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"title": "Meteor Crashed with the Force of 600,000 Tons of TNT, Say Scientists (And It'll Happen Again)",
"headTitle": "Meteor Crashed with the Force of 600,000 Tons of TNT, Say Scientists (And It’ll Happen Again) | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Last February 15, at 9:20 in the morning, residents of Chelyabinsk, Russia, looked out their windows and saw a giant ball of fire fly through the sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svzB0QYNIWI\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Chelyabinsk meteor was a 65-foot hunk of space rock that entered the Earth’s atmosphere at about 12 miles per second before exploding with a force equal to 600,000 tons of TNT, enough to level buildings and send 1,200 people to local hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scary thing is: No one saw it coming, says the author of a paper, out today in the journal Science by researchers who studied the Chelyabinsk event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chelyabinsk was not detected in space at all,” said Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer with NASA Ames and the SETI Insitute. “It couldn’t be detected because it was coming from the direction of the sun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over at Slate, the Bad Astronomer explains what the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/11/06/science.1242642.abstract\">Science \u003c/a>paper, as well as another Chelyabinsk paper published in \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12671.html\">Nature\u003c/a>, say about the meteor’s trajectory and what it was made of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/17/watchforfallingrocks.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.web.1280.1280.jpeg\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/11/06/chelyabinsk_asteroid_impact_small_rocks_may_hit_us_more_often_than_thought.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chelyabinsk-sized Asteroid Impacts May Happen More Often Than Previously Thought\u003c/a>They found that if you were 100 km (62 miles) from the Chelyabinsk impact, at peak brightness — and this stuns me — the asteroid was 30 times brighter than the Sun! I haven’t heard any anecdotes about this specifically, but the thermal pulse, the flash of heat, must have been palpable, even from that distance. Incredible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly/code?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slate.com%2Fblogs%2Fbad_astronomy%2F2013%2F11%2F06%2Fchelyabinsk_asteroid_impact_small_rocks_may_hit_us_more_often_than_thought.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.slate.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Slate\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who’s keeping an eye on these “near-Earth objects” as they’re called, and devising plans to keep us from going the way of the dinosaurs? KQED Science’s video team looked into it.\u003cbr>\n\u003cembed src=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/files/jw-player-plugin-for-wordpress/player/player.swf\" height=\"359\" width=\"639\" flashvars=\"&bandwidth=2841&controlbar=over&dock=false&file=303a_asteroids.flv&image=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.kqed.org%2Fquest%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fposter_frames%2F303a_asteroids_640.jpg&gapro.accountid=UA-1538528-1&gapro.height=359&gapro.pluginmode=FLASH&gapro.trackpercentage=true&gapro.trackstarts=true&gapro.tracktime=true&gapro.visible=true&gapro.width=639&gapro.x=0&gapro.y=0&plugins=gapro-1&skin=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.kqed.org%2Fquest%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fjw-player-plugin-for-wordpress%2Fskins%2Fglow.zip&streamer=rtmp%3A%2F%2Fkqed-flash02.streamguys.us%2Fquest%2F&viral.allowmenu=true&viral.bgcolor=0x333333&viral.fgcolor=0xffffff&viral.functions=embed&viral.matchplayercolors=true&viral.oncomplete=false&viral.pluginmode=FLASH\">\u003c/embed>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly is mulling a plan for the world’s space agencies to defend the Earth against asteroids, reports NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://a.s.kqed.net/img/nav/og-news.png\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2013/11/03/128233/space_agencies_of_the_world_unite_the_uns_asteroid_defense_plan?source=npr&category=science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Space Agencies Of The World, Unite: The U.N.’s Asteroid Defense Plan\u003c/a>Science The United Nations General Assembly may approve a plan soon for the world’s space agencies to defend the Earth against asteroids. The plan, introduced last week, is expected to be adopted by the General Assembly in December.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly/code?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kqed.org%2Fnews%2Fstory%2F2013%2F11%2F03%2F128233%2Fspace_agencies_of_the_world_unite_the_uns_asteroid_defense_plan%3Fsource%3Dnpr%26category%3Dscience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.kqed.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kqed\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The Chelyabinsk meteor was a 65-foot hunk of space rock that entered the Earth's atmosphere at about 12 miles per second before exploding with a force equal to 600,000 tons of TNT, enough to level buildings and send 1,200 people to local hospitals.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Last February 15, at 9:20 in the morning, residents of Chelyabinsk, Russia, looked out their windows and saw a giant ball of fire fly through the sky.\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/svzB0QYNIWI'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/svzB0QYNIWI'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>The Chelyabinsk meteor was a 65-foot hunk of space rock that entered the Earth’s atmosphere at about 12 miles per second before exploding with a force equal to 600,000 tons of TNT, enough to level buildings and send 1,200 people to local hospitals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scary thing is: No one saw it coming, says the author of a paper, out today in the journal Science by researchers who studied the Chelyabinsk event.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Chelyabinsk was not detected in space at all,” said Peter Jenniskens, an astronomer with NASA Ames and the SETI Insitute. “It couldn’t be detected because it was coming from the direction of the sun.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over at Slate, the Bad Astronomer explains what the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/11/06/science.1242642.abstract\">Science \u003c/a>paper, as well as another Chelyabinsk paper published in \u003ca href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12671.html\">Nature\u003c/a>, say about the meteor’s trajectory and what it was made of.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\n\u003cp>\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/02/17/watchforfallingrocks.jpg/_jcr_content/renditions/cq5dam.web.1280.1280.jpeg\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2013/11/06/chelyabinsk_asteroid_impact_small_rocks_may_hit_us_more_often_than_thought.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chelyabinsk-sized Asteroid Impacts May Happen More Often Than Previously Thought\u003c/a>They found that if you were 100 km (62 miles) from the Chelyabinsk impact, at peak brightness — and this stuns me — the asteroid was 30 times brighter than the Sun! I haven’t heard any anecdotes about this specifically, but the thermal pulse, the flash of heat, must have been palpable, even from that distance. Incredible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly/code?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slate.com%2Fblogs%2Fbad_astronomy%2F2013%2F11%2F06%2Fchelyabinsk_asteroid_impact_small_rocks_may_hit_us_more_often_than_thought.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.slate.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Slate\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Who’s keeping an eye on these “near-Earth objects” as they’re called, and devising plans to keep us from going the way of the dinosaurs? KQED Science’s video team looked into it.\u003cbr>\n\u003cembed src=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/files/jw-player-plugin-for-wordpress/player/player.swf\" height=\"359\" width=\"639\" flashvars=\"&bandwidth=2841&controlbar=over&dock=false&file=303a_asteroids.flv&image=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.kqed.org%2Fquest%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fposter_frames%2F303a_asteroids_640.jpg&gapro.accountid=UA-1538528-1&gapro.height=359&gapro.pluginmode=FLASH&gapro.trackpercentage=true&gapro.trackstarts=true&gapro.tracktime=true&gapro.visible=true&gapro.width=639&gapro.x=0&gapro.y=0&plugins=gapro-1&skin=http%3A%2F%2Fscience.kqed.org%2Fquest%2Fwp-content%2Fplugins%2Fjw-player-plugin-for-wordpress%2Fskins%2Fglow.zip&streamer=rtmp%3A%2F%2Fkqed-flash02.streamguys.us%2Fquest%2F&viral.allowmenu=true&viral.bgcolor=0x333333&viral.fgcolor=0xffffff&viral.functions=embed&viral.matchplayercolors=true&viral.oncomplete=false&viral.pluginmode=FLASH\">\u003c/embed>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly is mulling a plan for the world’s space agencies to defend the Earth against asteroids, reports NPR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" class=\"thumb embedly-thumbnail-small\" src=\"http://a.s.kqed.net/img/nav/og-news.png\" alt=\"\">\u003ca class=\"embedly-title\" href=\"http://www.kqed.org/news/story/2013/11/03/128233/space_agencies_of_the_world_unite_the_uns_asteroid_defense_plan?source=npr&category=science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Space Agencies Of The World, Unite: The U.N.’s Asteroid Defense Plan\u003c/a>Science The United Nations General Assembly may approve a plan soon for the world’s space agencies to defend the Earth against asteroids. The plan, introduced last week, is expected to be adopted by the General Assembly in December.\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"embedly-powered\" style=\"float: right\">\u003ca title=\"Powered by Embedly\" href=\"http://embed.ly/code?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.kqed.org%2Fnews%2Fstory%2F2013%2F11%2F03%2F128233%2Fspace_agencies_of_the_world_unite_the_uns_asteroid_defense_plan%3Fsource%3Dnpr%26category%3Dscience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://static.embed.ly/images/logos/embedly-powered-small-light.png\" alt=\"Embedly Powered\">\u003c/a>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media-attribution\">via \u003ca class=\"media-attribution-link\" href=\"http://www.kqed.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kqed\u003c/a>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"embedly-clear\">\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Kepler Team: Universe \"Crowded\" with Earth-Like Planets",
"headTitle": "Kepler Team: Universe “Crowded” with Earth-Like Planets | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>We’re just not all that special. At least that’s the consensus from scientists looking at data from a \u003ca title=\"NASA - Kepler\" href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/overview/#.UngqdFOw6lI\">NASA mission\u003c/a> to find “habitable” planets out there. The bottom line: one in five sun-like stars may harbor an Earth-like planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may be tens of billions of Earth-like planets in our Milky Way Galaxy alone, say astronomers working with data collected by the Kepler telescope. These planets are roughly the same size as Earth and exist at just the right “Goldilocks” temperature that could sustain liquid water and, maybe, life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closest of these planets is a scant 12 light years away, orbiting a star that’s visible to the naked eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/kepler-candidates-lined-up-4_0_2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10658\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10658\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/kepler-candidates-lined-up-4_0_2.jpg\" alt=\"Using data from the Kepler telescope, scientists have identified 3,538 planets, 647 of which are roughly Earth-sized. \" width=\"640\" height=\"640\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Using data from the Kepler telescope, scientists have identified 3,538 planets, 647 of which are roughly Earth-sized. (NASA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The universe appears to be “crowded” with Earth-like planets, said NASA space scientist Bill Borucki. “If we ever get star travel, we’ll probably see a lot of traffic jams,” he told reporters at a Monday briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The profusion of Earth-like planets strongly suggests we aren’t alone, says UC Berkeley astronomer and Kepler scientist Geoff Marcy. “The chance for life of some sort out there in the universe has to be essentially 100 percent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists at the Mountain View press briefing said they were struck by the “remarkable” increase in how many of these planets they’ve been able to find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In three years of combing through data collected by the Kepler telescope, scientists have identified 3,538 planets. Of those, 647 are roughly Earth-sized and 104 are in the “habitable zone” where liquid water could flow, potentially giving rise to life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.youtube.com/embed/pffF4S-2BCw\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being in the “habitable zone” doesn’t necessarily mean that a planet sustains life, says Marcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t tell whether they really have oceans and lakes and ponds, the cocktail mixer of biochemistry that makes life possible. We don’t know how stable their atmospheres are. So we don’t know that the planets that are suitable for life really ever do spawn life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Launched in 2009, the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/05/15/kepler-scientist-a-beautiful-instrument-has-died/\">now-crippled\u003c/a> Kepler telescope was designed to look for slight fluctuations in the amount of light radiating from distant stars, clues to the whereabouts of potential life-supporting planets.[contextly_sidebar id=”5e31cbcc0077abf64e7854e7da85091b”]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as a moth passing in front of a light bulb would create a brief flicker, the same is true of a planet in orbit around a star. Based on those observations, scientists have been able to identify which stars have planets in orbit around them, as well as the size of those planets and how tightly they orbit their stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of these discoveries have been notable more as science fiction curiosities than as potential Edens for intelligent (or non-intelligent) life. Last week, scientists introduced the planet Kepler 78b, which hugs its star at a distance of 900,000 miles — an orbit of just eight hours, as opposed to Earth’s 360-day cycle. Like Earth, Kepler 78b is rocky and rich in iron, but – at 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit — a little too toasty for life as we know it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After four years of collecting data, the Kepler telescope hit a disabling technical snag last May. NASA scientists say they’re trying to fix it. But even if the telescope goes dark, the amount of data it collected in its four-year run could provide analytical fodder “indefinitely,” said scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more on the mission, listen to KQED’s interview with Kepler astronomer Geoffrey Marcy, of the University of California, Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/118602895″ width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>We’re just not all that special. At least that’s the consensus from scientists looking at data from a \u003ca title=\"NASA - Kepler\" href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/overview/#.UngqdFOw6lI\">NASA mission\u003c/a> to find “habitable” planets out there. The bottom line: one in five sun-like stars may harbor an Earth-like planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There may be tens of billions of Earth-like planets in our Milky Way Galaxy alone, say astronomers working with data collected by the Kepler telescope. These planets are roughly the same size as Earth and exist at just the right “Goldilocks” temperature that could sustain liquid water and, maybe, life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The closest of these planets is a scant 12 light years away, orbiting a star that’s visible to the naked eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10658\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/kepler-candidates-lined-up-4_0_2.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10658\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10658\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/11/kepler-candidates-lined-up-4_0_2.jpg\" alt=\"Using data from the Kepler telescope, scientists have identified 3,538 planets, 647 of which are roughly Earth-sized. \" width=\"640\" height=\"640\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Using data from the Kepler telescope, scientists have identified 3,538 planets, 647 of which are roughly Earth-sized. (NASA)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The universe appears to be “crowded” with Earth-like planets, said NASA space scientist Bill Borucki. “If we ever get star travel, we’ll probably see a lot of traffic jams,” he told reporters at a Monday briefing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The profusion of Earth-like planets strongly suggests we aren’t alone, says UC Berkeley astronomer and Kepler scientist Geoff Marcy. “The chance for life of some sort out there in the universe has to be essentially 100 percent.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists at the Mountain View press briefing said they were struck by the “remarkable” increase in how many of these planets they’ve been able to find.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In three years of combing through data collected by the Kepler telescope, scientists have identified 3,538 planets. Of those, 647 are roughly Earth-sized and 104 are in the “habitable zone” where liquid water could flow, potentially giving rise to life.\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/pffF4S-2BCw'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/pffF4S-2BCw'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Being in the “habitable zone” doesn’t necessarily mean that a planet sustains life, says Marcy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We can’t tell whether they really have oceans and lakes and ponds, the cocktail mixer of biochemistry that makes life possible. We don’t know how stable their atmospheres are. So we don’t know that the planets that are suitable for life really ever do spawn life.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Launched in 2009, the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/2013/05/15/kepler-scientist-a-beautiful-instrument-has-died/\">now-crippled\u003c/a> Kepler telescope was designed to look for slight fluctuations in the amount of light radiating from distant stars, clues to the whereabouts of potential life-supporting planets.\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just as a moth passing in front of a light bulb would create a brief flicker, the same is true of a planet in orbit around a star. Based on those observations, scientists have been able to identify which stars have planets in orbit around them, as well as the size of those planets and how tightly they orbit their stars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of these discoveries have been notable more as science fiction curiosities than as potential Edens for intelligent (or non-intelligent) life. Last week, scientists introduced the planet Kepler 78b, which hugs its star at a distance of 900,000 miles — an orbit of just eight hours, as opposed to Earth’s 360-day cycle. Like Earth, Kepler 78b is rocky and rich in iron, but – at 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit — a little too toasty for life as we know it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After four years of collecting data, the Kepler telescope hit a disabling technical snag last May. NASA scientists say they’re trying to fix it. But even if the telescope goes dark, the amount of data it collected in its four-year run could provide analytical fodder “indefinitely,” said scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For more on the mission, listen to KQED’s interview with Kepler astronomer Geoffrey Marcy, of the University of California, Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cdiv class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__shortcodes__shortcodeWrapper'>\n \u003ciframe width='”100%”' height='”166″'\n scrolling='no' frameborder='no'\n src='https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/118602895″&visual=true&undefined'\n title='”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/118602895″'>\n \u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/div>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Juno Aims to Pierce the Veil of Jupiter's Cloud-Shrouded Mystery",
"headTitle": "Juno Aims to Pierce the Veil of Jupiter’s Cloud-Shrouded Mystery | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10498\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/576002main_Juno20110727-7-full_full.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10498\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10498\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/576002main_Juno20110727-7-full_full.jpg\" alt=\"Artist concept of NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of NASA’s Juno spacecraft at Jupiter\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Flash!\u003c/em> On October 9, the Earth was visited by an interplanetary spacecraft! No, this is not a scene from “The Day the Earth Stood Still” or “War of the Worlds,” but a \u003ca title=\"NASA's Juno probe swings by Earth\" href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/news/juno20131023.html#.UnFN53Csh8E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">flyby maneuver\u003c/a> by NASA’s latest Jupiter probe, Juno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juno was launched on August 5, 2011 on an Atlas 551 rocket into the first leg of its journey to Jupiter. This looping trajectory took it as far as the Asteroid Belt just beyond the orbit of Mars, and then back toward the Earth again. The Earth flyby on October 9 was a “gravitational assist” or “slingshot” maneuver. It imparted a small amount of Earth’s momentum to Juno, boosting its velocity to put it on a final course to Jupiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it arrives there in 2016, Juno will become only the second spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, and the first to fly over Jupiter’s polar regions, providing us with a breathtaking view that we haven’t seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first probe to orbit Jupiter, back in 1995, was the \u003ca title=\"NASA's Galileo spacecraft\" href=\"http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Galileo spacecraft\u003c/a>, named in honor of Galileo Galilei, who first studied Jupiter with a telescope. Juno bears its own homage to Galileo: a plaque imprinted with the man’s self-portrait and a hand-written passage he made on his observation of Jupiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"Juno\" href=\"http://missionjuno.swri.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Juno’s overarching purpose\u003c/a> is to give us a better understanding of Jupiter’s origins and its evolution over time by probing beneath its cloud tops and discovering properties and processes held secret in Jupiter’s interior. And what we learn will tell us more than just Jupiter’s inner workings, but of the early conditions in the formation of our solar system itself, and how Jupiter’s influence may have shaped it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Analogous to how we study residual evidence in the growth rings of trees, mud cores from the ocean floor, and ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland to map out Earth’s geologic and climate history, evidence of the solar system’s formation, growth and changes over time are locked up in the bodies of planets, asteroids, and comets — just waiting for us to dig in and decode it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A greater understanding of Jupiter, inside and out, today and over time, will also give us insight into the nature of gas giant extrasolar planets that we have been detecting over the past two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juno will probe deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere, giving us detailed information about its composition, temperature, motion, circulation and other factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By measuring the amounts of chemicals like water and ammonia in Jupiter’s deep atmosphere, Juno will help us narrow down which of several competing theories of planet formation hold water, or if none of them do — in which case theorists will need to go back to the drawing board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juno will measure and map out Jupiter’s gravitational and magnetic fields, the sources of which are found deep within the planet. Just as a geologist (yes, here’s another analogy) can infer what goes on deep within the Earth by studying the emanations of a volcano, Jupiter’s gravity and magnetism can provide information about the deep internal structures of that world. In particular, the long-standing question of whether Jupiter has a solid rocky core — and if so, how big it is — may get some answers from Juno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By observing the powerful magnetic field which emerges at the planet’s poles and observing the polar auroras (Northern and Southern lights), we hope to learn how Jupiter’s magnetism affects its complex and abundant atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juno will orbit Jupiter 32 times over the course of a year, making passes over Jupiter’s surface as close as 3000 miles (extremely close relative to Jupiter’s 88,000 mile diameter) and giving us an extremely close up and stunning view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of its mission in October 2017, Juno will be deliberately “deorbited” and burn up in Jupiter’s atmosphere, the very thing it will study. The Galileo spacecraft was similarly deorbited at the end of its mission to prevent the eventuality of it crashing into one of Jupiter’s moons, which for all we know may harbor some form of life. Far from a heartless suicide order, the deorbiting of expiring spacecraft is an effort on our part to clean up our trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Roman mythology, Jupiter, king of the gods, veiled his mischievous exploits by drawing a shroud of clouds around himself. It was Jupiter’s wife, the goddess Juno, who was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter’s true nature. We can look forward to what marvelous mischief the Juno spacecraft will reveal about the king of planets.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Over centuries of observing the planet Jupiter, we have but scratched the surface of the deep mysteries held secret beneath its thick clouds. Now NASA's Juno probe, currently en route to the king of planets, is preparing to pierce the veil of Jupiter's mystery and give us a peek inside.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10498\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/576002main_Juno20110727-7-full_full.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10498\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10498\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/576002main_Juno20110727-7-full_full.jpg\" alt=\"Artist concept of NASA's Juno spacecraft at Jupiter\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist concept of NASA’s Juno spacecraft at Jupiter\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Flash!\u003c/em> On October 9, the Earth was visited by an interplanetary spacecraft! No, this is not a scene from “The Day the Earth Stood Still” or “War of the Worlds,” but a \u003ca title=\"NASA's Juno probe swings by Earth\" href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/juno/news/juno20131023.html#.UnFN53Csh8E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">flyby maneuver\u003c/a> by NASA’s latest Jupiter probe, Juno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juno was launched on August 5, 2011 on an Atlas 551 rocket into the first leg of its journey to Jupiter. This looping trajectory took it as far as the Asteroid Belt just beyond the orbit of Mars, and then back toward the Earth again. The Earth flyby on October 9 was a “gravitational assist” or “slingshot” maneuver. It imparted a small amount of Earth’s momentum to Juno, boosting its velocity to put it on a final course to Jupiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When it arrives there in 2016, Juno will become only the second spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, and the first to fly over Jupiter’s polar regions, providing us with a breathtaking view that we haven’t seen before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first probe to orbit Jupiter, back in 1995, was the \u003ca title=\"NASA's Galileo spacecraft\" href=\"http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/galileo/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Galileo spacecraft\u003c/a>, named in honor of Galileo Galilei, who first studied Jupiter with a telescope. Juno bears its own homage to Galileo: a plaque imprinted with the man’s self-portrait and a hand-written passage he made on his observation of Jupiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"Juno\" href=\"http://missionjuno.swri.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Juno’s overarching purpose\u003c/a> is to give us a better understanding of Jupiter’s origins and its evolution over time by probing beneath its cloud tops and discovering properties and processes held secret in Jupiter’s interior. And what we learn will tell us more than just Jupiter’s inner workings, but of the early conditions in the formation of our solar system itself, and how Jupiter’s influence may have shaped it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Analogous to how we study residual evidence in the growth rings of trees, mud cores from the ocean floor, and ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland to map out Earth’s geologic and climate history, evidence of the solar system’s formation, growth and changes over time are locked up in the bodies of planets, asteroids, and comets — just waiting for us to dig in and decode it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A greater understanding of Jupiter, inside and out, today and over time, will also give us insight into the nature of gas giant extrasolar planets that we have been detecting over the past two decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juno will probe deep into Jupiter’s atmosphere, giving us detailed information about its composition, temperature, motion, circulation and other factors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By measuring the amounts of chemicals like water and ammonia in Jupiter’s deep atmosphere, Juno will help us narrow down which of several competing theories of planet formation hold water, or if none of them do — in which case theorists will need to go back to the drawing board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juno will measure and map out Jupiter’s gravitational and magnetic fields, the sources of which are found deep within the planet. Just as a geologist (yes, here’s another analogy) can infer what goes on deep within the Earth by studying the emanations of a volcano, Jupiter’s gravity and magnetism can provide information about the deep internal structures of that world. In particular, the long-standing question of whether Jupiter has a solid rocky core — and if so, how big it is — may get some answers from Juno.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By observing the powerful magnetic field which emerges at the planet’s poles and observing the polar auroras (Northern and Southern lights), we hope to learn how Jupiter’s magnetism affects its complex and abundant atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Juno will orbit Jupiter 32 times over the course of a year, making passes over Jupiter’s surface as close as 3000 miles (extremely close relative to Jupiter’s 88,000 mile diameter) and giving us an extremely close up and stunning view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the end of its mission in October 2017, Juno will be deliberately “deorbited” and burn up in Jupiter’s atmosphere, the very thing it will study. The Galileo spacecraft was similarly deorbited at the end of its mission to prevent the eventuality of it crashing into one of Jupiter’s moons, which for all we know may harbor some form of life. Far from a heartless suicide order, the deorbiting of expiring spacecraft is an effort on our part to clean up our trash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Roman mythology, Jupiter, king of the gods, veiled his mischievous exploits by drawing a shroud of clouds around himself. It was Jupiter’s wife, the goddess Juno, who was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter’s true nature. We can look forward to what marvelous mischief the Juno spacecraft will reveal about the king of planets.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Comet ISON: Celestial Popcorn That's Ready to Pop?",
"headTitle": "Comet ISON: Celestial Popcorn That’s Ready to Pop? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10156\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/ison-chabot-oct132013.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10156\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/ison-chabot-oct132013.jpg\" alt=\"Comet ISON - Sept 8 2013 - Chabot Space & Science Center, Photo by Conrad Jung\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10156\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Comet ISON – October 13 2013 – Chabot Space & Science Center, Photo by Conrad Jung\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Comet ISON has entered the inner solar system!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On about October 1st, the comet that has attracted so much attention and prompted many projections, prognostications and probably a few wagers, crossed the orbit of the planet Mars to begin its final sprint to the center of the solar system. It’s the last and fastest dog-leg of its long journey from the cold dark reaches of outer space to its potentially fateful close encounter with the Sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discovered in September 2012 by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok with a telescope of the International Sky Observer Network, Comet ISON has since been tracked by telescopes around the world—including the one that actually goes around the world: the Hubble Space Telescope. It has even been scoped out by cameras on \u003ca title=\"ISON Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\" href=\"http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/releases/ison.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a> when it sailed close to Mars a couple of weeks ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this scrutiny is aimed at learning as much about the physical nature of this ancient time capsule as possible before it reaches a crucial point in its flight through the solar system: perihelion, the point where it passes closest to the sun, on November 28. Crucial, because at that time it will be less than a single solar diameter from the Sun’s surface, and exposed to intense radiation that could vaporize it and gravitational tidal forces that will work to tear it apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What have all of these observations told us about the betting odds of the comet’s survival, or whether we’ll be able to see with our eyes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last April, the Hubble Space Telescope determined that ISON’s rotation is slow—so slow that, so far, \u003ca title=\"ISON's Dark Side\" href=\"http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/11/comet-ison-plays-coy-with-astronomers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">only one side of it has been exposed to sunlight\u003c/a>. Day by day, as the comet draws closer to the sun, the heating of its sunward size grows stronger. Its surface ices are transformed into gases that envelop the icy nucleus in a vast shroud called a coma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a comet gets close to the sun, its coma is blown away from the nucleus by sunlight into the familiar shape of the comet’s tail. Key to how bright and fluffy (or flat and ho-hum) a comet becomes is how big a coma it develops, how much ice is converted into gas, and how quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact that this comet has shown only one face to the sun is intriguing. It means that it has a dark side, cold and protected, yet to feel the touch of solar rays. Sheltered on the shady side of ISON is likely to be a load of frozen but highly volatile ices. While the sunlit side of ISON has been warming and leaking away materials for at least a year now, the dark side remains pristine, a reservoir of untapped volatile material that awaits release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe a week before perihelion, the dark side of ISON is expected to begin turning into the sunlight. The sudden exposure to the intense radiation could cause a strong outburst of gases into the coma–like a celestial popcorn kernel suddenly bursting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another observation critical to predicting of the fate of ISON is its size. How big a comet is becomes an important factor when its orbital path is to carry it so scorching-close to the sun. As ISON has fallen closer, \u003ca href=\"http://www.universetoday.com/104818/comet-ison-a-viewing-guide-from-now-to-perihelion/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more and better data\u003c/a> has been collected by telescopes, starting with the Hubble’s observations in April, continued by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter earlier this month and ongoing by many telescopes around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From these observations ISON is estimated to be between 1 and 4 kilometers (0.6 to 2.5 miles) in diameter, roughly the size of Mount Diablo at the upper end—large enough, it is expected, to survive its close encounter with the sun on Thanksgiving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Will it blossom or sputter? Will the popcorn kernel be a dud, or will it blow the lid off the pot? There has been speculation in both directions, based on observational evidence and past experiences with the fickle and often temperamental nature of comes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truth is, we won’t know until we know, likely in the week or so following the end of November, but my hopes—and my money—are on a good show in December.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Maybe a week before it passes closest to the sun, the dark side of Comet ISON is expected to begin turning into the sunlight. The sudden exposure to the intense radiation could cause a strong outburst of gases into the coma--like a celestial popcorn kernel suddenly bursting.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10156\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/ison-chabot-oct132013.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-10156\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/ison-chabot-oct132013.jpg\" alt=\"Comet ISON - Sept 8 2013 - Chabot Space & Science Center, Photo by Conrad Jung\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10156\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Comet ISON – October 13 2013 – Chabot Space & Science Center, Photo by Conrad Jung\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Comet ISON has entered the inner solar system!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On about October 1st, the comet that has attracted so much attention and prompted many projections, prognostications and probably a few wagers, crossed the orbit of the planet Mars to begin its final sprint to the center of the solar system. It’s the last and fastest dog-leg of its long journey from the cold dark reaches of outer space to its potentially fateful close encounter with the Sun.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Discovered in September 2012 by Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok with a telescope of the International Sky Observer Network, Comet ISON has since been tracked by telescopes around the world—including the one that actually goes around the world: the Hubble Space Telescope. It has even been scoped out by cameras on \u003ca title=\"ISON Seen by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\" href=\"http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/releases/ison.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a> when it sailed close to Mars a couple of weeks ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>All of this scrutiny is aimed at learning as much about the physical nature of this ancient time capsule as possible before it reaches a crucial point in its flight through the solar system: perihelion, the point where it passes closest to the sun, on November 28. Crucial, because at that time it will be less than a single solar diameter from the Sun’s surface, and exposed to intense radiation that could vaporize it and gravitational tidal forces that will work to tear it apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What have all of these observations told us about the betting odds of the comet’s survival, or whether we’ll be able to see with our eyes?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last April, the Hubble Space Telescope determined that ISON’s rotation is slow—so slow that, so far, \u003ca title=\"ISON's Dark Side\" href=\"http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/10/11/comet-ison-plays-coy-with-astronomers/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">only one side of it has been exposed to sunlight\u003c/a>. Day by day, as the comet draws closer to the sun, the heating of its sunward size grows stronger. Its surface ices are transformed into gases that envelop the icy nucleus in a vast shroud called a coma.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When a comet gets close to the sun, its coma is blown away from the nucleus by sunlight into the familiar shape of the comet’s tail. Key to how bright and fluffy (or flat and ho-hum) a comet becomes is how big a coma it develops, how much ice is converted into gas, and how quickly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fact that this comet has shown only one face to the sun is intriguing. It means that it has a dark side, cold and protected, yet to feel the touch of solar rays. Sheltered on the shady side of ISON is likely to be a load of frozen but highly volatile ices. While the sunlit side of ISON has been warming and leaking away materials for at least a year now, the dark side remains pristine, a reservoir of untapped volatile material that awaits release.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Maybe a week before perihelion, the dark side of ISON is expected to begin turning into the sunlight. The sudden exposure to the intense radiation could cause a strong outburst of gases into the coma–like a celestial popcorn kernel suddenly bursting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another observation critical to predicting of the fate of ISON is its size. How big a comet is becomes an important factor when its orbital path is to carry it so scorching-close to the sun. As ISON has fallen closer, \u003ca href=\"http://www.universetoday.com/104818/comet-ison-a-viewing-guide-from-now-to-perihelion/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more and better data\u003c/a> has been collected by telescopes, starting with the Hubble’s observations in April, continued by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter earlier this month and ongoing by many telescopes around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From these observations ISON is estimated to be between 1 and 4 kilometers (0.6 to 2.5 miles) in diameter, roughly the size of Mount Diablo at the upper end—large enough, it is expected, to survive its close encounter with the sun on Thanksgiving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Will it blossom or sputter? Will the popcorn kernel be a dud, or will it blow the lid off the pot? There has been speculation in both directions, based on observational evidence and past experiences with the fickle and often temperamental nature of comes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The truth is, we won’t know until we know, likely in the week or so following the end of November, but my hopes—and my money—are on a good show in December.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "NASA's 'Mohawk Guy' on the Search for Signs of Life on Mars",
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"content": "\u003cp>NASA’s Curiosity rover is still chugging along on the surface of Mars (contrary to early reports, it is \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/14/234256158/thousands-of-miles-from-shutdown-mars-rovers-keep-working\">still in operation\u003c/a> despite the government shutdown). In the 14 months since it landed, the nuclear-powered robot has \u003ca href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1477\">documented an ancient stream bed\u003c/a>, found some of the \u003ca href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1438\">chemicals necessary for supporting life\u003c/a> and shot lasers at \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/N165Mars\">hapless rocks with Twitter accounts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10051\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/marsrover-e1381871071424.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10051\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/marsrover-e1381871071424.jpg\" alt=\"A self-portrait of NASA's Mars Curiosity rover. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A “selfie” of NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now it’s on a six-month trek to Mount Sharp, where it will examine ancient Martian geology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The foothills, that’s the place we really want to go to,” NASA systems engineer Bobak Ferdowsi explained to me. Ferdowsi, also known as “The Mohawk Guy,” dropped by KQED for a visit (he grew up watching KQED), so we swapped a tour for an interview. He said he’s excited about what the rover might find at Mt. Sharp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even from this distance, with our cameras, we can see layering in the rock, kind of like Grand Canyon-sort of sediments,” he marveled. “And that’s amazing. You can imagine just kind of working your way up that layering and getting an entire history of Mars in that area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch more of our interview:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAg9u8WlyAs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And some pieces of the interview that didn’t make the final video cut:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli> Ferdowsi was a science fiction fan as a kid (surprise), especially of \u003cem>Star Trek\u003c/em> and Arthur C. Clarke, which helped jump-start the work he does now. “(Clarke) had a real depth of understanding of the science of it all,” Ferdowsi told me, noting a special fondness for science fiction rooted in real science. “Even though it’s fantastic in some ways, he always has a basis in, ‘How would that spaceship really work, and how would they actually have done this?’ And I think that’s the kind of stuff that I love the most.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>And would he like to join the rover on Mars? “If it wasn’t a one-way trip, I think I would consider going to Mars. I think it’s such an interesting time for us. I hope we get to send people there. As much as I love working with robots, I think there’s something special about seeing humans get to these other places.”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "NASA's \"Engineer with a Mohawk\" has become a pop culture phenom (62,000 Twitter followers isn't too shabby). But under that comb beats the heart of a true explorer, as we found when he dropped by for a visit.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>NASA’s Curiosity rover is still chugging along on the surface of Mars (contrary to early reports, it is \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/14/234256158/thousands-of-miles-from-shutdown-mars-rovers-keep-working\">still in operation\u003c/a> despite the government shutdown). In the 14 months since it landed, the nuclear-powered robot has \u003ca href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1477\">documented an ancient stream bed\u003c/a>, found some of the \u003ca href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1438\">chemicals necessary for supporting life\u003c/a> and shot lasers at \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/N165Mars\">hapless rocks with Twitter accounts\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10051\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/marsrover-e1381871071424.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10051\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/marsrover-e1381871071424.jpg\" alt=\"A self-portrait of NASA's Mars Curiosity rover. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A “selfie” of NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Now it’s on a six-month trek to Mount Sharp, where it will examine ancient Martian geology.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The foothills, that’s the place we really want to go to,” NASA systems engineer Bobak Ferdowsi explained to me. Ferdowsi, also known as “The Mohawk Guy,” dropped by KQED for a visit (he grew up watching KQED), so we swapped a tour for an interview. He said he’s excited about what the rover might find at Mt. Sharp.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even from this distance, with our cameras, we can see layering in the rock, kind of like Grand Canyon-sort of sediments,” he marveled. “And that’s amazing. You can imagine just kind of working your way up that layering and getting an entire history of Mars in that area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch more of our interview:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\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/CAg9u8WlyAs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/CAg9u8WlyAs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>And some pieces of the interview that didn’t make the final video cut:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli> Ferdowsi was a science fiction fan as a kid (surprise), especially of \u003cem>Star Trek\u003c/em> and Arthur C. Clarke, which helped jump-start the work he does now. “(Clarke) had a real depth of understanding of the science of it all,” Ferdowsi told me, noting a special fondness for science fiction rooted in real science. “Even though it’s fantastic in some ways, he always has a basis in, ‘How would that spaceship really work, and how would they actually have done this?’ And I think that’s the kind of stuff that I love the most.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>And would he like to join the rover on Mars? “If it wasn’t a one-way trip, I think I would consider going to Mars. I think it’s such an interesting time for us. I hope we get to send people there. As much as I love working with robots, I think there’s something special about seeing humans get to these other places.”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "NASA Robots Are Sniffing For Clues on Mars and Titan",
"headTitle": "NASA Robots Are Sniffing For Clues on Mars and Titan | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9619\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/CuriositySniffingForClues.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9619\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9619\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/CuriositySniffingForClues.jpg\" alt=\"NASA's rover Curiosity in Gale Crater on Mars\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA’s rover Curiosity in Gale Crater on Mars\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While you are sleeping, robots work tirelessly on other planets, digging, probing, analyzing, searching; painting an ever more detailed picture of worlds beyond our own that have intrigued us for centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent findings by two of these robots have turned up some surprises:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Close to home, NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars, sniffing the cold, thin air as it crawls ever closer to the foot of \u003ca title=\"Mount Sharp\" href=\"http://www.universetoday.com/104012/curiosity-conducts-science-on-the-go-and-zooms-to-stunning-mount-sharp/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mount Sharp\u003c/a>, has raised eyebrows by something it has \u003cem>not \u003c/em>detected: methane. And much farther out the Cassini spacecraft has made a positive detection … of \u003cem>plastic\u003c/em>, in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why is finding a lack of methane on Mars surprising? Because previously we thought we had detected it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier observations made from Earth and from spacecraft orbiting Mars indicated the possible presence of this hydrocarbon. That was an exciting result, since methane, which most of us are familiar with as the gas that flows out of gas stoves, is formed in large quantities on Earth by living organisms, from microbes all the way up to large animals, like cows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Might methane in Mars’ atmosphere mean there is life on Mars, today? Most of our missions to Mars have focused on the question of whether the environment on Mars in the past was suitable to support life, so the detection of a possible indicator of life there today created quite a buzz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Curiosity, a complex and self-contained roving chemistry and geology laboratory, \u003ca title=\"Curiosity finds now methane on Mars\" href=\"http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-285\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has ground-truthed\u003c/a> that rumor, telling us that if there is methane on Mars, its abundance falls below Curiosity’s considerable ability to detect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This does not kill off the possibility of life existing on Mars today. There are plenty of examples of life forms on Earth whose metabolic processes do not produce methane. It does, however, move the subject back into the camp of “no evidence yet found.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shifting to the Cassini spacecraft in the Saturn system, what does the \u003ca title=\"Cassini detects constituent of plastic in the atmosphere of Titan\" href=\"http://www.nbcnews.com/science/plastic-stuff-space-cassini-probe-finds-propylene-titan-8C11299554\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">detection of plastic\u003c/a>—or a constituent thereof, propylene—say about the moon Titan? Propylene is the building block molecule of polypropylene, a plastic that surrounds us (for better or for worse) in our daily lives. This, along with the hydrocarbon “smog” that Titan’s thick, hazy atmosphere has become famous for, might conjure up images of a world inundated with the pollution of an industrial society that never got its recycling and clean energy programs up to speed—completely unlike our civilization, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"Titan's atmosphere\" href=\"http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Titan_s_atmosphere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Titan’s atmosphere\u003c/a>, which is considerably thicker than Earth’s, is mostly nitrogen, but loaded heavily with hydrocarbons like methane, ethane, propane—and now propylene. It’s a brew of organic compounds, complete with global wind circulation and a liquid cycle that resembles the water cycle on Earth, including precipitation, river networks, and large surface lakes—although of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane, not water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the environment on Titan is cold in the extreme, these weather cycles and the rich broth of hydrocarbon molecules churning within them raises the exciting possibility of even more complex organic chemistry taking place there. Add to all of this the likely existence of a deep, subsurface ocean of liquid water far below Titan’s surface, and one’s imagination can really start getting out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Life on Mars or on Titan? We don’t know. Organic molecules and chemistry don’t mean life, just the chemical foundations of life as we know it on Earth. Nor does the apparent lack of an indicator like methane mean an absence of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What it all means, on Mars, Titan, and other worlds out there, is that we have a lot more sniffing to do.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9619\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/CuriositySniffingForClues.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9619\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9619\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/10/CuriositySniffingForClues.jpg\" alt=\"NASA's rover Curiosity in Gale Crater on Mars\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">NASA’s rover Curiosity in Gale Crater on Mars\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While you are sleeping, robots work tirelessly on other planets, digging, probing, analyzing, searching; painting an ever more detailed picture of worlds beyond our own that have intrigued us for centuries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recent findings by two of these robots have turned up some surprises:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Close to home, NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars, sniffing the cold, thin air as it crawls ever closer to the foot of \u003ca title=\"Mount Sharp\" href=\"http://www.universetoday.com/104012/curiosity-conducts-science-on-the-go-and-zooms-to-stunning-mount-sharp/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mount Sharp\u003c/a>, has raised eyebrows by something it has \u003cem>not \u003c/em>detected: methane. And much farther out the Cassini spacecraft has made a positive detection … of \u003cem>plastic\u003c/em>, in the atmosphere of Saturn’s moon Titan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why is finding a lack of methane on Mars surprising? Because previously we thought we had detected it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier observations made from Earth and from spacecraft orbiting Mars indicated the possible presence of this hydrocarbon. That was an exciting result, since methane, which most of us are familiar with as the gas that flows out of gas stoves, is formed in large quantities on Earth by living organisms, from microbes all the way up to large animals, like cows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Might methane in Mars’ atmosphere mean there is life on Mars, today? Most of our missions to Mars have focused on the question of whether the environment on Mars in the past was suitable to support life, so the detection of a possible indicator of life there today created quite a buzz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Curiosity, a complex and self-contained roving chemistry and geology laboratory, \u003ca title=\"Curiosity finds now methane on Mars\" href=\"http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?release=2013-285\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has ground-truthed\u003c/a> that rumor, telling us that if there is methane on Mars, its abundance falls below Curiosity’s considerable ability to detect it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This does not kill off the possibility of life existing on Mars today. There are plenty of examples of life forms on Earth whose metabolic processes do not produce methane. It does, however, move the subject back into the camp of “no evidence yet found.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shifting to the Cassini spacecraft in the Saturn system, what does the \u003ca title=\"Cassini detects constituent of plastic in the atmosphere of Titan\" href=\"http://www.nbcnews.com/science/plastic-stuff-space-cassini-probe-finds-propylene-titan-8C11299554\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">detection of plastic\u003c/a>—or a constituent thereof, propylene—say about the moon Titan? Propylene is the building block molecule of polypropylene, a plastic that surrounds us (for better or for worse) in our daily lives. This, along with the hydrocarbon “smog” that Titan’s thick, hazy atmosphere has become famous for, might conjure up images of a world inundated with the pollution of an industrial society that never got its recycling and clean energy programs up to speed—completely unlike our civilization, of course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca title=\"Titan's atmosphere\" href=\"http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huygens/Titan_s_atmosphere\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Titan’s atmosphere\u003c/a>, which is considerably thicker than Earth’s, is mostly nitrogen, but loaded heavily with hydrocarbons like methane, ethane, propane—and now propylene. It’s a brew of organic compounds, complete with global wind circulation and a liquid cycle that resembles the water cycle on Earth, including precipitation, river networks, and large surface lakes—although of liquid hydrocarbons like methane and ethane, not water.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though the environment on Titan is cold in the extreme, these weather cycles and the rich broth of hydrocarbon molecules churning within them raises the exciting possibility of even more complex organic chemistry taking place there. Add to all of this the likely existence of a deep, subsurface ocean of liquid water far below Titan’s surface, and one’s imagination can really start getting out of control.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Life on Mars or on Titan? We don’t know. Organic molecules and chemistry don’t mean life, just the chemical foundations of life as we know it on Earth. Nor does the apparent lack of an indicator like methane mean an absence of life.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What it all means, on Mars, Titan, and other worlds out there, is that we have a lot more sniffing to do.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Peeling Away the Moon's Mysteries",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9064\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/bullialdus-jung-chabot.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9064\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9064\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/bullialdus-jung-chabot.jpg\" alt=\"Bullialdus Crater, photo by Conrad Jung, Chabot Space & Science Center\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bullialdus Crater, photo by Conrad Jung, Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sitting on the couch in the family room the other night, my eye caught a bright light shining in through the window: the moon, almost full, rising over the hills east of our house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember the moon? There’s been so much news coming from more distant reaches of our solar system lately: from spacecraft like the Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity on their geologic expeditions on the red planet; Cassini wheeling about the Saturn system; New Horizons getting ready for its historic flyby of Pluto next year; and even 30+ year veteran Voyager 2, recently announced to have, at long last, crossed the boundary of the solar system, the plasma “membrane” imposed by the sun’s solar wind as it pushes against the gases of interstellar space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the moon often seems like an ancient relic of space exploration, that dusty, dry, airless ball of rock and soil that we visited decades ago and have since left alone—possibly because we found nothing there but dust, rock, and soil?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not so fast. Lately, the moon has begun to reveal a new face, fresh facets of fascination that are making us reconsider it not as Earth’s closest, but dead, partner in space, but as a world of subtle character with mysteries that still surprises us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those surprising finds is water. An experiment performed in 2009 by NASA’s \u003ca title=\"LCROSS\" href=\"http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LCROSS \u003c/a>(Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission revealed the presence of significant amounts of water ice deposits in the perpetually shaded floors of Cabeus Crater at the Moon’s South Pole. LCROSS \u003ca title=\"LCROSS impact video\" href=\"http://www.space.com/9771-moments-lcross-nasa-probes-hit-moon.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bombarded the crater floor\u003c/a> with a large impacting spacecraft—the upper stage of the rocket that took it to the Moon—and in the plume of dust that was kicked up water vapor was detected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One possible source for these polar crater ice deposits is the solar wind, the constant flow of material (mostly hydrogen ions) that blows outward from the sun throughout the solar system. Over time, it is thought, the interaction of solar wind particles with lunar surface material may form water molecules, which can build up as layers in the shady recesses that never receive direct rays of sunlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the same time, India’s \u003ca title=\"Chandrayaan-1 detects water on the Moon\" href=\"http://www.space.com/22553-moon-water-mystery-source.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chandrayaan-1 \u003c/a>lunar orbiter made another watery discovery in Bullialdus Crater near the moon’s equator: rock contained in the crater’s central peak—material that was once buried deep under the moon’s surface but exposed by the asteroid impact that formed the crater—contains a high concentration of hydroxyl (OH) molecules, indicating the presence, long ago, of water beneath the moon’s surface, water that originated from within the moon itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA launched another probe to the moon earlier this month, further asserting that our scientific curiosity about the moon is alive and well. \u003ca title=\"LADEE\" href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/main/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> LADEE, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer\u003c/a>, will make a study of another thing that we don’t associate with the moon: atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, contrary to what you learned in the classroom, the moon does possess an atmosphere, though we must use that term loosely. The density of this lunar atmosphere is somewhere around a million particles per cubic centimeter—particles like sodium and potassium atoms. That may sound like a lot, but when we compare it to air density on Earth’s surface (10 billion billion molecules per cc), we find that the lunar atmosphere is actually a purer vacuum than we can create in most laboratories. LADEE is still being maneuvered into what will eventually be a tight nearly circular orbit that will carry it around the moon once every 24 hours, so the fascinating facts of the moon’s “air”, as well as the dust environment closer to the surface, is yet to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long ago, before we got so good at exploring places in outer space, people imagined all sorts of things on the moon: vast seas of water, strange life forms and civilizations, deities and springs bubbling forth the elixir of life. Then our scientific scrutiny of that sphere reduced it to a dead, dry, and long unchanged cinder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now that we’re getting even better at exploring, some “life” is returning to our musings of the moon. No life forms or vestiges of civilizations (so far), no black obelisks, and no wide liquid planes with waves lapping against shorelines (that would be Saturn’s moon Titan).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, yes, polar ice, possible igneous sources of subsurface water, and a light whiff of air dancing around the skies. Sound like the makings of a hot vacation spot.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The moon often seems like an ancient relic of space exploration, that dusty, dry, airless ball of rock and soil that we visited decades ago and have since left alone—possibly because we found nothing there but dust, rock, and soil? Not so fast. Exploration in the past few years has revealed aspects of the moon that contradict what we were taught in school.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_9064\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/bullialdus-jung-chabot.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9064\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-9064\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/bullialdus-jung-chabot.jpg\" alt=\"Bullialdus Crater, photo by Conrad Jung, Chabot Space & Science Center\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bullialdus Crater, photo by Conrad Jung, Chabot Space & Science Center\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Sitting on the couch in the family room the other night, my eye caught a bright light shining in through the window: the moon, almost full, rising over the hills east of our house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Remember the moon? There’s been so much news coming from more distant reaches of our solar system lately: from spacecraft like the Mars rovers Curiosity and Opportunity on their geologic expeditions on the red planet; Cassini wheeling about the Saturn system; New Horizons getting ready for its historic flyby of Pluto next year; and even 30+ year veteran Voyager 2, recently announced to have, at long last, crossed the boundary of the solar system, the plasma “membrane” imposed by the sun’s solar wind as it pushes against the gases of interstellar space.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the moon often seems like an ancient relic of space exploration, that dusty, dry, airless ball of rock and soil that we visited decades ago and have since left alone—possibly because we found nothing there but dust, rock, and soil?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not so fast. Lately, the moon has begun to reveal a new face, fresh facets of fascination that are making us reconsider it not as Earth’s closest, but dead, partner in space, but as a world of subtle character with mysteries that still surprises us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those surprising finds is water. An experiment performed in 2009 by NASA’s \u003ca title=\"LCROSS\" href=\"http://lcross.arc.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LCROSS \u003c/a>(Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite) mission revealed the presence of significant amounts of water ice deposits in the perpetually shaded floors of Cabeus Crater at the Moon’s South Pole. LCROSS \u003ca title=\"LCROSS impact video\" href=\"http://www.space.com/9771-moments-lcross-nasa-probes-hit-moon.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bombarded the crater floor\u003c/a> with a large impacting spacecraft—the upper stage of the rocket that took it to the Moon—and in the plume of dust that was kicked up water vapor was detected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One possible source for these polar crater ice deposits is the solar wind, the constant flow of material (mostly hydrogen ions) that blows outward from the sun throughout the solar system. Over time, it is thought, the interaction of solar wind particles with lunar surface material may form water molecules, which can build up as layers in the shady recesses that never receive direct rays of sunlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Around the same time, India’s \u003ca title=\"Chandrayaan-1 detects water on the Moon\" href=\"http://www.space.com/22553-moon-water-mystery-source.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chandrayaan-1 \u003c/a>lunar orbiter made another watery discovery in Bullialdus Crater near the moon’s equator: rock contained in the crater’s central peak—material that was once buried deep under the moon’s surface but exposed by the asteroid impact that formed the crater—contains a high concentration of hydroxyl (OH) molecules, indicating the presence, long ago, of water beneath the moon’s surface, water that originated from within the moon itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA launched another probe to the moon earlier this month, further asserting that our scientific curiosity about the moon is alive and well. \u003ca title=\"LADEE\" href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/main/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> LADEE, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer\u003c/a>, will make a study of another thing that we don’t associate with the moon: atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yes, contrary to what you learned in the classroom, the moon does possess an atmosphere, though we must use that term loosely. The density of this lunar atmosphere is somewhere around a million particles per cubic centimeter—particles like sodium and potassium atoms. That may sound like a lot, but when we compare it to air density on Earth’s surface (10 billion billion molecules per cc), we find that the lunar atmosphere is actually a purer vacuum than we can create in most laboratories. LADEE is still being maneuvered into what will eventually be a tight nearly circular orbit that will carry it around the moon once every 24 hours, so the fascinating facts of the moon’s “air”, as well as the dust environment closer to the surface, is yet to come.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Long ago, before we got so good at exploring places in outer space, people imagined all sorts of things on the moon: vast seas of water, strange life forms and civilizations, deities and springs bubbling forth the elixir of life. Then our scientific scrutiny of that sphere reduced it to a dead, dry, and long unchanged cinder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But now that we’re getting even better at exploring, some “life” is returning to our musings of the moon. No life forms or vestiges of civilizations (so far), no black obelisks, and no wide liquid planes with waves lapping against shorelines (that would be Saturn’s moon Titan).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, yes, polar ice, possible igneous sources of subsurface water, and a light whiff of air dancing around the skies. Sound like the makings of a hot vacation spot.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Comet ISON: Comet of the Century or Fanciful Fluff?",
"headTitle": "Comet ISON: Comet of the Century or Fanciful Fluff? | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7956\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/cometISON-hst-april2013.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7956\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7956\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/cometISON-hst-april2013.jpg\" alt=\"Hubble Space Telescope Image of Comet ISON, April 2013\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hubble Space Telescope Image of Comet ISON, April 2013\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s been said that in order to be noticed, you have to do something daring and bold. A comet named ISON appears to be a thrill-and-glory seeker, for well in advance of demonstrating its potential as a possible “comet of the century,” it has already garnered more attention than \u003ca title=\"Comets\" href=\"http://www.space.com/53-comets-formation-discovery-and-exploration.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">comets \u003c/a>or asteroids that pass harrowingly close to the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comet, discovered in 2012 and named after the International Sky Observers Network (ISON) through which it was spotted, has taken a couple of dares to win a spot in history–or at least some media buzz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First dare: get in front of a camera. On October 1st, ISON will \u003ca title=\"Comet ISON to pass Mars\" href=\"http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/23aug_marsison/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pass within seven million miles of Mars\u003c/a> (which is a lot closer than it will ever get to Earth, in case you were wondering if it’s a good time to restock your bunker). This gives \u003ca title=\"NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\" href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a> (MRO) and its huge HiRISE camera a front row viewing seat, and NASA is planning to take advantage of this by redirecting MRO’s attention to focus on ISON.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This sneak preview of ISON should tell us a lot more about the comet’s size, mass and composition, giving us ammunition to make some predictions on how spectacular (or not) it may become later in the fall. But beyond how bright and breezy ISON may grow, another factor depends critically on the comet’s physical stature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the second dare: ISON, as it turns out, is a “\u003ca title=\"Comet Lovejoy\" href=\"http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0607/Comet-Lovejoy-survives-boiling-brush-with-Sun-does-victory-dance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sun-grazer\u003c/a>,” one of that breed of comets that risk it all by buzzing the sun. Some of these actually fall into the sun and are completely vaporized, like moths to a candle flame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On November 28th, ISON will reach its closest approach to the sun, making a sharp hairpin turn as it swings through \u003ca title=\"Comet Orbits\" href=\"http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/segwayed/lessons/cometstale/frame_orbits.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">perihelion\u003c/a> and is flung back toward deep space. If we were talking about a roller coaster ride, this would be the point when the coaster swoops through the bottom of the arc attaining its highest speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that day, the comet will be less than a single solar diameter from the Sun’s surface–so close that someone standing on the comet’s surface would look up and see the sun spanning a quarter of the sky!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If ISON survives the intense solar radiation and powerful gravitational tidal forces brought to bear by this close encounter, then it has a chance to put on a really good show for us here on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Will it survive? That isn’t certain and won’t be until the end of November. But after MRO’s observations in October, we should have a better idea of the odds. If ISON is below a certain mass, then chances are higher that it will break apart during its Icarus-style sun-skimming stunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, if ISON weighs in heavier (oh, let’s say 5 to 10 kilometers in diameter–something in that class), it has a much better chance of emerging intact, and the heating from its near-sun experience may produce a significant coma and tail, potentially lighting up the night for weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, ISON is already showing up in telescopes, though it isn’t much more than a smudge. As we move into October and November, it will grow brighter, if only because it will be getting closer to us as well as its source of illumination, the sun. Though it’s too early to tell how bright it will get, ISON will rise in the east in the early morning before dawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bit after mid-November, ISON will get lost in the sun’s glare and pass from our view until after its potentially fateful date with destiny on November 28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, we wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we ever see it again, ISON will reappear in our skies sometime in mid-December. If it lives up to some of the more optimistic predictions, ISON could be a great sight to behold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If not, do we call it a fizzle, a dud?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s how I like to think about it: Even if it doesn’t live up to the hype, ISON’s daring trajectory has already guided our thoughts along paths to exciting possibilities that we don’t usually consider, plunging our imaginations on a wild solar-coaster ride and filling our fancied nights with bright comet fluff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pretty good work for a comet yet to prove itself.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"description": "A comet named ISON has been hailed as a possible "comet of the century." But scientists aren't sure yet if it will survive a hairpin turn around the sun. ",
"title": "Comet ISON: Comet of the Century or Fanciful Fluff? | KQED",
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"headline": "Comet ISON: Comet of the Century or Fanciful Fluff?",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7956\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/cometISON-hst-april2013.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7956\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7956\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/09/cometISON-hst-april2013.jpg\" alt=\"Hubble Space Telescope Image of Comet ISON, April 2013\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hubble Space Telescope Image of Comet ISON, April 2013\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s been said that in order to be noticed, you have to do something daring and bold. A comet named ISON appears to be a thrill-and-glory seeker, for well in advance of demonstrating its potential as a possible “comet of the century,” it has already garnered more attention than \u003ca title=\"Comets\" href=\"http://www.space.com/53-comets-formation-discovery-and-exploration.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">comets \u003c/a>or asteroids that pass harrowingly close to the Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This comet, discovered in 2012 and named after the International Sky Observers Network (ISON) through which it was spotted, has taken a couple of dares to win a spot in history–or at least some media buzz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First dare: get in front of a camera. On October 1st, ISON will \u003ca title=\"Comet ISON to pass Mars\" href=\"http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/23aug_marsison/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pass within seven million miles of Mars\u003c/a> (which is a lot closer than it will ever get to Earth, in case you were wondering if it’s a good time to restock your bunker). This gives \u003ca title=\"NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\" href=\"http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter\u003c/a> (MRO) and its huge HiRISE camera a front row viewing seat, and NASA is planning to take advantage of this by redirecting MRO’s attention to focus on ISON.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This sneak preview of ISON should tell us a lot more about the comet’s size, mass and composition, giving us ammunition to make some predictions on how spectacular (or not) it may become later in the fall. But beyond how bright and breezy ISON may grow, another factor depends critically on the comet’s physical stature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s the second dare: ISON, as it turns out, is a “\u003ca title=\"Comet Lovejoy\" href=\"http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2013/0607/Comet-Lovejoy-survives-boiling-brush-with-Sun-does-victory-dance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sun-grazer\u003c/a>,” one of that breed of comets that risk it all by buzzing the sun. Some of these actually fall into the sun and are completely vaporized, like moths to a candle flame.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On November 28th, ISON will reach its closest approach to the sun, making a sharp hairpin turn as it swings through \u003ca title=\"Comet Orbits\" href=\"http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/segwayed/lessons/cometstale/frame_orbits.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">perihelion\u003c/a> and is flung back toward deep space. If we were talking about a roller coaster ride, this would be the point when the coaster swoops through the bottom of the arc attaining its highest speed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On that day, the comet will be less than a single solar diameter from the Sun’s surface–so close that someone standing on the comet’s surface would look up and see the sun spanning a quarter of the sky!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If ISON survives the intense solar radiation and powerful gravitational tidal forces brought to bear by this close encounter, then it has a chance to put on a really good show for us here on Earth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Will it survive? That isn’t certain and won’t be until the end of November. But after MRO’s observations in October, we should have a better idea of the odds. If ISON is below a certain mass, then chances are higher that it will break apart during its Icarus-style sun-skimming stunt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the other hand, if ISON weighs in heavier (oh, let’s say 5 to 10 kilometers in diameter–something in that class), it has a much better chance of emerging intact, and the heating from its near-sun experience may produce a significant coma and tail, potentially lighting up the night for weeks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This month, ISON is already showing up in telescopes, though it isn’t much more than a smudge. As we move into October and November, it will grow brighter, if only because it will be getting closer to us as well as its source of illumination, the sun. Though it’s too early to tell how bright it will get, ISON will rise in the east in the early morning before dawn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A bit after mid-November, ISON will get lost in the sun’s glare and pass from our view until after its potentially fateful date with destiny on November 28.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, we wait.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If we ever see it again, ISON will reappear in our skies sometime in mid-December. If it lives up to some of the more optimistic predictions, ISON could be a great sight to behold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If not, do we call it a fizzle, a dud?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s how I like to think about it: Even if it doesn’t live up to the hype, ISON’s daring trajectory has already guided our thoughts along paths to exciting possibilities that we don’t usually consider, plunging our imaginations on a wild solar-coaster ride and filling our fancied nights with bright comet fluff.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pretty good work for a comet yet to prove itself.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "New NASA Moon Mission Aims to Solve a 40-Year-Old Mystery",
"headTitle": "New NASA Moon Mission Aims to Solve a 40-Year-Old Mystery | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7775\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 946px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/acd13-0101-008.SCALE-3.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/acd13-0101-008.SCALE-3.jpg\" alt=\"Artist's conception of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft in orbit above the moon as dust scatters light during the lunar sunset. Image credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist’s conception of NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft in orbit above the moon as dust scatters light during the lunar sunset. Click to enlarge. Image credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A car-sized robotic spacecraft called LADEE, or \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/main/index.html\">Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer\u003c/a>, leaves on a mission to the moon as early as Friday, September 6. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LADEE will orbit the moon for about three months – picking up and analyzing samples from the lunar atmosphere and beaming data back to Earth – before self-destructing in an intentional crash landing on the lunar surface. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $280 million LADEE mission was commissioned by NASA Ames Research Center, in Mountain View, to answer a 41-year old mystery, one that was sketched out in December of 1972 from inside the command module of Apollo 17 as it orbited the dark side of the moon. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/profile.cfm?Code=DeloryG\">Greg Delory\u003c/a>, deputy project scientist on LADEE mission, came in to KQED recently to tell the story, and what his team hopes to learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KQED Science: Tell us about Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan, “the \u003ca href=\"http://www.genecernan.com/\">last man on the moon\u003c/a>,” and that first glimpse of the mysterious lunar “streamers.”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DELORY: Imagine you’re an Apollo astronaut, riding in the Apollo command module as it orbits around the moon. You’re looking out the window, trying to take it all in, looking at the dark side of the moon. It’s very dark. You’ve got starlight against the blackest sky you can imagine. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cernan saw a faint glow on the lunar horizon. That was expected. There’s a phenomenon called “zodiacal light,” which is basically sunlight and starlight scattered by dust that we know about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then something happened that no one expected. On top of this zodiacal light, Cernan saw these bands of light. They looked like streamers coming up form the lunar horizon. I would compare it to aurora borealis. This was not consistent with anything we know about the moon. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And he pulled out his sketchpad and drew a picture\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7769\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1672px\">\u003ca href=\"http://d1lhirsz7m8sbi.cloudfront.net/science/wp-content/blogs.dir/48/files/2013/08/455851main_Cernan_sketch_CROP2-e1377887358375.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://d1lhirsz7m8sbi.cloudfront.net/science/wp-content/blogs.dir/48/files/2013/08/455851main_Cernan_sketch_CROP2-e1377887358375.jpg\" alt=\"Eugene Cernan's 1972 sketch, showing the mysterious "streamers" (in green) on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA\" width=\"640\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two images of Eugene Cernan’s 1972 sketch – the version on the right has been annotated to highlight the the mysterious “streamers” (in green) on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(Click image to enlarge)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We owe him a big debt of gratitude because he did sit down and actually sketch this out, and describe it for us. It’s a little strange when we put together a science program based on an eyewitness account. But it’s part of the evidence we have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the best explanation we have for it is a population of dust particles between 5-10 millionths of a meter in diameter, levitating off the surface by a few feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’m picturing the dust you see floating in your house, if you look under a lamp…\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may be an apt analogy. It could be electrostatic. The surface of the moon gets charged up in space because of sunlight and because of charged particles that impact the surface. So that could cause dust to levitate, to get repelled. So it may be not all that different from a situation where you’ve got a carpet that people have been walking over and it’s all charged up. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Is lunar dust like Earth dust?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lunar dust is not like anything we on Earth have much experience with. It’s like little shards of glass. It’s actually pretty nasty stuff and you wouldn’t want to breathe it. It exists in this airless environment with no wind, no erosion, no water. So when it breaks off it’s sharp and angular and jagged, whereas Earth dust is smooth and rounded. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Which could be a problem for potential future missions to the moon, right?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“Now may be out last chance to characterize the pristine lunar environment. You can almost think of it like a fragile, future national park before all the tourists arrive.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Yes, we worry about the toxicity of lunar dust, about it’s interaction with robotic systems and people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Astronauts testified that there was a gunpowder smell when they brought their spacesuits inside, so that brings up the possibility that there could be a chemical reaction when the dust hits the spacesuit. There’s a lot we need to learn about lunar dust. It’s big on the agenda in terms of safety and reliability. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nBut it’s been a long time since humans went to the moon. The manned moon program ended with Apollo in 1972. Do you see people – rather than just robots – returning to the lunar surface anytime soon? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a matter of when. We go through cycles. I’d say we’ve just gone through our second renaissance in understanding the moon. You’ve got the lunar reconnaissance orbiter; you had \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/nasa-ames-rocket-to-the-moon/\">LCROSS\u003c/a> impact, showing there’s was water in the poles. You’ve got LADEE coming up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7779\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 213px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/Apollo_11_first_step-213x162.jpg\" alt=\"Neil Armstrong (1930–2012), commander of NASA's Apollo 11 mission, descends the ladder of the Apollo Lunar Module to become the first human to step foot on the surface of the Moon. \" width=\"213\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-large wp-image-7779\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil Armstrong (1930–2012), commander of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, descends the ladder of the Apollo Lunar Module to become the first human to step foot on the surface of the Moon.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nbcnews.com/science/china-gets-set-launch-its-first-moon-lander-years-end-8C11028642\">The Chinese recently announced that they’re going to put a lander down somewhere on the moon\u003c/a>. We’re learning the details as we speak. They’re doing that in December, during the LADEE mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So LADEE will be there at the same time as the Chinese spacecraft. Is that going to be a problem?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, [the Chinese mission] is going to perturb the lunar environment and we’re going to see the effects almost immediately. But it’s not a negative thing. With LADEE, we can look at the environment’s response to the [Chinese spacecraft’s] landing, and it’s almost like a scientific experiment. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now’s a great time to do LADEE because it may be out last chance to characterize the pristine lunar environment. You can almost think of it like a fragile, future national park before all the tourists arrive. So we’ll have at least a few months to do that before other landers start coming along, including the Chinese lander. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>LADEE is also a test run for a new way of getting data back to Earth, right? Tell us about that. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know if If you remember using a dial-up modem, ever? how excited were you when you got DSL, or cable internet. That’s what this new laser system feels like for scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the communications system is based on radio. This is relatively long wavelength electromagnetic waves which carry information back from the moon at dial up modem speeds. So we’re constrained to this tight spigot. Meanwhile, instruments are getting capable. We want to send back high-definition images; we want to send back video, from the moon and from Mars. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/acd13-0101-014crop1.jpg\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1673px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/acd13-0101-014crop1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/acd13-0101-014crop1.jpg\" alt=\"An artist's concept of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft seen orbiting near the surface of the moon. Image credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist’s concept of NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft seen orbiting near the surface of the moon. Click to enlarge. Image credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A laser system uses laser light to encode the information. It’s the same rationale for why cable companies want to go to fiber optics. So how to do that from space? Well, you can’t string a cable. So you have to bring a ray gun, literally. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s just a demonstration. You don’t want to couple your mission success with the technical risk that the laser system could fail. The laser demonstration will send a test pattern to demonstrate that it works. And put it on the road to interplanetary use.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nNASA Ames is hosting a \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/ames/events/ladee-science-night/\">science night\u003c/a> from 5 to 9 p.m. PDT Friday, Sept. 6, on Shenandoah Plaza in the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field, Calif. Exhibits will be on display and Ames scientists and engineers will be available to speak about LADEE and other NASA programs and projects.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "In 1972, an Apollo 17 astronaut glimpsed a strange phenomenon of streaming light from the window of the command module as it orbited the dark side of the moon. Now, a new NASA mission aims to discover what caused that phenomenon, and whether it could be a hazard for future lunar landings. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7775\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 946px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/acd13-0101-008.SCALE-3.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/acd13-0101-008.SCALE-3.jpg\" alt=\"Artist's conception of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft in orbit above the moon as dust scatters light during the lunar sunset. Image credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist’s conception of NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft in orbit above the moon as dust scatters light during the lunar sunset. Click to enlarge. Image credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>A car-sized robotic spacecraft called LADEE, or \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ladee/main/index.html\">Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer\u003c/a>, leaves on a mission to the moon as early as Friday, September 6. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LADEE will orbit the moon for about three months – picking up and analyzing samples from the lunar atmosphere and beaming data back to Earth – before self-destructing in an intentional crash landing on the lunar surface. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The $280 million LADEE mission was commissioned by NASA Ames Research Center, in Mountain View, to answer a 41-year old mystery, one that was sketched out in December of 1972 from inside the command module of Apollo 17 as it orbited the dark side of the moon. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/people/profile.cfm?Code=DeloryG\">Greg Delory\u003c/a>, deputy project scientist on LADEE mission, came in to KQED recently to tell the story, and what his team hopes to learn.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>KQED Science: Tell us about Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan, “the \u003ca href=\"http://www.genecernan.com/\">last man on the moon\u003c/a>,” and that first glimpse of the mysterious lunar “streamers.”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DELORY: Imagine you’re an Apollo astronaut, riding in the Apollo command module as it orbits around the moon. You’re looking out the window, trying to take it all in, looking at the dark side of the moon. It’s very dark. You’ve got starlight against the blackest sky you can imagine. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cernan saw a faint glow on the lunar horizon. That was expected. There’s a phenomenon called “zodiacal light,” which is basically sunlight and starlight scattered by dust that we know about.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But then something happened that no one expected. On top of this zodiacal light, Cernan saw these bands of light. They looked like streamers coming up form the lunar horizon. I would compare it to aurora borealis. This was not consistent with anything we know about the moon. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And he pulled out his sketchpad and drew a picture\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7769\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1672px\">\u003ca href=\"http://d1lhirsz7m8sbi.cloudfront.net/science/wp-content/blogs.dir/48/files/2013/08/455851main_Cernan_sketch_CROP2-e1377887358375.jpg\">\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://d1lhirsz7m8sbi.cloudfront.net/science/wp-content/blogs.dir/48/files/2013/08/455851main_Cernan_sketch_CROP2-e1377887358375.jpg\" alt=\"Eugene Cernan's 1972 sketch, showing the mysterious "streamers" (in green) on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA\" width=\"640\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Two images of Eugene Cernan’s 1972 sketch – the version on the right has been annotated to highlight the the mysterious “streamers” (in green) on the lunar surface. Credit: NASA\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>(Click image to enlarge)\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We owe him a big debt of gratitude because he did sit down and actually sketch this out, and describe it for us. It’s a little strange when we put together a science program based on an eyewitness account. But it’s part of the evidence we have.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the best explanation we have for it is a population of dust particles between 5-10 millionths of a meter in diameter, levitating off the surface by a few feet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’m picturing the dust you see floating in your house, if you look under a lamp…\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That may be an apt analogy. It could be electrostatic. The surface of the moon gets charged up in space because of sunlight and because of charged particles that impact the surface. So that could cause dust to levitate, to get repelled. So it may be not all that different from a situation where you’ve got a carpet that people have been walking over and it’s all charged up. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Is lunar dust like Earth dust?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lunar dust is not like anything we on Earth have much experience with. It’s like little shards of glass. It’s actually pretty nasty stuff and you wouldn’t want to breathe it. It exists in this airless environment with no wind, no erosion, no water. So when it breaks off it’s sharp and angular and jagged, whereas Earth dust is smooth and rounded. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Which could be a problem for potential future missions to the moon, right?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">“Now may be out last chance to characterize the pristine lunar environment. You can almost think of it like a fragile, future national park before all the tourists arrive.”\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Yes, we worry about the toxicity of lunar dust, about it’s interaction with robotic systems and people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Astronauts testified that there was a gunpowder smell when they brought their spacesuits inside, so that brings up the possibility that there could be a chemical reaction when the dust hits the spacesuit. There’s a lot we need to learn about lunar dust. It’s big on the agenda in terms of safety and reliability. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\nBut it’s been a long time since humans went to the moon. The manned moon program ended with Apollo in 1972. Do you see people – rather than just robots – returning to the lunar surface anytime soon? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a matter of when. We go through cycles. I’d say we’ve just gone through our second renaissance in understanding the moon. You’ve got the lunar reconnaissance orbiter; you had \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/nasa-ames-rocket-to-the-moon/\">LCROSS\u003c/a> impact, showing there’s was water in the poles. You’ve got LADEE coming up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7779\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 213px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/Apollo_11_first_step-213x162.jpg\" alt=\"Neil Armstrong (1930–2012), commander of NASA's Apollo 11 mission, descends the ladder of the Apollo Lunar Module to become the first human to step foot on the surface of the Moon. \" width=\"213\" height=\"162\" class=\"size-large wp-image-7779\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Neil Armstrong (1930–2012), commander of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission, descends the ladder of the Apollo Lunar Module to become the first human to step foot on the surface of the Moon.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.nbcnews.com/science/china-gets-set-launch-its-first-moon-lander-years-end-8C11028642\">The Chinese recently announced that they’re going to put a lander down somewhere on the moon\u003c/a>. We’re learning the details as we speak. They’re doing that in December, during the LADEE mission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So LADEE will be there at the same time as the Chinese spacecraft. Is that going to be a problem?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, [the Chinese mission] is going to perturb the lunar environment and we’re going to see the effects almost immediately. But it’s not a negative thing. With LADEE, we can look at the environment’s response to the [Chinese spacecraft’s] landing, and it’s almost like a scientific experiment. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now’s a great time to do LADEE because it may be out last chance to characterize the pristine lunar environment. You can almost think of it like a fragile, future national park before all the tourists arrive. So we’ll have at least a few months to do that before other landers start coming along, including the Chinese lander. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>LADEE is also a test run for a new way of getting data back to Earth, right? Tell us about that. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know if If you remember using a dial-up modem, ever? how excited were you when you got DSL, or cable internet. That’s what this new laser system feels like for scientists.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Today, the communications system is based on radio. This is relatively long wavelength electromagnetic waves which carry information back from the moon at dial up modem speeds. So we’re constrained to this tight spigot. Meanwhile, instruments are getting capable. We want to send back high-definition images; we want to send back video, from the moon and from Mars. \u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7796\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1673px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/acd13-0101-014crop1.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/acd13-0101-014crop1.jpg\" alt=\"An artist's concept of NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft seen orbiting near the surface of the moon. Image credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist’s concept of NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) spacecraft seen orbiting near the surface of the moon. Click to enlarge. Image credit: NASA Ames / Dana Berry\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A laser system uses laser light to encode the information. It’s the same rationale for why cable companies want to go to fiber optics. So how to do that from space? Well, you can’t string a cable. So you have to bring a ray gun, literally. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it’s just a demonstration. You don’t want to couple your mission success with the technical risk that the laser system could fail. The laser demonstration will send a test pattern to demonstrate that it works. And put it on the road to interplanetary use.\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\nNASA Ames is hosting a \u003ca href=\"http://www.nasa.gov/ames/events/ladee-science-night/\">science night\u003c/a> from 5 to 9 p.m. PDT Friday, Sept. 6, on Shenandoah Plaza in the NASA Research Park at Moffett Field, Calif. Exhibits will be on display and Ames scientists and engineers will be available to speak about LADEE and other NASA programs and projects.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7392\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/jwst-hst-mirrors.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7392\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7392\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/jwst-hst-mirrors.jpg\" alt=\"Comparing the sizes of the HST and JWST mirrors\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Comparing the sizes of the HST and JWST mirrors\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What can a bus-sized orbiting telescope with a 7.9-foot mirror tell us about the universe we live in?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For starters:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• The universe is 13.75 billion years old—a number of birthday cake candles not previously known\u003cbr>\n• The expansion of the universe is accelerating—contrary to previous assumptions\u003cbr>\n• There are on the order of 50 to 100 billion galaxies in the visible universe\u003cbr>\n• Monster blackholes with millions or billions of times the mass of our sun probably reside at the core of every galaxy–including our own\u003cbr>\n• Twenty-three percent of the universe is made of dark matter and seventy-four percent is made of \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/dark-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dark energy\u003c/a>—both of which we know next to nothing about\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just a taste of the \u003ca title=\"Hubble Top 10 Discoveries\" href=\"http://voices.yahoo.com/the-top-10-discoveries-hubble-space-telescope-4905458.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">discoveries made by scientists\u003c/a> using NASA’s veteran Hubble Space Telescope, a bus-sized satellite launched in 1990 which has had a stellar career delivering \u003ca title=\"Hubble Gallery\" href=\"http://hubblesite.org/gallery/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stunning images\u003c/a> and incredible discoveries about things in the universe and the universe itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its 23-year career winding down—and in fact on extended life support at this point—what will succeed Hubble to continue putting stars in our eyes as never before?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"James Webb Space Telescope\" href=\"http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Webb Space Telescope\u003c/a> (JWST) is the quick answer. And if you think the list of achievements of the Hubble is impressive, know that the JWST will sport an objective mirror array 21 feet across, with more than 20 times the light-collecting capability of its predecessor!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JWST will be launched later this decade and sent to a \u003ca title=\"Webb Orbit\" href=\"http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/orbit.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">point in space\u003c/a> a million miles farther from the sun than the Earth: the spot where the gravity of the sun and the Earth pull with equal strength. Called a “Lagrange point,” this spot of gravitational stability will allow JWST to circle the sun but remain always at the same distance from Earth. With the Earth always a good million miles away, JWST will have a full and unfettered view of the entire sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JWST will also be optimized to observe infrared, not visible, light–which will allow us not only to see farther and fainter objects than ever before, but into regions of space where Hubble’s visible light wavelength vision is obscured by dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JWST will peer into dense clouds of gas and dust in our galaxy where embryos of new star and planet systems are in the process of forming. Hubble has revealed “bubbles” of gas and dust, called proto-planetary disks or \u003ca title=\"Proplyds\" href=\"http://messier.seds.org/Pics/Jpg/m42_0113.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proplyds\u003c/a>, embedded in vast nebulas. Like a sonogram of a human embryo, JWST will see into these proplyds and show us what our solar system might have looked like even before the sun lit up as a star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was not so very long ago that all we knew about other stars was from the light they emit; a few decades ago we had no observational evidence of extrasolar planets or even the encircling disks of dust from which they form. In its career, Hubble has not only observed raw material orbiting young stars but has even measured the composition of the \u003ca title=\"Probing the Atmospheres of Exoplanets\" href=\"http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CF0QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhubblesite.org%2Fhubble_discoveries%2Fscience_year_in_review%2Fpdf%2F2008%2Fprobing_the_atmospheres_of_exoplanets.pdf&ei=YFgWUqnjOeK6igKz_4DwCw&usg=AFQjCNEQa-vklOjoF11YQmZwXa1WDcMo8Q&sig2=SMr4jQUxn3cGlQYueHVf3w&bvm=bv.51156542,d.cGE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">atmospheres of exoplanets\u003c/a>. JWST will show us far more about the physical nature of exoplanets than we can measure today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JWST’s increased sensitivity and resolution will allow us to probe the aftermath of the Big Bang to even earlier times than Hubble, giving us greater insight into the birth and early evolution of all of creation. \u003ca title=\"Hubble Detects Earliest Galaxies\" href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/121214-hubble-oldest-galaxy-discovered-space-science/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hubble has captured pictures of galaxies\u003c/a> so far away that the light we see left them when the universe was only a few hundred million years old. This has given us glimpses of the very first galaxies that formed, when they were in their infancy. JWST will look deeper and bring into sharper focus our understanding of the cosmos as a whole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited….\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7392\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/jwst-hst-mirrors.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7392\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7392\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/jwst-hst-mirrors.jpg\" alt=\"Comparing the sizes of the HST and JWST mirrors\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Comparing the sizes of the HST and JWST mirrors\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>What can a bus-sized orbiting telescope with a 7.9-foot mirror tell us about the universe we live in?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For starters:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>• The universe is 13.75 billion years old—a number of birthday cake candles not previously known\u003cbr>\n• The expansion of the universe is accelerating—contrary to previous assumptions\u003cbr>\n• There are on the order of 50 to 100 billion galaxies in the visible universe\u003cbr>\n• Monster blackholes with millions or billions of times the mass of our sun probably reside at the core of every galaxy–including our own\u003cbr>\n• Twenty-three percent of the universe is made of dark matter and seventy-four percent is made of \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/video/dark-energy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dark energy\u003c/a>—both of which we know next to nothing about\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just a taste of the \u003ca title=\"Hubble Top 10 Discoveries\" href=\"http://voices.yahoo.com/the-top-10-discoveries-hubble-space-telescope-4905458.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">discoveries made by scientists\u003c/a> using NASA’s veteran Hubble Space Telescope, a bus-sized satellite launched in 1990 which has had a stellar career delivering \u003ca title=\"Hubble Gallery\" href=\"http://hubblesite.org/gallery/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stunning images\u003c/a> and incredible discoveries about things in the universe and the universe itself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With its 23-year career winding down—and in fact on extended life support at this point—what will succeed Hubble to continue putting stars in our eyes as never before?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca title=\"James Webb Space Telescope\" href=\"http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Webb Space Telescope\u003c/a> (JWST) is the quick answer. And if you think the list of achievements of the Hubble is impressive, know that the JWST will sport an objective mirror array 21 feet across, with more than 20 times the light-collecting capability of its predecessor!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JWST will be launched later this decade and sent to a \u003ca title=\"Webb Orbit\" href=\"http://www.jwst.nasa.gov/orbit.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">point in space\u003c/a> a million miles farther from the sun than the Earth: the spot where the gravity of the sun and the Earth pull with equal strength. Called a “Lagrange point,” this spot of gravitational stability will allow JWST to circle the sun but remain always at the same distance from Earth. With the Earth always a good million miles away, JWST will have a full and unfettered view of the entire sky.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JWST will also be optimized to observe infrared, not visible, light–which will allow us not only to see farther and fainter objects than ever before, but into regions of space where Hubble’s visible light wavelength vision is obscured by dust.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JWST will peer into dense clouds of gas and dust in our galaxy where embryos of new star and planet systems are in the process of forming. Hubble has revealed “bubbles” of gas and dust, called proto-planetary disks or \u003ca title=\"Proplyds\" href=\"http://messier.seds.org/Pics/Jpg/m42_0113.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">proplyds\u003c/a>, embedded in vast nebulas. Like a sonogram of a human embryo, JWST will see into these proplyds and show us what our solar system might have looked like even before the sun lit up as a star.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was not so very long ago that all we knew about other stars was from the light they emit; a few decades ago we had no observational evidence of extrasolar planets or even the encircling disks of dust from which they form. In its career, Hubble has not only observed raw material orbiting young stars but has even measured the composition of the \u003ca title=\"Probing the Atmospheres of Exoplanets\" href=\"http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CF0QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhubblesite.org%2Fhubble_discoveries%2Fscience_year_in_review%2Fpdf%2F2008%2Fprobing_the_atmospheres_of_exoplanets.pdf&ei=YFgWUqnjOeK6igKz_4DwCw&usg=AFQjCNEQa-vklOjoF11YQmZwXa1WDcMo8Q&sig2=SMr4jQUxn3cGlQYueHVf3w&bvm=bv.51156542,d.cGE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">atmospheres of exoplanets\u003c/a>. JWST will show us far more about the physical nature of exoplanets than we can measure today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>JWST’s increased sensitivity and resolution will allow us to probe the aftermath of the Big Bang to even earlier times than Hubble, giving us greater insight into the birth and early evolution of all of creation. \u003ca title=\"Hubble Detects Earliest Galaxies\" href=\"http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/121214-hubble-oldest-galaxy-discovered-space-science/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hubble has captured pictures of galaxies\u003c/a> so far away that the light we see left them when the universe was only a few hundred million years old. This has given us glimpses of the very first galaxies that formed, when they were in their infancy. JWST will look deeper and bring into sharper focus our understanding of the cosmos as a whole.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited….\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A chunk of a rare meteorite is landing permanently at University of California, Davis. The university just acquired a piece of \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/12/20/stardust-and-sunbreath-in-the-sutters-mill-meteorite/\">the rock\u003c/a>, which fell in Northern California last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7357\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/meteorite-LindaWelzenbach_Smithsonian-640x360.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/meteorite-LindaWelzenbach_Smithsonian-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"The main mass of the rare Sutter's Mill meteorite before it was divided up between five scientific institutions. (Linda Welzenbach/Smithsonian Institution)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7357\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main mass of the rare Sutter’s Mill meteorite before it was divided up between five scientific institutions. (Linda Welzenbach/Smithsonian Institution)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before the meteorite slammed into Earth it had been minding its own business in the solar system for more than 4.5 billion years. The meteorite’s age makes it rare and valuable. It contains dust from ancient stars that exploded — the same stuff that eventually formed our solar system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason that we’re excited about this meteorite is, [it] witnessed the beginning of the solar system,” said \u003ca href=\"http://geology.ucdavis.edu/people/faculty/yin.php\">Qing-Zhu Yin\u003c/a>, a geologist who specializes in meteorites at UC Davis. “If we want to unlock the secret of what happened 4 1/2 billion years ago leading to the formation of the solar system, this was a bystander from that point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7353\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/meteorite-1280-640x360.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7353 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/meteorite-1280-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"UC Davis geology professor Qing-Zhu Yin holds a fragment of the Sutter's Mill meteorite, a different piece than the one UC Davis just acquired. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UC Davis geology professor Qing-Zhu Yin holds a fragment of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite, a different piece than the one UC Davis just acquired. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the meteorite landed near Sutter’s Mill in April of last year, Yin and his students went to look for pieces of it. However, they didn’t find the largest piece until someone emailed Yin after attending a public lecture. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I saw it, [I thought] this is it,” Qin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This piece of the meteorite is being divided between five scientific institutions. Yin says Davis’s piece may be put on display in the future. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You can see renderings of the meteorite on \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/user/YinLabatUCDavis?feature=watch\">YouTube\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A chunk of a rare meteorite is landing permanently at University of California, Davis. The university just acquired a piece of \u003ca href=\"http://science.kqed.org/quest/2012/12/20/stardust-and-sunbreath-in-the-sutters-mill-meteorite/\">the rock\u003c/a>, which fell in Northern California last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7357\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/meteorite-LindaWelzenbach_Smithsonian-640x360.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/meteorite-LindaWelzenbach_Smithsonian-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"The main mass of the rare Sutter's Mill meteorite before it was divided up between five scientific institutions. (Linda Welzenbach/Smithsonian Institution)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7357\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main mass of the rare Sutter’s Mill meteorite before it was divided up between five scientific institutions. (Linda Welzenbach/Smithsonian Institution)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Before the meteorite slammed into Earth it had been minding its own business in the solar system for more than 4.5 billion years. The meteorite’s age makes it rare and valuable. It contains dust from ancient stars that exploded — the same stuff that eventually formed our solar system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason that we’re excited about this meteorite is, [it] witnessed the beginning of the solar system,” said \u003ca href=\"http://geology.ucdavis.edu/people/faculty/yin.php\">Qing-Zhu Yin\u003c/a>, a geologist who specializes in meteorites at UC Davis. “If we want to unlock the secret of what happened 4 1/2 billion years ago leading to the formation of the solar system, this was a bystander from that point.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_7353\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1280px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/meteorite-1280-640x360.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-7353 \" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/meteorite-1280-640x360.jpg\" alt=\"UC Davis geology professor Qing-Zhu Yin holds a fragment of the Sutter's Mill meteorite, a different piece than the one UC Davis just acquired. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">UC Davis geology professor Qing-Zhu Yin holds a fragment of the Sutter’s Mill meteorite, a different piece than the one UC Davis just acquired. (Gregory Urquiaga/UC Davis)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When the meteorite landed near Sutter’s Mill in April of last year, Yin and his students went to look for pieces of it. However, they didn’t find the largest piece until someone emailed Yin after attending a public lecture. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I saw it, [I thought] this is it,” Qin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This piece of the meteorite is being divided between five scientific institutions. Yin says Davis’s piece may be put on display in the future. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You can see renderings of the meteorite on \u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/user/YinLabatUCDavis?feature=watch\">YouTube\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "The Perseids Are Coming! Find Out When And Where To View Them",
"headTitle": "The Perseids Are Coming! Find Out When And Where To View Them | KQED",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_6812\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/perseid-ron-garan.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6812\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/perseid-ron-garan.jpg\" alt=\"Perseid meteor imaged by Ron Garan on the International Space Station in 2011.\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6812\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Perseid meteor imaged by Ron Garan on the International Space Station in 2011.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s time to drive headlong again into a cosmic bug swarm and watch the streaks they leave on the window pane of Earth’s atmosphere. Let’s try that again: It’s time to sweep up the dandruff left strewn through space by the hairy head of a passing comet. Third try: It’s time to enjoy the annual Perseid meteors, the Old Faithful of \u003ca href=\"http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors\" title=\"2013 Meteor Showers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">meteor showers\u003c/a> that lights up the August night and thoroughly delights those sleepy souls willing to stay up past midnight for one of nature’s original fireworks shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much better. For years I’ve been describing meteor showers as the streaks of bug-guts on a car windshield–I just think that says it all. A car speeding down the freeway drives through a stream of migrating insects, collecting streaks on the leading windshield from the ones it hits, but none on the rear window which trails the car. I was once advised to be more poetic, and less “ick-factor,” when describing the beauty of a shooting star…oh well. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this time, in early August, Earth is passing through a lane of dust particles left behind by the passage of a comet through the inner solar system. Comets are balls of ice, dust, and rock. When they pass close to the sun, some of their ices are vaporized and shed into space as gas, carrying dust particles with it. It takes a couple of weeks for us to pass completely through the dust stream, but on August 11 and 12, we will be in the densest part of the cloud when the number of bug streaks…I mean meteors…is greatest. Best viewing is during the morning hours of Monday, August 12. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a good year to see Perseids; the waxing crescent moon will have long since set by the time the best shower viewing gets going post midnight (and best around 2 or 3 AM.) That’s because the morning side of the Earth faces the direction of its motion and leads into the dust trail that produces the Perseids. Under the morning sky, you are under Earth’s atmospheric “windshield.” You can’t see a lot of meteors before midnight since evening skies are on Earth’s trailing side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"http://www.ibtimes.com/perseid-meteor-shower-2013-best-places-see-shooting-stars-near-major-us-cities-1374945\" title=\"Best places to see the Perseids\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">if you live in or near a city\u003c/a>, getting up past midnight is only the first step in Perseid catching. Getting away from city lights is the second step. Around the San Francisco Bay, some places you can get to without making a long trip include the Santa Cruz mountains (if you can find a spot with few trees), or north along Skyline Blvd. from Highway 9 to 92 (if fog isn’t a factor). In the South Bay, Henry Coe State Park is an excellent choice, with fairly dark skies, open spaces, and most importantly it is open 24×7. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, Mount Diablo is a good locale, though the gate to the top of the mountain closes after sunset. The East Bay hills from south of Hayward up to Berkeley and Albany have plenty of dark spots along the ridge that are relatively shielded from city lights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The North Bay offers plenty of relatively dark sky zones from Point Reyes through Sonoma County and into Napa. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For best viewing, face to the northeast after midnight; the constellation Perseus, the Perseids’ namesake and where the meteors appear to streak from, rises there shortly before midnight and spends the morning hours climbing higher in the eastern sky. Having a clear view of the northeastern horizon is a plus here. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re wondering which hairy comet shed the dandruff that produces this meteor shower, it’s comet Swift-Tuttle, a 16-mile sized chunk of ice, dust and probably some rock that orbits the sun every 133 years. Swift-Tuttle made its latest close passage by the sun in 1992–so we don’t expect it back again until around 2125. But its “children,” the dust specks of the Perseid meteor shower, can be seen every year at this time. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have never made the time and effort to see a meteor shower in the way that is really required, here’s your chance! Yes, it’s a Monday morning, but don’t let that stop you. If the weather cooperates, you will not regret the loss of sleep.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_6812\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 630px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/perseid-ron-garan.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-6812\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2013/08/perseid-ron-garan.jpg\" alt=\"Perseid meteor imaged by Ron Garan on the International Space Station in 2011.\" width=\"630\" height=\"360\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6812\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Perseid meteor imaged by Ron Garan on the International Space Station in 2011.\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>It’s time to drive headlong again into a cosmic bug swarm and watch the streaks they leave on the window pane of Earth’s atmosphere. Let’s try that again: It’s time to sweep up the dandruff left strewn through space by the hairy head of a passing comet. Third try: It’s time to enjoy the annual Perseid meteors, the Old Faithful of \u003ca href=\"http://stardate.org/nightsky/meteors\" title=\"2013 Meteor Showers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">meteor showers\u003c/a> that lights up the August night and thoroughly delights those sleepy souls willing to stay up past midnight for one of nature’s original fireworks shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Much better. For years I’ve been describing meteor showers as the streaks of bug-guts on a car windshield–I just think that says it all. A car speeding down the freeway drives through a stream of migrating insects, collecting streaks on the leading windshield from the ones it hits, but none on the rear window which trails the car. I was once advised to be more poetic, and less “ick-factor,” when describing the beauty of a shooting star…oh well. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At this time, in early August, Earth is passing through a lane of dust particles left behind by the passage of a comet through the inner solar system. Comets are balls of ice, dust, and rock. When they pass close to the sun, some of their ices are vaporized and shed into space as gas, carrying dust particles with it. It takes a couple of weeks for us to pass completely through the dust stream, but on August 11 and 12, we will be in the densest part of the cloud when the number of bug streaks…I mean meteors…is greatest. Best viewing is during the morning hours of Monday, August 12. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is a good year to see Perseids; the waxing crescent moon will have long since set by the time the best shower viewing gets going post midnight (and best around 2 or 3 AM.) That’s because the morning side of the Earth faces the direction of its motion and leads into the dust trail that produces the Perseids. Under the morning sky, you are under Earth’s atmospheric “windshield.” You can’t see a lot of meteors before midnight since evening skies are on Earth’s trailing side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And \u003ca href=\"http://www.ibtimes.com/perseid-meteor-shower-2013-best-places-see-shooting-stars-near-major-us-cities-1374945\" title=\"Best places to see the Perseids\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">if you live in or near a city\u003c/a>, getting up past midnight is only the first step in Perseid catching. Getting away from city lights is the second step. Around the San Francisco Bay, some places you can get to without making a long trip include the Santa Cruz mountains (if you can find a spot with few trees), or north along Skyline Blvd. from Highway 9 to 92 (if fog isn’t a factor). In the South Bay, Henry Coe State Park is an excellent choice, with fairly dark skies, open spaces, and most importantly it is open 24×7. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the East Bay, Mount Diablo is a good locale, though the gate to the top of the mountain closes after sunset. The East Bay hills from south of Hayward up to Berkeley and Albany have plenty of dark spots along the ridge that are relatively shielded from city lights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The North Bay offers plenty of relatively dark sky zones from Point Reyes through Sonoma County and into Napa. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For best viewing, face to the northeast after midnight; the constellation Perseus, the Perseids’ namesake and where the meteors appear to streak from, rises there shortly before midnight and spends the morning hours climbing higher in the eastern sky. Having a clear view of the northeastern horizon is a plus here. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re wondering which hairy comet shed the dandruff that produces this meteor shower, it’s comet Swift-Tuttle, a 16-mile sized chunk of ice, dust and probably some rock that orbits the sun every 133 years. Swift-Tuttle made its latest close passage by the sun in 1992–so we don’t expect it back again until around 2125. But its “children,” the dust specks of the Perseid meteor shower, can be seen every year at this time. \u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you have never made the time and effort to see a meteor shower in the way that is really required, here’s your chance! Yes, it’s a Monday morning, but don’t let that stop you. If the weather cooperates, you will not regret the loss of sleep.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "KQED’s statewide radio news program providing daily coverage of issues, trends and public policy decisions.",
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"order": 8
},
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},
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"order": 1
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"info": "\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em>, which listeners will hear in the first part of the hour, has fearless and much-needed conversations about race. Hosted by journalists of color, the show tackles the subject of race head-on, exploring how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and more.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em>, which will be in the second part of the hour, guides you through spaces and feelings no one prepares you for — from finances to mental health, from workplace microaggressions to imposter syndrome, from relationships to parenting. The show features experts with real world experience and shares their knowledge. Because everyone needs a little help being human.\u003cbr />\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch\">\u003cem>Code Switch\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/lifekit\">\u003cem>Life Kit\u003c/em> offical site and podcast\u003c/a>\u003cbr />",
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"id": "commonwealth-club",
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"meta": {
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"source": "WNYC"
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"id": "fresh-air",
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"hidden-brain": {
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"hyphenacion": {
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"tagline": "Where conversation and cultura meet",
"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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"jerrybrown": {
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"title": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown",
"tagline": "Lessons from a lifetime in politics",
"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"order": 18
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"title": "Latino USA",
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"info": "Latino USA, the radio journal of news and culture, is the only national, English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective.",
"imageSrc": "https://ww2.kqed.org/radio/wp-content/uploads/sites/50/2018/04/latinoUsa.jpg",
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},
"marketplace": {
"id": "marketplace",
"title": "Marketplace",
"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Marketplace-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.marketplace.org/",
"meta": {
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"source": "American Public Media"
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"masters-of-scale": {
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"title": "Masters of Scale",
"info": "Masters of Scale is an original podcast in which LinkedIn co-founder and Greylock Partner Reid Hoffman sets out to describe and prove theories that explain how great entrepreneurs take their companies from zero to a gazillion in ingenious fashion.",
"airtime": "Every other Wednesday June 12 through October 16 at 8pm (repeats Thursdays at 2am)",
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"source": "WaitWhat"
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"rss": "https://rss.art19.com/masters-of-scale"
}
},
"mindshift": {
"id": "mindshift",
"title": "MindShift",
"tagline": "A podcast about the future of learning and how we raise our kids",
"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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"imageAlt": "KQED MindShift: How We Will Learn",
"officialWebsiteLink": "/mindshift/",
"meta": {
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"source": "kqed",
"order": 12
},
"link": "/podcasts/mindshift",
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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}
},
"morning-edition": {
"id": "morning-edition",
"title": "Morning Edition",
"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 3am-9am",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Morning-Edition-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.npr.org/programs/morning-edition/",
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"onourwatch": {
"id": "onourwatch",
"title": "On Our Watch",
"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"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?",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/On-Our-Watch-Podcast-Tile-703x703-1.jpg",
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