednesday, reaching for their cellphones. The mysterious trail of light was visible for several minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was not aliens or the anticipated rocket launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base, which was \u003ca href=\"https://www.sanluisobispo.com/news/local/article223366065.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scrubbed\u003c/a>, but a meteor, according to the Lick Observatory, near San Jose. The trail it left behind was smoke created by its disintegration in Earth’s atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The National Weather Service added that the meteor may have created what’s called a noctilucent cloud, one that is still illuminated by sunlight after the sun appears to have set for those on the ground. (For more details, see below.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The meteor was unusual for a couple of reasons, says Ben Burress, a staff astronomer at \u003ca href=\"https://chabotspace.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/a> who also writes for KQED. First and foremost, it fell over a region where and a time of day when people could actually see it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s1\">“Often these things happen over the ocean or unpopulated areas. They’re not as rare an event as people think,” he said.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Second, the object’s trail was particularly long-lived, probably because it was larger than your typical meteor. Usually, \u003cspan class=\"s1\">the objects, made of rock and metal, are marble-size or smaller.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cloud’s unusual wiggly shape can be attributed to the varying strengths and directions of the winds as the object plummeted through different altitudes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are some more videos captured by the public:\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/qS9rG9l8Pu8?start=119'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/qS9rG9l8Pu8?start=119'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/4RHN5cVtlOc?start=18'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/4RHN5cVtlOc?start=18'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Here’s what \u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aim/news/meteor-smoke.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA\u003c/a> has to say about noctilucent clouds:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>Anyone who’s ever seen a noctilucent cloud or “NLC” would agree: They look alien. The electric-blue ripples and pale tendrils of NLCs reaching across the night sky resemble something from another world. Researchers say that’s not far off. A key ingredient for the mysterious clouds comes from outer space.”We’ve detected bits of ‘meteor smoke’ imbedded in noctilucent clouds,” reports James Russell of Hampton University, principal investigator of NASA’s AIM mission to study the phenomenon. “This discovery supports the theory that meteor dust is the nucleating agent around which NLCs form.”\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Danielle Venton contributed to this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Updated at 9:40 a.m. ET\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Weather and other delays marred what had been anticipated as a banner day for space launches Tuesday, as both SpaceX and Blue Origin were forced to postpone launches that had been scheduled to take place within minutes of each other. Both companies say they will look at moving their launches to Wednesday morning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blue Origin says its launch was scrubbed due to what the company calls a “ground infrastructure issue.” Blue Origin says the rocket remains ready.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SpaceX says an abort order was triggered by the flight computer onboard the Falcon 9 rocket. Paired with an earlier delay due to unfavorable upper-level winds, the slowdown pushed the rocket past its launch window.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Vehicle and payload remain healthy,” SpaceX \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1075037745633001472\">said via Twitter\u003c/a>, adding, “next launch attempt is tomorrow” at 9:07 a.m. ET.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/SpaceX/status/1075037745633001472\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to those missions from two of America’s top private space companies, two other space launches had been planned for Tuesday — but only one of them is now still scheduled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The delays threw cold water on a day that had left some space aficionados giddy with excitement. “If you’re a space fan, Christmas comes a week early this year,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.space.com/42772-four-rocket-launches-spacex-blue-origin-webcasts.html\">Space.com wrote\u003c/a> of the four planned launches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SpaceX was poised to send its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, with a live webcast that started streaming about 15 minutes before the intended liftoff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMtpVS0xM1c\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SpaceX plans to carry the first GPS III satellite into medium Earth orbit; it comes from Lockheed Martin, which says the new system will “launch the next generation of connection.” Because of the satellite’s weight and flight plan, the Falcon 9 will not return for a landing. Instead, it will be sent into the atmosphere to prevent space junk from accumulating in orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new GPS III satellites are designed to be three times more accurate than the current system, which went into civilian operation in the 1990s. As for how it might affect regular GPS users, the firm says, “our phones will receive an upgraded GPS signal from this satellite by the end of 2019.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vice President Mike Pence was in Florida for the now-delayed SpaceX launch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blue Origin had targeted 9:30 a.m. ET to launch its New Shepard rocket for a suborbital flight from its facility in West Texas, in the tenth mission for the reusable rocket system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The New Shepard (named for astronaut Alan Shepard) will carry nine different NASA-sponsored \u003ca href=\"https://www.blueorigin.com/news/news/new-shepard-to-fly-9-nasa-sponsored-payloads-to-space-on-ns-10\">research and experimental projects\u003c/a> that have come from five colleges and several agencies and engineering firm Controlled Dynamics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day had promised four potential launches — but then the delays took hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final launch of the day is planned to take place in California, where the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ulalaunch?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">United Launch Alliance\u003c/a> will send a Delta IV Heavy rocket up from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 8:57 p.m. ET. It will carry a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office satellite called the NROL- 71, which the Air Force says will help to give “innovative overhead intelligence systems for national security.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around midday Tuesday, \u003ca href=\"http://www.arianespace.com/mission/ariane-flight-vs20/\">Arianespace\u003c/a> had planned to launch a Soyuz rocket from the spaceport in French Guiana to carry a French defense and intelligence imaging satellite designated CSO-1 into orbit. That’s now scheduled for Wednesday at 11:37 a.m. ET.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.npr.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>In addition to those missions from two of America’s top private space companies, two other space launches had been planned for Tuesday — but only one of them is now still scheduled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The delays threw cold water on a day that had left some space aficionados giddy with excitement. “If you’re a space fan, Christmas comes a week early this year,” \u003ca href=\"https://www.space.com/42772-four-rocket-launches-spacex-blue-origin-webcasts.html\">Space.com wrote\u003c/a> of the four planned launches.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SpaceX was poised to send its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, with a live webcast that started streaming about 15 minutes before the intended liftoff.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/UMtpVS0xM1c'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/UMtpVS0xM1c'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>SpaceX plans to carry the first GPS III satellite into medium Earth orbit; it comes from Lockheed Martin, which says the new system will “launch the next generation of connection.” Because of the satellite’s weight and flight plan, the Falcon 9 will not return for a landing. Instead, it will be sent into the atmosphere to prevent space junk from accumulating in orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new GPS III satellites are designed to be three times more accurate than the current system, which went into civilian operation in the 1990s. As for how it might affect regular GPS users, the firm says, “our phones will receive an upgraded GPS signal from this satellite by the end of 2019.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Vice President Mike Pence was in Florida for the now-delayed SpaceX launch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Blue Origin had targeted 9:30 a.m. ET to launch its New Shepard rocket for a suborbital flight from its facility in West Texas, in the tenth mission for the reusable rocket system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The New Shepard (named for astronaut Alan Shepard) will carry nine different NASA-sponsored \u003ca href=\"https://www.blueorigin.com/news/news/new-shepard-to-fly-9-nasa-sponsored-payloads-to-space-on-ns-10\">research and experimental projects\u003c/a> that have come from five colleges and several agencies and engineering firm Controlled Dynamics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The day had promised four potential launches — but then the delays took hold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final launch of the day is planned to take place in California, where the \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/ulalaunch?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\">United Launch Alliance\u003c/a> will send a Delta IV Heavy rocket up from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 8:57 p.m. ET. It will carry a U.S. National Reconnaissance Office satellite called the NROL- 71, which the Air Force says will help to give “innovative overhead intelligence systems for national security.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around midday Tuesday, \u003ca href=\"http://www.arianespace.com/mission/ariane-flight-vs20/\">Arianespace\u003c/a> had planned to launch a Soyuz rocket from the spaceport in French Guiana to carry a French defense and intelligence imaging satellite designated CSO-1 into orbit. That’s now scheduled for Wednesday at 11:37 a.m. ET.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.npr.org\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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},
"rightnowish": {
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
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